Space Science News

How order arises in the cosmos
Thursday, October 4, 2012 - 17:47

One of the unsolved mysteries of contemporary science is how highly organized structures can emerge from the random motion of particles. This applies to many situations ranging from astrophysical objects that extend over millions of light years to the birth of life on Earth.

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TMT Will Take Discoveries of Stars Orbiting the Milky Way's Monster Black Hole to the Next Level
Thursday, October 4, 2012 - 14:17

Researchers have discovered a star that whips around the giant black hole at the center of our galaxy in record time, completing an orbit every 11.5 years. The finding, appearing today in the journal Science, points ahead to groundbreaking experiments involving Einstein's general theory of relativity. Those tests will be fully enabled by the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), slated to begin observations next decade.

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Expansion of Space Measurement Improved
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 - 14:06

A team of astronomers, led by Wendy Freedman, director of the Carnegie Observatories, have used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to make the most accurate and precise measurement yet of the Hubble constant, a fundamental quantity that measures the current rate at which our universe is expanding.

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Peering to the Edge of a Black Hole
Thursday, September 27, 2012 - 13:35

Using a continent-spanning telescope, an international team of astronomers has peered to the edge of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. For the first time, they have measured the black hole's "point of no return" - the closest distance that matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.

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Astrochemistry Enters a Bold New Era with ALMA
Thursday, September 20, 2012 - 11:20

Combining the cutting-edge capabilities of the ALMA telescope with newly-developed laboratory techniques, scientists are opening a completely new era for deciphering the chemistry of the Universe. A research team demonstrated their breakthrough using ALMA data from observations of the gas in a star-forming region in the constellation Orion.

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Astrophysicist Spies Ultra-Distant Galaxy Amidst Cosmic ‘Dark Ages’
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 - 13:16

With the combined power of NASA’s Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes as well as a cosmic magnification effect, a team of astronomers led by Wei Zheng of The Johns Hopkins University has spotted what could be the most distant galaxy ever seen. Light of the young galaxy captured by the orbiting observatories shone forth when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was just 500 million years old.

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