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On these pages you'll find astronomy news from a variety of specific sources rather than general astronomy news.

Each page (from the menu below) shows up-to-date news from the specific resource.

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Today's Astronomy News

Cosmic hurricane: Black hole has 20 million mph winds

22 Feb 2012 at 4:18pm

This artist's impression shows a binary system containing a stellar-mass black hole called IGR J17091-3624. The strong gravity of the black hole, on the left, is pulling gas away from a companion star on the right. This gas forms a disk of hot gas around the black hole, and the wind is driven off this disk at 20 million mph. Scientists have measured the fastest winds yet observed from a stellar-mass black hole, shedding light on the behavior of these curious cosmic objects.

NASA's Chandra Finds Fastest Wind From Stellar-Mass Black Hole

22 Feb 2012 at 10:40am
Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have clocked the fastest wind yet discovered blowing off a disk around a stellar-mass black hole. This result has important implications for understanding how this type of black hole behaves. The record-breaking wind is moving about 20 million ... Read more...

Station Crew Conducts Biomedical Research

22 Feb 2012 at 10:36am
The six members of the Expedition 30 crew worked with a variety of science experiments Tuesday, as well as attending to the upkeep and maintenance of their orbital home, the International Space Station. Commander Dan Burbank began his workday sorting out items in the Leonardo Permanent Multipur... Read more...

Hubble Reveals a New Class of Extrasolar Planet

22 Feb 2012 at 10:34am
Observations by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have come up with a new class of planet, a waterworld enshrouded by a thick, steamy atmosphere. It’s smaller than Uranus but larger than Earth. An international team of astronomers led by Zachory Berta of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astr... Read more...

Regional winners named in student Space Lab competition

22 Feb 2012 at 10:11am

European students are among the regional winners in the YouTube Space Lab student science competition, co-sponsored by ESA. The ultimate winners will have their experiment performed on the International Space Station, live-streamed to a global audience. Read more...

Laser radar illuminates the way to deep space

22 Feb 2012 at 9:24am

This car was not snapped with a camera but scanned by a 3D imaging lidar, the laser equivalent of radar. ESA is developing the sensor as a navigation aid for exploring deep space. Read more...

Rocket flies into the aurora

22 Feb 2012 at 2:36am

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: A rocket experiment has sampled the stuff of the northern lights, adding some scientific substance to the great views we're getting from Earth and orbit. A rocket experiment samples the stuff of the northern lights.

See a solar eclipse from outer space

22 Feb 2012 at 12:02am

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: A sun-watching NASA satellite sights a partial solar eclipse from space, which serves as a warmup for earthly solar alignments to come.

New breed of steamy alien planet found

21 Feb 2012 at 8:34pm

Scientists have discovered a new type of alien planet — a steamy waterworld that is larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus.

How much would the Death Star cost?

21 Feb 2012 at 7:58pm

There are plenty of world-ending scenarios to keep us up nights, but the idea that an Earth government will build the Death Star from "Star Wars" isn't really one of them.

GJ 1214b: A Steam-Bath World

21 Feb 2012 at 6:32pm
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Moon's crust hints at recent tectonic activity

21 Feb 2012 at 5:02pm

the Moon's crust was apparently active far more recently than previously believed, scientists say.

Wednesday's Mercury-Moon Challenge

21 Feb 2012 at 2:54pm
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NASA Spacecraft Reveals Recent Geological Activity on the Moon

21 Feb 2012 at 10:44am
New images from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft show the moon's crust is being stretched, forming minute valleys in a few small areas on the lunar surface. Scientists propose this geologic activity occurred less than 50 million years ago, which is considered recent compared t... Read more...

Rolling rocks hint at strong quakes on Mars

21 Feb 2012 at 8:42am

Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Geologists see signs that seismic shocks as powerful as magnitude-7 quakes on Earth have rumbled on the Red Planet recently.