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The Big Show Begins

The Big Show Begins

Planetarium Show Highlighting People, Places, and Science of Astronomy Begins Production Washington DC: In the most remote locations on the planet, people are working to uncover mysteries throughout the universe… and most are not astronomers. Big Astronomy in Chile through Dome+ (Big-ACT) explores a new model to deliver a unique learning...

Billion-dollar telescopes could end up beyond the reach of US astronomers

Billion-dollar telescopes could end up beyond the reach of US astronomers

Every ten years, US astronomers set research priorities for the following decade. The latest cycle to pick projects for the 2020s has just started. In July, the US National Academy of Sciences launched the seventh Astronomical Decadal Survey (Astro2020) with a call for proposals for future telescopes and space missions. Over the coming year,...

When Is a Nova Not a ‘Nova’? When a White Dwarf and a Brown Dwarf Collide

When Is a Nova Not a ‘Nova’? When a White Dwarf and a Brown Dwarf Collide

Synopsis: Using ALMA, an international team of astronomers found evidence that a white dwarf (the elderly remains of a Sun-like star) and a brown dwarf (a failed star without the mass to sustain nuclear fusion) collided in a short-lived blaze of glory that was witnessed on Earth in 1670 as Nova sub Capite Cygni (a New Star below the Head of the...

VLA Discovers Powerful Jet Coming from “Wrong” Kind of Star

VLA Discovers Powerful Jet Coming from “Wrong” Kind of Star

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered a fast-moving jet of material propelled outward from a type of neutron star previously thought incapable of launching such a jet. The discovery, the scientists said, requires them to fundamentally revise their ideas about how such jets...