Articles tagged with "astronomy"

05/03/2013 09:54:20
Birth of a Black Hole
Marcus Woo

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

02/24/2012 08:00:00
Buckyballs in Space
Kimm Fesenmaier

Buckyballs—those odd molecules made up of 60 carbon atoms arranged like hollow spheres—have been found, for the first time, in their solid form in space.

02/15/2012 18:00:00
Plasmas Torn Apart
Marcus Woo

Using high-speed cameras to look at jets of plasma in the lab, Caltech researchers have made a discovery that may be important in understanding phenomena like solar flares and in developing nuclear fusion as a future energy source.

02/06/2012 08:00:00
A Powerful New Astronomy Instrument Gets Ready for Hawaii
Marcus Woo

It's time to go to Hawaii—at least, if you're MOSFIRE, a new near-infrared spectrometer that's now on its way to the W. M. Keck Observatory, atop Mauna Kea. But the powerful new instrument, six feet in diameter, about a dozen feet in length, and weighing in at 4,500 pounds—10,000 if you include the mount and packing crate—isn't going there to surf. MOSFIRE will be the newest weapon in the Keck's arsenal to survey the cosmos, helping astronomers learn about star formation, galaxy formation, and the early universe. 

02/03/2012 08:00:00
Radio Stars
Marcus Woo

Growing up in rural northwest Ireland, beyond the reach of city lights, Gregg Hallinan fell in love with the night sky. "When you didn't have bad weather, and you didn't have clouds, the skies were nothing short of spectacular," he says. "From a young age, I was obsessed with astronomy—it's all I cared for. My parents got me a telescope when I was seven or eight, and from then on, that was it." Now, Hallinan has brought his celestial obsession to Caltech as a new assistant professor of astronomy.

01/12/2012 15:00:00
Astronomers Release Unprecedented Data Set on Celestial Objects that Brighten and Dim
Marcus Woo

Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Arizona have released the largest data set ever collected that documents the brightening and dimming of stars and other celestial objects—two hundred million in total.

12/14/2011 18:00:00
The "Supernova of a Generation" Shows Its Stuff
Marcus Woo

It was the brightest and closest stellar explosion seen from Earth in 25 years, dazzling professional and backyard astronomers alike. Now, thanks to this rare discovery—which some have called the "supernova of a generation"—astronomers have the most detailed picture yet of how this kind of explosion happens. Known as a Type Ia supernova, this type of blast is an essential tool that allows scientists to measure the expansion of the universe and understand the very nature of the cosmos.

12/05/2011 17:00:00
Voyager I Surveys Outer Reaches of the Solar System
Katie Neith

The Voyager I spacecraft, which was built at JPL and launched in 1977, has reached a previously unexplored region between our solar system and interstellar space.  Data collected from this zone indicates very little solar wind, a strong magnetic field, and a possible leak of high-energy particles from our solar system into the interstellar space. The latest findings from the mission were announced today at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco.

12/02/2011 08:00:00
Caltech-Led Team of Astronomers Finds 18 New Planets
Marcus Woo

Discoveries of new planets just keep coming and coming. A team of astronomers led by scientists at Caltech have found 18 Jupiter-like planets in orbit around massive stars.

10/20/2011 07:00:00
Oceans of Water in a Planet-Forming Disk
Marcus Woo

Astronomers have detected massive quantities of water in a planet-forming gas disk around a young star. The water—which is frozen in the icy outer regions of the disk—could fill Earth's oceans several thousand times over. The discovery could help explain how Earth got its oceans and suggests that our planet may not be the only watery world in the cosmos.

09/12/2011 07:00:00
Students Kick Off KISS Caltech Space Challenge
Katie Neith

Deadline can be a dirty word for students and faculty alike at Caltech, since innovative research rarely adheres to time constraints. But this week, an international group of 32 students are taking on a particularly ambitious project that will push the limits of both time and space. As participants in the Caltech Space Challenge, they are tasked with designing a human mission to an asteroid by Friday, giving them just five days to complete a project that typically takes years. 

 

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