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The Flame Nebula is the large feature on the left half of the central, yellow rectangle. The smaller feature on the right is the reflection nebula NGC 2023. To the top right of NGC 2023, the iconic Horsehead Nebula seems to emerge heroically from the ‘flames.’ The three objects are part of the Orion cloud, a giant gas structure located between 1,300 and 1,600 light-years away. The different colors indicate the velocity of the gas. The Flame Nebula and its surroundings are moving away from us, with the red clouds in the background receding faster than the yellow ones in the foreground. Image credit: ESO / Thomas Stanke / J. Emerson / VISTA / Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

Radio Astronomers Take Close Look at Flame Nebula

Jan 5, 2022 by News Staff

Using the recently-installed SuperCam instrument on ESO’s Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) in the Atacama Desert, Chile, astronomers have produced...

An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA.

Webb Telescope’s Sunshield Fully Deployed

Jan 5, 2022 by News Staff

The Webb team has successfully completed tensioning for the five layers of the observatory’s kite-shaped sunshield. An artist’s impression of the James...

This artist’s impression shows a binary stellar system at the start of a common envelope phase. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar, artsource.nl.

ALMA Investigates Nature of Water-Fountain Stellar Systems

Jan 4, 2022 by News Staff

One of the most poorly understood stellar evolutionary paths is that of binary stellar systems undergoing common-envelope evolution, when the enormous...

This color image from the DECam Plane Survey shows TIC 400799224. Image credit: Powell et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/ac2c81.

TESS Spots Mysterious Dust-Emitting Object in Binary Stellar System

Jan 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a unique object of uncertain nature — possibly a disintegrating...

This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts NGC 105, a spiral galaxy 215.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces, and a smaller distant galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jones / Riess et al. / R. Colombari.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Conjunction of Two Spiral Galaxies

Jan 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

While it looks like a spiral galaxy called NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a collision with a neighboring spiral galaxy, this is just the result of the...

Four enormous cavities have been found at the center of the RBS 797 galaxy cluster using Chandra. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Bologna / F. Ubertosi / STScl / M. Calzadilla / NSF / NRAO / ALMA.

Chandra Spots Four Cavities in Center of Galaxy Cluster

Dec 29, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have found a quartet of pronounced X-ray cavities in RBS 797, a cluster of galaxies located about...

An artist’s impression of a giant magnetar flare. Image credit: Universitat de València.

ASIM Detects Huge Pulsating Flare from Extragalactic Magnetar

Dec 27, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The giant gamma-ray flare event, designated GRB 2001415, was emitted by a powerful magnetar in NGC 253, an active starburst galaxy approximately 11 million...

This Hubble image shows UGC 9391, a spiral galaxy some 120 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Riess et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Lonely Spiral Galaxy

Dec 27, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed image of the spiral galaxy UGC 9391. This Hubble image shows...

The James Webb Space Telescope lifted off on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on December 25, 2021, on its exciting mission to unlock the secrets of the Universe. Image credit: ESA / CNES / Arianespace.

Webb Launches to Study Universe in Infrared

Dec 26, 2021 by News Staff

The James Webb Space Telescope, an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), launched at 7:20 a.m. EST (13:20 CET)...

This image shows the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is a satellite of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Pingel et al., arXiv: 2111.05339.

Astronomers Snap New Radio Image of Small Magellanic Cloud

Dec 24, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of radio astronomers has assembled the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen emission associated with a nearby dwarf galaxy called...

This MWA image shows Centaurus A at radio wavelengths, revealing vast lobes of plasma that reach far beyond the visible galaxy, which occupies only a small patch at the center of the image. The dots in the background are not stars, but radio galaxies much like Centaurus A, at far greater distances. Image credit: Ben McKinley, ICRAR & Curtin University / Connor Matherne, Louisiana State University.

Radio Astronomers Spot Bipolar Outflow from Centaurus A’s Supermassive Black Hole

Dec 23, 2021 by News Staff

Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is a giant elliptical galaxy 12 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. In its center lies an actively feeding...

An artist’s impression of the exoplanet HAT-P-11b with its extended helium atmosphere blown away by the star, an orange dwarf star smaller, but more active, than the Sun. Image credit: Denis Bajram.

HAT-P-11b Has Strong Magnetosphere, Metal-Poor Atmosphere

Dec 23, 2021 by News Staff

Using ultraviolet data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have detected carbon ions — charged particles that interact with magnetic...

This artist’s impression shows an example of a free-floating planet with the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex visible in the background. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Find At Least 70 Free-Floating Exoplanets in Nearby Star-Forming Region

Dec 22, 2021 by News Staff

Using observations and archival data from several space- and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a rich population of free-floating planets...

This image, captured by the SoloHI instrument onboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter, shows the comet Leonard. Image credit: ESA / NASA / NRL / SoloHI.

NASA’s and ESA’s Sun-Studying Missions Observe Comet Leonard

Dec 22, 2021 by News Staff

When C/2021 A1 (Leonard), a recently-discovered long-period comet about 1 km wide, makes its closest pass of the Sun on January 3, 2022, it will be a journey...

This Hubble image shows NGC 1755, an open star cluster some 160,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Dorado. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Milone / G. Gilmore.

Hubble Spots Young Cluster in Large Magellanic Cloud

Dec 20, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the open star cluster NGC 1755. This Hubble image shows NGC 1755,...

In this illustration of the center of the Milky Way, stars are seen to be in close orbit around Sagittarius A*. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva, Spaceengine / M. Zamani, NOIRLab.

Astrophysicists Make Most Precise Measurement Yet of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole Mass

Dec 15, 2021 by News Staff

Sagittarius A*, supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, has a mass of 4.3 million times that of the Sun, according to an analysis...

All-sky map of the Milky Way in motion using the Gaia data. Areas with significant motion are shown in black/purple and those with relatively low motion in yellow. A number of large scale filamentary disc structures are evident about the midplane. The map also shows the Magellanic Clouds and their connecting stellar bridge to left, while the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy currently being torn apart can be seen on the right (main body). Image credit: Laporte et al., doi: 10.1093/mnrasl/slab109.

Astronomers Find Fossil Spiral Arms in Milky Way Galaxy

Dec 15, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from ESA’s Gaia satellite and archival spectroscopic surveys, astronomers have mapped the Milky Way disk substructure at distances over 10,000...

An analysis of citizen scientist photos of a 2018 STEVE event show the purple and green light emissions occur at different altitudes but along the same magnetic field lines; this indicates they’re driven by the same region of the magnetosphere nearly 30,000 km above Earth’s surface. Image credit: Neil Zeller.

Study: Different STEVE Emissions are Driven by Same Narrow Region in Earth’s Magnetosphere

Dec 14, 2021 by News Staff

A rare upper-atmosphere phenomenon called Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement (STEVE) has been well documented by amateur aurora watchers from...

WISE images of the BD+60 1417 system. Image credit: Léopold Gramaize / Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project.

Jupiter-Like Planetary Object Spotted 146 Light-Years Away

Dec 13, 2021 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has discovered a planetary-mass object co-moving with...