Planetary Nebula, but no White Dwarf
	SuWt 2 is a planetary nebula located in the Centaurus constellation about 6,500 light years away from Earth. It appears as a bright ring of gas with faint lobes perpendicular to the ring, thus giving it the rough look of an hourglass shape. The gas remnant is probably material ejected from a dead star which collapsed to form a white dwarf. However, investigations with NASA's International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite during the 1990 ... [read more >>]
	04 June 2008, 05:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Operation Code Name 'Vanished Star'
	The vast majority of stars end their lives through supernova explosions while others, more massive, are thought unable to produce such explosions simply because they implode and collapse under their own weight only to produce a black hole. Since these particular types of stellar death don't generate brilliant emissions in the electromagnetic spectrum, none has ever been witnessed. This is about to change with the initiation ... [read more >>]
	10 May 2008, 03:44GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

The Antennae Galaxies Draw Closer to Us
	The Antennae Galaxy is one of the closest and most studied galaxy mergers in the universe. It consists of two gravitationally interacting galaxies dubbed NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 that collided with one another a couple of hundred million years into the past. New observations made by researchers from the European Southern Observatory with the Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 revealed that in fact the pas ... [read more >>]
	09 May 2008, 11:03GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

See Arcturus on the Night Sky this Week
	Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation of Boötes and the third brightest star on the night sky after Sirius and Canopus, bearing a visible magnitude of -0.05. It is often regarded as the sixth brightest star, behind Alpha Centauri, Vega and Capella, however it has been shown that Alpha Centauri is a binary star, while the other two are less brighter than Arcturus. This week, it will become visible on the night sky to ... [read more >>]
	25 April 2008, 09:41GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Planetary Nebulae. Where is the Planet?
	Planetary nebulae have been first discovered some three centuries ago, but the astronomers of the time, being unable to clearly identify them, named nebulae by attributing them the name of "planetary", mostly because they seemed to have some resemblance to the planet Uranus. In the middle of the 19th century astronomers finally realized what the strange objects really are, not planets but massive clouds of gas and dust surroundin ... [read more >>]
	11 March 2008, 04:52GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Earth Is Doomed!
	Forget about global warming, the ice ages, asteroids or any other impending disaster waiting to happen. Earth will burn! Literally! Astronomers approximate the age of the Sun to a rough 5 billion years and is mostly believed that it will continue to burn hydrogen at least as much time before becoming too unstable to maintain its current form. Our planet, on the other hand, will probably be swallowed by the Sun in 7.6 billion year ... [read more >>]
	27 February 2008, 02:37GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia

Supernovae Sweep Dust Away
	It is generally believed that supernovae usually spread dust into interstellar space as they explode. However, astrophysicists have recently found that this is not always the case, and some might actually collect dust after a supernova phase. These are usually small stars that explode periodically, while gathering clouds of spinning dust around them. Such is the case of RS Ophiuchi, which is a binary system formed of a small ... [read more >>]
	28 January 2008, 09:21GMT | (c) 2008 Softpedia