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Mercury appears to undergo seasonal meteor showers. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Mercury Experiences Seasonal Meteor Showers, Say NASA Scientists

Dec 17, 2014 by News Staff

Mercury – the smallest planet in our Solar System – appears to get hit by recurring meteor showers, possibly associated with Comet 2P/Encke. Mercury...

X-ray data from Chandra have revealed that NGC 2207 (left) and IC 2163, currently in the process of colliding with one another, have produced one of the most bountiful collections of super bright X-ray lights called ultraluminous X-ray sources. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / SAO / S.Mineo et al; optical – NASA / STScI; infrared: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Space Observatories Zero in on Colliding Galaxy Pair NGC 2207 – IC 2163

Dec 14, 2014 by News Staff

A spectacular cosmic collision between the spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 has been caught in a composite image generated by NASA’s Chandra X-ray...

This is an artist impression of the protoplanetary disk around HD 107146. Image credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Discover Hundreds of Pluto-Size Objects Orbiting Star HD 107146

Dec 12, 2014 by News Staff

U.S. astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array have discovered an entire family of Pluto-size planetesimals around a nearby young...

This Hubble composite image shows a ring of dark matter in the galaxy cluster ZwCl0024+1652; the ring-like structure is evident in the blue map of the cluster's dark matter distribution; the map is superimposed on a Hubble image of the cluster. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M.J. Jee and H. Ford, Johns Hopkins University.

X-Ray Signal from Andromeda, Other Galaxies Could Be Evidence of Dark Matter

Dec 12, 2014 by News Staff

European scientists have detected a mysterious photon emission in X-ray spectra of the Andromeda galaxy, the Draco dwarf galaxy and some other galaxies...

Color composite image of the starburst spiral galaxy NGC 4102 obtained with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / S. Smartt, Queen's University Belfast / Renaud Houdinet.

Hubble Captures Starburst Spiral Galaxy NGC 4102

Dec 8, 2014 by News Staff

NASA has released a dazzling image from the Hubble Space Telescope, showing a nearby spiral galaxy called NGC 4102. Color composite image of the starburst...

J1649+2635 is only the fourth jet-emitting spiral galaxy discovered so far: yellow is visible-light image; blue is the radio image, indicating the presence of jets. Image credit: Mao et al / NRAO / AUI / NSF / SDSS.

Astronomers Discover Extremely Rare Jet-Emitting Spiral Galaxy

Dec 5, 2014 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered a new example of a jet-emitting spiral galaxy, SDSS J164924.01+263502.5 (J1649+2635 for short). J1649+2635...

This artist’s concept contrasts our Earth with 55 Cancri e. Image credit: NASA.

Astronomers See Super-Earth Transit from Ground

Dec 2, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers using a 2-meter-class ground-based telescope has detected the shallow transit of a nearby exoplanet called 55 Cancri...

This image shows the dwarf galaxy UGC 1281. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Luca Limatola.

Astronomers Zoom in on Dwarf Galaxy UGC 1281

Dec 1, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a new image of a tiny galaxy known as UGC 1281. This image shows the dwarf galaxy UGC 1281....

This image of the bright star cluster NGC 3532 was captured by the Wide Field Imager instrument at La Silla Observatory in 2013; some of the stars still shine with a hot bluish color, but many of the more massive ones have become red giants and glow with a rich orange hue. Image credit: ESO / G. Beccari.

European Astronomers Capture Beautiful Image of Star Cluster NGC 3532

Nov 28, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using ESO’s MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope has captured a colorful view of the open star cluster NGC 3532. This image of the bright star...

This image shows the spiral Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151, also known as the Eye of Sauron. Image credit: NASA.

Astronomers Measure Distance to Eye of Sauron (NGC 4151)

Nov 27, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Sebastian Hoenig from the University of Copenhagen and the University of Southampton has developed a new method for determining...

This image shows what the Milky Way Galaxy looked like ten billion years ago. Image credit: SURFsara / J. Bédorf / NVIDIA.

What Our Milky Way Galaxy Looked Like 10 Billion Years Ago

Nov 26, 2014 by News Staff

Using two supercomputers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, a group of researchers headed by Dr Simon Portegies...

This image shows four globular clusters in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy, from left to right, top to bottom: Fornax 1, Fornax 2, Fornax 3 and Fornax 5. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Larsen, Radboud University, the Netherlands.

Mystery of Globular Star Clusters’ Formation Deepens

Nov 26, 2014 by News Staff

New Hubble Space Telescope observations of globular star clusters in a tiny galaxy called the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Fornax dSph) show these objects...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 986. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 986

Nov 25, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have photographed a distant barred spiral galaxy called NGC 986. This image shows the barred spiral galaxy...

The dwarf galaxy Markarian 177 (center) and SDSS1133 (blue) lie 90 million light-years away. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Astronomers Discover Mysterious Source of Light in Dwarf Galaxy Markarian 177

Nov 21, 2014 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers led by Dr Michael Koss of ETH Zurich has discovered an exotic object in a galaxy some 90 million light-years away. The...

This artist's impression shows the mysterious alignments between the spin axes of quasars and the large-scale structures they inhabit; these alignments are over billions of light-years and are the largest known in the Universe. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Mysterious Alignment of Quasar Axes with Universe’s Large-Scale Structures Revealed

Nov 20, 2014 by News Staff

European astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have found that the rotation axes of quasars are parallel to each other over very long distances...

Colorized infrared image of Uranus obtained on August 6, 2014, with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope; white spots are large storms. Image credit: Imke de Pater, University of California, Berkeley / Keck Observatory images.

Astronomers Spot Large Storms on Uranus

Nov 14, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii has detected eight massive storms on the northern hemisphere of Uranus, the seventh planet...

Different views of the remnant of SN 1987A. Upper left panel: SNR1987A as seen by Hubble in 2010. Upper right panel: SNR1987A as seen by the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Bottom panel: a computer generated visualisation of the remnant showing the possible location of a pulsar. Image credit: ATCA / ALMA / G. Zanardo et al / NASA / ESA / K. France, University of Colorado, Boulder / P. Challis and R. Kirshner, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Scientists Examine Remnant of Supernova SN 1987A

Nov 11, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in New South...

This is a composite image of the young star HL Tauri and its surroundings using data from ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / ESA / Hubble / NASA / Judy Schmidt.

ALMA Captures Planet Formation around Young Star HL Tauri

Nov 6, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured an image of a protoplanetary disk around a young Sun-like star...

This image shows the supermassive black hole Sgr A* and the region around it. The inset shows Sgr A* and G2. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MIT / F.K. Baganoff et al. / E. Slawik / G. Witzel et al.

Scientists Solve Mystery of Strange Object at Milky Way Galaxy’s Center

Nov 4, 2014 by News Staff

A dusty red object at the heart of our Milky Way Galaxy called G2 is a pair of binary stars that merged together, according to a team of researchers led...