New Type of Cosmic Background

A team of scientists using a sensitive balloon-borne instrument has found an unexplained hiss of relatively low-frequency radio pervading the universe. The discovery represents yet another type of "cosmic background radiation" - distant emission coming from everywhere on the sky - to go along with the backgrounds previously discovered in microwaves, infrared light, X-rays, and gamma rays.

Epsilon Aurigae Solved at Last?

A strange mystery puzzled scientists for years, now it might be solved with the help of newer technologies. A group of astronomers claims a breakthrough in the long-standing mystery of Epsilon Aurigae. This 3rd-magnitude star, a type-F super giant 130,000 times brighter than the Sun, loses half its light for almost two years every 27.1 years when a nearly opaque dust disk, seen edge-on, slides across its face.