Astronomers using the 4-m Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii have detected tiny plasma vortices on the Sun’s surface (photosphere) for the first time, revealing a long-suspected process that could transport energy into the million-degree corona.

The post Inouye Solar Telescope Discovers Hidden Plasma Vortices on Sun appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

High-resolution images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and the Large Binocular Telescope reveal that the E-type asteroid (44) Nysa may be unlike any other world in the Solar System, with three connected lobes and a newly discovered satellite that could help explain how the bizarre object formed.

The post Astronomers Discover First-Ever Three-Lobed Asteroid appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Pluto’s tenuous atmosphere appears to have begun contracting after years of holding steady, according to a new study published in the Planetary Science Journal.

The post Pluto’s Thin Atmosphere May Be Starting to Shrink appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Astronomers have discovered a dormant supermassive black hole 30,000 light-years from the center of WISEA J014656.04-152214.7 -- a massive galaxy located about 750 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus -- after it briefly lit up by tearing apart a star.

The post Astronomers Spot Wandering Supermassive Black Hole Far From Its Galaxy’s Heart appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

After a century of speculation, astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured the clearest evidence yet that the red supergiant Betelgeuse is orbited by a faint companion star.

The post Astronomers Directly Image Betelgeuse’s Long-Suspected Stellar Companion appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A stunning new image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the lopsided intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 4654, whose unusual shape was sculpted by both a close encounter with another galaxy and a headlong plunge through the hot gas of the Virgo Cluster.

The post Hubble Spots Spiral Galaxy Warped by Cosmic Forces appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a gas giant around a brown dwarf in the stellar system CD-35 2722.

The post Planetary-Mass Exomoon Found Circling Brown Dwarf appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A head-on collision with another galaxy billions of years ago may have dramatically reoriented the Milky Way’s disk, according to new supercomputer simulations that reveal how violent mergers can leave spiral galaxies looking surprisingly normal today.

The post Our Milky Way Galaxy Likely Underwent Disk Flip after Ancient Galactic Collision: Study appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

The near-Earth object (875163) 1998 SH2, which is currently classified as an asteroid, has revealed a hidden identity: it’s actually a comet in disguise, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The post Puzzling Near-Earth Asteroid Turns Out to Be Comet with Weak Tail appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

After decades of searching, astronomers have pinpointed the first of an estimated 10,000 stellar-mass black holes thought to lurk in Omega Centauri, the most massive stellar system in the Milky Way found so far, with a stellar mass of 3.6 million solar masses.

The post Astronomers Find Omega Centauri’s First Stellar-Mass Black Hole appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using spectral data from the Magellan Clay telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, astronomers detected helium escaping from LHS 1140b, a rocky exoplanet that orbits in the habitable zone of the nearby low-mass star LHS 1140.

The post Potential Atmosphere Detected on Habitable-Zone Exoplanet LHS 1140b appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new analysis suggests the four sub-Earth exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s star -- the Sun’s nearest single-star neighbor -- are likely packed with the deep-Earth mineral periclase, stripped of their atmospheres and far too hostile to support life.

The post Barnard’s Star Planetary System May Be Filled with Water-Poor Rocky Worlds appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using NSF’s Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers made the first radio detection of polarized light and Faraday rotation from a gamma-ray burst afterglow, offering an unprecedented glimpse of the magnetic fields surrounding one of the Universe’s most powerful explosions.

The post Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Burst’s Magnetic Fingerprint appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Named Beta Pictoris d, the newly-discovered world is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b -- the first planet discovered around the A5-type star Beta Pictoris -- and is among the lightest exoplanets ever to be imaged from the ground.

The post Astronomers Discover and Directly Image Third Planet in Beta Pictoris System appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

New images of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 4696 from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope reveal gas filaments funneling material into a spinning disk around a supermassive black hole 800 light-years across.

The post Webb Catches Supermassive Black Hole Feeding from Cosmic Gas Streams appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using near-UV spectroscopic data from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers discovered four white dwarfs orbiting nearby red dwarf stars.

The post Astronomers Discover Four New White Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar commonly found in raspberries and sunless tanning cosmetics, in the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027.

The post Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) s and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), astronomers have created the sharpest-ever radio maps of neutral hydrogen around the Orion Nebula.

The post Astronomers Uncover Hidden Structures Surrounding Orion Nebula appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Using the upgraded GRAVITY+ instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), astronomers have measured the ratio of carbon isotopes in the atmosphere of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris, offering new insights into how giant planets form.

The post Astronomers Probe Chemistry of Giant Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Astronomers using ESA’s Euclid space telescope have discovered 31 ancient quasars from a time when the Universe was just 670 to 800 million years old. One of these objects, dubbed EUCL J172902.75+641018.1, sets the new record for the most distant quasar ever reported.

The post Euclid Discovers Earliest Quasars Ever Seen appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.