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This artist’s impression depicts IGR J17062–6143. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer Finds Pulsar in Ultracompact Orbit

May 11, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) have found evidence that an accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar called IGR...

This artist’s impression shows 2004 EW95, the first carbon-rich asteroid confirmed to exist in the Kuiper Belt and a relic of the primordial Solar System. 2004 EW95 likely formed in the main asteroid belt and has been flung billions of miles from its origin to its current home in the Kuiper Belt. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find First Carbon-Rich Asteroid in Kuiper Belt: 2004 EW95

May 9, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that a small Kuiper Belt object called 2004 EW95 is a carbonaceous (carbon-rich) asteroid — the first...

An artist’s illustration of a planetary nebula. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Sun at End of Its Life Will Turn into Faint Planetary Nebula, Astronomers Predict

May 9, 2018 by News Staff

Planetary nebulae — massive rings of luminous, interstellar gas and dust — mark the end of the active life of 90% of all stars. But, for years,...

WASP-96b periodically transits WASP-96 (also known as 2MASS J00041112-4721382), a Sun-like star 980 light years away in the southern constellation Phoenix. Image credit: © Sci-News.com.

Hot Gas Giant WASP-96b Has Cloud-Free Atmosphere, Astronomers Say

May 7, 2018 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from Ireland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States has found that the atmosphere of the exoplanet WASP-96b...

This Hubble image shows the rich galaxy cluster RXC J0032.1+1808. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Rich Galaxy Cluster

May 7, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Galaxy clusters are some of the most massive structures that can be found in the Universe — giant groupings of galaxies bound together by gravity....

The Chandra image (right) shows the inner region of NGC 6231 where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays; the brightest X-ray emission is white. An infrared image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey explorer is shown on the left. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Valparaiso / M. Kuhn et al / WISE / JPL.

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Observes Young Cluster NGC 6231

May 4, 2018 by News Staff

First discovered by Italian mathematician and priest Giovanni Battista Hodierna in 1654, NGC 6231 is a young star cluster located in the constellation...

An artist’s impression of WASP-107b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Helium Detected in Atmosphere of Exoplanet for First Time

May 3, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has detected helium — the second-most abundant element in the Universe after hydrogen — in the atmosphere...

An artist’s concept of a star-forming cloud. Image credit: © Sci-News.com.

New Study Casts Doubt on Currently Accepted Theories of Star Formation

May 1, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that long-held assumptions about the relationship between the mass of star-forming clouds of dust and gas...

In the upper part of this Hubble image, the light from distant galaxies has been smeared and twisted into odd shapes, arcs, and streaks. This phenomenon indicates the presence of a massive galaxy cluster, SDSS J0150+2725, which is bending the light coming from the galaxies behind it with its monstrous gravitational influence. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Giant Galaxy Cluster

Apr 30, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a fantastic photo of a massive galaxy cluster named SDSS J0150+2725. In the upper part of this Hubble...

Ryder et al used Hubble to get the first image of a surviving companion to a supernova; this is the most compelling evidence that some supernova explosions originate in binary star systems. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Ryder, Australian Astronomical Observatory / O. Fox, STScI.

Hubble Snaps Image of Surviving Binary Companion to Type IIb Supernova

Apr 27, 2018 by News Staff

On December 10, 2001 Australian amateur astronomer Robert Evans discovered a supernova in the outer edge of NGC 7424, a spiral galaxy located in the southern...

Gaia’s all-sky view of our Milky Way Galaxy and neighboring galaxies, based on measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars. Brighter regions indicate denser concentrations of especially bright stars, while darker regions correspond to patches of the sky where fewer bright stars are observed. The color representation is obtained by combining the total amount of light with the amount of blue and red light recorded by Gaia in each patch of the sky. The bright horizontal structure that dominates the image is the Galactic plane, the flattened disc that hosts most of the stars in our home Galaxy. In the middle of the image, the Galactic center appears vivid and teeming with stars. Darker regions across the Galactic plane correspond to foreground clouds of interstellar gas and dust, which absorb the light of stars located further away, behind the clouds. Many of these conceal stellar nurseries where new generations of stars are being born. Sprinkled across the image are also many globular and open clusters -- groupings of stars held together by their mutual gravity, as well as entire galaxies beyond our own. The two bright objects in the lower right of the image are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. In small areas of the image where no color information was available -- to the lower left of the Galactic center, to the upper left of the Small Magellanic Cloud, and in the top portion of the map -- an equivalent grayscale value was assigned. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.

ESA’s Gaia Mission Releases Catalog of Nearly 1.7 Billion Stars

Apr 26, 2018 by News Staff

ESA’s Gaia mission has released the largest catalogue ever of Milky Way stars. It includes the positions on the sky for approximately 1.7 billion stars,...

This artist’s impression of SPT2349-56 shows a group of interacting and merging galaxies in the early Universe. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Discover Two Massive Protoclusters of Young Galaxies in Early Universe

Apr 26, 2018 by News Staff

Peering deep into space — an astounding 90% of the way across the observable Universe — two groups of astronomers led by University of Edinburgh’s...

Artist’s impression of a massive black hole. Image credit: Alain Riazuelo / CC BY-SA 2.5.

Milky Way Galaxy May Have Several ‘Wandering’ Supermassive Black Holes

Apr 25, 2018 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of astronomers from Yale Center for Astronomy & Astrophysics, the University of Washington, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris,...

Astronomers Detect Hydrogen Sulfide in Uranus’ Upper Atmosphere

Apr 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini North Telescope on Hawaii’s Maunakea have detected hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their distinctive odor,...

This Hubble image shows the lenticular galaxy NGC 2655. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Fillipenko.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 2655

Apr 23, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the lenticular galaxy NGC 2655. This Hubble image shows the lenticular galaxy...

Spectacular Lagoon Nebula Glows in Hubble’s 28th Birthday Photos

Apr 20, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit by a space shuttle on April 24, 1990. It was the first space telescope of its kind, and has...

NGC 6240. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / STScI-ESA.

Binary Supermassive Black Hole Stops Star Formation in NGC 6240

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

NGC 6240 is a pair of merging galaxies approximately 400 million light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. It spans 300,000 light-years and has...

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Heads for Final Science Orbit after Successful Launch

Apr 19, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was delivered to space Wednesday, April 18, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off from...

This Hubble image shows the distant and massive galaxy cluster that is officially known as PSZ2 G138.61-10.84. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.

Hubble Views Distant and Massive Galaxy Cluster

Apr 16, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows PSZ2 G138.61-10.84, a colossal galaxy cluster located approximately 6 billion light-years away...