Astronomy News

Infrared Images of Jupiter from Subaru and Gemini Telescopes to Enhance Juno Flyby

This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight. It was taken using the Gemini North telescope’s Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) on May 18, 2017. The multiple filters corresponding to each color used in the image cover wavelengths between 1.69 microns and 2.275 microns. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) appears as the brightest (white) region at these wavelengths, which are primarily sensitive to high-altitude clouds and hazes near and above the top of Jupiter's convective region. The GRS is one of the highest-altitude features in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Narrow spiral streaks that appear to lead into it or out of it from surrounding regions probably represent atmospheric features being stretched by the intense winds within the GRS, such as the hook-like structure on its western edge (left side). Some are being swept off its eastern edge (right side) and into an extensive wave-like flow pattern, and there is even a trace of flow from its northern edge. Other features near the GRS include the dark block and dark oval to the south and the north of the eastern flow pattern, respectively, indicating a lower density of cloud and haze particles in those locations. Both are long-lived cyclonic circulations, rotating clockwise -- in the opposite direction as the counterclockwise rotation of the GRS. A prominent wave pattern is evident north of the equator, along with two bright ovals, which are anticyclones that appeared in January 2017. Both the wave pattern and the ovals may be associated with an impressive upsurge in stormy activity that has been observed in these latitudes this year. Another bright anticyclonic oval is seen further north. High hazes are evident over both polar regions with much spatial structure not previously been seen quite so clearly in ground-based images. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / AURA / NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

High-resolution imaging of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot by the Subaru Telescope and the Gemini North telescope, both on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea peak, is informing NASA’s Juno mission of compelling events in the gas giant’s atmosphere. On July 10, 2017, Juno will fly directly over the planet’s most famous feature at an altitude of only about 5,600 miles (9,000 km). This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over...

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Ground-Based Telescope Detects Methanol at Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

Using the IRAM radio telescope, astronomers have observed an extended gas cloud around Saturn’s moon Enceladus and detected the signature of the organic...

In this image, Hubble has captured the brilliance of the spiral galaxy IC 342. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees ‘Hidden Galaxy’

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of the spiral galaxy IC 342. In this image, Hubble has captured the brilliance of the...

Artist’s conception of an exoplanet’s atmosphere being stripped by the radiation from its parent star. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick.

Atmosphere Stripping May Limit Habitability of Extrasolar Planets

Jul 2, 2017 by News Staff

Huge coronal mass ejections (CMEs) on the Sun produce extreme space weather effects at Earth. Models of solar CMEs have now been applied to M-dwarf and...

Artist’s impression of two hypervelocity stars speeding from the center of the Milky Way to its outskirts. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Gaia Satellite Spots Six Hypervelocity Stars

Jul 2, 2017 by News Staff

With the help of an artificial neural network, ESA’s Gaia satellite spotted six hypervelocity stars — stars whose velocity in the rest frame of...

This artist’s conception shows two supermassive black holes, similar to those observed by Bansal et al, orbiting one another more than 750 million light years from Earth. Image credit: Josh Valenzuela, University of New Mexico.

First Detection of Orbital Motion in Supermassive Black Hole Binary

Jun 29, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time ever, astronomers have been able to observe and measure the orbital motion between two supermassive black holes — a discovery...

The protostar FIR 3 with outflow that may have triggered the formation of the younger protostar FIR 4. Pullouts are individual VLA images of each protostar. Image credit: Osorio et al / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Protostar May Have Triggered Formation of Another, Younger Star

Jun 28, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have found new evidence suggesting that a jet of fast-moving material ejected from an intermediate-mass...

This image from ALMA shows the M2 spectral-type supergiant star Betelgeuse. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. O’Gorman / P. Kervella.

ALMA Analyzes Atmosphere of Supergiant Star Betelgeuse

Jun 28, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe the nearby supergiant star Betelgeuse. Beyond just delivering...

This image shows the galaxy 2XMM J143450.5+033843, which lies in the constellation Virgo, some 400 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Sees Distant Seyfert Galaxy

Jun 26, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of 2XMM J143450.5+033843, a galaxy that lurks within the Virgo constellation...

