all astronomy stories

Building a stellar time machine

50443248 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:47:38 -0400

Harvard researchers are building a celestial time machine that lets astronomers look back at hundreds of thousands of objects in the Earth’s skies over the past century.

The effort aims to digitize 525,000 glass photographic plates taken at observing sites around the world between the 1880s and the 1980s. The collection, the largest such in the world, contains a treasure trove of largely unexamined data, according to Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy Jonathan Grindlay, who is leading the digitizing effort.

Visitors will gravitate to 'Black Holes' exhibit

50443248 — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:27:12 -0400

On Sunday, June 21, a new exhibit developed by educators and scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) will open at the Boston Museum of Science.

Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen

50443248 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:20:44 -0400

In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1,000 times more powerful than a nova but 1,000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.

Leadership Initiative Fellow Bolden nominated to lead NASA

50443248 — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:00:02 -0400

Retired Marine Maj. Gen. and former astronaut Charles Bolden was nominated to be the head of NASA on Saturday (May 23), interrupting his stay at Harvard as an Advanced Leadership Fellow.

Kepler starts search for other Earths

50443248 — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:04:05 -0400

As NASA’s Kepler space telescope this week begins scanning the Milky Way for planets that might harbor life, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting for the data to start flowing.

Life in the universe? Almost certainly. Intelligence? Maybe not

50443248 — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:56:00 -0400

We are likely not alone in the universe, though it may feel like it, since life on other planets is probably dominated by microbes or other nonspeaking creatures, according to scientists who gave their take on extraterrestrial life at Harvard recently.

Speakers reviewed how life on Earth arose and the many, sometimes improbable steps it took to create intelligence here. Radio astronomer Gerrit Verschuur said he believes that though there is very likely life out there — perhaps a lot of it — it is very unlikely to be both intelligent and able to communicate with us.

Charbonneau gets prestigious ‘young researcher’ award

50443248 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:59:36 -0500

David Charbonneau, the 34-year-old Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Astronomy, has been named the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s 2009 Alan T. Waterman Award, and will receive $500,000 over a three-year period for scientific research or advanced study in his field.

Transit search finds super-Neptune

404132862 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:46:32 -0500

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have
discovered a planet somewhat larger and more massive than Neptune
orbiting a star 120 light-years from Earth. While Neptune has a diameter
3.8 times that of Earth and a mass 17 times Earth's, the new world
(named HAT-P-11b) is 4.7 times the size of Earth and has 25 Earth
masses.

Milky Way bigger, faster than previously thought

404132862 — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:01:39 -0500

Our own Milky Way galaxy, long considered a “little sister” to the larger Andromeda Galaxy, is all grown-up, according to new research presented today that shows the Milky Way to be bigger and faster than previously thought.

The findings, presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, Calif., by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) researchers, show that the galaxy has about 50 percent more mass — about the same as Andromeda — and is rotating about 100,000 mph faster than previously thought.

New visualization techniques yield star formation insights

404132862 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:38:42 -0500

New computer visualization technology developed by the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing has helped astrophysicists understand that gravity plays a larger role than previously thought in deep space’s vast, star-forming molecular clouds.

Strong evidence brown dwarfs form like stars

404132862 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 10:12:32 -0500

Astronomers have uncovered strong evidence that brown dwarfs form like stars. Using the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA), they detected molecules of carbon monoxide shooting outward from the object known as ISO-Oph 102. Such molecular outflows typically are seen coming from young stars or protostars. However, this object has an estimated mass of 60 Jupiters, meaning it is too small to be a star. Astronomers have classified it as a brown dwarf.

Astronomy Department dedicates new telescope

404132862 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:53:55 -0500

A small knot of a dozen people gathered on the Science Center roof today to officially dedicate Harvard’s latest teaching telescope, a 16-inch cassegrain telescope built by DFM Engineering in Colorado.

The telescope, which will be used to teach about 100 astronomy students a year, was installed in one of the Science Center’s observatory domes during the summer of 2007 and has been in use for the past year. Friday’s event was an official dedication and unveiling of a plaque in honor of donor Landon Clay, who financed the new instrument.

The new telescope replaces an aging, similar-sized Meade telescope that will be moved to the Center for Astrophysics and used for public observing.

Solar system’s young twin has two asteroid belts

404132862 — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 14:35:03 -0400

Astronomers have discovered that the nearby star Epsilon Eridani has two rocky asteroid belts and an outer icy ring, making it a triple-ring system. The inner asteroid belt is a virtual twin of the belt in our solar system, while the outer asteroid belt holds 20 times more material. Moreover, the presence of these three rings of material implies that unseen planets confine and shape them.

A new era in search for ‘sister Earths’?

404132862 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:27:28 -0400

Research presented at a recent astronomical conference is being hailed as ushering in a new era in the search for Earth-like planets by showing that they are more numerous than previously thought and that scientists can now analyze their atmospheres for elements that might be conducive to life.

Laser precision added to search for new Earths

404132862 — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:46:48 -0400

Harvard scientists have unveiled a new laser-measuring device that they say will provide a critical advance in the resolution of current planet-finding techniques, making the discovery of Earth-sized planets possible.

The discovery of planets outside of our solar system, called “exoplanets,” is one of the hottest fields in astronomy and holds great promise to increase our understanding of Earth’s solar system and of how life first took hold on this planet.