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Comet SWAN makes its closest approach to Earth on May 13, 2020, at a distance of 85 million km (53 million miles); its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, will happen on May 27, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.

SOHO Discovers New Comet: C/2020 F8 (SWAN)

May 13, 2020 by News Staff

Officially classified C/2020 F8 (SWAN) but nicknamed comet SWAN, the new comet was first spotted in April 2020 by Australian amateur astronomer Michael...

An artist’s impression of a super-Earth exoplanet. Image credit: NASA.

Very Distant Super-Earth Discovered Through Microlensing

May 12, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have discovered a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting a dwarf star or a brown dwarf around 7,580 parsecs (24,723 light-years) from Earth. An artist’s...

Abell 2384 contains the giant structures that can result when two galaxy clusters collide. A superheated gas bridge is seen in this composite image with X-rays from Chandra and XMM-Newton (blue), radio emission from the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (red) and optical data from the Digitized Sky Survey (yellow). This multi-wavelength view reveals the effects of a jet shooting away from a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy in one of the clusters. The jet is so powerful that it is bending the shape of the gas bridge, which extends for over 3 million light-years and has the mass of about 6 trillion solar masses. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / V. Parekh et al / ESA / XMM-Newton / NCRA / GMRT.

Astronomers Spot Enormous Bridge of Hot Gas between Two Galaxy Clusters

May 11, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatories have observed a 3-million-light-year-long bridge of hot gas linking two unequal...

This Hubble image shows NGC 5861, an intermediate spiral galaxy located some 85 million light-years away in the constellation of Libra. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al.

Hubble Captures Stunning Image of NGC 5861

May 11, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of a spiral galaxy called NGC 5861. This Hubble image shows NGC 5861, an intermediate spiral galaxy...

An artist’s illustration of WASP-79b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Hustak, Space Telescope Science Institute.

Hot-Jupiter Exoplanet WASP-79b Has Yellow Skies

May 9, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and Magellan II Telescope at Las Campanas Observator in Chile, astronomers...

PKS 2014-55 is classified as ‘X-shaped’ because of its appearance in previous relatively blurry images. The detail provided in this radio image obtained with the MeerKAT telescope indicates that its shape is best described as a double boomerang. Two powerful jets of radio waves, indicated in blue color, each extend 2.5 million light-years into space. Eventually, they are ‘turned back’ by the pressure of tenuous intergalactic gas. As they flow back towards the central galaxy, they are deflected by its relatively high gas pressure into the shorter, horizontal, arms of the boomerang. The background image shows visible light from myriad galaxies in the distant Universe. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / SARAO / DES.

Astronomers Crack Mystery of X-Shaped Radio Galaxies

May 8, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, have solved a longstanding mystery...

This image shows Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley.

Juno, Hubble, Gemini Observatory Probe Jovian Storm Systems

May 8, 2020 by News Staff

Multiwavelength observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory combined with close-up views from NASA’s Juno spacecraft...

Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on December 9, 2019. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Meech, University of Hawaii / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Tracks Water Loss from Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

May 6, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have tracked water loss from 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar...

An artist’s impression of the HR 6819 triple system. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Astronomers Find Closest Black Hole

May 6, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory have found a...

An artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Exoplanets with Hydrogen-Rich Atmospheres Could Harbor Simple Life Forms

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has demonstrated that single-celled microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3147, a spiral galaxy located some 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Draco. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Bianchi, Università degli Studi Roma Tre University / A. Laor, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology / M. Chiaberge, ESA, STScI & JHU.

Spiral Galaxies More Likely to Host Complex Life: Study

May 4, 2020 by News Staff

Giant elliptical galaxies are not as likely as previously thought to be cradles of complex life, according to a paper published in the Monthly Notices...

An artist’s impression of the HD 108236 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Finds Four-Planet System around Sun-Like Star

May 4, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have found four exoplanets — a hot super-Earth and three sub-Neptunes —...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3583. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 3583

May 4, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3583. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral...

An artist’s impression of a rocky exoplanet orbiting a white dwarf. Image credit: Jack Madden / Cornell University.

Next-Generation Telescopes Could Detect Signs of Life on Rocky Planets around White Dwarfs

May 1, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astrobiologists from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University has developed a spectral field guide for Earth-like exoplanets transiting...

Flaring, active regions of the Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red. All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time on April 29, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JAXA.

Study: Our Sun is Less Active than Other Solar-Type Stars

May 1, 2020 by News Staff

Magnetic activity on the Sun leads to solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other space weather that affects Earth. Similar activity on other stars...

Kluska et al provided model-independent reconstructed images of 15 protoplanetary disks selected from the Herbig AeBe survey carried out with PIONIER at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Image credit: Kluska et al, doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201833774.

Astronomers Observe Inner Rims of Protoplanetary Disks around Young Massive Stars

Apr 30, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the PIONIER (Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer...

An artist’s illustration of the Kepler-88 planetary system. Image credit: Adam Makarenko / W.M. Keck Observatory.

Astronomers Find Long-Period Gas Giant around Kepler-88

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

Using the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) instrument on the 10-m Keck I telescope at W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have discovered a...

This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

New Measurements of Fine-Structure Constant Suggest Laws of Nature Not as Constant as Previously Thought

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

The fine-structure constant is a measure of electromagnetism — one of the four fundamental forces in nature; the others are gravity, weak nuclear...

Hubble resolved roughly 30 fragments of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on April 20, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles / Q. Ye, University of Maryland.

Hubble Space Telescope Witnesses Breakup of Comet ATLAS

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

New images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the long-period comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and 23, 2020, provide the sharpest views...