First planet from outside Milky Way is spotted

A team of astronomers has claimed to have seen hints of the first planet to be spotted outside the Milky Way galaxy, in the Andromeda galaxy.

According to a report by BBC News, the team, which has made the finding, is made up of researchers from the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy and collaborators in Switzerland, Spain, and Russia.

They exploited a type of gravitational lensing called microlensing to make the discovery.The effect of large, massive objects between an observer and a distant planet or star can cause distortion or multiple images as the intermediary object’s gravity bends the passing light.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit:http://epaper.asianage.com

New York teen discovers supernova

A 14 year-old student from New York has apparently become the youngest person in the world to discover a supernova, the weakest-ever found in a nearby galaxy.

Astronomers have confirmed that the supernova discovered in November last year by Caroline Moore called SN 2008ha is a new type of stellar explosion, 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a supernova.

Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen. Even though this explosion was a weakling compared to most supernova, for a short time SN 2008ha was 25 million times brighter than the sun.

To read the full article, click here..
To read the ePaper, visit: http://epaper.asianage.com