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HabEx, a space telescope with ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (near-IR) imaging and spectroscopic capabilities, will have three primary science goals: (I) seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (ii) map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (iii) enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own Solar System to galaxies and the Universe by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. Image credit: Gaudi et al.

HabEx: New Mission Proposed to Search for Second Earth

Dec 26, 2019 by News Staff

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) would use a telescope with a mirror larger than Hubble’s, and would employ origami techniques to utilize...

Phosphine Could Signal Existence of Alien Anaerobic Life on Rocky Planets

Dec 26, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at MIT has found that phosphine, which is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, cannot be produced in any other way except...

An artist’s impression of HD 213885b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Hot Super-Earth and Exo-Neptune Found Orbiting Sun-Like Star

Dec 26, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and three ground-based spectrographs, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period...

This composite image shows thousands of star-forming galaxies in radio light and the MeerKAT radio telescope array in the South African Karoo semidesert. The brightest spots are luminous radio galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. The myriad faint dots are distant star-forming galaxies like our own Milky Way, too faint to have been detected before now. Because radio waves travel at the speed of light, this image is a time machine that samples the star formation history of the Universe. Image credit: SARAO / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

MeerKAT Radio Telescope Spots Thousands of Star-Forming Galaxies

Dec 25, 2019 by News Staff

A new radio image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, presents a wide portrait of the...

Giant cavities in the X-ray emitting intracluster medium (shown in blue, as observed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory) have been carved out by a black hole outburst. X-ray data are overlaid on top of optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (in red/orange), where the central galaxy that is likely hosting the culprit supermassive black hole is also visible. Image credit: Calzadilla et al.

Astronomers Witness Extremely Powerful Black Hole Outburst in Distant Galaxy Cluster

Dec 25, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have spotted an unusual outburst activity in the center of SPT-CLJ0528-5300 (SPT-0528 for short),...

This image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows NGC 2264. The newly-revealed protostars appear as pink and red specks toward the center of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / P.S. Teixeira, Center for Astrophysics.

Spitzer Space Telescope Sees Protostars in NGC 2264

Dec 24, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a photo taken by its Spitzer Space Telescope that shows numerous newborn stars, or protostars, in NGC 2264. This image from NASA’s...

An artist’s impression of the gas-rich debris disk around 49 Ceti. Image credit: NAOJ.

ALMA Finds Rare Carbon Isotope in 49 Ceti’s Debris Disk

Dec 24, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected radio emission from two carbon isotopes (12C and 13C) in a huge...

A faint gamma-ray glow around the Geminga pulsar. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M. Di Mauro.

Fermi Finds Enormous Gamma-Ray Halo around Nearby Pulsar

Dec 23, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a gamma-ray glow around Geminga,...

An artist’s impression of the warm Jupiter TOI-677b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers New Warm Jupiter

Dec 23, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has discovered a warm giant exoplanet orbiting the bright star TOI-677. An artist’s impression of the warm Jupiter...

This Hubble image shows ESO 021-G004, a spiral galaxy located approximately 130 million light-years away in the constellation Chamaeleon. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Rosario et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Active Spiral Galaxy

Dec 23, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of a spiral galaxy called ESO 021-G004. This Hubble image shows ESO 021-G004, a spiral...

This image, taken by Spitzer’s Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instrument, shows the Perseus molecular cloud. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Spitzer Observes Perseus Molecular Cloud

Dec 20, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released a stunning image of the Perseus molecular cloud, a giant stellar nursery about 600 light-years away in the northern constellation of...

This illustration depicts Kepler-51 and its three giant planets. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Hustak, J. Olmsted, D. Player & F. Summers, STScI.

Kepler-51 is Home to Three Super-Puff Exoplanets

Dec 20, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Kepler-51 is a 500-million-year-old G-type star located 2,615 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble...

This illustration depicts a gas halo surrounding a quasar in the early Universe. The quasar, in orange, has two powerful jets and a supermassive black hole at its center, which is surrounded by a dusty disk. The halo of glowing hydrogen is represented in blue. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

VLT Spots Huge Halos of Cool Hydrogen around Active Galaxies in Early Universe

Dec 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have spotted enormous hydrogen halos around 12 quasars — a type of active galaxy which shines...

ESA’s Cheops spacecraft lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Image credit: ESA.

ESA Launches Exoplanet-Studying Satellite Cheops

Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) — the first mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to the study of exoplanets —...

This composite image of the galaxy group-galaxy group merger NGC 6338 contains X-ray data from Chandra (displayed in red) that shows hot gas with temperatures upward of about 20 million degrees Celsius, as well as cooler gas detected with Chandra and XMM (shown in blue) that also emits X-rays. The image contains optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Image credit: Chandra / NASA / CXC / SAO / E. O’Sullivan / ESA / XMM / SDSS.

NGC 6338: Two Galaxy Groups are Colliding at Incredible Speed

Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Apache Point Observatory, astronomers...

This composite image, which combines infrared (blue), radio (red) and microwave (green) observations from the GISMO instrument, reveals emission from cold dust, areas of vigorous star formation, and filaments formed at the edges of a bubble blown by some powerful event at the Milky Way Galaxy’s center. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

GISMO Sees Huge Molecular Clouds and Filaments in Milky Way’s Central Region

Dec 18, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA-designed Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO), a bolometer camera installed on the 30-m IRAM radio telescope, has produced...

Forced magnetic reconnection, caused by a prominence from the Sun, was seen for the first time in images from SDO. This image shows the Sun on May 3, 2012, with the inset showing a close-up of the reconnection event imaged by SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, where the signature X-shape is visible. Image credit: NASA / SDO / Abhishek Srivastava / IIT.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Observes Forced Magnetic Reconnection in Sun’s Corona

Dec 18, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has directly observed a new type of magnetic explosion — called forced reconnection — in the solar...

This image, taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on July 18, 2019, shows NGC 1175. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Stunning Peanut Galaxy

Dec 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing photo of a galaxy called NGC 1175. This image, taken by Hubble’s Advanced...

Astronomers Measure Size and Mass of Nearby Pulsar, Create Map of Its Surface Hot Spots

Dec 17, 2019 by News Staff

Using the X-ray data from NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), astronomers have produced a map of hot spots on the surface of a...