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An image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of PSR B1509-58. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Discover Strange New Pulsar

May 4, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope have discovered an exotic pulsar that has the widest orbit of any around a neutron...

A hypothetical gas giant exoplanet. Image credit: NASA.

HATS-6b: Astronomers Discover Strange Saturn-like Exoplanet

May 1, 2015 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers from the United States, Australia, Chile, Germany, and Hungary, has discovered an extrasolar gas giant orbiting very...

This visualization of the 3D structure of the Pillars of Creation is based on new observations of the object using VLT’s MUSE instrument. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

ESO’s VLT Captures Pillars of Creation in 3D

Apr 30, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have created a 3D map of the iconic Pillars of Creation. This image...

Composed of gas and dust, this molecular cloud resides in a stellar nursery called the Carina Nebula, located 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

Water Vapor Could Have Been Abundant in Early Universe, Scientists Say

Apr 29, 2015 by News Staff

Water vapor could have been just as abundant in cosmic molecular clouds a billion years after the Big Bang as it is today, says a group of researchers...

The planetary system HD 7924. Image credit: Karen Teramura / Benjamin Fulton / UH IfA.

Two New Super-Earth Exoplanets Discovered around Nearby Star HD 7924

Apr 29, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using three ground-based telescopes in the United States has discovered two super-Earths around a nearby star known as HD 7924. The...

A slice through the map of nearby galaxy superclusters; the map spans nearly 2 billion light years from side to side. Regions with many galaxies are shown in white or red, whereas regions with fewer galaxies are dark blue. Image credit: University of Waterloo, adapted by Sci-News.com.

Scientists Create 3D Map of Nearby Galaxy Superclusters

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Canada and France has produced a three-dimensional density map of galaxies that spans approximately 2 billion light-years. A...

Images of SN 2012ap and its host galaxy, NGC 1729. Image credit: D. Milisavljevic et al.

SN 2012ap: Astronomers Find ‘Missing Link’ in Supernova Family Tree

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

Supernova SN 2012ap is a ‘missing link’ between stellar explosions that generate gamma-ray bursts and those that don’t, says a group of astronomers...

This image shows the star-forming galaxy UGC 5797. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Luca Limatola.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Image of Star-Forming Galaxy UGC 5797

Apr 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have acquired an image of a distant galaxy called UGC 5797. This image shows the star-forming galaxy...

A radio image highlighting the shock wave - seen here as the bright arc running from bottom left to top right - in the cluster CIZA J2242.8+5310. The shock wave was generated 1 billion years ago, when the two original clusters collided, and is moving at a very high speed of 9 million km per hour. Scale bar – 1 million light-years. Image credit: Andra Stroe.

Cluster Merger-Driven Shock Fronts Can Resurrect ‘Red and Dead’ Galaxies

Apr 27, 2015 by News Staff

‘Red and dead’ galaxies that stopped forming stars in the distant past can sometimes come back to life, find two studies published in the journal Monthly...

This image shows the protoplanetary disc surrounding the young star HL Tauri. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

Embryonic Planets Found around Young Star HL Tauri

Apr 27, 2015 by News Staff

According to a group of astronomers led by Dr Daniel Tamayo of the University of Toronto Scarborough’s Centre for Planetary Science and the Canadian...

This image illustrates the creation of a runaway galaxy. In the first panel, an ‘intruder’ spiral galaxy approaches a galaxy cluster center, where a compact elliptical galaxy already revolves around a massive central elliptical galaxy. In the second panel, a close encounter occurs and the compact elliptical receives a gravitational kick from the intruder. In the third panel, the compact elliptical escapes the galaxy cluster while the intruder is devoured by the giant elliptical galaxy in the cluster center. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Discover 11 Runaway Galaxies

Apr 24, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Igor Chilingarian of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and his colleague, Dr Ivan Zolotukhin of the L’Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique...

This image of the open star cluster Westerlund 2 and its surroundings has been released to celebrate Hubble’s 25th year in orbit. The image’s central region, containing the star cluster, blends visible-light data taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys and near-infrared exposures taken by the Wide Field Camera 3. The surrounding region is composed of visible-light observations taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / A. Nota / Westerlund 2 Science Team.

Hubble Celebrates 25th Anniversary with Amazing Image of Westerlund 2

Apr 23, 2015 by News Staff

To commemorate the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s 25 years of success, astronomers have captured a stunning new image of a distant star cluster known...

This artist’s view shows the hot Jupiter exoplanet 51 Pegasi b. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / Nick Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Astronomers Detect Reflected Light from Hot Jupiter Exoplanet 51 Pegasi b

Apr 22, 2015 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have directly detected visible light reflected off an extrasolar planet. This artist’s view shows the hot Jupiter exoplanet...

This composite image shows the Thor’s Helmet Nebula, also known NGC 2359. It combines X-ray data collected by XMM-Newton (blue) with optical observations from the Star Shadows Remote Observatory (green and red). North is to the left, west is up. Image credit: J.A. Toala & M.A. Guerrero, IAA-CSIC / Y.-H. Chu, UIUC-ASIAA / R.A. Gruendl, UIUC / S. Mazlin, J. Harvey, D. Verschatse & R. Gilbert, SSRO-South / ESA.

Astronomers Capture Extraordinary View of Thor’s Helmet Nebula

Apr 21, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the EPIC cameras on ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory and the Star Shadows Remote Observatory at New Mexico Skies and Cerro Tololo...

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

Astronomers Discover Extremely Close Pair of Supermassive Black Holes

Apr 21, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers led by Tingting Liu of the University of Maryland has discovered a pulsing light signal that hints at a close pair of supermassive...

The supervoid. Image credit: István Szapudi et al.

Supervoid: Astronomers Find Large ‘Hole’ in Universe

Apr 21, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by Dr Istvan Szapudi of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy has discovered a large supervoid...

This image shows the peculiar galaxy ESO 162-17. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Zooms in on Peculiar Galaxy ESO 162-17

Apr 20, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have taken a stunning image of the galaxy ESO 162-17. This image...

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.

Star Formation Stops in Cores of Elliptical Galaxies First, Astronomers Say

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Science has revealed that 3 billion years after the Big Bang, elliptical galaxies still made stars on their outskirts, but no...

This image shows Abell 3827, a massive galaxy cluster approximately 1.3 billion light years away. The blue structures surrounding the central galaxies are gravitationally lensed views of a much more distant galaxy behind the cluster. Observations of the central four merging galaxies have provided hints that the dark matter around one of the galaxies is not moving with the galaxy itself, possibly implying dark matter-dark matter interactions of an unknown nature are occurring. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Observe Potential Signs of Self-Interacting Dark Matter

Apr 15, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the MUSE instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile, an international group of scientists led by Dr Richard Massey...