Handy little tool, this gravitational lensing! Astronomers have used it to measure the shape of stars, look for exoplanets, and measure dark matter in distant galaxies. Now its being used to measure the age and size of the Universe. Researchers say this new use of gravitation lensing provides a very precise way
Posted by Universe Today
... physicist lecturing on "dark energy." Admission to his dark talk cost more than a ticket to our play. He promoted a Joint Dark Energy Mission
Posted by GM=tc^3
Image Credit: NASA/Tod Strohmayer (GSFC)/Dana Berry (Chandra X-Ray Observatory) This week, astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory announced that they could put stringent limits on the types of objects that make Type Ia supernovae based on X-ray observations of galaxies. Here are stories from Universe Today and Sky & Telescope. My thoughts in summary: this study is useful work but doesn't clarify the very muddied waters of Type Ia supernova progenitors.
Posted by Professor Astronomy's Astronomy Blog
Galaxy density in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field, with colors representing the redshift of the galaxies, ranging from redshift of 0. 2 (blue) to 1 (red). Pink x-ray contours show the extended x-ray emission as observed by XMM-Newton. Dark matter (actually cold, dark – non-baryonic – matter) can be detected only by its gravitational influence. In
Posted by Universe Today
... nature of the mysterious dark energy and dark matter (Euclid); the frequency of exoplanets around other stars, including Earth-analogs (PLATO); take the closest look at our Sun yet possible, approaching to just 62 solar radii (Solar Orbiter) ... but only two! What would be your
Posted by Universe Today
Type Ia supernovae are very important exploding stars. It's thought that this particular type of supernova has a very special property: they all explode with about the same energy. This makes them very valuable, because it means that if you can simply measure how bright they appear to be, you can figure out how far
Posted by Bad Astronomy
The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) science team has finished analyzing seven full years' of data from the little probe that could, and once again it seems we can sum up the universe in six parameters and a model. Using the seven-year WMAP data, together with recent results on the large-scale distribution of galaxies, and an
Posted by Universe Today
There is a new show on the feed! It's the extended version of our February contribution to The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Our very own slacker Mike Simonsen interviews Kevin Krisciunas about his recent paper that describes how to measure the eccentricity of the moon's orbit with a yardstick and some cardboard. But that's
Posted by Slacker Astronomy
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