Read article 'Astrowatch'
Astrowatch
Planck and FIRST given go-ahead The planning of two major astrophysics missions has been approved by ESA’s scientific policy committee. The satellites Planck and FIRST will be launched together ...
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Read article 'Space Shuttle experiment reveals unexplained particle behaviour'
Space Shuttle experiment reveals unexplained particle behaviour
A spaceborne particle physics experiment has come up with new information on the distribution of cosmic-ray particles.
Read article 'Galactic record set'
Galactic record set
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the most distant, and therefore the youngest, object ever observed. The galaxy existed when the universe was only 5% of its present age (re...
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Astrowatch
Water, water everywhere The third mission in NASA’s small explorer programme was launched last December. The Submillimetre-Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS) is designed to study the chemical compo...
Read article 'The quintessence of cosmology'
The quintessence of cosmology
The most striking recent development in cosmology has come from supernova studies, which reveal how the expansion rate of the universe changes with time. Rather than slowing down, the universe is ex...
Read article 'Astrowatch'
Astrowatch
Gamma-ray bursts The most powerful objects in the universe are also the most mysterious. Gamma-ray bursts can emit more energy in a few seconds than all of the 1011 stars in our galaxy emit over a few...
Read article 'Tantalum detector'
Tantalum detector
A new development in detector technology is good news for astronomers.
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Astrowatch
ESO update The first 8.2 m telescope of the Very Large Telescope array opens to astronomers on 1 April. It has already made interesting discoveries during its commisioning stage. Observations of one o...
Read article 'Gas reveals secrets of universe evolution'
Gas reveals secrets of universe evolution
New observations using the ROSAT X-ray telescope endorse a “bottom-up” model of the evolution of the universe. Most ordinary matter in the universe is in the hot gas that makes up the inte...
Read article 'Astrowatch'
Astrowatch
Stars seeing stars Subaru, a new Japanese telescope, saw first light in January. It joins the UK infrared telescope, the Dutch, UK and Canadian James Clerk Maxwell Telescope and the US Keck Observator...
