634 search results for “stars” in the Public website
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Rose Vossen wins Young Star Award 2021
Rose Vossen has been named winner of the Young Star Award 2021. The Life Science and Technology student received the award on Monday from Ewine van Dishoeck, the founder of the award. Vossen wins a cheque for 2,500 euros for her exceptional results as a bachelor's student. During her final bachelor…
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Planet formation starts before a star is fully grown
A team of European astronomers under Leiden leadership has discovered that dust particles around a star already coagulate before the star is fully grown. These agglomerated dust particles are the first step in the formation of planets. The research publish their discovery in the journal of Nature As…
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Youtube star Ed Copeland gives Colloquium Ehrenfestii
On Wednesday February 7th, Professor Ed Copeland from the University of Nottingham will give the Colloquium Ehrenfestii.
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A rock star in a Petri dish
Featuring the world’s first neural synthesizer, artist Guy Ben-Ary and his collaborators will perform at the TodaysArt Festival in The Hague on 21 September. For this performance, he collaborated with the lab of Erik Danen to transform neural stem cells into neural networks on a chip.
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Young stars in the Orion Nebula are practicing birth control
Astronomers from Leiden University have discovered that the star wind from a newborn star in the Orion Nebula prevents more stars from forming in the immediate vicinity. They made the discovery with data from the SOFIA observatory. This was announced by co-author Xander Tielens during a press conference…
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Massive Stars Are Factories for Ingredients to Life
NASA’s telescope SOFIA has provided a new glimpse of the chemistry in the inner region surrounding massive young stars where future planets could begin to form. Leiden PhD candidate Andrew Barr writes about it in the Astrophysical Journal. The scientists found massive quantities of water and organic…
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Discovering new physics in extremely bright neutron stars
Astronomer Alexander Mushtukov, currently working at the University of Amsterdam, received a Veni grant of 250,000 euro’s which he will execute in Leiden. Supervised by Simon Portegies Zwart, Mushtukov will use advanced simulations to understand the unknown physics in extremely bright neutron stars.
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Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond
ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.
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Auroras on nineteen stars hint at hidden exoplanets
An international team of scientists including Leiden's Joe Callingham has discovered nineteen red dwarf stars that unexpectedly emit radio waves. The outbursts possibly originate from interaction with exoplanets. The results of the research appear in two scientific publications.
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Artificial brain helps Gaia satellite catch speeding stars
With the help of software that mimics a human brain, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six stars zipping at high speed from the centre of our Galaxy to its outskirts. This could provide key information about some of the most obscure regions of the Milky Way.
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MASCARA stations hunt for exoplanets orbiting bright stars
For a number of years, two ‘boxes’ in the Canary Islands and Chile have been scouring the skies for exoplanets that orbit bright stars. PhD candidate Geert Jan Talens helped develop these ‘MASCARA’ telescopes and has made the first discoveries with them. Together with him, we answer the main questions…
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Astronomers see two planets vacuuming around young star
Astronomers led by Leiden astronomer Sebastiaan Haffert have directly imaged two planets that are gravitationally carving out a wide gap within a planet-forming disk surrounding a young star. While over a dozen exoplanets have been directly imaged, this is only the second multi-planet system to be p…
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Seeing Stars: Jupiter steals the show in cloudy night skies
After months of preparation, the moment of truth had arrived: would the skies above Leiden clear for the promised glitzy planet-and-star show? The people of Leiden turned out in their hundreds to go star-hunting on 25 September. They became more aware than ever of the effects of light pollution.
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Renske Donkers wins Young Star Award, students surprise lecturers
Molecular Science & Technology student Renske Donkers has won the second edition of the Young Star Award. During the ceremony on Wednesday 17 February, no less than three teachers were awarded the title 'Teacher of the Year'. Finally, students had a surprise in store for all teachers: with a video they…
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What do complex molecules tell us about star formation?
How do you progress from an immense gas cloud somewhere in the universe to a star with planets? Research by Astronomy PhD student Martijn van Gelder sheds more light on the earliest phases of this process. He will receive his doctorate on November 24th.
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LIACS alumnus receives ACM Multimedia Rising Star Award
Former PhD student of the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS) Bart Thomee has received this year’s Rising Star Award from the Multimedia group of ACM, the worldwide computer science association. Today, Thomee is a successful researcher at Yahoo Labs.
