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Planets form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, called protoplanets. Sometimes the colliding bodies are ground to dust, and sometimes they stick together to ultimately form larger, mature planets. This artist’s conception shows one such smash-up. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mystery of KIC 8462852 Deepens

Oct 5, 2016 by News Staff

Planets form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, called protoplanets. Sometimes the colliding bodies are ground to dust, and...

This image of Messier 78 was captured using the VISTA telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. In the image, Messier 78 is the bluish haze in the center, the other reflection nebula towards the right goes by the name of NGC 2071. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s VISTA Telescope Sees Hidden Stars in Messier 78

Oct 5, 2016 by News Staff

This detailed view of the reflection nebula Messier 78 was taken with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at ESO’s Paranal...

This Hubble image shows the central region of the dwarf spiral galaxy NGC 247, which lies in the constellation Cetus, about 11.5 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

New Hubble Photo Shows Center of Spiral Galaxy NGC 247

Oct 3, 2016 by News Staff

This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a detailed view of the central part of the disc of NGC 247, a relatively small spiral...

ALMA peered into the Ophiuchus star-forming region to study the protoplanetary disk around Elias 2-27. Image credit: L. Pérez / B. Saxton / MPIfR / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NASA / JPL Caltech / WISE Team.

ALMA Spots Spiral-Armed Protoplanetary Disk around Young Stellar Object

Oct 1, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have detected a pair of trailing symmetric spiral arms in the protoplanetary disk surrounding...

LMC P3 (circled) is located in the supernova remnant DEM L241 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Record-Breaking Gamma-Ray Binary Spotted in Large Magellanic Cloud

Sep 30, 2016 by News Staff

A gamma-ray binary discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy approximately 163,000 light-years away, is the first object of its kind ever...

This figure shows observations of the first hot molecular core to be found outside the Milky Way Galaxy with ALMA and a view of the region of sky in infrared light. Left: distributions of molecular line emission from a hot molecular core in the LMC observed with ALMA. Emissions from dust, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), and formaldehyde (H2CO) are shown as examples. Right: an infrared image of the surrounding star-forming region (based on data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope). Image credit: T. Shimonishi / Tohoku University / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

First ‘Hot Molecular Core’ Discovered Outside Milky Way

Sep 29, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered the first ‘hot molecular core’ — a cocoon of complex...

The surface of Europa looms large in this newly-reprocessed color view; image scale is 1.6 km per pixel; north on Europa is at right. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SETI Institute.

Hubble Space Telescope Directly Images Possible Water Plumes on Europa

Sep 26, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Europa, the sixth-closest moon of Jupiter and...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the spiral galaxy NGC 24. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 24

Sep 26, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 24, which is found in the constellation of Sculptor. This image from the...

Universe is Expanding Uniformly, Scientists Say

Sep 23, 2016 by News Staff

The Universe is not spinning or stretched in any particular direction, according to a team of researchers from University College London and Imperial College...

Astronomers Confirm Existence of Giant Circumbinary Exoplanet 8,000 Light-Years Away

Sep 22, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have confirmed the existence of a Saturn-mass exoplanet in the binary system OGLE-2007-BLG-349L,...

A trove of galaxies, rich in carbon monoxide (indicating star-forming potential) were imaged by ALMA (orange) in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The blue features are galaxies imaged by Hubble. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NASA / ESA / Hubble.

ALMA Probes Hubble Ultra Deep Field

Sep 22, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have explored the same corner of the early Universe first revealed in the iconic image...

This image shows the Lyman-alpha blob LAB-1. This picture is a composite of two different images taken with the FORS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope - a wider image showing the surrounding galaxies and a much deeper observation of the blob itself at the center made to detect its polarization. The intense Lyman-alpha ultraviolet radiation from LAB-1 appears green after it has been stretched by the expansion of the Universe during its long journey to Earth. These new observations show for the first time that the light from this object is polarized. This means that the giant ‘blob’ must be powered by galaxies embedded within the cloud. Image credit: M. Hayes / ESO.

Astronomers Unravel Mystery of Gigantic Lyman-Alpha Blobs

Sep 21, 2016 by News Staff

This image shows the Lyman-alpha blob LAB-1. This picture is a composite of two different images taken with the FORS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77; the streaks of red and blue in the image highlight pockets of star formation along the pinwheeling arms, with dark dust lanes stretching across the galaxy’s starry center; the galaxy belongs to a class of galaxies known as Seyfert galaxies, which have highly ionized gas surrounding an intensely active center. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. van der Hoeven.

ALMA Finds Cosmic Fountain at Center of Messier 77

Sep 20, 2016 by News Staff

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77; the streaks of red and blue in the image highlight pockets of star formation along the pinwheeling...

This image captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 shows a dust-bathed cluster of fragments receding from the main nucleus of Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami at speeds in the range of 0.06 - 3.5 m/s. The nucleus of the comet is the bright object at lower left. This observation was made on January 27, 2016. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Jewitt, University of California at Los Angeles.

Hubble Images Reveal 332P/Ikeya-Murakami Disintegrating as It Approaches the Sun

Sep 19, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured one of the most detailed observations of a comet breaking apart. This image captured by Hubble’s Wide...

This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows Markarian 1018, a galaxy located approximately 607 million light-years away. The faint loops of light around the galaxy are a result of its interaction and merger with another galaxy in the recent past. Image credit: CARS Survey / ESO.

Black Hole Duo Returns Active Galaxy Markarian 1018 to the Shadows

Sep 15, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope and NASA’s Chandra and Hubble space telescopes have solved the mystery of a rare change in the behavior...

ESA Releases Gaia’s Billion-Star Map of Milky Way Galaxy

Sep 15, 2016 by News Staff

On its way to assembling the most detailed 3D map ever made of our Galaxy, ESA’s Gaia spacecraft has pinned down the precise position on the sky and...

The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays from Chandra. There is a significant difference in scale between the optical and X-ray images. New Horizons made a close flyby of Pluto but Chandra is located near the Earth, so the level of detail visible in the two images is very different. The Chandra image is 180,000 miles across at the distance of Pluto, but the planet is only 1,500 miles across. Pluto is detected in the X-ray image as a point source, showing the sharpest level of detail available for Chandra or any other X-ray observatory. This means that details over scales that are smaller than the X-ray source cannot be seen here. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / JHUAPL / R.McNutt et al; optical – NASA / JHUAPL.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Detects X-Rays from Pluto

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. This X-ray emission comes from interaction between...

Artist’s impression of the dust disk and a forming Neptune-like planet around TW Hydrae. Image credit: NAOJ.

Astronomers Spot Formation Site of Neptune-Like Exoplanet

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found signs of a growing Neptune-like planet in the protoplanetary disk...

This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in 1998. In the center of the nebula the fast evolving star SAO 244567 is located. Observations made within the last 45 years showed that the surface temperature of the star increased by almost 40,000 degree Celsius. Now new observations of the spectra of the star have revealed that SAO 244567 has started to cool again. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Rapidly Evolving Central Star of Stingray Nebula

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to study stellar evolution in real time. This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken...