For Sharpest Views, Scope The Sky With Quick-Change Mirrors
It used to be that if astronomers wanted to get rid of the blurring effects of the atmosphere, they had to put their telescopes in space. But a technology called adaptive optics has changed all that....
View ArticleJapan launches spy satellite
TOKYO — Japan successfully put a spy satellite into orbit on Monday and expects to complete its network of intelligence-gathering satellites with another launch next year. The Japan Aerospace...
View ArticleTelescope Gets New Gear to Bring Stars Into Focus
Stars viewed by an observatory in South America have just lost their twinkle. Images from this ground-based telescope are brighter and clearer than ever before, thanks to a new instrument on the...
View ArticleHubble Space Telescope: Pictures, Facts & History
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has provided a dazzling array of images that have awed and inspired the public. More than just pretty pictures, the more than 45 terabytes of...
View ArticleAstronomers discover star with shortest orbital period around Milky Way...
TORONTO, ON - A team from UCLA that includes an astronomer with the Dunlap Institute, University of Toronto, has discovered a star that orbits the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky...
View ArticleGemini optics show unprecedented views of stars
Stars viewed by an observatory in South America have just lost their twinkle. Images from this ground-based telescope are brighter and clearer than ever before, thanks to a new instrument on the...
View ArticleEruption on 'boring' Uranus excites world of astronomy
Of all the planets in our solar system, I'm usually guilty of thinking poor old Uranus is pretty bland and uninteresting. In fact, the only interesting things I can ever think to say about it are that...
View ArticleNews From Across the Solar System
Planetary scientists had plenty of new results to present this week at the 44th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences. Here are some of the highlights....
View ArticleUCLA astrophysicists find closest star to galactic black hole
Squinting into the dark heart of the Milky Way, astronomers have discovered the closest star yet to the galaxy’s supermassive black hole. The relatively dim star, S0-102, takes just 11.5 years to...
View ArticleBringing telescope tech to X-ray lasers
In a paper published in the July 10 edition of Nature Communications, an international research team describes the successful test of a specialized sensor that measured distortions in the LCLS laser...
View ArticleNew Laser Vision Helps Telescope Probe Distant Star Cluster
This article was updated on May 15 at 4:02 p.m. ET. A powerful new ultraviolet laser that fires into the night sky is helping scientists take their most detailed look yet at a distant star cluster. A...
View ArticleStar races around Milky Way's black hole (University of California)
LOS ANGELES - UCLA astronomers report the discovery of a remarkable star that orbits the enormous black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy in a blistering 11-and-a-half years - the shortest...
View ArticleDetails of Uranus’ bizarre weather revealed
Washington: High-resolution infrared images of Uranus have revealed incredible detail about the bizarre weather of the seventh planet from the sun. The researchers used Keck II telescope, located on...
View ArticleKeck observations bring weather of Uranus into sharp focus
Now, however, thanks to a new technique applied at the Keck Observatory, Uranus is coming into sharp focus through high-resolution infrared images, revealing in incredible detail the bizarre weather...
View ArticleUCLA astronomers discover star racing around black hole at center of our...
Discovery crucial to revealing fabric of space and time around black hole By Stuart WolpertOctober 04, 2012Category: Research Keck telescopes observe the center of our galaxy UCLA astronomers report...
View ArticleAstronomers discover star racing around black hole at Milky Way center
The star, known as S0-102, may help astronomers discover whether Albert Einstein was right in his fundamental prediction of how black holes warp space and time, said research co-author Andrea Ghez,...
View ArticleKeck observations bring weather of Uranus into sharp focus (University of...
A paired picture of Uranus, the sharpest, most detailed picture of the distant planet to date, reveals a raft of new details about the planet's enigmatic atmosphere. The north pole of Uranus (to the...
View ArticleKeck observations reveal complex face of Uranus (University of California)
BERKELEY - The planet Uranus, known since Voyager's 1986 flyby as a bland, featureless blue-green orb, is beginning to show its face. By using a new technique with the telescopes of the Keck...
View ArticleSpeedy star swoops perilously close to giant black hole
Astronomers have found a star that breaks speed records as it orbits the Milky Way's central black hole, covering 3,100 miles (5,000 kilometers) per second as it whips around the black hole in less...
View ArticleSpeedy Star Swoops In Perilously Close to Milky Way's Giant Black Hole
The orbits of stars within the central arcsecond of our galaxy. In the background, the central portion of a diffraction-limited image taken in 2012 is displayed. Image released October 4, 2012....
View ArticleBoeing, Air Force Research Laboratory Sodium Guide Star Laser Enhancing...
Improving capability to capture images of objects in Earth orbit KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M., Oct. 16, 2012 -- A sodium guide star laser built by Boeing [NYSE: BA] and the Air Force Research...
