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Hot Topic
Deep Space
Cosmic Evolution
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Dustiest Star Could Harbor Young Earth
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/26/05 |
| A relatively young star located about 300 light-years away is greatly improving our understanding of the formation of Earth-like planets. |
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Dusty Dwarfs
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/21/05 |
| Every rule has an exception. One rule in astronomy, supported by considerable evidence, states that dust disks around newborn stars disappear in a few million years. Most likely, they vanish because the material has collected into full-sized planets. |
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The Humble Space Telescope
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/18/05 |
| Canada's MOST telescope, no larger than a suitcase, has been dubbed "the humble space telescope." But despite its diminutive size, it has already begun to make a giant contribution to our understanding of extrasolar planets. |
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Early Black Holes Grew Up Quickly
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/28/05 |
| Which came first, galaxies or the supermassive black holes at their centre? Most cosmologists now think the two are inextricably linked, each depending on the other. |
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The Stuff Stars are Made of
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/26/05 |
| Named after Harvard University astronomer Bart Bok, Bok globules may not be the most romantic sounding phrase in astronomy, but they are widely accepted as an important step in the formation of new stars. Now a team of astronomers reports examining ten globules to determine how many of them are stars in the making. |
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How Solar Systems Form in Hostile Space
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/19/05 |
| Meeting this week in Cambridge, Mass., astronomers using the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, confirmed, for the first time, that many of the objects termed "proplyds" found in the Orion Nebula do have sufficient material to form new planetary systems like our own. |
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Death Embrace of White Dwarfs
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/11/05 |
| A scientist using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has found evidence that two white dwarf stars are orbiting each other in a death grip, destined to merge. The data indicate that gravitational waves are carrying energy away from the star system at a prodigious rate. |
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Hot Nanny to Star Nursery
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
05/31/05 |
| The saga of how a few monstrous stars spawned a diverse community of additional stars is told in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The striking picture reveals an eclectic mix of embryonic stars living in the tattered neighborhood of one of the most famous massive stars in our Milky Way galaxy, Eta Carinae. |
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Stopping the Suicide Spiral
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
05/11/05 |
| Young stars in the Orion Nebula have quite a temper, flashing powerful X-rays every few days. Scientists wonder if such X-ray flares could rough up the calm sea of a proto-planetary disk, and thereby rescue burgeoning planets from certain oblivion. Does a temperamental youth ensure the existence of future planets? |
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When Did the Solar Nebula Form?
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
04/23/05 |
| The oxygen and magnesium content of some of the oldest objects in the universe are giving clues to the lifetime of the solar nebula, the mass of dust and gas that eventually led to the formation of our solar system. |
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