Astronomy News

New Global Maps of Jupiter Unveiled

This global map of Jupiter was made during the Hubble OPAL Program. The map was observed on 19 January 2015, from 2:00 UTC to 12:30 UTC. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, GSFC / M. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / G. Orton, JPL-Caltech.
Oct 14, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley, has produced two global maps of Jupiter using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The maps are the first in a series of annual portraits of the Solar System’s outer planets – Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn – from the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL)...

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Composite image of an edge-on spiral galaxy with a radio halo produced by fast-moving particles in the galaxy’s magnetic field. In this image, the large, grey-blue area is a single image formed by combining the radio halos of 30 different galaxies. At the center is a visible-light image of one of the galaxies, NGC 5775, made using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This visible-light image shows only the inner part of the galaxy’s star-forming region, outer portions of which extend horizontally into the area of the radio halo. Image credit: Jayanne English, University of Manitoba / Judith Irwin & Theresa Wiegert, Queen’s University / CHANG-ES Consortium / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA / STScI.

Giant Radio Halos around Spiral Galaxies More Common than Thought

Oct 13, 2015 by News Staff

Using one of the world’s greatest radio observatories, National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Large Array (VLA), a group of astronomers has found...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4639. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of Barred Spiral Galaxy

Oct 12, 2015 by News Staff

The Hubble team has released a stunning photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of a galaxy known as NGC 4639. This Hubble image shows the barred...

This image of part of an edge-on disk around AU Microscopii reveals wave-like features. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / A. Boccaletti, Paris Observatory.

Strange, Fast-Moving Structures Spotted around Nearby Star AU Microscopii

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

Using images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered unique structures...

This artistic concept shows Kepler-186f. Image credit: NASA Ames / SETI Institute / JPL-CalTech.

Astronomers Create Habitability Index for Transiting Exoplanets

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the University of Washington and NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Virtual Planetary Laboratory has created the ‘Habitability...

This artist’s concept depicts a pulsar called PSR B1257+12 and three exoplanets (discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992) orbiting around it. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Develop New Method for Measuring Mass of Young Pulsars

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Chile, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, has found a new, highly accurate way to measure the mass of young pulsars. This...

SDO captured this image of an M5.5 class flare - as seen in the bright flash on the lower right limb of the Sun - on October 1. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s SDO Spots M-Class Solar Flare

Oct 5, 2015 by News Staff

This new image of a mid-level solar flare was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) at 8:13 p.m. EDT on October 1, 2015. The image is a...

This composite image shows the planetary nebula Menzel 2 as seen in visible and infrared light by Hubble’s WFPC2 camera. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Serge Meunier.

NASA’s Hubble Observes Planetary Nebula Menzel 2

Oct 5, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the planetary nebula Menzel 2, which is found in the southern constellation Norma. This composite...

The artist's concept depicts a super-Earth-size planet. Image credit: NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech.

Terrestrial Exoplanets around Low-Mass Stars Probably Have Protective Magnetospheres

Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting close to low-mass parent stars likely have magnetic fields that protect them from stellar radiation, says a duo of astronomers...

The Sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 10:58 a.m. EDT on September 28. This SDO image shows a subset of extreme UV light that highlights the extraordinarily hot material in flares and which is typically colorized in red. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Mid-Level Solar Flare

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a mid-level solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right hand side of the...

This image snapped by Hubble reveals a detailed view of part of the disc of beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 613. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen's University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Breathtaking Picture of NGC 613

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of NGC 613, a barred spiral galaxy. This image snapped by Hubble reveals a detailed...

Vista Magellanic Clouds Survey view of the galaxy SAGE0536AGN (elliptical object in the center of the frame). Image credit: ESO / VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey / Royal Astronomical Society.

Monster Black Hole Found 2.3 Billion Light-Years Away

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the UK has discovered a black hole of 350 million solar masses at the center of the galaxy SAGE1C J053634.78−722658.5 (SAGE0536AGN...

This Hubble image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as the Witch’s Broom Nebula (NGC 6960). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Get Best View Yet of Veil Nebula

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

About 8,000 years ago, Neolithic humans would have witnessed what appeared to be a bright new star blazing in the northern sky. In fact, it was the violent...

The upper two panels of this graphic represent a possible explanation for a recent increase in X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* seen by three X-ray telescopes. As part of a long monitoring campaign, astronomers observed the black hole as a mysterious object called G2 appeared to pass close to the black hole. The timing of G2’s passage could suggest that material from G2 caused the surge in X-ray activity, but it is also possible that this unrelated behavior of Sagittarius A*. The bottom panel is a view of the region around the black hole where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A* itself is not visible in this image, but is embedded in the white dot at the end of the arrow. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MPE / G.Ponti et al. / M.Weiss.

X-Ray Observations of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Reveal Unusual Activity

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

A long monitoring campaign of the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A*, has revealed some unusual activity. Typically relatively quiet, the...

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. The very active state of this galaxy is very evident from the image, showing many star formation regions. A great number of supershell nebulae, that is, cocoon of gas inflated and etched by successive bursts of star formation, are visible. The green nebulosities are regions emitting in the ionized oxygen lines and may harbour clusters with very hot stars. This composite image is based on images obtained with the FORS1 instrument on one of the 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Astronomers determined that this galaxy harbors a black hole 5,000 times more massive than our Sun. Image credit: ESO.

NGC 1313 X-1: Astronomers Find Intermediate-Mass Black Hole 5,000 Times Mass of Sun

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313 (also known as the Topsy Turvy Galaxy). This...

This WFI image shows the spectacular nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars is approximately 5,920 light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Unveil Detailed View of Messier 17

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers have obtained one of the sharpest views ever of a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas called Messier 17 (M17). This WFI image shows the...

Two black holes are entwined in a gravitational tango in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA.

Binary Supermassive Black Holes May Be Rarer Than Thought

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

There may be fewer supermassive black hole binaries at the cores of galaxies than previously thought, says a team of scientists from Brandeis University...

This is an artist's impression of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris b and its parent star. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Gemini Planet Imager Captures Best View Yet of Exoplanet Moving around its Sun

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A series of images taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on the Gemini South telescope in Chile shows an extrasolar gas giant called Beta Pictoris...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3521. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board Hubble. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3521

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 3521. This Hubble image shows the spiral...

Artist’s depiction of a black hole merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / A. Hobart / Josh Barnes, University of Hawaii / John Hibbard, NRAO.

Astronomers Find Closest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes

Sep 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of U.S. astronomers has found the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever discovered in the Universe. Artist’s depiction of a black hole...

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