Astronomy News

Astronomers Find ‘Nearly Naked’ Supermassive Black Hole Two Billion Light-Years Away

Left: this deep Hubble image of the galaxy cluster ZwCl 1715.5+4229 (also known as ZwCl 8193) shows the full extent of the giant galaxy 2MASX 17171926+4226571 and some of its gravitationally lensed background galaxies. The white ‘X’ marks the VLBA radio position, the white ‘+’ marks the Hubble optical position of the giant galaxy’s core, and the white box bounds the zoomed image at right. Right: this shallower zoomed Hubble image of the galaxy cluster reveals the core of the giant galaxy, the smaller galaxy, several cluster galaxies, and extended interaction debris. The Hubble position of the giant galaxy’s core is marked by the white ‘+,’ and optical identification of B3 1715+425 is enclosed by a white circle centered on its Hubble position. Image credit: J.J. Condon et al / NASA / ESA / Hubble / NSF / VLBA.
Nov 3, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by National Radio Astronomy Observatory astronomer James Condon has found the shredded remains of a small galaxy that passed through a larger one, leaving only the smaller galaxy’s black hole to emerge and speed away at more than 2,000 miles per second. Left: this deep Hubble image of the galaxy cluster ZwCl 1715.5+4229 (also known as ZwCl 8193) shows the full extent of the giant galaxy 2MASX 17171926+4226571 and some of...

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This image, taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the region R18 within the Carina Nebula. The massive stars within the star formation region slowly destroy the pillars of dust and gas from which they are born. Image credit: A. McLeod / ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Sees ‘Pillars of Destruction’ within Carina Nebula

Nov 2, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have observed giant pillar-like structures within the Carina Nebula, a huge star-formation region...

Asteroid 2016 HO3 has an orbit around the Sun that keeps it as a constant companion of our planet. This is an artist’s impression of an asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

2016 TB57: Astronomers Identify 15,000th Near-Earth Asteroid

Oct 31, 2016 by News Staff

An international effort to find and catalogue the multitude of so-called near-Earth asteroids has reached a milestone: 15,000 discovered — with many...

This Hubble image shows the central region of the Crab Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com / M. Weisskopf, Marshall Space Flight Center.

Spectacular New Hubble Image Reveals Crab Nebula’s Pulsing Heart

Oct 31, 2016 by News Staff

A stunning new image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the ‘pulsing heart’ of one of the most beautiful and well-studied objects...

Astronomers Snap Picture of Giant Exoplanet 1,200 Light-Years Away

Oct 31, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has discovered a giant extrasolar planet orbiting a young star called CVSO 30. Not only have the scientists detected...

This artist’s concept illustrates how KSw 71 compares with the Sun. Both stars are shown to scale. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Francis Reddy.

Astronomers Find Group of Fast-Spinning, X-ray Active Stars

Oct 29, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using observations from NASA’s Kepler and Swift space observatories have spotted 18 fast-spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than...

This artist’s impression shows a view of the surface of Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image to the upper-right of Proxima itself. Proxima b is a little more massive than the Earth and orbits in the habitable zone around its star, where the temperature is suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Proxima b Could Be Habitable, Astrophysicists Say

Oct 28, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists from France and the United States has determined that the surface properties of Proxima Centauri b — an...

Combined ALMA and VLA image of the L1448 IRS3B system, with two young stars at the center and a third distant from them; spiral structure in the dusty disk surrounding them indicates instability in the disk. Image credit: Bill Saxton / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Rare Triple Protostar System Spotted 750 Light-Years Away

Oct 27, 2016 by News Staff

A triple protostar system surrounded by a disk with a spiral structure has been observed by astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter...

GLEAM view of Milky Way’s center in radio color: red indicates the lowest frequencies, green indicates the middle frequencies and blue the highest frequencies; each dot is a galaxy, with around 300,000 radio galaxies observed as part of the survey. Image credit: Natasha Hurley-Walker / GLEAM Team.

Murchison Widefield Array Views Universe in Radio Color

Oct 26, 2016 by News Staff

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a low-frequency (80-300 MHz) radio telescope located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia,...

This image shows a bright gaseous halo around the quasar Q0042-2627. Image credit: Elena Borisova et al.

Astronomers Find Giant Gaseous Halos around Distant Quasars

Oct 26, 2016 by News Staff

A group of astronomers led by ETH Zurich scientist Elena Borisova has spotted giant clouds of glowing intergalactic gas around distant quasars. This image...

This Chandra image shows the location in the elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 of a remarkable source that dramatically flares in X-rays unlike any ever seen. Low, medium, and high-energy X-rays are colored red, green, and blue. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UA / J. Irwin et al.

Two Mysterious X-ray Sources Spotted in Nearby Elliptical Galaxies

Oct 25, 2016 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescopes, astronomers have found a pair of remarkable sources that dramatically flare in...

Hubble view of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory / H. Ford, JHU.

Study: Universe is Expanding with Constant Velocity

Oct 25, 2016 by News Staff

Hubble view of the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the globular cluster NGC 362. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 362

Oct 24, 2016 by Natali Anderson

In this new image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of NGC 362, a globular star cluster located approximately 27,000 light-years...

Artist’s conception of a binary system with a brown dwarf and a giant planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

HD 87646: Astronomers Discover Bizarre ‘Binary-Binary’ System

Oct 24, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists led by University of Florida astronomer Dr. Bo Ma has discovered the first ‘binary-binary’ system — two massive companions...

This HI4PI map was produced using data from the 100-m Max-Planck radio telescope in Effelsberg, Germany and the 64-m CSIRO radio telescope in Parkes, Australia. The image colors reflect gas at differing velocities. The plane of the Milky Way Galaxy runs horizontally across the middle of the image. The Magellanic Clouds can be seen at the lower right. Image credit: Benjamin Winkel / HI4PI Collaboration.

Astronomers Create Detailed Hydrogen Map of Milky Way Galaxy

Oct 20, 2016 by News Staff

Using data from the 64-m CSIRO radio telescope in Australia and the 100-m Max-Planck radio telescope in Germany, an international team of astronomers has...

This mosaic shows the Carina Nebula (left part of the image), home of the Eta Carinae stellar system. This part was observed with the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. The middle part shows the direct surrounding of the star system: the Homunculus Nebula, created by the ejected material from the Eta Carinae system. This image was taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The right image shows the innermost part of the system as seen with ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer/ It is the highest resolution image of Eta Carinae ever. Image credit: Gerd Weigelt / ESO.

Eta Carinae Imaged in Sharpest Detail Ever

Oct 19, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) in Chile have snapped the most detailed image ever of the Eta Carinae stellar system. This...

This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the open star cluster NGC 299. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Views Young Star Cluster in Small Magellanic Cloud

Oct 17, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The subject of this new Hubble image is NGC 299, an open star cluster located 200,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Tucana. This image,...

This composite image shows a beautiful new look at the compact group of galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / CfA / E. O’Sullivan; optical - Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope / Coelum.

Universe Contains at least Two Trillion Galaxies, Astronomers Say

Oct 13, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by University of Nottingham scientist Christopher Conselice has performed an accurate census of the number of...

Astrophysicists Create Largest Ever Map of Cosmic Superstructures

Oct 13, 2016 by News Staff

Astrophysicists from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, UK, have produced the largest ever map of cosmic superstructures...

Proxima Centauri. Image credit: Hubble / ESA / NASA.

Astronomers Find Evidence for 7-Year Stellar Cycle in Proxima Centauri

Oct 12, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The Sun’s nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, has a regular cycle of starspots, according to a team of astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian...

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