Wednesday, November 6, 2013

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

NASA Kepler results usher in a new era of astronomy

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 08:45 AM PST

Scientists from around the world are gathered this week at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., for the second Kepler Science Conference, where they will discuss the latest findings resulting from the analysis of Kepler Space Telescope data. Included in these findings is the discovery of 833 new candidate planets, which was announced Nov. 4 by the Kepler team. Ten of these candidates are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun's habitable zone, which is defined as the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet may be suitable for liquid water.

Galaxy growth examined like rings of a tree

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 08:38 AM PST

Galaxies outlive trees by billions of years, making their growth impossible to see. But like biologists reading tree rings, astronomers can read the rings in a galaxy's disk to unravel its past. Using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), scientists have acquired more evidence for the "inside-out" theory of galaxy growth, showing that bursts of star formation in central regions were followed one to two billion years later by star birth in the outer fringes.

Astronomy: White dwarfs hide information on dark forces

Posted: 05 Nov 2013 05:14 AM PST

Researchers have ruled out a multitude of possible parameters for dark photons - a type of dark matter and energy - with the help of white dwarfs. In some aspects, the shining of these dying stars gives more information on dark forces than is provided by Earth-based laboratories.
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