Astronomy News

Astronomer Throws Light on Origins of Outcast Supernovae

These Hubble images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy. The X in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Prof Foley suggests the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast. These outcast supernovae are located at various distances from their home galaxies. SN 2000ds (left) is at least 12,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 2768; SN 2005cz (right) is at least 7,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 4589. NGC 2768 resides 75 million light-years from Earth, and NGC 4589 is 108 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Foley, University of Illinois.
Aug 16, 2015 by News Staff

Outcast supernovae that explode all alone in space present a scientific mystery. Prof Ryan Foley from the University of Illinois has developed a theory for where these doomed stars come from and how they arrived at their current homes. These Hubble images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy. The...

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An artistic conception of the young Jovian planet 51 Eridani b. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / Franck Marchis / SETI Institute.

51 Eridani b: Jupiter-Like Exoplanet Discovered 97 Light-Years Away

Aug 14, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini Planet Imager have discovered a young Jupiter-like planet orbiting a nearby star known as 51 Eridani. An artistic conception...

RGG 118: Astronomers Find Smallest Known Supermassive Black Hole

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the 6.5-m Clay Telescope in Chile has found the smallest supermassive black hole ever...

Kepler-453b (right) orbits a pair of stars. Image credit: Mark Garlick, markgarlick.com.

Kepler-453b: Astronomers Discover New Circumbinary Exoplanet

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Israel, Europe, Korea and the United States has announced the discovery of a circumbinary gas giant in the habitable zone of...

A galaxy from the GAMA survey observed at different wavelengths from the far UV to the far IR. Image credit: ICRAR / GAMA.

Universe is Slowly Fading, Astronomers Say

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers studying more than 221,000 galaxies has measured the energy generated within a large portion of space more precisely than ever before,...

EGSY8p7: Astronomers Find Most Distant Known Galaxy

Aug 10, 2015 by News Staff

Known by its catalog name, EGSY-2008532660 (EGSY8p7 for short), the galaxy is so far away that light from it now reaching ground-based telescopes shows...

The object in this Hubble image is a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 428. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Barred Spiral NGC 428

Aug 10, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured this image of part of an...

Using the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI) to study a system with two quasars 10 billion light-years away, the astronomers have unveiled a protogalaxy being fed cool gas by a filament of the cosmic web. The quasar UM 287 is the larger object at right; the newly-discovered protogalaxy is above and to the left of UM 287. This picture combines a visible light image of the system with CWI data; a filament of the cosmic web can be seen funneling cold gas onto the protogalaxy. Image credit: Chris Martin / PCWI / Caltech.

Astronomers Discover Enormous Protogalaxy 10 Billion Light-Years Away

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager have discovered a giant protogalaxy 10 billion light-years away, and found that it is connected to a filament...

An image of the distribution of GRBs on the sky at a distance of 9 billion light-years, centered on the newly-discovered ring-like structure; the positions of the GRBs are marked by blue dots, and the Milky Way is indicated for reference, running from left to right across the image. Image credit: Lajos Balazs.

Astronomers Discover Ring-Like Structure 5.6 Billion Light-Years Across

Aug 5, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Hungary and the United States has announced the discovery of the largest regular formation in the observable Universe –...

This VLT image shows the planetary nebula ESO 378-1. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers See Colorful ‘Owl’ in the Sky

Aug 5, 2015 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured the best view yet of the little-known nebula ESO 378-1, also known as the Southern Owl Nebula, PN K...

An artist’s impression of the binary system PSR J1023+0038: the extremely dense, rapidly-spinning neutron star, just 10-15 km in size, is in a close orbit with a more normal companion star. The strong gravity of the neutron star pulls gas from its companion, which spirals in towards the neutron star, forming a disk. Some fraction of that gas gets accelerated outwards in energetic, oppositely-directed jets, which give off the radio waves that can be seen by Earth’s radio telescopes. Image credit: ICRAR.

Neutron Stars Rival Black Holes in Producing Powerful Jets

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

Neutron stars may rival black holes in their ability to accelerate powerful jets of material to nearly the speed of light, says a group of scientists from...

This image shows how stellar orbits in the Milky Way Galaxy can change. It shows two pairs of stars, marked as red and blue, in which each pair started in the same orbit, and then one star in the pair changed orbits. The star marked as red has completed its move into a new orbit, while the star marked in blue is still moving. Image credit: Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc. / SDSS collaboration.

New Map of Milky Way Galaxy Reveals Stars Migrate Far from Birthplaces

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III (SDSS) has produced a new map of our home Milky Way Galaxy and determined that...

This collage of radar images of 1999 JD6 was collected by NASA scientists on July 25, 2015. The asteroid appears to be a contact binary. These views, which are radar echoes, were obtained by pairing NASA's 230-foot-wide Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, with the 330-foot Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. Using this approach, the Goldstone antenna beams a radar signal at an asteroid and Green Bank receives the reflections. The technique, referred to as a bistatic observation, dramatically improves the amount of detail that can be seen in radar images. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR.

Astronomers Capture Radar Images of Near-Earth Asteroid 1999 JD6

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

Using NSF’s Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and NASA’s Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, astronomers bounced radar signals...

This Hubble image shows the center of the Lagoon Nebula. The region is filled with intense winds from hot stars, churning funnels of gas, and energetic star formation, all embedded within an intricate haze of gas and pitch-dark dust. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Trauger, JPL.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Amazing Image of Lagoon Nebula

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of the Lagoon Nebula, one of the finest and brightest star-forming regions known...

This Hubble image of the planetary nebula NGC 6818 (Little Gem Nebula) shows two layers of gas (with dust): a spherical outer region and a brighter, vase-shaped interior bubble. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Captures Amazing Photo of Little Gem Nebula

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of a planetary nebula called NGC 6818. This...

This graphic illustrates how a star can magnify and brighten the light of a background star when it passes in front of the distant star. If the foreground star has planets, then the planets may also magnify the light of the background star, but for a much shorter period of time than their host star. Astronomers use this method, called gravitational microlensing, to identify planets. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Astronomers Confirm Failed-Jupiter Exoplanet around Distant Star

Jul 31, 2015 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, two teams of astronomers have independently confirmed the existence of...

This artist’s impression shows the super-Earth exoplanet HD 219134b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

HD 219134: Three Super-Earths Found Orbiting Star 21 Light-Years Away

Jul 30, 2015 by News Staff

Using the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Italian Telescopio Nazionale Galileo at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Canary Islands), astronomers have...

Artist’s impression of an auroral display on a brown dwarf. Image credit: Chuck Carter / Gregg Hallinan / Caltech.

Brown Dwarfs Host Powerful Aurora Displays, Astronomers Say

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the United States and Europe has discovered that brown dwarfs – the so-called failed stars – host powerful auroras...

This image shows Nova Centauri 2013 (brightest star in the center) in July 2015. This was more than eighteen months after the initial explosive outburst. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Detect Lithium in Nova for First Time

Jul 29, 2015 by News Staff

Using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory and the ESO 0.5-m telescope at the Observatory of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de...

This Hubble image shows the planetary nebula NGC 6565. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / M. Novak.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at NGC 6565

Jul 27, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of NGC 6565. This Hubble image shows the planetary...

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