Tag: Astronomers

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) 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.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 23, 2010) Astronomer were surprised to find two distinct "tails" found on a long tail of gas that is believed to be forming stars where few stars have been formed before.

"The double tail is very cool -- that is, interesting -- and ridiculously hard to explain," said Donahue, a professor in MSU's Department of Physics and Astronomy. "It could be two different sources of gas or something to do with magnetic fields. We just don't know."

Artist's conceptions of the Milky Way might give you the impression that astronomers have a precise notion of what our galaxy looks like, but you'd be wrong. In fact, new observations suggest that our home galaxy has been vastly underestimated.

Those spiraling arms? Some scientists think it only has two, not four. Its size? For years, we thought that the Milky Way was substantially smaller than our closest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy.