(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched super-fast knots of gas into space.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered a cluster of galaxies in the initial stages of development. It is the most distant such grouping ever observed in the early universe.

• NASA’s RXTE Helps Pinpoint Launch of ‘Bullets’ in a Black Hole’s Jet
  Using observations from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite and the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has identified the moment when a black hole in our galaxy launched superfast knots of gas into space.
• NASA’s Online Radio Station Rocks Smartphones
  NASA’s Third Rock Radio just got mobile. Updates to the NASA App for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android now include a feature to listen to the agency’s new online alternative rock radio station.

(Iowa State University) NASA’s Kepler Mission has helped astronomers discover two Earth-sized planets that survived their star’s red-giant expansion. The discovery is published in the Dec. 22 edition of the journal Nature.

(Astronomy & Astrophysics) Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a new statistical study of the so-called ‘ultra-compact dwarf galaxies’ (UCDs), which are still mysterious objects. A team of astronomers has investigated how many of these UCDs exist in nearby galaxy clusters and groups. They show that the properties of UCDs match those of bright star clusters.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion — as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime — another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) Given the incredible amounts of energy in a supernova explosion — as much as the sun creates during its entire lifetime — another erroneous doomsday theory is that such an explosion could happen in 2012 and harm life on Earth. However, given the vastness of space and the long times between supernovae, astronomers can say with certainty that there is no threatening star close enough to hurt Earth.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) An international team of astronomers has identified a candidate for the smallest-known black hole using data from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE). The evidence comes from a specific type of X-ray pattern, nicknamed a “heartbeat” because of its resemblance to an electrocardiogram. The pattern until now has been recorded in only one other black hole system.

(National Science Foundation) Astronomers recently discovered the most massive black holes to date. Found in two separate nearby galaxies roughly 300 million light years away from Earth, each black hole has a mass equivalent to 10 billion suns.

(ESO) Astronomers have obtained the best images ever of a star that has lost most of its material to a vampire companion. By combining the light captured by telescopes at ESO’s Paranal Observatory they created a virtual telescope 130 meters across with vision 50 times sharper than the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Surprisingly, the new results show that the transfer of mass from one star to the other in this double system is gentler than expected.