December 19, 2006 Massive Jets in Aging Stars Science Update Once a normal star like the Sun has burned its hydrogen fuel into helium, and then in turn converted its helium into carbon and oxygen, it begins to show its age. Already very swollen and red, shells of residual hydrogen and helium gas around the star's core begin to shrink, heat up, and burn briefly in a series of nuclear pulses. These pulses of energy ultimately result in ejecting the star's outer layers.

September 14, 2006 Strange New Planet Baffles Astronomers News Release Using a network of small automated telescopes known as HAT, Smithsonian astronomers have discovered a planet unlike any other known world. This new planet, designated HAT-P-1, orbits one member of a pair of distant stars 450 light-years away in the constellation Lacerta.

August 10, 2006 "Hourglass Figure" Points to Magnetic Field's Role in Star Formation News Release Long predicted by theory, the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array has found the first conclusive evidence of an hourglass-shaped magnetic field in a star formation region. Measurements indicate that material in the interstellar cloud is dense enough to allow it to gravitationally collapse, warping the magnetic field in the process.

June 05, 2006 Nearby Extreme Galaxies Have Link to Humble Roots News Release If you can't travel to the picturesque sands of Waikiki Beach, you can always do the next-best thing and visit a local shore. Both "hot spots" will get plenty of sun.

January 12, 2006 New Maser Measurements Trace Detail in Active Galactic Core News Release The roiling cores of many active galaxies are difficult to see in detail because of surrounding gas and interstellar dust. Smithsonian astronomers announced today, however, a first-time measurement that may help to better trace the structure of these unusual regions. Elizabeth M. L. Humphreys and other Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) research team members presented the first detection at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths of extragalactic water maser emission in the core of active galaxy NGC 3079 in their paper at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D. C.

January 03, 2006 A Planet Colder Than It Should Be News Release Mercury is boiling. Mars is freezing. The Earth is just right. When it comes to the temperatures of the planets, it makes sense that they should get colder the farther away they are from the Sun. But then there is Pluto. It has been suspected that this remote world might be even colder than it should be. Smithsonian scientists now have shown this to be true.