Astrophysics

Pehong Chen, founder and chief executive of BroadVision, will donate $15 million to Stanford University to establish an institute for the study of particle astrophysics and cosmology, the school said Thursday. Researchers at the Pehong and Adele Chen Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Institute will explore such questions as: What powered the Big Bang? What is the role of dark matter? What are the dynamics of black holes, neutron stars and other cosmic objects?

Astronomers may have to brace for a much humbler astrophysics mission following the planned launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, a NASA official told a ballroom full of astronomers Tuesday. Under current budget constraints and with future funding uncertain, such a mission might have to be small enough to cost $1 billion or less, NASA astrophysics division director Paul Hertz told astronomers gathered for a town hall at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach.

"We know they're not Klingons." Way back in 1997, that was one of the few things Caltech astrophysicist Shri Kulkarni could say with confidence about the stupendous bursts of gamma rays picked up by newly launched satellites.

In the early days of the space program, astronauts were ex-Marines, Air Force officers and hot-shot pilots. Sally Ride got there a little differently: She answered a want ad. In the late 1970s, NASA decided that, in addition to pilots, it needed some astronauts with more training in the sciences. More than 8,300 applied for a position, and she was one of only 35 chosen. Why, she later said, was a "complete mystery. " Ride went on to become the first American woman sent into space, the youngest American sent into space and the first woman to make two trips.

Astronomers may have to brace for a much humbler astrophysics mission following the planned launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018, a NASA official told a ballroom full of astronomers Tuesday. Under current budget constraints and with future funding uncertain, such a mission might have to be small enough to cost $1 billion or less, NASA astrophysics division director Paul Hertz told astronomers gathered for a town hall at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach.

After nearly a decade of searching, astronomers have discovered a new member of the stellar family that is certain to shed light on several longstanding mysteries. The sighting marks the most conclusive evidence yet of a "brown dwarf," a body that exists in a semi-permanent state of adolescence, not quite small or cold enough to be a planet, not quite big or hot enough to be a star.

Scientists believe they have observed a galaxy in the earliest stages of its life 12 billion years ago, when it was creating stars at the "extraordinarily high" rate of several each day. Using tools that were not available even two years ago, the scientists focused on a source of radio waves 12 billion light-years away in an effort to watch the birth of a galaxy.

Daniel P. Snowden-Ifft is looking for something, but he's not sure what it is. Charles Alcock knows what he's looking for, but isn't sure he knows how to find it. Neither scientist knows if the object of his search actually exists. Snowden-Ifft and Alcock are among hundreds of researchers around the world who are trying to detect "dark matter," a scientific catchall devised to explain an enormous apparent excess of gravity in the universe.

Scientists have discovered a distant planet where virtually no one would have expected it to be, orbiting a pulsar star that was born during one of the most violent events the universe has to offer, according to research published today. If confirmed, this would be the first planet discovered beyond our solar system.

Ben Mayer is about to make history--again. On Friday at the Bahia Hotel, the 60-year-old amateur astronomer will cross the ideological barricade between astrology and astronomy--two disciplines that, until the 17th Century, were practiced simultaneously by some of the greatest minds in history, including Galileo and Johannes Kepler.

After 16 years of research, teams of American and European scientists have compiled the most complete portrait of the gigantic black hole at the center of the Milky Way, plotting its gravity-bending mass as being equivalent to a staggering 4 million suns. The researchers from Germany and UCLA also pinpoint the distance to the center of the galaxy at 27,000 light-years.

Brian May, lead guitarist for Queen and the author of the stadium anthem "We Will Rock You," was awarded his PhD this year in astrophysics from Imperial College London. Now his first book, "Bang! The Complete History of the Universe," written with astronomer Sir Patrick Moore and astrophysicist Chris Lintott, is being released in the U.S.

LONDON -- Guitarist and songwriter Brian May has completed his doctorate in astrophysics -- three decades after he put academia on hold to form the rock group Queen. The rocker was awarded his his PhD this week by London's Imperial College and said submitting his thesis, "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud," to supervisors was as nerve-racking as any stadium gig. "I'm feeling rather joyful. I cannot tell you how much of a weight off the mind it is," May said.

New findings from an Ohio State University team of astronomers are raising the possibility that the universe is larger than previously thought. Using new measurement methods, the team found that the Triangulum Galaxy is 3 million light-years away, not the 2.6 million that had been accepted in the past. If the method proves reliable for other distant objects, the results could force a readjustment of one of the building blocks of modern cosmology: the Hubble constant.

Pehong Chen, founder and chief executive of BroadVision, will donate $15 million to Stanford University to establish an institute for the study of particle astrophysics and cosmology, the school said Thursday. Researchers at the Pehong and Adele Chen Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology Institute will explore such questions as: What powered the Big Bang? What is the role of dark matter? What are the dynamics of black holes, neutron stars and other cosmic objects?

"We know they're not Klingons." Way back in 1997, that was one of the few things Caltech astrophysicist Shri Kulkarni could say with confidence about the stupendous bursts of gamma rays picked up by newly launched satellites.

The sky wasn't even close to the limit when Gregory Benford, a UC Irvine physicist, plotted his newest work of science fiction. His new suspense novel--"Cosm"--delves into nothing less than the mystery of the origin of the universe. As Benford puts it: "I like audacious ideas." "Cosm" is set in not-so-distant 2005. Alicia Butterworth, a brilliant young UC Irvine physicist, is at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y.

Two years ago a book called "A Brief History of Time" hit the top of the best-seller lists, and an unlikely new star in a wheelchair found himself rocketing past astronomer Carl Sagan to become king of the pop science cosmos. Since then, virtually every publication on the planet, from People to Playboy, has profiled theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking.

Astronomers peering into an explosive nearby galaxy with the eagle-eyed Chandra X-ray Observatory announced Tuesday that they have confirmed the discovery of an entirely new class of black hole--a "mid-sized" version. The finding could explain the formation of certain types of black holes, some of the strangest and most compelling objects that reside at the cores of most galaxies. That explanation, in turn, could eventually explain how all galaxies, including our own, came to be.

A combination elf, oracle and rock star, Cambridge University physicist Stephen Hawking makes waves in physics that other people ride. So scientists listened when Hawking proposed in a technical talk Thursday at Caltech that the universe sprang from nothing into something in the shape of a wrinkly pea, and that the universe can be both open and closed, depending on how you look at it.