Astronomy News

Astronomers Zoom in on Planetary Nebula Abell 33

This image shows the planetary nebula Abell 33. Image credit: ESO.
Apr 9, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have captured a beautiful new image of the planetary nebula Abell 33. This image shows the planetary nebula Abell 33. Image credit: ESO. Most stars with masses similar to that of our Sun will end their lives as white dwarfs – small, very dense, and hot bodies that slowly cool down over billions of years. On the way to the final phase of their lives the stars throw their atmospheres out into the...

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An artist's conception of how BOSS uses quasars to measure the distant Universe. Image credit: Zosia Rostomian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Andreu Font-Ribera, BOSS Lyman-alpha team, Berkeley Lab.

Astronomers Use Quasars to Measure Expansion Rate of Early Universe

Apr 8, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) have used 140,000 quasars to measure the expansion rate of the Universe when it was...

This composite image shows the galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915, also known as the El Gordo Galaxy Cluster, the most massive cluster of galaxies ever seen to exist when the Universe was just half of its current age of 13.8 billion years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Jee, University of California, Davis / J. Hughes, Rutgers University / F. Menanteau, Rutgers University and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign / C. Sifon, Leiden Observatory / R. Mandelbum, Carnegie Mellon University / L. Barrientos, Universidad Catolica de Chile / K. Ng, University of California, Davis.

El Gordo: Hubble ‘Weighs’ Giant Galaxy Cluster

Apr 4, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have weighed the El Gordo Galaxy Cluster – the largest known galaxy cluster in the distant Universe. This...

This image shows a pair of galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller companion NGC 1317, right. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Zoom in on Intriguing Galaxy Pair NGC 1316-NGC 1317

Apr 3, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, has captured a new image of two galaxies:...

Astronomers Detect Ring System around Minor Planet Chariklo

Apr 1, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists led by Dr Felipe Braga-Ribas from Observatório Nacional/MCTI in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have observed for the first time a minor planet with...

This is an artist's visualization of the dwarf planet Sedna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, SSC-Caltech.

2012 VP113: New Dwarf Planet Discovered

Mar 27, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers Dr Chadwick Trujillo of Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Dr Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Institution for Science have discovered a dwarf planet,...

Collage of galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey at infrared/submillimeter wavelengths by Herschel, left, and at visible wavelengths from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, right. The Herschel image is colored with blue representing cold dust and red representing warm dust; the SDSS image shows young stars in blue and old stars in red. Together, the observations plot young, dust-rich spiral/irregular galaxies in the top left, with giant dust-poor elliptical galaxies in the bottom right. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / HRS-SAG2 / HeViCS Key Programmes / Sloan Digital Sky Survey / L. Cortese, Swinburne University.

Herschel Completes Largest Ever Dust Census in Local Universe

Mar 25, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory have completed the largest-ever survey of cosmic dust, spanning 323 nearby galaxies located...

This image shows part of NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

Hubble Zooms in on Monkey Head Nebula

Mar 21, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning new image of the nebula NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. This...

This is a fragment of the GLIMPSE360 panorama. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

GLIMPSE360: Astronomers Create 360-Degree View of Milky Way Galaxy

Mar 21, 2014 by News Staff

Using images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, a group of astronomers has created a dramatic 360-degree portrait of our Galaxy. This is a fragment...

The tiny temperature fluctuations of the cosmic microwave background, shown here as color, trace primordial density fluctuations in the early universe that seed the later growth of galaxies. Gravitational waves from inflation are expected to produce much a fainter pattern that includes twisting B-mode polarization, consistent with the B-mode polarization pattern observed by BICEP2, which is shown here as black lines. The line segments show the polarization strength and orientation at different spots on the sky. Image credit: BICEP2 Collaboration.

Researchers Find Direct Evidence of Cosmic Inflation

Mar 18, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists using the BICEP2 Radio Telescope at the South Pole announced they have found the first direct evidence that gravitational waves – disturbances...

HR 5171A: Astronomers Discover Largest Yellow Hypergiant Star

Mar 12, 2014 by News Staff

An international team of scientists using the Very Large Telescope Interferometer has discovered the largest known yellow hypergiant star in our Galaxy. This...

Multiple images of the quasar RX J1131-1231 are visible in this data from Chandra and Hubble. Image credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / University of Michigan / R.C. Reis et al; optical – NASA / STScI.

RX J1131-1231: Scientists Directly Measure Spin of Extremely Distant Supermassive Black Hole

Mar 6, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astrophysicists led by Dr Rubens Reis from the University of Michigan has directly measured the spin of a supermassive black hole in a quasar...

This is a composite image of the galaxy ESO 137-001. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CXC.

ESO 137-001: Astronomers Zoom in on Unusual Spiral Galaxy

Mar 5, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory have captured a stunning new image of the bizarre spiral galaxy ESO 137-001. This...

This Hubble image shows the supernova SN 2014J in the nearby galaxy M82. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Goobar, Stockholm University / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

SN 2014J: Hubble Captures New Image of Bright Supernova in Messier 82

Mar 1, 2014 by News Staff

A new image of a huge supernova discovered six weeks ago in the nearby galaxy Messier 82 has been captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble...

Nearby spiral galaxy M83 and the MQ1 system with jets, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. The blue circle marks the position of the MQ1 system in the galaxy, shown inset. Credit: M83 – NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / WFC3 / UVIS / STScI-PRC14-04a; MQ1 inset - W. P. Blair, Johns Hopkins University / R. Soria, ICRAR-Curtin.

MQ1: Powerful Black Hole Discovered in Messier 83

Feb 28, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a new black hole in the nearby galaxy Messier 83, also known as M83, the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy or NGC 5236. Nearby spiral...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

NASA Astronomers Discover 715 New Exoplanets

Feb 27, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers of NASA’s Kepler mission announced yesterday the discovery of 715 new extrasolar planets orbiting 305 stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. This...

This is an artist's impression of Tau Boötis b. Image credit: David Aguilar / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Tau Boötis b: Astronomers Detect Water in Atmosphere of Jupiter-like Exoplanet

Feb 26, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers led by Alexandra Lockwood from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have detected the water vapor in the atmosphere of an extrasolar...

An image of the flash resulting from the impact of a large meteorite on the lunar surface on 11 September 2013, obtained with the 0.36-m-telescope in Sevilla, Spain. Image credit: Jose M. Madiedo / MIDAS.

Astronomers Document Record-Breaking Lunar Impact

Feb 24, 2014 by News Staff

On September 11, 2013, an object with the mass of a small car hit the lunar surface in Mare Nubium, an ancient lava-filled basin with a darker appearance...

This is an artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers See Asteroids Hitting Distant Pulsar

Feb 21, 2014 by News Staff

According to astronomers led by Mr Paul Brook, a PhD student from the University of Oxford and CSIRO, a small pulsar dubbed PSR J0738-4042 is being pounded...

This is an artist's concept of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Scientists Discover Huge Gas Clouds Orbiting Supermassive Black Holes

Feb 21, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Alex Markowitz from the University of California, San Diego and the Karl Remeis Observatory in Bamberg, Germany, has discovered...

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