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Detection of the cosmic gamma ray horizon: Measures all the light in the universe since the Big Bang

This figure illustrates how energetic gamma rays (dashed lines) from a distant blazar strike photons of extragalactic background light (wavy lines) and produce pairs of electrons and positrons. The energetic gamma rays that are not attenuated by this process strike the upper atmosphere, producing a cascade of charged particles which make a cone of Čerenkov light that is detected by the array of imaging atmospheric Čerenkov telescopes on the ground.

Accurate distance measurement resolves major astronomical mystery

Sometimes astronomy is like real estate -- what's important is location, location, and location. Astronomers have resolved a major problem in their understanding of a class of stars that undergo...

Fragile mega-galaxy is missing link in history of cosmos

Two hungry young galaxies that collided 11 billion years ago are rapidly forming a massive galaxy about 10 times the size of the Milky Way, according to UC Irvine-led research...

Weather on the outer planets only goes so deep

This is an image from the Voyager 2 flyby of Neptune in August 1989 (NASA). In the middle is the Great Dark Spot, accompanied by bright, white clouds that undergo rapid changes in appearance. To the south of the Great Dark Spot is the bright feature that Voyager scientists nicknamed "Scooter." Still farther south is the feature called "Dark Spot 2," which has a bright core. As each feature moves eastward at a different velocity, they are rarely aligned this way. Wind velocities near the equator are westward, reaching 1300 km/h, while those at higher latitudes are eastward, peaking at 900 km/h.What is the long-range weather forecast for the giant planets Uranus and Neptune? These planets are home to extreme winds blowing at speeds of over 1000 km/hour, hurricane-like storms as...

New method of finding planets scores its first discovery

"Einstein's planet," formally known as Kepler-76b, is a "hot Jupiter" that orbits its star every 1.5 days. Its diameter is about 25 percent larger than Jupiter and it weighs twice as much. This artist's conception shows Kepler-76b orbiting its host star, which has been tidally distorted into a slight football shape (exaggerated here for effect). The planet was detected using the BEER algorithm, which looked for brightness changes in the star as the planet orbits due to relativistic BEaming, Ellipsoidal variations, and Reflected light from the planet.Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for...

Astronomers discover surprising clutch of hydrogen clouds lurking among our galactic neighbors

This combined graphic shows new, high-resolution GBT imaging (in box) of recently discovered hydrogen clouds between M31 (upper right) and M33 (bottom left).In a dark, starless patch of intergalactic space, astronomers have discovered a never-before-seen cluster of hydrogen clouds strewn between two nearby galaxies, Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33). The researchers speculate...

Birth of a black hole

A new kind of cosmic flash may reveal something never seen before: the birth of a black hole.

Hubble sees the remains of a star gone supernova

These delicate wisps of gas make up an object known as SNR B0519-69.0, or SNR 0519 for short. The thin, blood-red shells are actually the remnants from when an unstable progenitor star exploded violently as a supernova around 600 years ago. There are several types of supernovae, but for SNR 0519 the star that exploded is known to have been a white dwarf star -- a sun-like star in the final stages of its life.These delicate wisps of gas make up an object known as SNR B0519-69.0, or SNR 0519 for short. The thin, blood-red shells are actually the remnants from when an unstable...

Telling time on Saturn

A University of Iowa undergraduate student has discovered that a process occurring in Saturn's magnetosphere is linked to the planet's seasons and changes with them, a finding that helps clarify...

The day NASA's Fermi dodged a 1.5-ton bullet

NASA scientists don't often learn that their spacecraft is at risk of crashing into another satellite. But when Julie McEnery, the project scientist for NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, checked...

Saturn's youthful appearance explained

As planets age they become darker and cooler. Saturn however is much brighter than expected for a planet of its age -- a question that has puzzled scientists since the...

Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula's true shape

In this composite image, visible-light observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are combined with infrared data from the ground-based Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona to assemble a dramatic view of the well-known Ring Nebula.The Ring Nebula's distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying,...