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New research centre for studying planet and star formation
The ALMA Local Expertise Group (Allegro) is located in the Leiden Observatory (Sterrewacht). Professor Ewine van Dishoeck: ‘The Netherlands has played an important role in establishing ALMA. Thanks to this subsidy, we can now reap the scientific benefits.'
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Neutrino linked to black hole that devours star
For only the second time ever, astronomers have linked a neutrino to an object outside our Milky Way. These observations were made using telescopes both on Earth and in space. The researchers, including Leiden astronomer Sjoert van Velzen, were able to trace the neutrino to a black hole that is devouring…
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Star mapper Anthony Brown in Nature's 10
Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown is part of Nature’s 10: the ten people who mattered in science in 2018, according to the leading science journal. Working behind the scenes, Brown is the astronomer who coordinated the release of Gaia’s long-awaited bounty of Milky Way data.
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Young Star Renske Donkers: how is she doing now?
How is Young Star Renske Donkers doing now? Early this year she was the second person ever to win the Young Star Award for the best bachelor student. After her bachelor Molecular Science & Technology, Renske is now busy with her master Chemical Process Engineering in Delft. ‘This award was a great boost…
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Feedback from deeply embedded low- and high-mass protostars. Surveying hot molecular gas with Herschel
Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. van Dishoeck, Co-Promotor: G.J. Herczeg
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Jan Hendrik Oort: star of Dutch radio astronomy
The success of Dutch radio astronomy in the last century was largely due to Leiden astronomer Jan Hendrik Oort. He made astute use of circumstances in the post-war period. Historian Astrid Elbers' research focuses on this golden period.
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Exploring strange new worlds with high-dispersion spectroscopy
Until the 1990s, the only known planets were those in our Solar System. Three decades later, several thousand exoplanets have been discovered orbiting stars other than the Sun, and substantial efforts have been made to explore these strange new worlds through spectroscopic analyses of their atmosphe…
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Tracing the evolution of protoplanetary disks
Promotores: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens, Prof.dr. L.B.F.M. Waters (UvA), Prof.dr. C. Dominik (UvA)
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Gaia sees strange stars in most detailed Milky Way survey to date
Today, ESA’s Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy. Astronomers, led by the Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown, describe strange ‘starquakes’, stellar DNA, asymmetric motions and other fascinating insights in this most detailed Milky Way survey to date.
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Stunning James Webb images show birth and death of massive stars
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to surprise us with stunning pictures, but of what exactly? Astronomer Nienke van der Marel shows with three images how massive stars lead short but explosive lives.
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Multiple star systems: how they got here and why it matters
Disk formation around stars is an important factor in determining whether one or multiple stars evolve. But the big picture of star formation is still far from complete, says PhD researcher Nadia Murillo.
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Angelo Romano awarded as Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science
Social Psychologist Angelo Romano have been awarded the Association for Psychological Science (ASP) Rising Star designation. This award is presented to outstanding APS members in the earliest stages of their research career post-PhD.
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Catching stars to reveal the secrets of the darkness: ERC Consolidator for Elena Maria Rossi
The centre of our Galaxy is so dark and dense that it is almost impossible to observe what is inside. By catching the rare hypervelocity stars that are ejected from it, Elena Maria Rossi aims to unveil the mysterious environment around the supermassive black hole inside. But she’ll also be solving another…
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University to switch off lights during Seeing Stars Leiden – Care to join us?
Artist Daan Roosegaarde, together with UNESCO and Leiden University, wants to make the stars come out during Seeing Stars Leiden. The University will therefore switch off the lights in most of its buildings on Sunday 25 September from 22:00 to 23:30 and is asking the people of Leiden to follow suit.
