Astronomy News

Astronomers Find Spiraling Stars in NGC 346

The unusual shape of the open cluster NGC 346 is partly due to stars and gas spiraling into the center of the cluster in a river-like motion; the red spiral superimposed on NGC 346 traces the movement of stars and gas toward the center; this spiraling motion is the most efficient way to feed star formation from the outside toward the center of the cluster. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Andi James, STScI.
Sep 8, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted young stars that are spiraling into the center of NGC 346, a massive star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The unusual shape of the open cluster NGC 346 is partly due to stars and gas spiraling into the center of the cluster in a river-like motion; the red spiral superimposed on...

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An artist’s impression of the triple brown dwarf system VHS J1256. Image credit: Sci.News.

Webb Detects Silicate Clouds on Nearby Brown Dwarf

Sep 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Using the spectral data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence for silicate clouds as well as water, methane,...

This image of the light from asteroid Didymos and its orbiting moonlet Dimorphos is a composite of 243 images taken by the DRACO camera on board NASA’s DART spacecraft on July 27, 2022. Image credit: NASA / JPL / DART Navigation Team.

NASA’s DART Spacecraft Gets First Look at Binary Asteroid Didymos

Sep 7, 2022 by News Staff

The Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation (DRACO) aboard NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has captured...

The LP 890-9 system is much more compact than our Solar System: its two planets could easily fit inside the orbit of Mercury. Image credit: Adeline Deward, RISE-Illustration.

Two Temperate Super-Earths Found Circling Ancient Red Dwarf Star

Sep 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) telescopes...

Crocker et al. reveal that the Fermi cocoon is actually due to emission from the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Image credit: O. Macias.

Astronomers Detect Gamma Rays from Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

Sep 6, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The significant gamma-ray emission is coming from a population of millisecond pulsars within the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, an elliptical loop-shaped...

This 340-light-year-wide image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) shows the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Webb ERO Production Team.

Webb Takes Close Look at Tarantula Nebula

Sep 6, 2022 by News Staff

The Tarantula Nebula, a turbulent star-birth region located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, hosts thousands of young and still-forming stars, many revealed...

Betelgeuse, the second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, was yellow-orange some 2,000 years ago. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / E. O’Gorman / P. Kervella / Sci.News.

Betelgeuse Changed Its Color Roughly 2,000 Years Ago

Sep 5, 2022 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the University of Jena and elsewhere has analyzed pre-telescopic records on star color from Europe, the Mediterranean, West...

This Hubble image shows two overlapping spiral galaxies: LEDA 2073461 and SDSS J115331.86+360024.2. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Keel.

Two Spiral Galaxies Appear to Overlap in New Hubble Image

Sep 5, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

LEDA 2073461 and SDSS J115331.86+360024.2 look like they’re interacting, but they are actually separated by millions of light-years. This Hubble image...

This Webb/MIRI image shows the super-Jupiter exoplanet HIP 65426b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / A. Carter, University of California, Santa Cruz / ERS 1386 team / A. Pagan, STScI / DSS.

Webb Directly Images Super-Jupiter Exoplanet

Sep 2, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a direct image of HIP 65426b, an extrasolar gas giant about 6 to 12 times...

The newly-discovered lensed star in the Abell 2744 galaxy-cluster field. Image credit: Chen et al., arXiv: 2207.11658.

Webb Detects Blue Supergiant Star in Early Universe

Sep 1, 2022 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered blue supergiant is much hotter than the Sun, and existed when the Universe was about 2.6 billion years old. Left panel shows the color...

This artist’s conception shows the stream of gas and stars that were flung away from a massive galaxy during its merger with a smaller galaxy. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / S. Dagnello, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

Massive Galaxy Strips Star-Forming Gas from Smaller Galaxy during Encounter

Aug 30, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed SDSS J144845.91+101010.5,...

This image, taken with the HAWK-I infrared instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the Sagittarius B1 region. Image credit: ESO / Nogueras-Lara et al.

Astronomers Detect Excess of Young Stars in Sagittarius B1

Aug 29, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Sagittarius B1, a region close to the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, hosts more than 100,000  solar masses of young stars. This image, taken with the...

Messier 74, a grand design spiral galaxy located 32 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces, shines at its brightest in this combined optical/mid-infrared image, featuring Webb and Hubble data. The red colors mark dust threaded through the arms of the galaxy, lighter oranges being areas of hotter dust. The young stars throughout the arms and the nuclear core are picked out in blue. Heavier, older stars towards the galaxy’s center are shown in cyan and green, projecting a spooky glow from the core of Messier 74. Bubbles of star formation are also visible in pink across the arms. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hubble / J. Lee / PHANGS-JWST Team / R. Chandar / J. Schmidt.

Webb and Hubble Observe Messier 74 in Multiple Wavelengths

Aug 29, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

New data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope compliment each other to provide a comprehensive view...

This Webb/NIRCam image shows the lensed star Earendel (center). Image credit: Welch et al., arXiv: 2208.09007.

Webb Sheds New Light on Stellar Properties of Earendel, Farthest Known Star

Aug 26, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Earendel is a B-type giant star, a luminous blue variable star, or even a binary system with an extremely hot primary member, according to new observations...

This transmission spectrum of WASP-39b was captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) on July 10, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Leah Hustak, STScI / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere of Hot-Saturn WASP-39b

Aug 25, 2022 by News Staff

Carbon dioxide is a key chemical species that is found in a wide range of planetary atmospheres. This transmission spectrum of WASP-39b was captured by...

An artistic rendition of the super-Earth TOI-1452b. Image credit: Benoit Gougeon, Université de Montréal.

Water-World Super-Earth Found in Nearby Binary System

Aug 24, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the SPIRou spectropolarimeter on the 3.6-m Canada-France-Hawaii telescope have...

This NIRCam/Webb image from two filters -- F212N (orange) and F335M (cyan)-- shows the Jupiter system. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Jupiter ERS Team / Ricardo Hueso, UPV & EHU / Judy Schmidt.

Webb Team Releases New Photos of Jupiter

Aug 23, 2022 by News Staff

The two new images of Jupiter were taken with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), which has three specialized infrared filters that showcase details...

An artist’s illustration of a protoplanetary disk; the insert displays carbon monoxide molecules in the ice phase. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Missing Gaseous Carbon Monoxide in Protoplanetary Disks

Aug 23, 2022 by News Staff

Carbon monoxide is ultra-bright and extremely common in protoplanetary disks, making it a prime target for astronomers. But a huge chunk of carbon monoxide...

This Webb image shows members of the SMACS0723_PC protocluster: the red circles show the position of the two spectroscopically confirmed galaxies and the green circles are at the position of the six other protocluster members candidates. Image credit: Laporte et al., arXiv: 2208.04930.

Webb Finds Protocluster of Galaxies in Early Universe

Aug 22, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers from the University of Cambridge and elsewhere have analyzed the spectroscopic and photometric data from three instruments (NIRSpec, NIRISS...

This image, taken with the Zorro imager on the 8.1-m Gemini South telescope, shows R136a1, the largest star yet discovered. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Gemini South Telescope Captures Best Ever Images of Most Massive Known Star

Aug 22, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

R136a1 has a mass between 170 and 230 solar masses, according to an analysis of optical data from the speckle imager Zorro mounted on the 8.1-m Gemini...

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