A view of the limb of the Sun. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

Researchers Uncover Origins of Solar Spicules

Jun 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of solar physicists from the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, University of Oslo and Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory...

This artist’s concept shows what the young, ‘dead,’ disk galaxy MACS 2129-1 (right) would look like when compared with our Milky Way Galaxy (left). Although three times as massive as the Milky Way, it is only half the size. MACS 2129-1 is also spinning more than twice as fast as the Milky Way. Note that regions of the Milky Way are blue from bursts of star formation, while MACS 2129-1 is yellow, signifying an older star population and no new star birth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levy, STScI.

Hubble Spots Massive, ‘Dead’ Disk Galaxy in Early Universe

Jun 23, 2017 by News Staff

Using a powerful astronomical technique called gravitational lensing, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope made a stunning discovery — the first example...

A planetary mass object the size of Mars would be sufficient to produce the observed perturbations in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: Heather Roper / Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona.

Mars-to-Earth-Mass Planet May Lurk in Outer Solar System: Planet 10

Jun 22, 2017 by News Staff

An unknown Mars-to-Earth-mass planet may lurk in the outer reaches of the Solar System, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets to be...

The Milky Way Galaxy has a strong preference for two types of planets: rocky planets up to 1.75 times the size of Earth, and gas-enshrouded mini-Neptunes, which are from 2 to 3.5 times the size of Earth. Our Galaxy rarely makes planets with sizes in between these two groups. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Small Exoplanets Come in Two Sizes: Rocky ‘Earths’ and Mini-Neptunes

Jun 20, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have classified extrasolar planets in the same way that biologists identify new species and have learned that the majority of planets found...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

Kepler Team Releases New Catalog of Exoplanet Candidates

Jun 20, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler mission has released a new catalog of transiting planet candidates. This is an artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows the dust and gas around a binary star system. Image credit: ESO / L. Calcada.

Low-Mass Stars are Born in Pairs, Astronomers Claim

Jun 19, 2017 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, low-mass stars are always born with a companion,...

This image, taken with Hubble’s WFC3 instrument, shows the spiral galaxy LEDA 16643. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Captures Stunning Image of LEDA 16643

Jun 19, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy LEDA 16643, which is found in the constellation Lepus. This image, taken with Hubble’s...

A ribbon of ammonia -- a tracer of star-forming gas -- in the Orion Molecular Cloud as seen with the GBT (orange); background in blue is an infrared image from NASA’s WISE telescope showing the dust in the region. Image credit: R. Friesen, Dunlap Institute / J. Pineda, MPIP / GBO / AUI / NSF / NASA.

Astronomers Spot Vast Filament of Star-Forming Gas in Orion Molecular Cloud

Jun 16, 2017 by News Staff

Dr. Rachel Friesen of the University of Toronto and colleagues have captured a detailed image of a 50-light-year-long filament of star-forming gas in the...

Artist illustration of the thick ring of dust that can obscure the energetic processes that occur near the supermassive black hole of an active galactic nucleus. Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / Lynette Cook.

NASA’s SOFIA Observatory Spots Compact Tori of Dust around Active Supermassive Black Holes

Jun 14, 2017 by News Staff

Using observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch telescope,...

This trio of nebulae -- the Omega Nebula (left), the Eagle Nebula (center), and Sharpless 2-54 (right) -- makes up just a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are springing to life and illuminating their surroundings. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope Captures Three Nebulae in One Image

Jun 14, 2017 by News Staff

Two spectacular and famous nebulae — the Eagle Nebula and the Omega Nebula — share the stage with their lesser-known neighbor, a glowing cloud...

The giant elliptical galaxy in the center of this Hubble image is the most massive and brightest member of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Spanning a little more than one million light-years, the galaxy is about 10 times the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy. Abell 2261 is located approximately 3 billion light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Postman, STScI / T. Lauer, NOAO / CLASH Team.

Brightest Cluster Galaxy Alignments Traced Back 10 Billion Years

Jun 13, 2017 by News Staff

A new study based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has shown that so-called brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) — the very...

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