Astronomy News

Gold on Earth Came from Colliding Stars, Astrophysicists Say

This artist's conception portrays two neutron stars at the moment of collision. Such collisions produce rare heavy elements, including gold (Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc.)
Jul 18, 2013 by News Staff

According to new research by Dr Edo Berger and his colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, all Earth’s gold likely came from colliding neutron stars. Optical afterglow of GRB 130603B (A. Cucchiara et al / Gemini South team) Unlike elements like carbon or iron, gold cannot be created within a star. Instead, it must be born in more cataclysmic events known as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Dr Berger’s team studied the gamma-ray...

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This simulation of a gas cloud passing close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy shows the situation in mid-2013 (ESO / S. Gillessen / MPE / Marc Schartmann)

Astronomers Spy Mysterious Gas Cloud at Milky Way’s Galactic Center

Jul 17, 2013 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has made detailed observations of a hot gas cloud being ripped apart by the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. New...

This image combines data from two different observatories: Chandra X-ray data – purple; Hubble data - red, green, and blue. X-ray data from Chandra reveal the location of million-degree gas near the center of the planetary nebula. Hubble data show the intricate pattern of the outer layers of the star that have been ejected (X-ray: NASA / CXC / IAA-CSIC / N. Ruiz et al; optical: NASA / STScI)

Chandra Zooms in on Eskimo Nebula NGC 2392

Jul 12, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chandra X-ray observations of a remarkable planetary nebula called NGC 2392 have revealed superheated gas around the dense, hot core of the nebula. This...

An artist’s impression of HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star HD 189733 (NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser)

Hubble Sees True Color of Extrasolar Planet HD 189733b

Jul 11, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope’s Imaging Spectrograph has for the first time determined the true color of an extrasolar...

An artist's impression of the forming massive star (Manchester University)

ALMA Sees Birth of Most Massive Star in Milky Way Galaxy

Jul 10, 2013 by News Staff

European astronomers, using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama desert, have observed the birth of a massive...

This artist’s impression shows a galaxy in the distant Universe, just two billion years after the Big Bang, in the process of pulling in cool gas, shown in orange, from its surroundings (ESO / L. Calçada / ESA / AOES Medialab)

Distant Quasar Helps Catch Star-Forming Galaxy in Act of Feeding

Jul 5, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers, led by Dr Nicolas Bouche from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France, have spotted a distant galaxy hungrily...

CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope, which has been used to confirm a population of Fast Radio Bursts, is shown superimposed on an image showing the distribution of gas in our Galaxy; an artist's impression of a single fast radio burst is shown located well away from the Galactic plane emission (Swinburne Astronomy Productions)

Astronomers Detect Mysterious Radio Bursts from Young Universe

Jul 5, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has detected mysterious bursts of radio waves originating from cosmological distances when the Universe was just half...

An artist’s impression shows a stage in the merger between Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (NASA / ESA / Z. Levay / R. van der Marel / STScI / T. Hallas / A. Mellinger)

Milky Way Galaxy Collided with Andromeda 10 Billion Years Ago, Astronomers Suggest

Jul 4, 2013 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy had a close encounter around 10 billion years ago, according to European astronomers led by Dr Hongsheng...

This image shows an extrasolar planet orbiting star Gliese 370 (ESO / M. Kornmesser)

60 Billion Potentially Habitable Planets May be Orbiting Red Dwarfs in Milky Way

Jul 2, 2013 by News Staff

According to a new study reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, there may be as many as 60 billion planets in the so-called habitable zone around...

This image shows the newly discovered exoplanets Kepler-66b and Kepler-67b in the open star cluster NGC 6811 (Michael Bachofner)

Astronomers Discover Two Exoplanets in Star Cluster NGC 6811

Jun 27, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international group of astronomers reporting in the journal Nature has discovered two extrasolar planets circling Sun-like stars in the open star cluster...

This is the view from the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd looking towards the planet’s parent star Gliese 667C (ESO / M. Kornmesser)

Astronomers Re-examine Gliese 667C, Suggest First System with Fully Packed Habitable Zone

Jun 25, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has used new observations of Gliese 667C to find evidence of up to seven planets circling the star, including three...

Galaxy pair Arp 142, below the center of the image (NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA)

Hubble Sees Colliding Galaxy Pair Arp 142

Jun 21, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new image of two interacting galaxies collectively...

This wide-field view of Andromeda contains optical data from the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner and Swansey Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona. The marked area shows the region of the Chandra observations (NOAO / AURA / NSF / REU Prog. / B. Schoening, V. Harvey / Descubre Fndn. / CAHA / OAUV / DSA / V.Peris)

Astronomers Find 26 Possible Black Holes in Andromeda Galaxy

Jun 17, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international group of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has reported the detection of 26 black hole candidates in Messier 31,...

TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk (NASA / ESA / J. Debes, STScI / H. Jang-Condell, University of Wyoming / A. Weinberger, Carnegie Institution of Washington / A. Roberge, Goddard Space Flight Center / G. Schneider, University of Arizona, Steward Observatory / A. Feild, STScI, AURA)

Young Planet around TW Hydrae Challenges Theories on How Planets Form

Jun 15, 2013 by News Staff

A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org version) provides evidence that an extrasolar planet may be forming quite far from a small...

The open star cluster NGC 3766 is located in the constellation of Centaurus. New observations of NGC 3766’s stars have shown that 36 of them are of a new and unknown class of variable stars (ESO)

Astronomers Discover New Class of Variable Stars

Jun 12, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Multi-band observations of NGC 3766, an open star cluster located about 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, have yielded the discovery...

The galaxy Segue 2: boxes are ten member stars identified so far by University of California Irvine astronomers and their colleagues (Sci-News.com / Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD)

Segue 2: Most Lightweight Galaxy in Universe

Jun 11, 2013 by Natali Anderson

According to the findings of a study published online in the Astrophysical Journal, a dwarf galaxy named Segue 2 is the least massive galaxy in the known...

Artist’s impression of the dust trap in the system Oph-IRS 48 (ESO / L. Calçada)

Comet Factory around Oph-IRS 48 Helps Solve Planet Formation Mystery

Jun 7, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured an image of a so-called ‘dust trap’ – a region where...

An artist's rendering of exoplanet KELT-6b by Lexington, KY-based artist Erin Plew of Queen of Arts LLC (Vanderbilt University)

Astronomy Student Discovers Saturn-like Exoplanet KELT-6b

Jun 5, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Doctoral student Karen Collins from the University of Louisville and her colleagues using the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT) have discovered...

This image shows the exoplanet candidate HD95086 b (ESO / J. Rameau)

Astronomers Directly Image Exoplanet Candidate HD95086 b

Jun 3, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have captured an image of a faint object circling the young, dusty, early-type star HD 95086. With a mass...

Composite image of the magnetar SGR 0418 (X-ray: NASA / CXC / CSIC-IEEC / N.Rea et al.; optical: Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes / WHT; infrared: NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers Discover SGR 0418, Magnetar with Lowest Surface Magnetic Field

May 28, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers using X-ray data from NASA’s Swift, RXTE, Chandra and ESA’s XMM-Newton Space Observatories has discovered...

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