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This artist's impression shows how Gliese 1214b may look as it transits its parent star. Image credit: NAOJ.

Super-Earth Gliese 1214b Has Water-Rich Atmosphere, Japanese Astronomers Say

Sep 5, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from Japan using NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope have found that the extrasolar planet Gliese 1214b has a water-rich atmosphere. This artist’s...

This image shows the bipolar planetary nebula PN Hb 12, popularly known as Hubble 12, in the constellation of Cassiopeia. Image credit: NASA / ESA. Acknowledgement: Josh Barrington.

Hubble Zooms in on Bipolar Planetary Nebulae

Sep 5, 2013 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ESO’s New Technology Telescope, two astronomers from University of Manchester, UK, have studied 130...

This is an artist's impression of Sagittarius A* (NASA / CXC / M.Weiss).

Chandra Peers into Super-Heated Gas around Supermassive Black Hole Sagittarius A*

Sep 2, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has taken a major step in understanding why gas near the Milky Way’s...

This image shows the Trojan asteroid 2011 QF99 (Mike Alexandersen).

2011 QF99: Newly Discovered Trojan Asteroid Shares Orbit with Uranus

Aug 30, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers from Canada and France have announced the discovery of the first Trojan asteroid known to share its orbit with Uranus. This image shows the...

This image shows the Sun-like star HIP 102152. Credit: ESO/ Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin.

HIP 102152: Astronomers Find Oldest Solar Twin 250 Light-Years Away

Aug 29, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have identified the oldest solar twin known to date. This image shows the Sun-like star HIP 102152. Credit:...

This image of Herbig-Haro object HH 46/47 combines radio observations with ALMA with visible light observations from the New Technology Telescope. The ALMA observations, orange and green, lower right, of the newborn star reveal a large energetic jet moving away from us, which in the visible is hidden by dust and gas. To the left, in pink and purple, the visible part of the jet is seen, streaming partly towards us. Credit: ESO /ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / H. Arce. Acknowledgements: Bo Reipurth.

ALMA Sees Spectacular Newborn Star 1400 Light-Years Away

Aug 21, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has captured a beautiful close-up view of an object named Herbig-Haro...

Kepler 78b orbits its parent star in only 8.5 hours (NASA / JPL-Caltech).

Astronomers Discover New Earth-Sized Exoplanet Kepler 78b

Aug 21, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers reporting in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org) has discovered an Earth-sized exoplanet called Kepler 78b that...

This diagram shows a slice of the Universe some 11 billion years back in time. On the left of the diagram are the ellipticals, with lenticulars in the middle, and the spirals branching out on the right side (NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser).

Hubble Zooms in on Galaxies in Early Universe

Aug 16, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have established that mature-looking galaxies existed much earlier than previously known, when the...

X-ray data, in purple, show the hot gas has a comet-like appearance, caused by the motion of the dwarf galaxy. Optical data reveal the spiral galaxy NGC 1232 in blue and white (X-ray: NASA / CXC / Huntingdon Inst. for X-ray Astronomy / G. Garmire; optical: ESO / VLT).

Chandra Sees Multimillion-Degree Gas Cloud in NGC 1232

Aug 15, 2013 by News Staff

U.S. astronomer using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered a massive cloud of hot gas likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy...

This is an artist's impression of the pulsar PSR J1745-2900 (MPIfR / Ralph Eatough).

Pulsar Helps Astronomers Measure Magnetic Field around Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Aug 15, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has used observations of the newly discovered pulsar PSR J1745-2900 to measure the magnetic field emanating from a...

This photo shows the six-image lensed quasar SDSSJ 2222 + 2745 (Dahle H. et al).

Astronomers Discover First Ever Six-Image Lensed Quasar

Aug 12, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

A team of scientists at the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark, has reported the discovery of a six-image lensed quasar named...

This VLT image reveals two glowing clouds of gas - NGC 2014, right, and NGC 2020 (ESO).

Astronomers See Bizarre Pair in Large Magellanic Cloud

Aug 9, 2013 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured an image of two distinctive glowing...

In this composite image, the Magellanic Stream is shown in pink. The Milky Way is the light blue band in the center of the image. The Magellanic Clouds, satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, are the white regions at the bottom right (David L. Nidever et al. / NRAO / AUI / NSF / Mellinger / Leiden / Argentine / Bonn Survey / Parkes Observatory / Westerbork Observatory / Arecibo Observatory)

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Magellanic Stream’s Origin

Aug 8, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists have found that most of the Magellanic Stream was stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud about 2 billion years ago, with a smaller portion...

This is an artist's impression of GRB 130606A illuminating interstellar gas in its host galaxy (Gemini Observatory / AURA / Lynette Cook)

Extremely Distant Gamma Ray Burst Illuminates its Host Galaxy

Aug 7, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Using optical data of a recently detected gamma ray burst afterglow, astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State...

This composite image shows the newly discovered exoplanet GJ 504b (NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / NOAJ)

Scientists Directly Image Extrasolar Gas Giant GJ 504b

Aug 6, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have captured a direct image of an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star. This composite image shows the...

Prof Forbes with colleagues identified a number of star clusters with properties not seen before in the nearby elliptical galaxy NGC 4278. This composite image shows the galaxy NGC 4278 (X-Ray: NASA / CXC / MPA / M.Gilfanov and A.Bogdan; infrared: 2MASS / Umass / IPAC-Caltech / NASA / NSF; optical: DSS).

New Type of Star Cluster Discovered

Aug 5, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Australian and U.S. astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and the W.M. Keck Observatory’s 10-m telescope in Hawaii have found a new kind...

This is an artist's impression of the surface of the star HE 2359-2844. The very high temperature – about 38,000 degrees Celsius - makes the surface bluish in color. An alien observer close to the star might be able to see the lead- and zirconium-rich cloud layers using specially chosen filters (© C. S. Jeffery)

Astronomers Discover Two Heavy Metal Stars

Aug 2, 2013 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Taiwan and the UK has discovered two unusual subdwarf stars with extremely high concentrations of lead in their atmospheres. This...

This image shows 20 of the quenched galaxies (NASA / ESA / M. Carollo, ETH Zurich).

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Quenched Galaxies

Aug 2, 2013 by News Staff

A large international team of astronomers has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to learn more about so-called quenched galaxies – galaxies...

This artist's concept depicts a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Astrophysicists Find New Way to Determine How Fast Supermassive Black Holes Spin

Jul 30, 2013 by News Staff

A new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes, reported in a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (full paper in...