AstroNews
Rulers of the Oort Cloud
A new dwarf planet has recently been discovered in the solar system, orbiting at about 10 light hours from our Star. This is the furthest object belonging to our planetary system that we have been able to observe.
Latest
AstroNews
The first concrete evidence of Cosmic Inflation?
It was announced on Monday that the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarisation 2 (BICEP2 – don’t you love projects acronyms?) experiment at the South Pole found a special pattern in the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The pattern they found is the B-mode polarisation signal in the...
Astronomy
Colliding stars
I know that likelihood of stars colliding is very low, but have there been papers describing the theoretical process of star collision? James, London I think we can divide star-collision into three classes; Stellar Mergers, Binary Collisions and Stellar Collision.
Asteroid
All about the Asteroid Belt
What does it actually look like in the asteroid belt? Is it anything like as dense as is shown in films? Or is it more like you can see one or two rocks in the distance? Contrary to popular belief, the asteroid belt is mostly empty.
Andromeda
How big is the biggest galaxy in the Universe?
If by big we mean physical dimension, the largest known galaxy is most likely IC1101. IC1101 is gargantuan even among galaxies; it’s a super elliptical galaxy with a diffuse stellar halo that to extends to at least 1.4 million light years. The Milky Way’s halo by comparison extends to about 100.0...
Asteroid
A billion-ton pounding: evidence of an asteroid encountering a pulsar.
A pulsar is a highly magnetised fastly rotating neutron star which formed during a supernova explosion. The name pulsar is a portmanteau for pulsating star, because it emits a beam of electromagnetic radiation usually in radio, x-ray or gamma-ray light. They were first discovered by Jocelyn Bell...
How About That?
What’s the speed of Gravity?
For all intents and purposes gravity travels at the speed of light but it is very hard to measure, and so far we have no direct model-independent measurement of the speed of gravity. Physics has to main gravitational models: Newtonian dynamics and General Relativity The Newtonian gravitational mo...
Dark Energy
Stars of the Future
If the universe continues expanding forever, how long until it’s too diffused to allow star formation? How many generations of stars will that mean the universe has? How will the elemental make-up of these late stars be different and what effects will that have?
AstroNews
Water flowing on Mars?
NASA has announced that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped some interesting photos that seem to indicate that water still flows on the surface of the red planet during the summer months. No water was directly detected but the presence of those long dark lines stretching from the slope sugges...
Big Bang
Something out of Nothing
If the 1st Law of Thermodynamics is true how could the Universe begin from nothing? To answer this question we need to remember that nothing is a global term and not a local one.
Drake Equations
Can anyone hear us?
Assuming that there are other intelligent civilisations out there in the universe, what is the likelihood that we’ll ever be able to communicate? The key to answer this question is to look at the Drake Equation.
Astronomy
Observation of Dirac Monopoles in a Synthetic Magnetic Field
What are magnetic monopoles and why are they important? If you ever broke a magnet in two when you were little (I was a weird kid, leave me be) you might have noticed that you would have two perfectly working magnets in your hands.