Astronomy News

Interstellar Object ‘Oumuamua Has Purely Natural Origin, Say Astronomers

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

A fast moving, cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin was discovered on October 19, 2017 by the Pan-STARRS 1 telescope in Hawai’i. Named 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), the object was first spotted three days after its closest approach to Earth, well after it had passed closest to the Sun on September 9, 2017. Its discovery provoked intense and continuing interest from the scientific community and the general public. Reports of its unusual characteristics...

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Astronomers have monitored the Eta Carinae binary system for more than two decades. It has been prone to violent outbursts, including an episode in the 1840s during which ejected material formed the bipolar bubbles seen here. Now, using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument to probe the nebula in ultraviolet light, they have uncovered the glow of magnesium embedded in warm gas (shown in blue) in places they had not seen it before. The luminous magnesium resides in the space between the dusty bipolar bubbles and the outer shock-heated nitrogen-rich filaments (shown in red). The streaks visible in the blue region outside the lower-left lobe are a striking feature of the image. These streaks are created when the star’s light rays poke through the dust clumps scattered along the bubble’s surface. Wherever the ultraviolet light strikes the dense dust, it leaves a long, thin shadow that extends beyond the lobe into the surrounding gas. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Smith, University of Arizona / J. Morse, BoldlyGo Institute.

Hubble Captures Eta Carinae in Ultraviolet Light

Jul 2, 2019 by News Staff

Eta Carinae is a binary stellar system approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Also known as HD 93308 and Hen 3-481, the system...

An artist’s conception of the L 98-59 planetary system. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Discovers Planetary System with Three Terrestrial-Size Exoplanets

Jul 1, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered three small planets orbiting a bright M-dwarf star called L 98-59....

This Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy called NGC 972. The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument. Two 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 / L. Ho.

Hubble Sees Dusty Star-Forming Galaxy: NGC 972

Jul 1, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 972. This Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy called NGC...

An artist’s impression of ASKAP finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The Keck, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Image credit: Andrew Howells / CSIRO.

Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Non-Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio emissions from distant astronomical sources. Some are known to repeat, but most are single bursts, occurring only...

An artist’s concept depicting the presence of buckyballs in space. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Ionized Buckyballs in Interstellar Medium

Jun 27, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the presence of ionized (electrically-charged) buckminsterfullerene in the interstellar...

Composite image of Uranus’ atmosphere and rings at radio wavelengths, taken with the ALMA in December 2017. Dark bands in Uranus’ atmosphere at these wavelengths show the presence of radiowave-absorbing molecules, in particular hydrogen sulfide gas, whereas bright regions like the north polar spot contain very few of these molecules. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. Molter and I. de Pater.

Astronomers Snap Thermal Images of Uranian Ring System

Jun 24, 2019 by News Staff

The rings of the ice giant Uranus are invisible to all but the largest telescopes — they weren’t even discovered until 1977. However, they are...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 98. The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). Two 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 / V. Rubin et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Hidden Depths of Messier 98

Jun 24, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released a spectacularly detailed image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope that shows a spiral galaxy called Messier 98. This Hubble...

An artist’s impression of the GRB 190114C jet over time, and the small patches of magnetic fields. Image credit: Laskar et al.

Astronomers Capture First Polarized Radio Signal from Gamma-Ray Burst

Jun 21, 2019 by News Staff

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most energetic explosions in the Universe, beaming out mighty jets which travel through space at 0.99 times the speed of...

An artist’s impression of two planets orbiting Teegarden’s Star. Image credit: Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen.

Two Earth-Mass Exoplanets Found in Habitable Zone around 8-Billion-Year-Old Red Dwarf

Jun 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the CARMENES (Calar Alto high-Resolution search for M dwarfs with Exoearths with Near-infrared and optical Échelle Spectrographs) instrument...

Milky Way Collided with Dark-Matter Dominated Galaxy Less Than Billion Years Ago

Jun 18, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research led by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the collision of the recently-discovered dwarf galaxy Antlia 2 with our Milky...

This Hubble image shows the irregular galaxy IC 10. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the optical part of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through three filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Bauer.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees IC 10

Jun 17, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the irregular galaxy IC 10. This Hubble image shows the irregular galaxy IC 10....

This Hubble image shows the dwarf starburst galaxy ESO 495-21. The galaxy is just 3,000 light-years across, a fraction of the size of the Milky Way, but that is not stopping the galaxy from furiously forming huge numbers of stars. This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instruments. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Dwarf Starburst Galaxy Harbors Supermassive Black Hole

Jun 14, 2019 by News Staff

A starburst galaxy called ESO 495-21 is just 3,000 light-years across, but it harbors a black hole of about one million solar masses at its core. This...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Hubble Spots Sodium Chloride on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Jun 13, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa, the second Galilean...

The Hubble Tuning Fork illustrated with images of nearby galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Image credit: Karen Masters, Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Galaxy Zoo Volunteers Help Re-Tune ‘Hubble Tuning Fork’

Jun 12, 2019 by News Staff

Galaxies are important building blocks of the Universe. Some are simple, while others are very complex in structure. In 1927, as one of the first steps...

NGC 4395 is located in the constellation of Canes Venatici, approximately 14 million light-years away. Image credit: Mount Lemmon Observatory / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Astronomers ‘Weigh’ NGC 4395’s Central Black Hole

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that the central black hole of the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 4395 has a mass of about 10,000 solar masses...

LOFAR image centered on the Abell 0399-Abell 0401 system; color and contours show the radio emission at 140 MHz; the faceting of the field is shown with red lines. Image credit: Govoni et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aat7500.

LOFAR Telescope Sees Ridge of Radio-Emitting Plasma between Two Merging Galaxy Clusters

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope network have detected a vast ridge of radio emission connecting the merging galaxy clusters...

Hubble Looks at Explosive Spiral: NGC 4051

Jun 10, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a spiral galaxy called NGC 4051. This Hubble image shows the intermediate...

An artist’s impression of a disk of cool interstellar gas surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Rotating Disk of Cool Hydrogen around Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Jun 7, 2019 by News Staff

There is a supermassive black hole of nearly 4 million solar masses at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. A large reservoir of hot and cooler hydrogen...

Hubble’s visible-light image of the compact elliptical galaxy Markarian 1216. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Markarian 1216: Isolated Galaxy Has Dark Matter-Rich Core

Jun 6, 2019 by News Staff

Markarian 1216 (Mrk 1216 for short) is a compact elliptical galaxy about 316 million light-years away. New data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory...

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