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An artist’s impression of a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, Caltech-IPAC.

Free-Floating Exoplanets May Outnumber Stars in Milky Way

Aug 25, 2020 by News Staff

Free-floating, or rogue, exoplanets — free-floating planetary-mass objects that do not orbit a star and instead travel through space — could...

The Solar System moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud. Image credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.

Solar System is Traveling through Cloud of Supernova Debris: Study

Aug 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has found interstellar iron-60, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 2.6 million years that is predominantly produced...

The MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured this image of NGC 1365 in optical and infrared light, showing the gas and dust in the central region of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO / TIMER Survey.

VLT Snaps Spectacular Image of NGC 1365

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have captured a beautiful image...

This Hubble image shows a small portion of the Cygnus Loop, a donut-shaped nebula located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Blair / Leo Shatz.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Outer Edge of Cygnus Loop

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a tiny portion of a nebula called the Cygnus Loop. This Hubble image shows a small portion of...

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by Hubble on August 8, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Pagan, STScI / Q. Zhang, Caltech.

Hubble Captures Close-Up Image of Comet NEOWISE

Aug 21, 2020 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the coma of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and its dusty output. This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Detect Anomalous Cold Gas Outflow from Milky Way’s Center

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have observed cold, dense and high-velocity molecular gas outflowing from the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The presence of this gas is puzzling,...

Will Universe End with ‘Black Dwarf’ Supernova Explosions?

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A series of ‘black dwarf’ supernovae will be the last astrophysical events to occur in our Universe prior to the so-called heat death, when the Universe...

Chandra Spots High-Velocity Knots of Stellar Debris in Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show small knots of metal-rich debris in the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, also known as SN 1604,...

An artist’s conception of a potential solar companion, which theorists believe was developed in the Sun’s birth cluster and later lost. If proven, the solar companion theory would provide additional credence to theories that the Oort Cloud formed as we see it today, and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed in place. Image credit: M. Weiss.

Early Solar System May Have Had Two Suns

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj show that an equal-mass stellar companion...

An artist’s rendition of a supernova explosion. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / L. Calcada / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Nearby Supernovae Caused Late Devonian Extinctions, Scientists Say

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

Multiple supernova explosions about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and several subsequent extinction events at the Devonian-Carboniferous...

2020 QG (circled streak) was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on August 16, 2020. Image credit: ZTF / Caltech Optical Observatories.

Tiny Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Closest Fly-By of Earth on Record

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 QG safely flew past our planet on August 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (August 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT) at a distance of...

An artist’s impression of one of the team’s discoveries -- the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld / William Pendrill.

Astronomers Find 95 New Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has spotted 95 new brown dwarfs near the Sun. An artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Isn’t Made of Hydrogen Ice, Study Says

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

‘Oumuamua, a recently-discovered cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin, is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all, according to a new study...

This Hubble image shows the Meathook Galaxy, a distorted spiral galaxy located 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Close-Up of Meathook Galaxy

Aug 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacular image of part of the distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2442/NGC 2443. This Hubble image shows...

This artist’s impression was generated using an image of Betelgeuse from 2019 taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Betelgeuse’s Mysterious Dimming Likely Caused by Huge Outburst

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

The red supergiant Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and appears even more luminous because it is so close to Earth, only 650 light-years...

A reconstructed image of SPT-S J041839-4751.9. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Rizzo et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2572-6.

ALMA Finds Young Milky Way-Like Galaxy in Early Universe

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered an extremely distant galaxy that looks surprisingly like our...

An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s TESS Spacecraft Completes Its Primary Mission

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

On July 4, 2020, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) completed its primary mission and is continuing its search for new extrasolar worlds. An...

This composite image shows the Sun with open magnetic field lines (colored) overlapping with regions with enhanced helium abundance. Image credit: NASA.

Helium Structures Spotted in Solar Corona

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s HERSCHEL (Helium Resonance Scattering in the Corona and Heliosphere) sounding rocket have obtained global images of the helium...

This image of Eurybates and its moon (circled) was captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on September 14, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Noll et al, arXiv: 2008.01858.

Hubble Spots Small Moon Orbiting Trojan Asteroid Eurybates

Aug 10, 2020 by Natali Anderson

The trojan asteroid (3548) Eurybates, one of the targets of NASA’s upcoming Lucy mission, has a tiny moon. This image of Eurybates and its moon (circled)...