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Tag Archives: light year

Where cosmic rays are born

By Sid Perkins / February 16, 2013

Here we go! Shock waves in the clouds of gas surrounding an exploding star (as in this artist’s depiction) accelerate charged particles called protons to very high speed, creating cosmic rays.
Credit: Greg Stewart, SLAC Nat'l Accelerator Lab.

New evidence links origin of these very energetic particles to massive explosions of distant stars

Posted in Earth & Sky, Space | Tagged astrophysicist, atoms, cosmic rays, galactic magnetic field, gamma rays, getinvolved, Harvard University, light year, light-speed, Milky Way, Patrick Slane, protons, Stanford University, Stefan Funk, subatomic particle, supernova, supernova remnant, topstories

A diamond planet?

By Sid Perkins / November 30, 2012

Image_55Cancri_e

Distant, carbon-rich world could contain one-third its weight in gems that are relatively rare on Earth

Posted in Space | Tagged 55 Cancri, 55 Cancri e, astronomy, cancer, Cancri, carbon planet, constellation, diamonds, extrasolar planet, getinvolved, Goddard Space Flight Center, graphite, light year, Marc Kuchner, NASA, Nikku Madhusudhan, planet, super-Earth, topstories, transit, Yale University

Black hole’s big gulp

By Stephen Ornes / May 25, 2012

This computer simulation gives some idea of what might happen when a star gets too close to a black hole. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/UCS

Astronomers say a bright flare in space shows where a black hole tore apart a star

Posted in Space | Tagged astronomers, black hole, elliptical, getinvolved, gravity, light year, mass