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Artist concept of the planetary body 2014 UZ224. Image credit: Alexandra Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Observes Trans-Neptunian Planetary Body 2014 UZ224

Apr 13, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers using Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered new clues about the recently-discovered planetary body UZ224. The...

Dark matter filaments (shown in red) bridge the space between galaxies (shown in white) on this false color map. Image credit: Seth Epps & Michael Hudson, University of Waterloo.

Astronomers Create ‘Image’ of Dark Matter Bridge that Connects Galaxies

Apr 12, 2017 by News Staff

A duo of scientists at the University of Waterloo, Canada, has been able to capture the first composite image of a dark matter bridge that connects galaxies...

Jupiter’s Great Cold Spot (a dark spot). Image credit: Stallard et al.

‘Great Cold Spot’ Discovered in Jupiter’s Upper Atmosphere

Apr 12, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers, led by University of Leicester planetary astronomer Tom Stallard, has detected a localized region of cooling —...

Artist’s impression of the super-Earth GJ 1132b. Image credit: MPIA.

Astronomers Detect Atmosphere around Super-Earth GJ 1132b

Apr 10, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers, led by Keele University researcher John Southworth, has managed to detect an atmosphere around GJ 1132b, a ‘super-Earth’...

This image snapped by Hubble reveals a detailed view of part of the spiral galaxy NGC 4536. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Takes Close Look at NGC 4536

Apr 10, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken the most detailed image so far of a spectacular part of the spiral galaxy NGC 4536. This image snapped by...

Stellar explosions are often associated with supernovae, the powerful and catastrophic deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle -- star birth. The colors in the ALMA data represent the relative Doppler shifting of the millimeter-wavelength light emitted by carbon monoxide gas. The blue color represents gas approaching at the highest speeds; the red color is from gas moving toward us more slowly. The background image includes optical and near-infrared imaging from both the Gemini South and ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The famous Trapezium Cluster of hot young stars appears towards the bottom of this image. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / J. Bally / H. Drass et al.

ALMA Captures Star Birth in Orion Molecular Cloud

Apr 8, 2017 by News Staff

Around 500 years ago, two protostars had a perilously close encounter that blasted their stellar nursery apart. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter...

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Jupiter at Opposition

Apr 7, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the Solar System’s largest planet on April 3, 2017 — just days before it is in opposition on April...

This is an artist impression of a progenitor of Milky Way-like galaxies in the early Universe with a background quasar shining through a ‘super halo’ of hydrogen gas surrounding the galaxy. New ALMA observations of two such galaxies reveal that these vast halos extend well beyond the galaxies’ dusty, star-forming disks. Image credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Spots Two Young Milky Way-Like Galaxies in Early Universe

Apr 3, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have observed a pair of massive, dusty galaxies seen when the Universe was only...

This is a composite image of the giant planet Uranus by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft and two different observations made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (one for Uranus’ ring system and one for the planet’s auroras). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Lamy.

Stunning New Views of Uranus’ Auroras

Apr 3, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of astronomers has captured new images of auroras above the gas giant Uranus. This is a composite image of the giant planet Uranus...

CDF-S XT1 became 1,000 times brighter over a few hours before fading dramatically in about a day. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Pontifical Catholic University / F.Bauer et al.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Records Mysterious Explosion 10.7 Billion Light-Years Away

Mar 31, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers have discovered a mysterious flash of X-rays using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in the deepest X-ray image...

This Hubble image shows the supernova remnant N103B (top of the image). N103B was a Type Ia supernova, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Owing to its relative proximity to Earth, astronomers observe the remnant to search for a potential stellar survivor of the explosion. The orange-red filaments visible in the image show the shock fronts of the supernova explosion. These filaments allow astronomers to calculate the original centre of the explosion. The filaments also show that the explosion is no longer expanding as a sphere, but is elliptical in shape. Astronomers assume that part of material ejected by the explosion hit a denser cloud of interstellar material, which slowed its speed. The shell of expanding material being open to one side supports this idea. The gas in the lower half of the image and the dense concentration of stars in the lower left are the outskirts of the rich star cluster NGC 1850. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Astronomers Observe Type Ia Supernova Remnant in Large Magellanic Cloud

Mar 30, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe N103B, a supernova remnant in our neighboring galaxy the Large...

Swift J0042.6+4112 is brighter at high energies than the Andromeda galaxy’s entire black hole population. The inset image shows the pulsar candidate in blue, as seen in X-ray light by NASA’s NuSTAR mission. The background image of the Andromeda galaxy was taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer in UV light. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JHU.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Andromeda’s Hard X-Rays

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

The Andromeda galaxy (also known as Messier 31) features a dominant source of hard X-rays, but its identity was mysterious until now. An international...

SDO image of the solar corona in UV light (yellow lines represent the magnetic field on the surface of the Sun). Image credit: NASA / SDO / AIA / LMSAL.

Astronomers Detect Planetary Waves on Sun

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) and STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) missions, astronomers have detected so-called...

Artist’s impression of a galaxy forming stars within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at its core. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Spots New Type of Star Formation

Mar 27, 2017 by News Staff

New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed stars forming in the powerful outflows in galaxies, which are driven by central supermassive...

In this Hubble image the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4424 is seen edge on, but from above you would be able to see the arms of the galaxy wrapping around its center to give the characteristic spiral form. The smaller, flatter, bright galaxy sitting just below NGC 4424 is named LEDA 213994. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 4424

Mar 27, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy NGC 4424, which is found in the constellation of Virgo. In this Hubble image the...

An artist’s impression of the brown dwarf SDSS J0104+1535. Image credit: John Pinfield.

Record-Breaking Brown Dwarf Spotted 750 Light-Years Away

Mar 25, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have identified a brown dwarf — an object too large to be a planet but too small to be a star — with the ‘purest’ composition...

The elliptical galaxy 3C186, located about 8 billion years from Earth, is most likely the result of a merger of two galaxies. This is supported by arc-shaped tidal tails, usually produced by a gravitational tug between two colliding galaxies, identified by M. Chiaberge et al. The merger of the galaxies also led to a merger of the two supermassive black holes in their centers, and the resultant black hole was then kicked out of its parent galaxy by the gravitational waves created by the merger. The bright, star-like looking quasar can be seen in the center of the image. Its former host galaxy is the faint, extended object behind it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Chiaberge, STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Found 35,000 Light-Years from Home

Mar 24, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have uncovered a monster black hole that has been propelled out of the center of a distant galaxy, called 3C 186, by what could be the power...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

TRAPPIST-1 System Ideal for Planet-Hopping Life?

Mar 24, 2017 by James Romero

Exoplanet hunters struck gold earlier this year with the discovery of seven rocky bodies orbiting around dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a find that both raised...

This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red color in the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Fast-Moving Runaway Star in Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

In the search for free-floating exoplanets and brown dwarfs, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have created a mosaic image of the Kleinmann-Low...