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Astronomers see star with dust disk that is still being fed
An international team of astronomers including Leiden scientists publishes the image of a young star with a surrounding dust disk that is still being fed from its surroundings. The phenomenon around the star SU Aur may explain why so many exoplanets are not neatly aligned with their star. The European…
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High-mass stars are formed not from dust disk but from debris
A Dutch-led team of astronomers has discovered that high-mass stars are formed differently from their smaller siblings. Whereas small stars are often surrounded by an orderly disk of dust and matter, the supply of matter to large stars is a chaotic mess. The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter…
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Giant planet at large distance from sun-like star puzzles astronomers
A team of astronomers led by Dutch scientists have directly imaged a giant planet orbiting at a large distance around a sun-like star. Why this planet is so massive, and how it got to be there, is still a mystery. The researchers will publish their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
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Life cycle of comets near other star resembles that of our solar system
The life cycle of comets near the star Beta Pictoris is similar to that of comets in our own solar system. This is the conclusion of a team of astronomers from the Netherlands, France and Brazil. It seems that, just like in our own solar system, there are fewer comets as the star gets older. The researchers,…
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‘All of Leiden will join in with the Seeing Stars experiment’
What will happen if the lights in a large part of the city are switched off? How many stars can you see without all that light pollution? This is what researchers, artists and the residents of Leiden are going to investigate during Seeing Stars Leiden on 25 September. ‘Leiden is the ideal place for…
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Dust cloud from two colliding ice planets dims light of parent star
For the first time, an international group of astronomers have seen the heat glow of two ice giant planets colliding. They could also observe the resultant dust cloud move in front of the parent star several years later. Led by Leiden astronomer Matthew Kenworthy, they monitored the star's brightness…
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Ultra-sensitive radio images reveal thousands of star-forming galaxies in early Universe
An international team of astronomers has published the most sensitive images of the Universe ever taken at low radio frequencies, using the International Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). ‘LOFAR is unique in its ability to make high-quality images of the sky at metre-wavelengths’, said Huub Röttgering, Leiden…
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Astronomer Joe Callingham testifies against killer stars in new show on Discovery Channel
On Friday evening 17 September, Leiden astronomer Joe Callingham can be seen in a new series on Discovery channel. Killers of the Cosmos is about different deadly dangers lurking in the depths of space. Asteroids, cosmic debris, electromagnetic weapons… The show takes a film-noir approach to these threats,…
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UV radiation from massive stars prevents formation of Jupiter-like planet
An international team of scientists, including Xander Tielens of Leiden Observatory, has used space telescope Hubble and the ALMA observatory to show that UV radiation from massive stars can prevent planets from forming. The researchers publish their findings on 1 March in the journal Science.
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Simulating the birth environment of circumstellar discs
Circumstellar discs are the reservoirs of gas and dust that surround young stars and have the potential to become planetary systems.
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Astronomers spot benzene in planet-forming disk around star for first time
An international team of astronomers including Leiden professor Ewine van Dishoeck has observed the benzene molecule (C6H6) in a planet-forming disk around a young star for the first time. The observations tell us more about the forming of planets in this disc, like our own Earth. The scientists publish…
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The puzzle of protoplanetary disk masses
My work focuses on a class of astronomical objects called protoplanetary disks.
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Universe Awareness on Euronews: Raising young peoples’ eyes to the stars
Space, stars, and galaxies. The wonders of the universe can be captivating and studying them is helping us unravel their mysteries. This edition of 'Learning World' looks at some projects that are offering classroom experiences that are truly out of this world.
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2018: James Kasting about the search for life on planets around other stars
If there is life outside our galaxy, how could we find it? In his Oort Lecture, James Kasting talks about his search for simple life on other planets. Kasting was in the Netherlands for two weeks, because he was invited as the Oort Professor 2018.
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Chemistry in embedded disks: setting the stage for planet formation
To address the fundamental questions of how life on Earth emerged and how common life may be in the Universe, it is crucial to know the chemical composition of the planet-forming material.
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Molecular inheritance from cloud to disk: a story of complex organics and accretion shocks
Stars like the sun are born in large molecular clouds existing from gas and dust. During the formation process, the chemical composition of the material can be altered drastically by the changing physical conditions.
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astronomers find building blocks for life in the darkest spots of star-forming cloud
An international team led by Leiden astronomers has discovered diverse ices in the darkest, coldest regions of a molecular cloud. To do so, they used the James Webb Space Telescope. This discovery allows astronomers to examine the simple icy molecules that will be incorporated into future exoplanets,…
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‘More microplastics in the environment than stars in the Milky Way'
Microplastics are everywhere: in the ocean, in cooking salt and even in animals. Should that worry us? 'Yes,' said environmental scientist Thijs Bosker during a pop-up lecture in The Hague on 8 September. ‘We really need to do something now, not wait until it becomes an even bigger problem.’
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Lukasz Tychoniec
Science
tychoniec@strw.leidenuniv.nl | +31 71 527 5737
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Stellar radio beacons for Galactic astrometry
A century ago, it was unclear whether the stars in the sky were clustered in groups, or widely spread in the universe.