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This artist’s impression compares TRAPPIST-1 planets to the Earth at the same scale. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

TRAPPIST-1 Planets Are All Rocky, Contain Significant Amounts of Water

Feb 6, 2018 by News Staff

A new study has found that planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1, an ultracool dwarf star 38.8 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, are mostly made of...

Centaurus A. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Space Telescope / ESO / Robert Gendler & Roberto Colombari.

Centaurus A’s Satellite Galaxies Move in Unexpected Ways

Feb 6, 2018 by News Staff

Several dwarf galaxies orbiting around a nearby elliptical galaxy called Centaurus A are rotating in synchrony around their host, to astronomers’ surprise....

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1559. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Sees Spiral Galaxy with Massive Star-Forming Arms

Feb 5, 2018 by News Staff

This view, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a somewhat overlooked barred spiral galaxy known as NGC 1559. This image from the NASA/ESA...

Image of the gravitational lens RX J1131-1231, with the foreground elliptical galaxy at the center and four images of the lensed quasar. It is estimated that there are trillions of planets in the lens galaxy. Image credit: University of Oklahoma.

Astronomers Claim to Find Population of Rogue Exoplanets in Distant Galaxy

Feb 2, 2018 by News Staff

Using a quasar microlensing technique, astronomers claim to have found a large population of unbound planets — with masses ranging from Moon to Jupiter...

This illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star, disrupted as it was being devoured by a supermassive black hole. When a star passes within a certain distance of a black hole -- close enough to be swallowed up -- the stellar material gets stretched and compressed as it is pulled in. A black hole’s destruction of a star, called ‘stellar tidal disruption,’ releases an enormous amount of energy, brightening the surroundings in an event called a flare. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Post-Merger Galaxies’ Supermassive Black Holes Can ‘Eat’ One Star per Year

Feb 2, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by University of Colorado Boulder scientists has discovered a mechanism that explains the persistence of asymmetrical star clusters...

ALMA detected methanol, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The far-infrared image on the left shows the full galaxy. The zoom-in image shows the star-forming region observed by ALMA. It is a combination of mid-infrared data from Spitzer and visible (H-alpha) data from the Blanco 4-m telescope. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / Herschel / ESA / NASA / JPL-Caltech / NOAO.

ALMA Detects Complex Organic Molecules in Large Magellanic Cloud

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered chemical ‘fingerprints’ of three complex organic molecules...

This image of the Lupus 3 star-forming region was created from images taken using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope and the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope and is the most detailed image taken so far of this region. Image credit: R. Colombari / ESO.

ESO Releases High-Definition Photo of Star-Forming Region Lupus 3

Jan 31, 2018 by News Staff

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) today released the most detailed image taken so far of a star-forming region called Lupus 3. This image of the...

The Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy. Image credit: ESO / M. Bellazzini et al.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Captures Image of Little-Known Dwarf Galaxy

Jan 30, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Monday released a colorful image of a small galaxy in the constellation of Sagittarius. The...

This Hubble/WFC3 image shows the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 7331. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Milisavljevic, Purdue University.

Hubble Observes Unbarred Spiral Galaxy NGC 7331

Jan 29, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, which is found in the constellation of Pegasus. This Hubble/WFC3...

Artist’s impression of the trio of super-Earth exoplanets. Image credit: ESO.

Found: Three Super-Earths in Orbit around Cool Dwarf Star

Jan 29, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from the NASA Kepler spacecraft’s reborn K2 mission have found a triple system of super-Earth exoplanets around a cool star called...

Future telescopes like the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (right) will observe the atmospheres of distant planets to seek evidence of life. Earth (top left) has several gases in its atmosphere that reveal the presence of life, primarily oxygen and ozone. Krissansen-Totton et al find that for the early Earth (bottom left), the combination of abundant methane and carbon dioxide would provide an alternative sign of life. Image credit: NASA / Wikimedia Commons / Joshua Krissansen-Totton.

Astrobiologists Find New Way to Detect Extraterrestrial Life

Jan 25, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astrobiologists from the Universities of Washington and California has found a simple approach to look for alien life that might be more promising...

An artist’s rendering of an extrasolar gas giant. Image credit: NASA.

Astronomer Proposes New Limit on Definition of a Planet

Jan 23, 2018 by News Staff

In a new article published in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org preprint), Johns Hopkins University researcher Kevin Schlaufman sets the upper boundary...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 3201. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees NGC 3201

Jan 22, 2018 by News Staff

In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of an ancient globular cluster named NGC 3201. This Hubble image shows the...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the Cartwheel Galaxy. The image is based on earlier Hubble data of the Cartwheel that was reprocessed in 2010, bringing out more detail in the image than seen before. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

NASA Releases Stunning Photo of Cartwheel Galaxy

Jan 21, 2018 by News Staff

NASA has released the sharpest image ever taken of the Cartwheel Galaxy, a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Sculptor. This image from the NASA/ESA...

This Hubble image shows A1758N, the northern part of the galaxy cluster Abell 1758. The cluster is approximately 3.2 billion light-years from Earth and is part of a larger structure containing two clusters sitting some 2.4 million light-years apart. But A1758N itself is further split into two sub-sections, known as East (A1758NE) and West (A1758NW). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Takes Closer Look at Abell 1758

Jan 18, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image so far of A1758N, a sub-cluster of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1758. This Hubble...

Artist’s impression of the black hole-star system in NGC 3201, a globular cluster located approximately 16,300 light-years away towards the southern constellation Vela. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / Spaceengine.org.

Astronomers Detect Lonely Black Hole in Globular Cluster NGC 3201

Jan 18, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by Georg-August-Universität Göttingen researcher Benjamin Giesers has discovered a star in the globular cluster...

Salmon et al were able to detect a hint of light from SPT0615-JD because it was magnified as it passed around the massive galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746 as it traveled towards Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Salmon, STScI.

Gravitational Lens Magnifies and Stretches Image of Distant Galaxy

Jan 17, 2018 by News Staff

Thanks to the presence of a cosmic zoom lens, Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes got a uniquely close-up look at one of the farthest galaxies ever seen. Salmon...

The aromatic molecule benzonitrile was detected by NSF’s Green Bank Telescope in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1. Image credit: B. McGuire & B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Radio Astronomers Detect Organic Molecule Benzonitrile in Interstellar Medium

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers studying a well-known nearby cloud of interstellar gas with radio telescopes have detected the presence of benzonitrile (c-C6H5CN), an intriguing...

Five-Planet System Found: K2-138

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of citizen scientists and professional astronomers has discovered a system of at least five massive exoplanets, orbiting the Sun-like...