Deep images of the sky reveal that the universe contains billions of galaxies. Some, such as our own Milky Way, are immense, containing hundreds of billions of stars. Most galaxies, however, are dwarfs…
The SKA is on the horizon, but how do we get from here to there?
Pete Wheeler, ICRAR
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope has been on the cards since the early 1990s. It took until May of last year to find out where it will be built – in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand…
The black hole at the centre of NGC 1277 galaxy is one of the largest ever discovered.
NASA /ESA/Andrew C. Fabian/Remco C. E. van den Bosch (MPIA)
Astronomers have discovered a new, enormous black hole that could change our understanding of how galaxies evolve.
Holding the mass of 17 billion suns, the black hole at the centre of the NGC 1277 galaxy…
The explosion of a super-luminous supernovae can emit as much light as our sun will in 10 billion years.
Rampant.Gaffer
By Jeffrey Cooke, Swinburne University of Technology
Supernovae are the brilliant, explosive deaths of stars. For a short time, these explosions can outshine an entire galaxy containing billions of stars.
A recently discovered rare class of supernovae…
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our own sun and appears to be home to at least one planet.
EPA/Davide De Martin/ESO
Earlier this week, a Swiss-based team searching for planets outside our solar system (exoplanets) published a paper in Nature announcing the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri…
Three years ago we discovered water on the moon, and now we’ve worked out where it’s from.
Jason Bache
A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience last week suggests water on the moon may have come, at least in part, from the sun.
Until a few years ago the orthodox view was that the moon was bone…
Things may not be as they’d previously seemed regarding the moon’s formation.
NASA/JPL-Caltech
New research published in the planetary science journal Icarus, shows the moon may have been formed by a glancing collision with an “impactor” in the violent days of the early solar system.
Contrary to…
Despite ongoing research, we still know little about the universe’s earliest moments.
tychay
Earlier this week, headlines in several major newspapers screamed: “Melbourne researchers rewrite Big Bang theory”. You might think this is a reference to a new script for a popular TV show, but as a cosmologist…
Ripples in a pond help to illustrate wave motion and the Doppler effect.
*˜Dawn˜*
When an ambulance passes with its siren blaring, you hear the pitch of the siren change: as it approaches, the siren’s pitch sounds higher than when it is moving away from you. This change is a common…
There’s far more to the night sky than the human eye can see.
Joseph Dsilva
Humans have always had a deep affinity with the night sky.
Over millennia the stars have guided us in our travels, provided a grand canvas for the great stories of mythology and invoked a sense of wonder…
A simulated Black Hole of ten solar masses as seen from a distance of 600km with the Milky Way in the background.
Ute Kraus/Wikimedia
The concept of a “black hole” is one of the most curious in astrophysics. It’s the answer to the question: “What happens if the density of matter in a region becomes so high that not even light can escape…
The search for gravitational waves is far more than just a novelty.
msmail
In my previous article we discussed the “who, what, when, where and how” of the worldwide gravitational wave detection effort. The observant observer will have noticed we’re still missing the “why”.
Why…
Don’t look at the transit of Venus directly … but make sure you look at it.
Jan Herold
When Australia II won the America’s Cup yacht race in 1983, then-prime-minister Bob Hawke famously exclaimed: “Any boss who sacks anyone for not turning up today is a bum.”
Taking inspiration from this…
Everyone’s getting a slice of the SKA, whichever way you cut it.
swishphotos
Late last week, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) board chairman, John Womersley, announced that the future telescope will have more than one home: Australia/New Zealand and South Africa.
The announcement…
The global push to detect gravitational waves could provide an enormous return for science.
Wikimedia Commons
Albert Einstein made an executive decision to revolutionise our understanding of gravity in a paper published in 1916. Nearly 100 years on, a key prediction of Einstein’s theory has eluded direct detection…
Trojans such as (1173) Anchises appear to have been caught in Jupiter’s orbit, mid-flight.
Dave Hosford
You’ll remember that, about a year ago, Canadian astronomers announced the discovery of a small asteroid sharing the earth’s orbit.
The asteroid in question, 2010 TK7, is a “planetary Trojan” – an object…
Knowing where cosmic rays don’t come from brings scientists another step closer to determining their origin.
NSF/J. Yang
It’s been the defining question of high-energy astrophysics for the past century: where do cosmic rays come from?
New findings from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole have brought us closer…
The Big Bang theory and the existence of God are ideas often grappled with when thinking about how the universe was created.
DamienHR
Last week’s Global Atheist Convention and debates between prominent atheists and theologians in the Australian media has seen arguments about the existence of God getting a thorough airing.
In my view…
It’s time we got to the core of our planet’s early history.
Derringdos
As of today, the world might have changed forever.
A fundamental assumption underpinning much of modern geochemistry is that the earth has the same composition as a class of meteorites called chondrites…
The James Webb Space Telescope will search for stars in the dawning universe.
BOBXNC
When the Obama administration announced its proposed NASA budget in February, astronomers worldwide breathed a sigh of relief. Despite significant cuts in other areas, funding for the James Webb Space…
All good things must come to an end.
Michael Ashley
Professor Michael Ashley recently returned from Antarctica where he deployed a telescope to one of the most remote locations on Earth – a place known as Ridge A, 850km from the South Pole.
This is the…
GRBs have puzzled astronomers for decades, and there is still plenty to learn.
EOS/A Roquette
Ever since they were discovered accidentally in the 1960s, gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have continued to amaze and puzzle astronomers worldwide. In nearly 50 years of research there seem to have been more…
You probably wouldn’t try to drive across Antarctica in a regular Hilux.
Michael Ashley
Professor Michael Ashley recently returned from Antarctica where he was deploying a telescope to one of the most remote locations on Earth – a place known as Ridge A, 850km from the South Pole.
This is…
When you’re trying to fly to the South Pole, weather-related delays are a frustrating reality.
Michael Ashley
Professor Michael Ashley is currently in Antarctica to deploy a telescope to one of the most remote locations on Earth – a place known as Ridge A, some 850km from the South Pole.
This is the second instalment…
Finding quasars will help us understand how galaxies were formed.
NASA
Today, the University of Melbourne’s Professor Stuart Wyithe was awarded the 2011 Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year for his work on the origin of galaxies.
The multi-award winning…
A would-be Jedi waits for Kepler in a galaxy far, far away.
It’s one of the most famous and evocative images in cinematic history – Luke Skywalker gazing out at the twin suns of Tatooine as they set, in the original Star Wars movie, A New Hope.
Such a view would…
Science follows certain procedures, but does the media get the signal?
CSIRO
Recently my colleagues and I announced the discovery of a remarkable planet orbiting a special kind of star known as a pulsar.
Based on the planet’s density, and the likely history of its system, we concluded…
Stars shine, for sure, but PSR J1719-1438 is sporting some serious bling.
Robyn Beck/AFP
A planet has been found in our Milky Way galaxy that may be made entirely of diamond.
As reported in Science today, an international astronomy team led by Swinburne University’s Matthew Bailes, has discovered…
Get to grips with the latest development in cosmic couture.
NASA
In the past week, many media outlets have reported the discovery of an antimatter “belt” circling the earth.
A range of potential uses for this belt have already been floated – perhaps the most exciting…
We still have plenty to learn about our own galaxy.
Doug Klembara
Welcome to the third instalment of If I had a blank cheque … a series in which leading researchers reveal what they could (and would) do in their discipline if money were no object.
Today we hear from…
Scientists believe dark matter makes up 23% of the universe.
NASA
By Jeremy Mould, Swinburne University of Technology
Dark matter has worked its way back into the news in the last few days with the completion of a detection experiment in a tunnel deep under the Italian Alps.
Researchers from Columbia University used…
