Astronomy News

Earth’s Natural History May Serve as Guide for Astrobiologists to Spot Inhabited Exoplanets

If the development of life on other inhabited worlds follows a similar timeline to life on Earth, vegetation red edge (VRE) biosignatures are only present for a fraction of a planet’s habitable lifetime once vegetation covers the surface; a VRE biosignature similar to that on the present-day Earth would be difficult to detect without very high-precision instruments; however, the team’s models show that the VRE signature increases with geological time, as well as with increasing vegetation surface fraction and decreasing cloud coverage. Image credit: Jack O’Malley-James / Wendy Kenigsberg / Brand Communications.
Sep 27, 2018 by News Staff

By looking at Earth’s natural history, Cornell University’s Carl Sagan Institute astrobiologists Jack O’Malley-James and Lisa Kaltenegger have found a template for vegetation fingerprints to determine the age of habitable exoplanets. If the development of life on other inhabited worlds follows a similar timeline to life on Earth, vegetation red edge (VRE) biosignatures are only present for a fraction of a planet’s habitable lifetime once vegetation...

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This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Oumuamua Traced to Four Possible Home Stars

Sep 27, 2018 by News Staff

In October 2017, a fast moving, cigar-shaped comet of extrasolar origin was discovered close to the Earth with the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawai’i....

This image shows the Seyfert galaxy PG1211+143. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / SDSS.

Astronomers Detect Matter Falling into Black Hole

Sep 25, 2018 by News Staff

University of Leicester’s Professor Ken Pounds and co-authors report the detection of matter falling into a black hole at 30% of the speed of light. This...

This Hubble image shows a massive group of galaxies bound together by gravity -- a galaxy cluster named SDSS J1050+0017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Catches Giant Cluster: SDSS J1050+0017

Sep 24, 2018 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the diverse collection of galaxies in the huge cluster SDSS J1050+0017. This Hubble image shows...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth HD 39091c. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers Its First Exoplanet: Super-Earth HD 39091c

Sep 24, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite have discovered a super-Earth orbiting an unusually bright, Sun-like star called...

Sun-like stars rotate differentially, with the equator rotating faster than the higher latitudes. The blue arrows in the figure represent rotation speed. Differential rotation is thought to be an essential ingredient for generating magnetic activity and starspots. Image credit: MPI for Solar System Research / MarkGarlick.com.

Sun-Like Stars’ Equators Spin Up To 2.5 Times Faster than Their Poles, Say Astronomers

Sep 21, 2018 by News Staff

Our Sun rotates faster at its equator than at its poles. This process is known as differential rotation and is seen in the motion of sunspots. Now, a team...

An artist’s impression of a perturbation in the velocities of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy that was revealed by ESA’s star mapping mission Gaia. Image credit: ESA.

Gaia Sees Effects of Milky Way’s Close Encounter with Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 20, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers analyzing data from the second release of ESA’s star mapping mission Gaia have shown that our Milky Way Galaxy is still enduring the effects...

B. Armstrong & K. Bekki suggest that the Large (left) and Small Magellanic Clouds were originally a triplet system containing a companion dwarf galaxy. Image credit: Andrew Lockwood.

Large and Small Magellanic Clouds Once Had Third Companion

Sep 20, 2018 by News Staff

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located about 160,000 light-years away, has a counter-rotating stellar population in its disk. In a new paper...

Neutron stars are the smallest, densest stars in the Universe. True to their name, neutron stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons. Duer et al suggest that some properties of neutron stars may be influenced not only by their multitude of densely packed neutrons, but also by a substantially smaller fraction of protons -- positively charged particles that make up just 5% of a neutron star. This is an illustration of a neutron star. Image credit: Casey Reed, Penn State University.

Nuclear Pasta: Exotic Substance in Neutron Stars’ Crust May Be Universe’s Strongest Material

Sep 19, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from McGill University, California Institute of Technology and Indiana University has calculated the strength of nuclear...

TESS took this snapshot of the Large Magellanic Cloud (right) and the bright star R Doradus (left) with just a single detector of one of its cameras on August 7. Image credit: NASA / MIT / TESS.

NASA’s Planet-Hunter TESS Captures Its First Science Images

Sep 19, 2018 by News Staff

‘First light’ science images from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) show a wealth of stars and other objects, including stellar...

An artist’s conception of Epsilon Indi, a star system approximately 12 light-years from Earth in the constellation Indus: brown dwarfs Epsilon Indi B and C orbit their common center of mass, which in turn orbits the much more distant primary component -- the Sun-like star Epsilon Indi A. Image credit: Roberto Molar Candanosa & Sergio Dieterich, Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Say Star-Brown Dwarf Boundary May Soon Be Clearer

Sep 18, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Carnegie Institution’s Serge Dieterich has demonstrated that brown dwarfs, objects which are unable to sustain...

This image shows RX J0806.4-4123 with a disk of warm dust that produces an infrared signature as detected by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Nahks Tr’Ehnl, Pennsylvania State University.

Hubble Detects Unusual Infrared Emission from Nearby Neutron Star

Sep 18, 2018 by News Staff

An unusual infrared emission from the neutron star RX J0806.4-4123 detected by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could indicate new features never before...

This Hubble image shows part of the Coma cluster of galaxies. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). 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.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Coma Cluster

Sep 17, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a detailed image of a spectacular part of the Coma cluster, a structure of over a thousand galaxies bound...

Unlike most supernovae that fade away, SN 2012au continues to shine today thanks to a powerful new pulsar. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Astronomers Witness Birth of Pulsar from Energetic Supernova Explosion

Sep 14, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has observed a new phenomenon in the aftermath of SN 2012au, an extremely energetic supernova discovered on March 14, 2012 in the...

Zhang et al used artificial intelligence to search through radio signals recorded from FRB 121102. Image credit: Breakthrough Listen Initiative.

AI Helps Astronomers Detect New Pulses from Mysterious Repeating Radio Source

Sep 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers at Breakthrough Listen, a scientific program in search for signs of intelligent life in the Universe, have applied machine-learning techniques...

Abell 370, a massive galaxy cluster located in the constellation Cetus, approximately 4 billion light-years away, is the first target of the BUFFALO survey, which aims to search for some of the first galaxies in the Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Koekemoer / M. Jauzac / C. Steinhardt / BUFFALO Team.

Hubble Captures Wide-Field View of Galaxy Cluster Abell 370

Sep 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a spectacular image of Abell 370, a massive galaxy cluster embedded among nearly thousands...

This VLT/FORS2 image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3981. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Captures Best View Ever of NGC 3981

Sep 13, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a striking image of the spiral galaxy NGC 3981. This VLT/FORS2 image shows the spiral...

An artist’s impression of a jet emanating from NGC 4993. Image credit: J.A. Biretta et al / NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / Sci-News.com.

Jet from Neutron-Star Merger GW170817 Appeared to Move Four Times Faster than Light

Sep 12, 2018 by News Staff

Radio observations using a combination of NSF’s Very Long Baseline Array, the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope...

This image, taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows the massive galaxy cluster SDSS J1138+2754. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Giant Cluster’s Gravity Distorts, Magnifies Light from Distant Galaxies

Sep 11, 2018 by News Staff

SDSS J1138+2754, a galaxy cluster located approximately 5 billion light-years away in the constellation Leo, is so massive that its gravity distorts, brightens,...

Astronomers Find Two-Planet System in Beehive Cluster

Sep 11, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from the Kepler spacecraft’s K2 mission have discovered two mini-Neptune exoplanets orbiting a star in an open star cluster called...

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