Tag Space & astronomy
Recent sightings: Nighttime fireball
Moments before bursting in a dazzling fireball over southwestern Wisconsin, a likely meteor appears as a bright dot in the Wednesday night sky. This…
Stellar mosh pit, complete with crashing stars, resolves a mystery
For almost 50 years, astronomers have puzzled over the youthful appearance of stars known as blue stragglers.
Satellite anniversary marks 50 years of studying climate from space
On Oct. 13, 1959, University of Wisconsin–Madison professors Verner Suomi and Robert Parent crouched in a bunker at Cape Canaveral, sweating through the countdown for the Juno II rocket perched on its launching pad 150 yards away.
Scientists hope to mimic nature’s dynamos
In the cosmos, all celestial objects - planets, stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies - have magnetic fields. On Earth, the magnetic field of our home planet is most easily observed in a compass where the needle points north.
Curiosities: How big is space?
Space is probably infinite, but we can see only the part that contains stars or galaxies whose light has been able to reach us, says…
Curiosities: How many galaxies have humans discovered?
“We don’t know,” says Ed Churchwell, professor of astronomy. “We know it’s a very large number.” It’s in the hundreds of billions, Churchwell…
Planet Trek offers chance to bike or walk through scaled-down solar system
Dane County residents have a new way to appreciate the solar system, thanks to Planet Trek Dane County, which offers pedestrians and bikers a chance to discover the 11 biggest objects in the solar system at the correct scale of size and distance.
Newly born twin stars show surprising differences
The analysis of the youngest pair of identical twin stars yet discovered has revealed surprising differences in brightness, surface temperature and possibly even the size of the two.
Milky Way’s infrared portrait gives new view of galaxy
Astronomers have obtained an entirely new perspective of our home galaxy: a complete mosaic portrait of the Milky Way in infrared light, a picture that when printed measures 180 feet long by 4 feet wide.
Astronomers witness the birth of a supernova
An international team of astronomers, acting on a tip from a NASA satellite that serves as an early warning system for the most violent astronomical events, has caught a supernova in the act.
Curiosities: Why do we need leap days?
Leap days appear every four years or so, including this year, and they are needed because one orbit around the sun does not occur in an exact number of days, says Jim Lattis, director of UW Space Place, in the UW–Madison astronomy department.