Read article 'VLT investigates cosmic shear'
Astronomers have mapped the universe’s dark matter in 50 independent directions using the European Southern Observatories’ Very Large Telescope (VLT). Their results, announced in December,...
Read article 'ESA supports physics missions'
Last autumn the European Space Agency’s Science Programme Committee met to define the priorities for 2008-2013. Its announced package included funding for two missions to study fundamental physi...
Read article 'Mapping chaos in particle revolutions'
Over the past decade the technique of frequency map analysis, developed to study astronomical systems, has shown its value in an increasing number of areas, including the analysis of particle orbits ...
Read article 'CAPP off at music and physics festival'
Music and physics combined during the CAPP 2000.
Read article 'Remotest gamma burst seen'
A violent burst of gamma rays detected on 31 January has been pinpointed to a galaxy at a redshift of 4.5, making it the most remote such burst ever observed. Its brightness was enormous – 10 00...
Read article 'Final VLT telescope observes first light'
This autumn saw a double milestone for the European Southern Observatories’ Very Large Telescope (VLT) interferometer at the Paranal observatory, Chile. The fourth and final 8.2 m telescope of t...
Read article 'Chandra shows Crab pulsar rings'
The Crab supernova remnant is the remains of a star seen to explode in 1054 AD. In the explosion, the outer layers of the star were blasted off, leaving a dense rotating neutron star, or pulsar, in th...
Read article 'Sugar in space'
The prospects for life in the universe have just got sweeter with the first discovery of a simple sugar molecule in space. Glycolaldehyde can combine with other molecules to form the more complex suga...
Read article 'Boost for Andean cosmic ray laboratory'
New support for the Chacaltaya Cosmic Ray Research Laboratory, on Mount Chacaltaya near La Paz, Bolivia, underlines its relevance for cosmic ray research.
Read article 'Looking deep into galaxies'
Today’s telescopes allow astronomers to probe deep into the active inner regions of galaxies and see far back in time to the periods of momentous upheaval in the early universe. At this yearR...
