... A pair of galaxies has grabbed the attention of astronomers when they were literally thrown into the spotlight. The galaxies were lit up by one of the brightest explosions in the Universe: a Gamma-Ray Burst . Astronomers think that the explosions of massive young stars power these bursts of light. ... By studying the light after it has passed through the galaxies, for example, astronomers can work out what types of atoms they contain, such as oxygen and copper. ...

Astronotes Armagh Planetarium's Stellar Blog! ... Colin Johnston . ... Our Galaxy . ... To locate it, look along the imaginary line between the two end stars on the leading edge of the PloughтАЩs blade (Merak and Dubhe) and Polaris (the North Star), the galaxy M82 (also known as the Cigar Galaxy) along with its companion M81, lies just off this line about a third of the way between the Plough and Polaris. €а€аAs usual, the supernova is far brighter than its home galaxy, appearing as an extra star. ...

Astronomy Picture of the Day . Why is QSO 1229+204 so Bright? ... Credit: J. Hutchings ( DAO ), NASA Explanation: What causes the center of this barred spiral galaxy to light up brighter than almost anything in the universe? ... Not only was QSO 1229+204 at the core of an unusual barred spiral galaxy, but this galaxy was in the process of colliding with a dwarf galaxy . Gas from this collision quite possibly fuels a supermassive black hole causing QSO 1229+204 to shine so brightly. ...

... Our Sun is part of a huge wheel-shaped collection of stars. ... Astronomers have long suspected it was a very massive black hole, and that every galaxy had such a central mass, created early in the history of the universe. ... However, unless that object happens to be headed directly at the black hole (a relatively small target) it will just swing around and fly away again, like a comet making a pass at the Sun. The velocity acquired in falling towards the black hole also helps it escape. ...

... Press Release Images . Individual Images . ... The right-hand image shows Hubble's close-up view of the galaxy's core, taken in December 1995 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The bluish-purple clumps that form the ring are the clusters of infant stars. Two dark, wispy lanes of dust and a pair of blue spiral arms are just outside the star-forming ring. ... The gas is trapped inside the ring through the stars' gravitational attraction. ... Amazing Space | ...

home resources > books . SEARCH ASP SITE: Match ALL words Match ANY word . ... Buy The Black Hole at the Center of our Galaxy at Amazon.com! Reviewed by Terrell Kent Holmes . In 1974 astronomers discovered a bright radio source at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. It was an unknown quantity then, but astronomers now know that the object is a supermassive black hole causing a maelstrom of activity at the galactic center. ...

ATNF Annual Report 2000 (submitted) . ... One of the first products is the HIPASS {\it Bright Galaxy Catalogue}, which is a catalogue of the 1000 apparently brightest HI galaxies in the southern hemisphere. ... In Figure 1 we show the spatial distribution of the brightest HIPASS galaxies. ... Figure 4 shows the velocity distribution of the 1000 brightest HIPASS galaxies (orange) compared to the 1000 brightest optical galaxies (selected from the Lyon/Meudon Extragalactic Database using blue magnitude). ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

DARK MATTER IN THE UNIVERSE Paul J. Green UNSEEN MASS: Astronomers studying the motions of stars and galaxies throughout the universe have long noticed a strange discrepancy. Stars move around galaxies as if pulled by ten times the matter that we can see. ... GRAVITATIONAL LENSING: Since dark matter by definition cannot be directly observed, several recent searches have instead exploited the predicted gravitational effects of its mass on the observed light from nearby stars. ...

... 2000: . The images and maps of polarization for a massive protostar S140 IRS1, immersed in a dark molecular cloud were obtained at the 6-m telescope using speckle interferometry in the infrared 2.2 micron band. According to the structure of the flocky envelope around the nascent star it was found that the bright emission was caused by the reflection of radiation from the inner walls of the cavity formed by a powerful molecular outflow from the protostar. ... Archive . ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . ... Three sixth-form students from St Patrick's Grammar School, Armagh , used the Faulkes Telescope South in Australia in April to observe and measure HW Virginis , an unusual "binary" or double star system suspected to host one or two extrasolar planets orbiting the central stellar pair. ... Armagh Observatory and associated researchers hope to develop this work to look for further evidence of planet-hosting binary star...