Tag Archives | Star

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Stars can create DNA precursors, suggests new experiment

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and the University of Hawaii have shown how DNA’s molecular precursors – carbon ring structures with embedded nitrogen atoms – could be created in the region surrounding a star. The new work adds to previous intriguing observations of what appear to be organic molecules in distant stellar environments. In the new […]

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alma_obs

Unusual carbon-based molecule detected 27,000 light years away

Astronomers have discovered an unusual carbon-based molecule – isopropyl cyanide – in the gaseous star-forming region Sagittarius B2. The discovery, made using the ALMA radio telescope array, suggests that the complex molecules needed for life may have their origins in interstellar space. The astronomers, from Cornell University, the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, and […]

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galaxy_m87c

Entire star cluster flung from distant galaxy

Astrophysicists have discovered an entire star cluster that has been ejected from the galaxy known as M87 at more than two million miles per hour. The newly discovered cluster, which astronomers named HVGC-1, will now travel forever through intergalactic space. “Astronomers have found runaway starsbefore, but this is the first time we’ve found a runaway […]

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exoplanet_k186a

Kepler mission identifies most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered

An international team of astronomers have announced the discovery of a new rocky planet the same size as Earth that could have liquid water on its surface. The potentially habitable planet, dubbed Kepler-186f, was discovered using data from NASA’s Kepler telescope and verified by the Gemini and Keck telescopes. “What makes this finding particularly compelling […]

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exoplanet_tilt

Wobbly planets could be best place for finding life, say astrobiologists

Pivoting planets that lean one way and then change orientation within a relatively short time period might be surprisingly habitable. That’s according to NASA scientists who say the climate effects generated on these wobbling worlds could prevent them from turning into glacier-covered ice lockers, even if those planets are somewhat far from their stars. “Planets […]

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exoplanet_tilt

Work by celestial archaeologists hints at Earth’s ultimate fate

For decades, astronomers have known that the atmospheres surrounding stars are often “polluted” with elements like carbon, silicon, and iron. How these elements came to be there has been an intriguing mystery that an international team of astronomers believe they have now solved. Led by Professor Martin Barstow, President-elect of the Royal Astronomical Society, the […]

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First exoplanet images from Gemini

After nearly a decade of development, construction, and testing, the world’s most advanced instrument for directly imaging planets around other stars is pointing skyward and producing its first images of planets outside our solar system. (The image at right shows the planet Beta Pictoris b, orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The star is hidden behind […]

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