View ArticleStar discovered near black hole at center of Milky Way
Squinting into the dark heart of the Milky Way, astronomers have discovered a star that orbits closer to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy than any other star yet observed. The...
View ArticleStar Zips around Black Hole
Astronomers have added another star to the group of rowdy stellar children running around the skirts of the Milky Way's central black hole. An international team of astronomers has tracked a star that...
View ArticleLaser Guide Star at VLT to shine brighter light on stars
It does not twinkle, a rare characteristic for a star. It appears suddenly over the southern hemisphere, a new neighbour in the crowded black sky. But this "star" is not a real one. Created by a...
View ArticleSharpest telescope ever
Most people think that the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is the most powerful stargazing system in the world. It's understandable, given the and the instrument has been delivering since it went into...
View ArticlePerseid meteor shower will help astronomers get a better view of space
As skywatchers marvel at the beauty of the annual Perseid meteor shower — set to peak late Sunday and early Monday — astronomers will be thanking their shooting stars for another reason. Airborne...
View ArticlePerseid Meteor Shower: Scientists Will Fire Laser Into Meteor Trails
When the Perseid meteors streak across the sky this weekend, they will leave a trail of celestial pollution in their wake, sprinkling a layer of gases high up in the atmosphere. This pollution doesn't...
View ArticleNew Telescope Tech Takes Sharpest Night Sky Photos Ever
The Magellan Telescope with MagAO’s Adaptive Secondary Mirror (ASM) mounted at the top looking down some 30 feet onto the 21-foot diameter primary mirror, which is encased inside the blue mirror cell....
View Article'Super-Giant' Telescope Mirrors Cast In Arizona
Rick Pantaleo Scientists working at the University of Arizona’s Seward Observatory Mirror Lab have begun casting the third of seven mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) now under...
View ArticleNew camera clicks sharpest ever pics of night sky
Tweet Washington, August 22 (ANI): Astronomers have developed a new type of camera which is helping them click sharper images of the night sky than ever before. Astronomers at the University of...
View ArticleNew instrument sifts through starlight to reveal new worlds
Although hundreds of planets are known from indirect detection methods to orbit other stars, it's extremely difficult to see them directly in an image. This is largely because the light that stars...
View ArticleTwo Earth-size planets spotted around distant star
NEW YORK — Scientists have found two Earth-sized planets orbiting a star outside the solar system, an encouraging sign for prospects of finding life elsewhere. The discovery shows that such planets...
View ArticleNext-generation adaptive optics brings remarkable details to light in...
"The combination of a constellation of five laser guide stars with multiple deformable mirrors allows us to expand significantly on what has previously been possible using adaptive optics in...
View ArticleTake a wild 3-D ride over asteroid Vesta
Movies in 3-D may be all the rage in Hollywood these days, but a new 3-D video of the giant asteroid Vesta is truly out of this world. The video, which is best viewed with red-blue glasses, lets...
View ArticleThe Giant Telescope That Helps Take the Sharpest Space Photos Yet
Andrew Tarantola - The Hubble Telescope has revolutionised our understanding of the cosmos but the venerable telescope has been orbiting for nearly a quarter century and is quickly nearing the end of...
View ArticleSuper-Earth or Mini-Neptune? New Technique to Probe Exoplanet Habitability
Perhaps the most intriguing exoplanets found so far are those bigger than our rocky, oceanic Earth but smaller than cold, gas-shrouded Uranus and Neptune. This mysterious class of in-between planets...
View ArticleNovel instrument able to probe close binary stars may one day image...
(Source: SETI Institute) By Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley Media Relations rlsanders@berkeley.edu , (510) 643-6998 Karen Randall , SETI Institute krandall@seti.org, (650) 960-4537 Berkeley - A new...
View ArticleNovel instrument probes close binary stars, may soon image exoplanets...
(Source: University of California - Berkeley) BERKELEY - Most stars in the galaxy are surrounded by swirling disks of dust, circling planets or other orbiting stars, yet astronomers have a hard time...
View ArticleWorld’s Most Powerful Planet Finder Turns its Eye to the Sky Gemini Planet...
(Source: SETI Institute) (Above) Comparison of Europa observed with Gemini Planet Imager in K1 band on the right and visible albedo visualization based on a composite map made from Galileo SSI and...
View ArticleWorld's most powerful exoplanet camera looks skyward (University of...
(Source: University of California, Santa Cruz) Much of the key technology for the Gemini Planet Imager was demonstrated and validated at UCSC's Laboratory for Adaptive Optics The Gemini Planet...
View ArticleANU astronomers want to fire lasers at space junk
Computer-generated images of the planned Giant Magellan Telescope using lasers and adaptive optics. Photo: Giant Magellan Telescope Organization Astronomers at the Australian National University want...
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