Researchers reveal model of Sun's magnetic field

Researchers at the Universities of Leeds and Chicago have uncovered an important mechanism behind the generation of astrophysical magnetic fields such as that of the Sun.

NASA builds unusual testbed for analyzing X-ray navigation technologies

Technologists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., created what they believe is the world's first "pulsar-on-a-table," a laboratory system shown here for testing emerging X-ray navigation technologies. Back row, left to right: Monther Hasouneh, John Gaebler, Harry Stello, Jennifer Valdez and Sam Price. Front row, left to right: Jason Mitchell and Luke Winternitz.Pulsars have a number of unusual qualities. Like zombies, they shine even though they're technically dead, and they rotate rapidly, emitting powerful and regular beams of radiation that are seen...

Black hole powered jets plow into galaxy

The intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to produce immense power in the form of jets moving at millions of miles per hour. A composite image shows this happening in the galaxy known as 4C+29.30 where X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with optical (gold) and radio (pink) data. The X-rays trace the location of superheated gas around the black hole, which is estimated to weight 100 million times the mass of our Sun. Some of this material may eventually be consumed by the black hole, and the magnetized, whirlpool of gas near the black hole could in turn, trigger more output to the radio jet. The optical light image shows the stars in this galaxy. A torus of gas and dust surrounds the black hole and blocks most of the optical light coming from there. Because of this, astronomers refer to this type of source as a hidden or buried black hole.This composite image of a galaxy illustrates how the intense gravity of a supermassive black hole can be tapped to generate immense power. The image contains X-ray data from NASA's...

Dust in the clouds

At any given time, cirrus clouds -- the thin wisps of vapor that trail across the sky -- cover nearly one-third of the globe. These clouds coalesce in the upper...

Landsat thermal sensor lights up from volcano's heat

An ash plume drifts from Paluweh volcano in Indonesia in this image, taken April 29, 2013, from the Landsat Data Continuity Mission's Operational Land Imager instrument.As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission satellite flew over Indonesia's Flores Sea April 29, it captured an image of Paluweh volcano spewing ash into the air. The satellite's Operational Land...

New analysis suggests wind, not water, formed mound on Mars

Researchers based at Princeton University, the California Institute of Technology and Ashima Research suggest that Mars' roughly 3.5-mile high Mount Sharp (above) most likely emerged as strong winds carried dust and sand into Gale Crater where the mound sits. If correct, the research could dilute expectations that the mound is the remnant of a massive lake, which would have important implications for understanding Mars' past habitability.A roughly 3.5-mile high Martian mound that scientists suspect preserves evidence of a massive lake might actually have formed as a result of the Red Planet's famously dusty atmosphere, an...

NASA's Fermi, Swift see 'shockingly bright' burst

The maps in this animation show how the sky looks at gamma-ray energies above 100 million electron volts with a view centered on the north galactic pole. The first frame shows the sky during a three-hour interval prior to GRB 130427A. The second frame shows a three-hour interval starting 2.5 hours before the burst, and ending 30 minutes into the event. The Fermi team chose this interval to demonstrate how bright the burst was relative to the rest of the gamma-ray sky. This burst was bright enough that Fermi autonomously left its normal surveying mode to give the LAT instrument a better view, so the three-hour exposure following the burst does not cover the whole sky in the usual way.A record-setting blast of gamma rays from a dying star in a distant galaxy has wowed astronomers around the world. The eruption, which is classified as a gamma-ray burst, or...

Studying meteorites may reveal Mars' secrets of life

A team of researchers, including Michigan State University's Michael Velbel, examined a meteorite from Mars, looking for clues that life may have once existed on the red planet. A professor of geological sciences, Velbel is currently serving as a senior fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.In an effort to determine if conditions were ever right on Mars to sustain life, a team of scientists, including a Michigan State University professor, has examined a meteorite that...

VLA gives deep, detailed image of distant universe

Staring at a small patch of sky for more than 50 hours with the ultra-sensitive Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have for the first time identified discrete...

Astronomer studies far-off worlds through 'characterization by proxy'

A University of Washington astronomer is using Earth's interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they...

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