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| How to look young when you're not - Stars reveal the secret of aging well [heic1221] |
| Some people are in great shape at the age of 90, while others are decrepit before they're 50. We know that how fast people age is only loosely linked to how old they actually are - and may have more to do with their lifestyle. A new study with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the same is true of star clusters. |
| Date: 19 Dec 2012 |
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| Request For Information (RFI) for the provision of the platform for the CHEOPS small mission |
| The European Space Agency invites small platform providers from ESA Member States to declare their interest for the provision of the CHEOPS spacecraft by replying to this RFI. The submission deadline for the response to this RFI is 30 January 2013, 12:00 CET (noon).
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| Date: 19 Dec 2012 |
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| A swoosh in space: Merry Christmas from Hubble [heic1220] |
| The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope celebrates the holiday season with a striking image of the planetary nebula NGC 5189. The intricate structure of the stellar eruption looks like a giant and brightly coloured ribbon in space. |
| Date: 18 Dec 2012 |
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| Turbulent eddies may warm the solar wind |
| The Sun ejects a continuous flow of electrically charged particles and magnetic fields in the form of the solar wind. One of the long-standing puzzles of solar physics is that the solar wind is hotter than it should be. However, a new study of data obtained by ESA's Cluster spacecraft may help to explain the mystery. |
| Date: 18 Dec 2012 |
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| Hubble census finds galaxies at redshifts 9 to 12 [heic1219] |
| Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered seven primitive galaxies from a distant population that formed more than 13 billion years ago. In the process, their observations have put forward a candidate for the record for the most distant galaxy found to date (at redshift 11.9), and have shed new light on the earliest years of cosmic history. The galaxies are seen as they were when the Universe was less than 4 percent of its present age. |
| Date: 12 Dec 2012 |
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| Greedy black hole discovered in Andromeda |
| Studying the Andromeda galaxy with ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory, astronomers have discovered a new bright X-ray source that hosts a stellar-mass black hole accreting mass at a very high rate. The source's location in an external galaxy allowed the astronomers to probe the emission both from the black hole's accretion disc, at X-ray wavelengths, and from its jets, in radio waves. These observations revealed, for the first time in an extragalactic stellar-mass black hole, the link between the source's X-ray brightening and the ejection of radio-bright material from the vicinity of the black hole into the jets, indicating an accretion rate close to the black hole's Eddington limit, or even above it. |
| Date: 12 Dec 2012 |
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| Hubble sees a galaxy hit a bullseye [heic1218] |
| Bright pink nebulae almost completely encircle a spiral galaxy in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 922. The ring structure and the galaxy's distorted spiral shape result from a smaller galaxy scoring a cosmic bullseye, hitting the centre of NGC 922 some 330 million years ago. |
| Date: 06 Dec 2012 |
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| New galaxy census highlights importance of starbursts |
| Astronomers have used ESA's Herschel Space Observatory to identify thousands of previously undetected starburst galaxies - among the most prolific stellar factories in the Universe. Follow-up observations with the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i have provided redshift measurements for almost 800 of these galaxies, which appear to span the past 12 billion years of cosmic history. The study confirms that, although less numerous than 'ordinary' galaxies, these infrared-bright galaxies played an important role in star formation throughout the history of the Universe. This rich data set will also allow future investigations into the physical mechanisms that triggered such intense star formation. |
| Date: 04 Dec 2012 |
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| A new episode of active volcanism on Venus? |
| For decades, planetary scientists have debated whether Venus possesses active volcanoes. The latest twist to the tale is provided by data sent back from ESA's Venus Express orbiter, revealing unexplained major changes in the amount of sulphur dioxide gas above the planet's dense cloud layer. |
| Date: 02 Dec 2012 |
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| Cassini reveals Titan's atmosphere in reverse |
| With winter fast approaching, everyone living in Earth's northern hemisphere is well aware that major atmospheric variations are associated with the changing seasons. Now new observations made by the international Cassini spacecraft confirm that an even more dramatic atmospheric reversal takes place as the seasons shift on Saturn's giant moon Titan. |
| Date: 28 Nov 2012 |
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| Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs |
| Astronomers using ESA's Herschel Space Observatory have detected massive debris discs around 61 Virginis and Gliese 581, two nearby stars that are known to host super-Earth planets. The study also reveals that debris discs are preferentially found in planetary systems with low-mass planets rather than in those hosting high-mass planets. This suggests that debris discs may survive more easily in the absence of very massive planets, and highlights the importance of debris discs in the study of planet formation. |
| Date: 27 Nov 2012 |
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| Planck discovers filament of hot gas linking two galaxy clusters |
| Scanning the sky at microwave and sub-millimetre wavelengths with Planck, astronomers have unambiguously detected a 'bridge' of hot gas connecting two galaxy clusters, Abell 399 and Abell 401. The filament extends over about 10 million light-years and contains gas with a temperature of about 80 million K. At least part of this gas might derive from the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) - the elusive web of gaseous filaments which is believed to pervade the Universe. |
| Date: 20 Nov 2012 |
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| Announcement of Opportunity for the Gaia Data Processing Archive Access Co-Ordination Unit |
| The European Space Agency (ESA) solicits through the present Announcement of Opportunity (AO) proposals for the provision of the Archive Access Co-Ordination Unit (CU9) in the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC). The deadline for proposal submission is 10 January 2013. |
| Date: 19 Nov 2012 |
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| Hubble spots candidate for most distant known galaxy [heic1217] |
| By combining the power of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and one of nature's zoom lenses, astronomers have found what is probably the most distant galaxy yet seen in the Universe. The object offers a peek back into a time when the Universe was only 3 percent of its present age of 13.7 billion years. |
| Date: 15 Nov 2012 |
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| New views of the Martian ionosphere |
| High above the main body of Mars' atmosphere is a region of weakly ionised gas, known as the ionosphere. For the last eight years this poorly understood region has been observed by instruments on board ESA's Mars Express orbiter, and new studies show that the dayside ionosphere is more variable and more complex than previously thought. |
| Date: 15 Nov 2012 |
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| Astronomers develop new method to determine neutron star mass |
| Astronomers have used INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton to look into the neutron star in IGR J17252-3616, a highly obscured X-ray binary system. The data show how the neutron star, which is being fuelled by the stellar wind from its companion, is substantially deflecting the flow of the accreted material. Comparison with numerical simulations provides an estimate of the neutron star's mass, suggesting a new method to determine the mass of these extremely dense, exotic objects. |
| Date: 09 Nov 2012 |
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| Astronomers develop new method to determine neutron star mass |
| Astronomers have used INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton to look into the neutron star in IGR J17252-3616, a highly obscured X-ray binary system. The data show how the neutron star, which is being fuelled by the stellar wind from its companion, is substantially deflecting the flow of the accreted material. Comparison with numerical simulations provides an estimate of the neutron star's mass, suggesting a new method to determine the mass of these extremely dense, exotic objects. |
| Date: 09 Nov 2012 |
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| Saturn's giant storm reveals the planet's churning atmosphere |
| A recent study of the giant storm whirling on Saturn for the past two years, which became known as the "Great Springtime Storm", has given planetary scientists new clues about the planet's weather. Using a combination of data from the Cassini orbiter and ground-based telescopes, the scientists traced the storm's development from deep within the churning clouds in Saturn's lower atmosphere to altitudes hundreds of kilometres above the cloud decks, in the planet's stratosphere. There, two large pockets of warm air formed and later merged into one gigantic hot vortex that has been travelling around Saturn's northern hemisphere since mid-2011. The study of this storm and its associated vortex, which occurred unusually early in Saturn's 30-year-long weather cycle, suggests that waves play an important role in the energy transfer across the planet's atmosphere. |
| Date: 25 Oct 2012 |
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| Monster galaxy may have been stirred up by black-hole mischief [heic1216] |
| Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a whopper of an elliptical galaxy, with a core bigger than any seen before. There are two intriguing explanations for the puffed up core, both related to the action of one or more black holes, and the researchers have not yet been able to determine which is correct. |
| Date: 25 Oct 2012 |
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| Cluster observes a 'porous' magnetopause |
| A new study based on data from ESA's Cluster mission shows that it is easier for the solar wind to penetrate Earth's magnetosphere than had previously been thought. |
| Date: 24 Oct 2012 |
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