nunyadambinness - Slashdot User

Submission + - Cosmic cannonball grabs NASA telescope's eye (networkworld.com)

Submitted by

coondoggie

on Thursday November 29, 2007 @02:45PM

coondoggie writes: "NASA said today its Chandra X-ray Observatory grabbed a picture of a star screaming out of the galaxy at 3 million miles per hour. At this rate, the star, called RX J0822-4300, is destined to escape from the Milky Way after millions of years, even though it has only traveled about 20 light years so far."Just after it was born, this neutron star got a one-way ticket out of the Galaxy," said co-author Robert Petre of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/22425"

Submission + - Youngest Known Solar Systems Detected 450 LY Away (eurekalert.org) 1

Submitted by

Invisible Pink Unicorn

on Thursday November 29, 2007 @02:32PM

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes: "University of Michigan astronomers have detected two of the youngest known solar systems, both located in the Taurus star formation region just 450 light years away. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the researchers noticed gaps in the protoplanetary disks of gas and dust surrounding the young stars UX Tau A and LkCa 15, both only about 1 million years old. According to the lead researcher, the observed gap is "like a lane has been cleared within the disk. That is not consistent with photoevaporation. The existence of planets is the most probable theory that can explain this structure." The article abstract is available from The Astrophysical Journal Letters."

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