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An artist’s impression of the magnetar Swift J1818.0-1617. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NRAO / S. Dagnello.

VLBA Discovers New Insights about Fastest-Spinning Magnetar

Aug 8, 2024 by News Staff

Swift J1818.0-1617 is located approximately 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. An artist’s impression of the magnetar Swift...

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the star cluster Terzan 5. Image credit: F. Ferraro / NASA / ESA / ESO.

Astronomers Find Ten New Pulsars in Terzan 5

Aug 5, 2024 by News Staff

Using data from the MeerKAT radio telescope and NSF’s Green Bank Telescope, astronomers have discovered ten new millisecond plusars in the globular cluster...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 857074. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R.J. Foley.

Hubble Spots Supernova-Hosting Galaxy with Distorted Spiral Arms

Aug 5, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken an image of the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 857074. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral...

Conceptual image of an exoplanet with an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. Structures on the right are orbiting solar panel arrays that harvest light from the parent star and convert it into electricity that is then beamed to the surface via microwaves. The exoplanet on the left illustrates other potential technosignatures: city lights (glowing circular structures) on the night side and multi-colored clouds on the day side that represent various forms of pollution, such as nitrogen dioxide gas from burning fossil fuels or chlorofluorocarbons used in refrigeration. Image credit: NASA / Jay Freidlander.

Astronomers Propose New Technosignature: Silicon-Based Solar Panels

Aug 2, 2024 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, Dr. Ravi Kopparapu of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues assessed the potential...

This artist’s concept shows what happened when two massive clusters of galaxies, collectively known as MACS J0018.5+1626, collided: the dark matter in the galaxy clusters (blue) sailed ahead of the associated clouds of hot gas, or normal matter (orange); both dark matter and normal matter feel the pull of gravity, but only the normal matter experiences additional effects like shocks and turbulence, which slow it down during collisions. Image credit: W.M. Keck Observatory / Adam Makarenko.

Astronomers See Decoupling of Dark and Normal Matter in Collision of Two Galaxy Clusters

Aug 1, 2024 by News Staff

The two galaxy clusters, known collectivity as MACS J0018.5+1626, each contain thousands of galaxies and are located billions of light-years away from...

Rotational motion of young (blue) and old (red) stars similar to the Sun (orange). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt / SSC / Caltech.

Milky Way’s Thin Disk Formed Less Than One Billion Years from Big Bang, New Study Suggests

Aug 1, 2024 by News Staff

Using data from ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have found a large number of metal-poor stars older than 13 billion years on orbits similar to that of...

Clough et al. proposed a formalism for studying warp drive spacetimes dynamically and produced the first fully consistent numerical-relativity waveforms for the collapse of a warp drive bubble.

Warp Drive Collapse Should Generate Gravitational Waves, Theoretical Astrophysicists Claim

Jul 31, 2024 by News Staff

The principle idea behind a warp drive is that instead of exceeding the speed of light directly in a local reference frame, a ‘warp bubble’ could traverse...

This Hubble image shows IC 3430, a dwarf galaxy around 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The color image includes both optical and near-infrared observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It is based on data obtained through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.

Hubble Space Telescope Spies IC 3430

Jul 29, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of the dwarf elliptical galaxy IC 3430. This Hubble image shows...

This image of Epsilon Indi Ab was taken with the coronagraph on Webb’s MIRI instrument. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / E. Matthews, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy.

Webb Directly Images Temperate Super-Jupiter around Epsilon Indi A

Jul 24, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) have imaged Epsilon Indi Ab, a gas giant several times the mass of Jupiter located around 12...

This collection of images was released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Chandra. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO.

Chandra Marks 25 Years in Space with Collection of 25 Stunning Images

Jul 23, 2024 by News Staff

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Chandra team has released a set of 25 new images of cosmic objects and phenomena. This...

This artist’s conception shows the galaxy merger and its two central black holes. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Weiss, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

Astrophysicists May Have Solved ‘Final Parsec Problem’ of Supermassive Black Hole Mergers

Jul 23, 2024 by News Staff

New calculations reveal that pairs of supermassive black holes can merge into a larger black hole because of previously overlooked behavior of dark matter...

In this image, the person on the left (Scarlett Johansson) is real, while the person on the right is AI-generated. Their eyeballs are depicted underneath their faces. The reflections in the eyeballs are consistent for the real person, but incorrect (from a physics point of view) for the fake person. Image credit: Adejumoke Owolabi / CC BY 4.0.

Scientists Use Astronomy Techniques to Detect Deepfakes

Jul 22, 2024 by News Staff

Want to spot a deepfake? Look for the stars in their eyes, says a team of astronomers at the University of Hull. They suggest that AI-generated fakes can...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3430, a spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years in the constellation of Leo Minor. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It is based on data obtained through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Kilpatrick.

Hubble Sees Spiral Galaxy NGC 3430

Jul 22, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

In this new image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has focused its lens on the central part of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430. This Hubble image shows...

Siraj & Loeb explore the possibility that accretion flares resulting from the tidal disruption of small Oort Cloud bodies by a putative primordial black hole could power an observable optical signal that could be searched for with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Image credit: Sci-News.com / Zdeněk Bardon / ESO.

Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Detected Close to Milky Way’s Center

Jul 18, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Using data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other telescopes, astronomers have found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in IRS 13,...

An artist’s impression of HD 213885b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Propose New Definition of Planet

Jul 18, 2024 by News Staff

Established in 2006 by the International Astronomical Union, the current definition specifies that to qualify as a planet, a celestial body must orbit...

An artist’s impression of TIC 241249530b. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva, Spaceengine.

Astronomers Find Young Hot Jupiter on Super-Eccentric, Retrograde Orbit

Jul 17, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet five times the mass of Jupiter that makes a very peculiar orbit around its star. An artist’s impression of TIC...

Stellar, cold-gas and ionized-gas emission distributions of the rare HyLIRG Einstein ring, PJ0116-24. Image credit: Liu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02296-7.

Astronomers Study Motion of Gas in Extremely Rare Hyperluminous Infrared Galaxy

Jul 16, 2024 by News Staff

Hyperluminous infrared galaxies are the rarest and most extreme star-forming systems and found only in the distant Universe. Stellar, cold-gas and ionized-gas...

This illustration shows what WASP-39b could look like, based on the current understanding of the planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Webb Confirms Temperature Difference between Eternal Morning and Evening on WASP-39b

Jul 16, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have obtained and analyzed morning and evening transmission spectra of WASP-39b, a hot-Saturn...

This Webb image shows two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142: at left is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg for its appearance; at right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin for its appearance. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI.

Webb Captures Stunning New Image of Arp 142

Jul 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a new infrared image of a pair of interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. This...