X-rays from Black Holes

Huh? Well, yes, black holes are "black" because their gravity is so strong that any light emitted from inside them can't escape. However, light can be emitted from outside black holes, and in fact it often is - it believed that many of the most luminous objects in the universe (quasars) are powered by material falling into a black hole. A recent study by RXTE suggests that the X-ray emitted by these objects is not from material falling into the black hole, but material flowing away from the black hole very rapidly in a narrow cone, called jets (go here for details). Very interesting indeed. To learn more about RXTE, listen to this interview I broadcast a while back.

Quantum Mechanics and You!

In Physics classes, they'll teach you that all of the randomness and weirdness that makes Quantum Mechanics so interesting/fun/confusing/painful only is important for really tiny things (like subatomic particles and atoms) and not for big things like you and me. Well, this might not always be the case. Go here to read more. I know this isn't about astronomy, per se, but still pretty interesting.

The Birth of a Star

Go here to read how lab experiments on Earth are providing important clues, and listen to an interview with Dr. Savin on this very program here. Enjoy!

Cosmic Watercolor

Seriously.

Now you see it...

Now you don't. Kids, don't let you satellites re-enter the Earth's atmosphere unless you WANT it to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere (which JAXA actually did for this mission since it was returning samples to Earth). Watch the re-entry here.

WISE Brown Dwarfs

As is it surveys the entire sky, the small WISE satellite has detected 14 new brown dwarfs - the lowest mass "stars" there are, with a mass so low that it is debatable if they are even stars since they have no fusion in their core. Read more about it here.

Stormy Exoplanets

Not only (with very large optical telescopes and lots of observing time) is it possible to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere of a planet observing another star, but it is possible to study its weather as well. Wow! Go here to read all about it.

Wow!

Double, double toil and trouble;

Stars burn and gas bubbles

Go here to figure out what I'm trying to talk about, and my apologies to William Shakespeare

Rip van New Horizons

Asleep for half of its trip to Pluto, NASA's New Horizons mission has awoken! Go here to read more.

Galaxy Tails

Most likely created by the gravitational interaction between two merging galaxies, GALEX has captured this beautiful image of a stream of stars trailing their host galaxy. Go here to see and read more. Enjoy!