Astronomy News

US 708: Hypervelocity Star Ejected by Supernova Breaks Galactic Speed Record

An artist impression of the mass-transfer phase followed by a double-detonation supernova that leads to the ejection of US 708. While this illustration shows the supernova, bottom center, and the ejected star, left, at the same time, in reality the supernova would have been faded away long before the star reached that position. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / S. Geier.
Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers led by Dr Stephan Geier from the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany, has determined that a hypervelocity star known as US 708 is traveling at about 1,200 km per second. The hypervelocity star US 708. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD. US 708 is an extremely helium-rich white dwarf located at a distance of 61,970 light-years away. It was first discovered in 1982...

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This image shows four different images of SN Refsdal whose light has been distorted and magnified by the massive galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 in front of it. The huge mass of the cluster and one of the galaxies within it is bending the light from a supernova behind them and creating four separate images of the supernova. The light has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing and as a result the images are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a formation known as an Einstein cross. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, JHU / FrontierSN team / T. Treu, UCLA / P. Kelly, UC Berkeley / GLASS team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH team / Z. Levay, STScI.

SN Refsdal: Hubble Spots Four Magnified Images of Same Supernova

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

Due to the gravitational lensing technique, a team of astronomers led by Dr Patrick Kelly from the University of California, Berkeley, has observed four...

The exoplanet 30 Ari Bb orbits its primary star, yellow, in about a year’s time; the star, 30 Ari B, has a companion - the small red dwarf shown at upper left; this pair of stars is itself locked in a long-distance orbit with another pair of stars, upper right, known as 30 Ari A. Image credit: Karen Teramura / UH IfA.

30 Ari Bb: Super-Jupiter Exoplanet Orbiting in Quadruple Star System

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers headed by Dr Lewis Roberts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, an extrasolar gas giant called 30 Arietis...

The star cluster Camargo 438. Image credit: D. Camargo / NASA / WISE.

Astronomers Discover Two Very Distant Star Clusters

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Brazilian astronomers using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer have discovered two clusters of stars forming at the very edge of our...

This image from Hubble shows the T Tauri variable star V1331 Cyg. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Karl Stapelfeldt, GSFC / B. Stecklum & A. Choudhary, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg.

Hubble Sees Young Star V1331 Cyg, Its Nebular Environment

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking image of a young variable star known as V1331 Cyg and its dusty environment. This...

This spectacular view from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. The galaxy A1689-zD1 is located in the box, although it is still so faint that it is barely seen in this picture. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Bradley, Johns Hopkins University / R. Bouwens, University of California, Santa Cruz /H. Ford, Johns Hopkins University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

A1689-zD1: Astronomers Find Highly Evolved Galaxy in Early Universe

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists, headed by Dr Darach Watson of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, has used the X-ray instrument on ESO’s Very...

The background image in this composite shows the Hubble image of the region known as the Hubble Deep Field South. New observations using VLT’s MUSE instrument have detected remote galaxies that are not visible to Hubble; two examples are highlighted in this composite view; these objects are completely invisible in the Hubble picture but show up strongly in the appropriate parts of the three-dimensional MUSE data. Image credit: ESO / MUSE Consortium / R. Bacon.

ESO’s VLT Telescope Sees Deep Universe in 3D

Feb 26, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MUSE instrument on European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile have been able to get...

This image shows SDSS J0100+2802 (center), the brightest quasar in the early Universe. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking Quasar

Feb 25, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from the United States, China, Chile, and Australia, has discovered the brightest quasar in the early Universe, powered by the most...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4424. To the left there are two bright objects in the frame: the brightest is another, smaller galaxy known as LEDA 213994, and the object closer to NGC 4424 is an anonymous star in our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Gilles Chapdelaine.

Hubble Presents Amazing New Image: NGC 4424

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showcases NGC 4424, a 12th magnitude barred spiral galaxy...

Comparing Hubble images of the gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star Beta Pictoris taken in 1997 and 2012, astronomers find that the dust distribution has barely changed over 15 years despite the fact that the entire structure is orbiting the star like a carousel. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Apai, University of Arizona, Tucson / G. Schneider, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Hubble Sees Gas-and-Dust Disk around Beta Pictoris

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

Using the unique observing capabilities of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have produced the most detailed picture so far of an edge-on...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist's conception, based on an image of the Pinwheel galaxy from Hubble. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

NuSTAR and XMM-Newton Space Telescopes Capture Ultra-Fast Black Hole Winds

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) X-ray telescopes, astronomers have discovered that the super-fast...

This artist's impression shows the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy, including the location of the spiral arms and other components such as the bulge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt.

Dark Matter May Have Caused Earth’s Cataclysms, Mass Extinctions

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

The Solar System’s movement through a dark-matter halo enveloping our Milky Way Galaxy may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating...

Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A. The warped shape of NGC 5128’s disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, NGC 5128 contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / R. O'Connell, University of Virginia / WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee.

Dark Matter Influences Growth of Galaxies’ Central Supermassive Black Holes

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of elliptical galaxies led by Dr Akos Bogdan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has revealed a surprising link between galaxies’...

Exoplanet KIC 1255b orbits its parent star followed by a comet-like dust tail. Image credit: Maciej Szyszko.

KIC 1255b: Astronomers Observe Giant Dust Tail of Disintegrating Exoplanet

Feb 19, 2015 by News Staff

Using the ULTRACAM instrument on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, a group of astronomers led by Jakub Bochinski of Open University in Milton Keynes,...

This false-color composite image shows the Scholz’s binary star (center). Image credit: V. D. Ivanov et al., 10.1051/0004-6361/201424883.

Scholz’s Star: Binary System Passed through Outer Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago

Feb 18, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Dr Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester has determined that 70,000 years ago the recently discovered,...

This image shows the location of the mysterious plume (circled) on Mars; south is up. Image credit: W. Jaeschke / D. Parker.

High-Altitude Clouds or Auroras? Researchers Puzzled by Mysterious Plumes on Mars

Feb 17, 2015 by News Staff

Strange plumes that have been observed above the surface of the Red Planet are baffling scientists. This image shows the location of the mysterious plume...

This image shows the globular star cluster Palomar 12. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Spies Distant Globular Cluster Palomar 12

Feb 16, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on board NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a beautiful image of a globular star cluster called Palomar 12. This...

New ALMA data reveal a diffuse envelope of carbon monoxide gas (shown in red), which surrounds regions of active star formation (yellow); by dissecting these regions with this powerful radio telescope, astronomers are uncovering clues to the processes and conditions that drive furious star formation; the ALMA data are superimposed on a Hubble image. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / A. Leroy / STScI / NASA / ST-ECF / ESA / CADC / NRC / CSA.

Astronomers Peer into Heart of Nearby Starburst Galaxy NGC 253

Feb 16, 2015 by News Staff

To understand why some galaxies burst while others do not, Dr David Meier of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the New Mexico Institute of Mining...

A supermassive black hole digesting the remnants of a star. Image credit: NASA.

Interstellar Science Team Provides New Insights into Rapidly Spinning Black Holes

Feb 14, 2015 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, the team responsible for the visual effects at the center of Christopher Nolan’s...

Kepler-432b: Astronomers Discover New Super-Jupiter Exoplanet

Feb 12, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, two teams of astronomers, led by Mauricio Ortiz from the University of Heidelberg and Simona Ciceri of the...

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