Cup of Java

Spacey news
Exploding star may produce backyard show- "A rare hypergiant star visible to the naked eye from Earth erupted explosively and may do so again at any time, an event that might be visible to backyard astronomers, a team of researchers said today. The star might even disappear for a while. The eruption was recorded in early 2000 and made public here today at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. A quantity of ejecta equal to 10,000 earths was shot into space, more than astronomers have ever witnessed in a single stellar eruption."
Black Hole Music-"A CD of black hole music most likely can't compete with Britney Spears or the Soggy Bottom Boys, but a new study shows these venerable gravity instruments produce complex tunes whose underlying principles are remarkably similar to pop, bluegrass, classical or any other style you might think of." (an old article but I just came across it...and it's interesting)
Milky Way's Central Black Hole captured by Chandra- "The longest X-ray look yet at the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center has given astronomers unprecedented access to its life and times. The new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that our galaxy's central black hole is a frequent bad actor, prone to numerous outbursts and occasional large explosions."
Astronomers identify a new type of star- "A new type of star has been discovered lurking as a low mass component in a very compact binary star system. Astronomers Steve B. Howell of the University of California, Riverside and Tom Harrison of New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, announced today at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle, Wash., that they have confirmed the existence of a new variety of stellar end-product. This previously unknown type of star has some properties similar to brown dwarf stars and may help astronomers understand some of the recently discovered extra-solar planets in close proximity to their suns."