Astronomers have discovered the most distant population of star clusters ever seen, hidden behind one of the nearest such clusters to Earth. At a distance of more than a billion light-years, the newly discovered star clusters provide a unique probe of what similar systems in our own galaxy once looked like.
http://www.publicaffairs.ubc.ca/media/releases/2007/mr-07-001.html
Solscape
New Evidence Of Extrasolar Asteroid Belt
Providing the best evidence yet for an asteroid belt beyond the solar system, new measurements pinpoint the location of such a disk of warm dust surrounding the star Zeta Leporis. As the January 6, 2007 issue of „Science News“ reports, this dust lies about the same distance from Zeta Leporis as the solar system’s asteroid belt lies from the sun.
Article @ Science News
Mid-infrared resolution of a 3 AU-radius debris disk around Zeta Leporis
Chandra Discovers Light Echo from the Milky Way’s Black Hole
Like cold case investigators, astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to uncover evidence of a powerful outburst from the giant black hole at the Milky Way’s center.
https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/gcle/
Radio Telescopes Provide Key Clue on Black Hole Growth
Astronomers have discovered the strongest evidence yet found indicating that matter is being ejected by a medium-sized black hole, providing valuable insight on a process that may have been key to the development of larger black holes in the early Universe. The scientists combined the power of all the operational telescopes of the National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) to peer deep into the heart of the galaxy NGC 4395, 14 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Canes Venatici.
https://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/imbh/
Rethinking last century’s closest, brightest supernova
Twenty years ago next month, the closest and brightest supernova in four centuries lit up the southern sky, wowing astronomers and the public alike. Ongoing observations of the exploded star, called supernova 1987A, provided important tests for theories of how stars die, but it also raised some new questions.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2007/01/09_LBV.shtml
Atlantis gains Hubble servicing swansong
Shuttle Atlantis has been handed a flagship finale, following the confirmation that she will now be the orbiter that will conduct the Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, with the launch date slipping to September 11, 2008. The decision to swap STS-125 – known as HSM-04 – from Discovery to Atlantis was confirmed by the January 8 launch schedule document, which sees a widescale change to the shuttle mission manifest.
Source: NasaSpaceFlight.com
Researchers discover never-before-seen pulsar blasts in Crab Nebula
Astronomers and physicists using the Cornell-managed Arecibo Telescope in Puerto Rico have discovered radio interpulses from the Crab Nebula pulsar that feature never-before-seen radio emission spectra. This leads scientists to speculate this could be the first cosmic object with a third magnetic pole.
Researchers using Arecibo Telescope discover never-before-seen pulsar blasts in Crab Nebula
Kepler’s Supernova Remnant: A Star’s Death Comes to Life
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists have created a stunning new image of one of the youngest supernova remnants in the galaxy. This new view of the debris of an exploded star helps astronomers solve a long-standing mystery, with implications for understanding how a star’s life can end catastrophically and for gauging the expansion of the universe.
https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/kepler/index.html
Astronomers Map a Hypergiant Star’s Massive Outbursts
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, astronomers have learned that the gaseous outflow from one of the brightest super-sized stars in the sky is more complex than originally thought. The outbursts are from VY Canis Majoris, a red supergiant star that is also classified as a hypergiant because of its very high luminosity.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2007/news-2007-03.html
Large Telescopes Team Up to Help Astronomers Discover a Trio of Quasars
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland and the California Institute of Technology, USA, have discovered what appears to be the first known triplet of quasars. This close trio of supermassive black holes lies about 10,5 billion light-years away towards the Virgo constellation.
