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In this simulation of a supermassive black hole merger, the blue-shifted black hole closest to the viewer amplifies the red-shifted black hole in the back through gravitational lensing. Davelaar & Haiman discovered a distinct dip in brightness when the closest black hole passed in front of the shadow of its counterpart, an observation that could be used to measure the size of both black holes and test alternative theories of gravity. Image credit: Jordy Davelaar.

Scientists Develop Method to Image Shadows Cast by Black Hole Binaries

May 10, 2022 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration released stunning images of M87*, a 6.5-billion-solar-mass black hole in the center of the...

A citizen scientist spotted the main-belt asteroid 2001 SE101 passing in front of the Crab Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Thévenot, @AstroMelina.

Citizen Science Project Identifies 1,701 Asteroid Trails in Hubble Images

May 9, 2022 by News Staff

Large and publicly available astronomical archives open up new possibilities to search for and study small solar system objects such as asteroids and comets. A...

This Hubble image shows DEM L 249, a remnant of Type Ia supernova located approximately 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Mensa. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Y. Chu.

Hubble Spots Tattered Remnant of Ancient Supernova in Large Magellanic Cloud

May 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a detailed image of a supernova remnant called DEM L 249. This Hubble image shows DEM L 249, a remnant...

Solar Orbiter Reveals Sun’s Surface in Unprecedented Detail

May 5, 2022 by News Staff

One of the new images, taken by the Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI) aboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft on March 7, 2022, is the highest resolution...

An artist’s illustration shows SN 2013ge, with its companion star at lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Leah Hustak, STScI.

Majority of Massive Stars Form and Evolve as Binary Systems, New Research Suggests

May 5, 2022 by News Staff

In some supernova cases, astronomers find no trace of the former star’s outermost layer of hydrogen. What happened to the hydrogen? Suspicions that companion...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Solar Gravity Telescope Could Directly Image Exoplanetary Atmospheres

May 4, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper in the Astrophysical Journal, a duo of astronomers from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University...

This image from the Dark Energy Camera shows the interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510. Image credit: Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DECam Spots Bizarre Pair of Interacting Galaxies

May 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a state-of-the-art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory,...

Astronomers hope to send a message toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Andriy Sydorenko.

Two Teams of Astronomers Want to Broadcast Earth’s Location for Intelligent Extraterrestrials

May 4, 2022 by The Conversation

For over 70 years, astronomers have been scanning for radio or optical signals from other civilizations in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence...

A section of the Large Magellanic Cloud, captured under normal conditions by SARAO’s MeerKAT radio telescope. It is detecting all radio light, and PSR J0523-7125 looks like just another source of radio light. Image credit: Yuanming Wang.

ASKAP Radio Telescope Discovers New Extragalactic Pulsar

May 3, 2022 by News Staff

PSR J0523-7125, a highly circularly polarized, variable, steep-spectrum pulsar located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is the brightest extragalactic pulsar...

This image shows Messier 66, a spiral galaxy some 31 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo. Image credit: ESO / PHANGS.

VLT Observes Spiral Galaxy Messier 66

May 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

ESO has released a beautiful image taken by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) of a large portion of the...

An artist’s impression of a black hole X-ray binary. Image credit: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

NICER Detects Echoes from Eight Black Hole X-Ray Binaries

May 2, 2022 by News Staff

As a stellar-mass black hole pulls in gas and dust from an orbiting star, it can give off spectacular bursts of X-rays that bounce and echo off the inspiraling...

This Hubble image shows Messier 99, a spiral galaxy some 42 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. The Hubble data was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The color composite was assembled from images taken in ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. It is based on data obtained through five filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kasliwal / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Photographs Messier 99

May 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has revealed fine details of the grand design spiral galaxy Messier 99. This Hubble image shows Messier 99, a spiral...

Engineering images of sharply focused stars in the field of view of each instrument demonstrate that the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is fully aligned and in focus. For this test, Webb pointed at part of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, providing a dense field of hundreds of thousands of stars across all the observatory’s sensors. The sizes and positions of the images shown here depict the relative arrangement of each of Webb’s instruments in the telescope’s focal plane, each pointing at a slightly offset part of the sky relative to one another. Webb’s three imaging instruments are NIRCam (images shown here at a wavelength of 2 microns), NIRISS (image shown here at 1.5 microns), and MIRI (shown at 7.7 microns, a longer wavelength revealing emission from interstellar clouds as well as starlight). NIRSpec is a spectrograph rather than imager but can take images, such as the 1.1 micron image shown here, for calibrations and target acquisition. The dark regions visible in parts of the NIRSpec data are due to structures of its microshutter array, which has several hundred thousand controllable shutters that can be opened or shut to select which light is sent into the spectrograph. Lastly, Webb’s Fine Guidance Sensor tracks guide stars to point the observatory accurately and precisely; its two sensors are not generally used for scientific imaging but can take calibration images such as those shown here. This image data is used not just to assess image sharpness but also to precisely measure and calibrate subtle image distortions and alignments between sensors as part of Webb’s overall instrument calibration process. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Webb Successfully Completes Alignment Phase

Apr 29, 2022 by News Staff

After full review, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has been confirmed to be capable of capturing well-focused images with each of its four...

An artist’s impression of a millisecond pulsar. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Anomalous Gamma-Ray Signal from Milky Way’s Core May Actually Come from Millisecond Pulsars

Apr 28, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Canterbury and the University of Tokyo have found...

An artist’s impression of 25 hot-Jupiters examined by Changeat et al. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / N. Bartmann.

New Study Unravels Mysteries of Hot-Jupiter Exoplanets

Apr 28, 2022 by News Staff

In a study published on April 25, 2022 in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, astronomers analyzed archival spectroscopic and photometric data...

This artist’s impression highlights the compactness of molecular gas in a post-starburst galaxy and its lack of star formation. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / S. Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Study Sheds New Light on ‘Fall of Star Formation’ in Post-Starburst Galaxies

Apr 26, 2022 by News Staff

Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are a rare galaxy class existing between two crucial evolutionary phases — major, gas-rich galaxy mergers and gas-poor,...

This Hubble image shows GAMA 526784, an ultra-diffuse galaxy some 4 billion light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. van der Burg / L. Shatz.

Hubble Spots Distant Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy

Apr 25, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking photo of the ultra-diffuse galaxy GAMA 526784. This Hubble image shows GAMA...

The four galaxies shown in this graphic are among 29 galaxies in the sample that showed evidence for growing black holes near their centers. X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been overlaid on optical images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxies NGC 1385, NGC 1566, NGC 3344, and NGC 6503. The boxes that appear in the roll-over outline the location of the burgeoning black holes. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Washington State University / Baldassare et al. / ESA / STScI.

Massive Black Holes Form in Dense Stellar Environments, Study Suggests

Apr 21, 2022 by News Staff

Black holes are demolishing thousands of stars in a quest to pack on weight, according to an analysis of images of 108 galaxies taken by NASA’s Chandra...

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New Type of Nova Discovered: Micronova

Apr 21, 2022 by News Staff

A micronova is a thermonuclear blast that happens on the surface of certain stars and lasts for just a few hours making them extremely difficult to observe. This...