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Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Did Nearby Supernovae Induce Hominins to Walk on Two Legs?

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

Between 8 and 2 million years ago, cosmic-ray energy from one or more nearby supernovae reached Earth and pummeled the planet’s atmosphere, initiating...

An artist’s impression of NGTS-4b and its star. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Astronomers Discover ‘Forbidden’ Short-Period Neptune-Sized Exoplanet

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting NGTS-4, a K-dwarf star located 922 light-years from Earth. Named...

An artist’s conception of the HR 858 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Compact System of Three Super-Earths Found around Naked-Eye Star

May 29, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a compact three-planet system around the sixth-magnitude star...

The 18 newly-discovered exoplanets (orange and green) are much smaller than Neptune, three of them even smaller than Earth and two more as large as Earth. Planet EPIC 201238110.02 is the only one of the new planets cool enough to potentially host liquid water on its surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL / NOAA / GSFC / Suomi NPP / VIIRS / Norman Kuring / Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research / René Heller.

Astronomers Discover 18 New Small Exoplanets in Kepler Data

May 28, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Georg August University of Göttingen and Sonneberg Observatory has...

This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 59. This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different colors to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / P. Cote.

Hubble Captures Stunning Image of Messier 59

May 27, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of an elliptical galaxy called Messier 59. This Hubble image shows the elliptical...

Voyager 2 image of Triton showing the south polar region with dark streaks produced by geysers visible on the icy surface. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

Astronomers Find Exotic Ices on Neptune’s Moon Triton

May 24, 2019 by News Staff

In the lab, scientists have pinpointed a specific wavelength of infrared light absorbed when molecules of carbon monoxide and nitrogen join together and...

An artist’s impression of Orion Source I, a young, massive star about 1,500 light-years away. The blue region -- about 1/3 the way out from the center of the disk -- represents the region where ALMA detected the millimeter-wavelength ‘glow’ from the salts. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Aluminum Monoxide Found around Massive Protostar

May 21, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted aluminum monoxide (AlO) molecules in the gas surrounding Orion Source...

This artist’s impression shows exocomets orbiting beta Pictoris. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

TESS Detects Exocomets in Beta Pictoris System

May 20, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) has spotted the long tails of extrasolar comets orbiting the very young star beta Pictoris. This...

This Hubble image shows the spectacular spiral galaxy Messier 90. The image combines infrared, ultraviolet and visible light gathered by Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). It is based on data obtained through six filters. The color results from assigning different colors to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Sargent et al.

NASA Releases Stunning Photo of Messier 90

May 20, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released a beautiful image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the spiral galaxy Messier 90. This Hubble image shows the spectacular...

This image of the irregular galaxy NGC 4485 was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). NGC 4485 has been involved in a dramatic gravitational interplay with its larger galactic neighbor, NGC 4490, out of frame to the bottom right in this image. This ruined the original, ordered spiral structure of the galaxy and transformed it into an irregular one. Below NGC 4485 one can see a bright, orange background galaxy: CXOU J123033.6+414057. This galaxy is the source of X-ray radiation studied by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. It’s distance from Earth is about 850 million light-years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Sees Strange Result of Recent Galactic Collision

May 17, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of NGC 4485, an irregular galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici, about...

This VLT image shows the reflection nebula NGC 2023. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Snaps Beautiful Image of Reflection Nebula

May 14, 2019 by News Staff

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released an absolutely beautiful photo taken by its Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the reflection nebula NGC...

This Hubble image shows the barred lenticular galaxy NGC 3384. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Lehmer et al.

NGC 3384: Hubble Looks at Stunning Lenticular Galaxy

May 13, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the barred lenticular galaxy NGC 3384. This Hubble image shows the barred lenticular...

This artist’s illustration shows what one of the very first galaxies in the Universe might have looked like. Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions.

Universe’s Early Galaxies were Much Brighter than Expected

May 10, 2019 by News Staff

New data from Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes show that in a few specific wavelengths of infrared light, some of the first galaxies to form in the...

An artist’s impression of a supernova. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Universe’s Earliest Supernovae Ejected Powerful Jets, Astronomers Say

May 10, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from MIT has observed evidence that the Universe’s first stars exploded as asymmetric supernovae, strong enough to scatter heavy...

This image from Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Survey shows 2MASX J04180598-6336523, the host galaxy of the Type Ia supernova ASASSN-18tb; the position of the supernova is marked by the white ticks. Image credit: Kollmeier et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz953.

Astronomers Spot Extremely Rare Hydrogen-Cloaked Type Ia Supernova

May 8, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, have detected the faint signal emitted by hydrogen gas in the remnant of...

The first artist’s illustration shows a key part of the process that created this new black hole, as the two neutron stars spin around each other while merging. The purple material depicts debris from the merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

LIGO and Virgo Observatories Detect Two New Gravitational Waves

May 8, 2019 by News Staff

On April 25 and 26, 2019, NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European-based Virgo detector registered two new gravitational...

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Karachentsev et al / High et al.

Hubble Sees Extremely Distant Lensing Galaxy Cluster

May 6, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows SPT-CL J0615-5746, a very massive group of galaxies located approximately 7.7 billion...

Merging neutron stars. Image credit: Mark Garlick, University of Warwick.

Violent Collision of Two Neutron Stars Occurred near Pre-Solar Nebula 4.6 Billion Years Ago

May 5, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research, a nearby binary neutron-star merger gave birth to 0.3% of the Earth’s heaviest elements, including gold, platinum and uranium;...

Astronomers developed a mosaic of the distant Universe -- called the Hubble Legacy Field -- that documents 16 years of observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image contains nearly 265,000 galaxies that stretch back through 13.3 billion years of time to just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The new set of Hubble images, created from nearly 7,500 individual exposures, is the first in a series of Hubble Legacy Field images. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Illingworth & D. Magee, University of California, Santa Cruz / K. Whitaker, University of Connecticut / R. Bouwens, Leiden University / P. Oesch, University of Geneva / Hubble Legacy Field Team.

Hubble Captures Nearly 265,000 Galaxies in Legacy Field Image

May 2, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have produced the largest, most comprehensive ‘history book’ of galaxies in the Universe, using 16 years’ worth of observations from...