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In this artist’s conception GJ 1132b circles a red dwarf star. Image credit: Dana Berry.

GJ 1132b: Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Exoplanet 39 Light-Years Away

Nov 12, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has discovered a new rocky, Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star approximately 39 light-years away. In this artist’s conception...

An artist’s impression of the debris disc around J1228+1040 (left) at the same scale as Saturn and its rings (right). While the star has about 7 times smaller diameter than Saturn, it has a mass 2,500 times greater. Image credit: Mark Garlick, www.markgarlick.com / University of Warwick / ESO / NASA / Cassini.

VLT Captures Image of Debris Disk around Nearby White Dwarf

Nov 11, 2015 by News Staff

The sight of a massive asteroid being ripped apart by a white dwarf called SDSS J122859.93+104032.9 (J1228+1040 for short) and forming a debris disk has...

Left: a ground-based view of the Milky Way’s central bulge; giant dust clouds block most of the starlight coming from the galactic center. The Hubble Space Telescope, however, peered through a region (marked by the arrow) called the Sagittarius Window, which offers a keyhole view into the galaxy’s hub. Upper right: this is a small section of Hubble’s view of the dense collection of stars crammed together in the galactic bulge. Lower right: a sample of 4 out of the 70 brightest white dwarfs spied by Hubble in the Milky Way Galaxy’s central bulge. The numbers in the inset images correspond to the stars’ location in the larger Hubble view. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Calamida & K. Sahu, STScI / SWEEPS Science Team / A. Fujii.

Hubble Finds Ancient White Dwarfs in Milky Way’s Central Bulge

Nov 10, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have uncovered for the first time a population of ancient white dwarf stars embedded in the Milky...

Close-up view of LEDA 1852. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Gorin, STScI / Judy Schmidt.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Lonely Galaxy

Nov 9, 2015 by News Staff

A lonely spiral galaxy, LEDA 1852, has been captured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

This is an artist’s impression of PSO J318.5-22. Image credit: MPIA / V. Ch. Quetz.

Astronomers Create Weather Map of Rogue Planet-Like Object

Nov 4, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have detected layers of clouds – made up of hot dust and droplets of molten iron – on a planet-like object known as PSO J318.5338–22.8603...

This is an artist's impression of the super-Earth exoplanet GJ 1214b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI / L. Kreidberg and J. Bean, University of Chicago / H. Knutson, California Institute of Technology.

Astronomers Simulate Exotic Clouds on Mini-Neptune GJ 1214b

Nov 2, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Washington and the University of Toronto is the first to simulate 3D exotic clouds in the atmosphere of an...

This Hubble image shows the lenticular galaxy Markarian 820. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Gorin, STScI / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NASA’s Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of Lenticular Galaxy

Nov 2, 2015 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable view of the distant lenticular galaxy Markarian 820. This Hubble image...

Right: observations taken by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope show a protoplanetary disk around the young star MWC 758; the disk has two spiral arms that extend over 10 billion miles from the star. Left: a computer model reproduces the two-spiral-arm structure; the X is the location of a putative planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / M. Benisty et al / Ruobing Dong / Zhaohuan Zhu.

Spiral Arms Around Young Stars May Be Evidence of Giant Planets, Scientists Say

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

Spiral-arm-like features seen around two newborn stars, SAO 206462 and MWC 758, may be evidence for the presence of giant, unseen planets, says a team...

An artist’s conception of a gas giant planet and its moons. Image credit: Greg Bacon, STScI / NASA.

Jupiter May Have Ejected Solar System’s Fifth Giant Planet, Astronomers Say

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

A close encounter with Jupiter approximately 4 billion years ago may have resulted in another giant planet’s ejection from the Solar System, according...

A supermassive black hole is depicted in this artist’s concept, surrounded by a swirling disk of material falling onto it. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Clue to How Supermassive Black Holes Emit X-ray Flares

Oct 29, 2015 by News Staff

In 2014, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the agency’s Swift satellite observed an X-flare from the supermassive black hole...

This diagram shows the locations of the newly-discovered Cepheids in an artist’s rendering of our Milky Way Galaxy; the yellow star indicates the position of our Solar System. Image credit: ESO / Microsoft WorldWide Telescope.

Astronomers Discover New Component of Milky Way Galaxy

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) ESO Public Survey, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown component of the...

Comet Lovejoy (C/2014 Q2) on February 22, 2015. An international team of scientists has found more than twenty molecules in the comet, including ethyl alcohol and a simple sugar. Image credit: Fabrice Noel.

Astronomers Detect Ethyl Alcohol, Sugar in Atmosphere of Comet Lovejoy

Oct 26, 2015 by Natali Anderson

In a paper in the journal Science Advances, astronomers report the detection of 21 different organic molecules in gas from Comet Lovejoy, including the...

This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys shows the quadruple star system DI Cha. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.org.

Hubble Space Telescope Zeros in on Quadruple Star System

Oct 26, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team has released a stunning image of a complex star system known as DI Cha. This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for...

New images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show the faintest and earliest known galaxies in the Universe. This image shows the galaxy cluster MACSJ0717.5+3745 (MACS0717). It is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, and it is also the largest known gravitational lens. Of all of the galaxy clusters known and measured, this cluster lenses the largest area of the sky. Image credit: NASA / ESA / HST Frontier Fields Team / STScI.

Astronomers Discover 252 Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies in Early Universe

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

Using observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered over 250 ultra-faint dwarf galaxies in three extremely distant...

This small section of the Milky Way mosaic shows the star system Eta Carinae. Image credit: Lehrstuhl für Astrophysik / Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

Astronomers Create 46 Billion Pixel Mosaic Image of Milky Way

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

The newly-released photographic mosaic of our Galaxy is the largest astronomical image ever created, according to a team of astronomers from Germany and...

In this artist’s conception, a dwarf planet vaporizes as it orbits a white dwarf star. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

NASA’s Kepler K2 Mission Discovers Planet-Destroying White Dwarf Star

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has uncovered evidence of a minor planet being torn apart as it spirals around WD 1145+017, a white dwarf located...

ASASSN-14li: X-Ray Telescopes Catch Supermassive Black Hole Shredding Star to Pieces

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

Using a trio of X-ray telescopes, astronomers have observed material being blown away from a supermassive black hole after it tore a star apart. The event...

This artist’s impression shows VFTS 352 - the hottest and most massive double star system to date where the two components are in contact and sharing material. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

VFTS 352: Astronomers Spot Hottest, Most Massive Overcontact Binary

Oct 21, 2015 by News Staff

New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed that a binary star system called VFTS 352 is among the most extreme and strangest yet...

An artist’s impression of innumerable potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanets that have yet to be born over the next trillion years in the Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Astronomers Say Most Earth-Like Exoplanets Have Yet to Be Born

Oct 21, 2015 by News Staff

When the Solar System was born about 4.6 billion years ago only 8% of the potentially habitable terrestrial exoplanets that will ever form in the Universe...