Astronomy News

LOFAR Radio Telescope Observes Messier 82 (Cigar Galaxy)

The center of the galaxy Messier 82 at very long radio wavelengths; the bright points are most likely supernova remnants; the image is about 3,300 light years across. Image credit: E. Varenius / Onsala Space Observatory / LOFAR Collaboration.
Jan 29, 2015 by News Staff

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope has been used to observe the glowing center of the starburst galaxy Messier 82 at very long radio wavelengths. The center of the galaxy Messier 82 at very long radio wavelengths; the bright points are most likely supernova remnants; the image is about 3,300 light years across. Image credit: E. Varenius / Onsala Space Observatory / LOFAR Collaboration. Messier 82, also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy,...

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Terrestrial exoplanet and its moons. Image credit: Luciano Mendez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Extrasolar Gas Giants Can Become Potentially Habitable Super-Earths, Say Scientists

Jan 29, 2015 by News Staff

Two phenomena known to inhibit the potential habitability of planets – tidal forces and vigorous stellar activity – could combine to transform...

This image shows the cometary globule CG4; although it looks huge and bright in this image it is actually a faint nebula and not easy to observe; the exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery. Image credit: ESO.

God’s Hand: Astronomers Capture Cometary Globule CG4

Jan 28, 2015 by News Staff

A stunning new image of the cometary globule CG4 has been obtained by a group of astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope. This image shows the cometary...

This is an artistic impression of the Kepler-444 planetary system. Image credit: Tiago Campante / Peter Devine.

Kepler-444: Five Exoplanets Found Orbiting 11-Billion-Year-Old Star

Jan 27, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers headed by Dr Tiago Campante of the University of Birmingham’s School of Physics and Astronomy, UK, has discovered...

The rings of J1407b are shown eclipsing the young Sun-like star J1407. Image credit: Ron Miller.

Super-Saturn J1407b Hosts Massive Ring System, Astronomers Say

Jan 27, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Matthew Kenworthy of Leiden Observatory and Prof Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester have discovered a so-called super-Saturn exoplanet with...

This image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4217. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / R. Schoofs.

Astronomers Snap Image of Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 4217

Jan 26, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of the spiral galaxy NGC 4217. This image shows the edge-on spiral...

This artist’s concept shows a changing look quasar. Image credit: Michael Helfenbein / Yale University.

Astronomers Discover First ‘Changing Look’ Quasar

Jan 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Stephanie LaMassa of Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics has identified the first changing look quasar, a gleaming...

Astronomers have reported near-infrared interferometric measurements of the angular size of Nova Delphini 2013, starting one day after the explosion and continuing with extensive time coverage during the first 43 days. The image shows Tycho's supernova remnant. Image credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / SAO; infrared - NASA / JPL-Caltech; optical - MPIA / Calar Alto / O.Krause et al.

Interstellar Plutonium-244 in Ocean Floor Dust Could Alter Current Understanding of Supernovae

Jan 21, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers plumbing the depths of the ocean have made a finding that could change the way we understand massive stellar explosions called supernovae. The...

This image shows the region around R Sculptoris. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Focuses on Red Giant Star R Sculptoris

Jan 21, 2015 by News Staff

The region around a red giant star called R Sculptoris has been captured in this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This image shows the region...

NGC 6861. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / J. Barrington.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Lenticular Galaxy NGC 6861

Jan 20, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new view of the lenticular galaxy NGC 6861. NGC 6861. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / J. Barrington. NGC...

Artist conception of a magnetar – one of the proposed sources for fast radio bursts. Image credit: NASA.

FRB 140514: Astronomers Observe First ‘Live’ Fast Radio Burst

Jan 20, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers using the 64-m Parkes Radio Telescope in eastern Australia has observed a fast radio burst happening live. Artist...

This artist's impression shows a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA.

Three Super-Earths Found Circling Nearby Red Dwarf

Jan 17, 2015 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered three so-called super-Earth exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf...

Hot stars burn brightly in this image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, showing the UV side of a familiar face. At 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda galaxy is our Milky Way's largest galactic neighbor. The galaxy spans 260,000 light-years across. The bands of blue-white making up the galaxy's striking rings are neighborhoods that harbor hot, young, massive stars. Dark blue-grey lanes of cooler dust show up starkly against these bright rings, tracing the regions where star formation is currently taking place in dense cloudy cocoons. Eventually, these dusty lanes will be blown away by strong stellar winds, as the forming stars ignite nuclear fusion in their cores. Meanwhile, the central orange-white ball reveals a congregation of cooler, old stars that formed long ago. When observed in visible light, the galaxy’s rings look more like spiral arms. The UV image shows that these arms more closely resemble the ring-like structure previously observed in infrared wavelengths with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope; astronomers interpreted these rings as evidence that the galaxy was involved in a direct collision with its neighbor, Messier 32, more than 200 million years ago. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

New Study Reveals Turbulent History of Andromeda Galaxy

Jan 12, 2015 by News Staff

A study of the motions of different stellar populations in the Andromeda’s disk has revealed a violent history of mergers with dwarf galaxies in the...

Andromeda Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / University of Washington / PHAT team / J. Dalcanton / B. F. Williams / L. C. Johnson / R. Gendler.

Astronomers Snap Sharpest, Biggest Image Ever of Andromeda Galaxy

Jan 10, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has obtained the sharpest image ever taken of our galactic...

This image shows the ancient globular cluster Terzan 5, home to PSR J1906+0746. Image credit: ESA / NASA/ Hubble.

Researchers Measure Space-Time Warp in Gravity of Binary Star

Jan 9, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists headed by Dr Joeri van Leeuwen of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and the University of Amsterdam has successfully...

This graphic shows how Hubble probed the light from the quasar PDS 456 to analyze the Fermi Bubbles. The quasar's light passed through one of the bubbles; imprinted on that light is information about the outflow's speed, composition, and eventually mass. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Astronomers Probe Milky Way’s Mysterious Fermi Bubbles

Jan 9, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have measured for the first time the velocity and composition of giant, balloon-like features known...

Eta Carinae's great eruption in the 1840s created the billowing Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by Hubble. Now about a light-year long, the expanding cloud contains enough material to make at least 10 copies of our Sun. Astronomers cannot yet explain what caused this eruption. Image credit: Jon Morse, University of Colorado / NASA.

Astronomers Zero in on Binary System Eta Carinae

Jan 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, have produced the most comprehensive picture of Eta Carinae to date. Eta...

This image shows the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation as seen in visible light, capturing the multi-colored glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-colored elephants’ trunks of the nebula’s famous pillars. The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Hubble Heritage Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Revisits Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation

Jan 8, 2015 by News Staff

In celebration of its upcoming 25th anniversary, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has revisited the famous pillars, providing astronomers with a sharper...

This artistic rendering depicts an Earth-like exoplanet orbiting an evolved star that has formed a stunning planetary nebula; earlier in its life, this planet may have been like one of the eight newly discovered worlds orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. Image credit: David A. Aguilar / CfA.

Kepler-438b: Astronomers Find Most Earth-Like Exoplanet Yet

Jan 8, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by Dr Guillermo Torres of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has discovered eight new extrasolar...

NGC 6819. Image credit: Roberto Mura / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Astronomers Uncover Relationship between Rotation Rates of Stars, Their Ages

Jan 6, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Soren Meibom, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and his colleagues from Germany and the United States say they can...

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