Tag: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
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Nation & World
How will the world end? Possibly with a belch, not a whimper.
Scientists say it’s a preview of Earth’s fate in 5 billion years.
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Nation & World
Black hole burps up shredded star
For the first time, astronomers have observed a black hole burping up stellar remains years after it shredded and consumed the star.
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My three suns
Harvard astronomers are studying a newly discovered rocky planet with three suns called LTT1445Ab in the hopes it will provide valuable insights into Earth.
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Nation & World
Prospects clouded for finding life on the largest class of planets
Led by Laura Kreidberg, a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, a new study shows that LHS 3844b, a terrestrial exoplanet orbiting a small sun 48.6 light-years away, has no detectable atmosphere
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Harvard reflects on Apollo 11 and Neil Armstrong’s moon walk
A trio of Harvard astronomers reflect on the impact of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon, then and now.
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Nation & World
Are we alone in the universe?
Harvard astronomer Laura Kreidberg studies the atmospheres of extrasolar planets to search for signs of life.
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Nation & World
‘Seeing the unseeable’
A years-long effort by dozens of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics reveals the first-ever image of a supermassive black hole.
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Stepping inside a dead star
An astronomical team uses detailed data to create a virtual reality experience of being inside an exploded star.
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Nation & World
Something weird this way comes
A paper by Harvard researchers wonders whether the interstellar object known as “‘Oumuamua” is a visitor from an alien civilization.
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Nation & World
150 years later, her star is still rising
At Harvard College Observatory in the late 19th and early 20th century, Henrietta Swan Leavitt developed a powerful new tool for estimating the distances of stars and galaxies.
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Nation & World
New light on dark matter
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics researchers explore dark matter particles that may carry an electric charge, and explain why that matters.
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Nation & World
Space to learn
Harvard postdoc Or Graur finds success in the launch of Science Research Mentoring Program, which provides 10 local high school students a year of space research, working with a “real-life” scientist.
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Nation & World
Black hole blasts may transform ‘mini-Neptunes’ into rocky worlds
Researchers believe outbursts by a nearby supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way have transformed Neptune-like planets into rocky planets.
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Nation & World
Improved image of supermassive black hole
Improved image allows astronomers to follow filament much closer to the galaxy’s central black hole.
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Nation & World
To everything there is a season? It’s not as simple as that
Harvard scientists and Cambridge Public Schools educators are collaborating on a special-thinking program that clears up misconceptions and teaches eighth-graders the hard science behind the changing seasons.
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Nation & World
First glimpse of a kilonova, and Harvard was there
Marking the beginning of a new era in astrophysics, scientists for the first time have detected gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation, or light, from the same event. Harvard researchers were pivotal in the work.
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Eclipses, through the years
As photography developed, Harvard astronomers embraced it as a scientific means to understand the sky.
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Viewing the solar eclipse? There’s an app for that
The Smithsonian and Harvard have released an interactive app ahead of the 2017 total solar eclipse, giving Americans a front-row seat to a rare celestial event.
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Last survivors on Earth
A testament to the resiliency of life, the microscopic tardigrade can survive any cosmic calamity, according to an Oxford-Harvard study.
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Nation & World
Testing the test questions
A group of researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has found a way for schools, professors, textbook publishers, and educational researchers to check the quality of their test questions that turns out to be both fast and cheap. It invokes the power of crowdsourcing.
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Asteroid mission will carry student X-ray experiment
At 7:05 p.m. (EDT) today, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Among that spacecraft’s five instruments is a student experiment that will use X-rays to help determine Bennu’s surface composition.
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Nation & World
Milky Way had blowout bash 6 million years ago
Researchers analyzed archival X-ray observations from the XMM-Newton spacecraft and found that the missing mass from the Milky Way is in the form of a million-degree gaseous fog permeating our galaxy.
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Nation & World
Exoplanet might have oxygen atmosphere, but not life
Researchers believe they may for the first time detect oxygen on a rocky planet outside the solar system.
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Just-so black holes
New findings advance insight on formation of supermassive black holes in the early epochs of the universe.
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Eternal light, up for grabs
Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics warns that a loophole in the Outer Space Treaty leaves open the possibility of a race for resources on the moon.
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Bok Center celebrates 40 years
The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning celebrates its 40th anniversary with a conversation between President Drew Faust and President Emeritus Derek Bok and a symposium on educating.
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Guardians of the sky
After a flood threatened to destroy the Harvard College Observatory’s trove of glass plate negatives, staff members and students from around the University showed up to help move the plates to safety.
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Destination: Nearest star
Harvard Astronomy Department chair Abraham Loeb played an important role in drafting initial plans announced Tuesday for a proposed trip to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. Loeb talked about the plan and its biggest challenges.