Astronomy News

Astronomers Detect Anomalous Cold Gas Outflow from Milky Way’s Center

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have observed cold, dense and high-velocity molecular gas outflowing from the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The presence of this gas is puzzling, because neither Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole in the Milky Way’s center, at its current level of activity nor star formation in the inner Galaxy seems to be a viable source for this cold material. Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast...

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Will Universe End with ‘Black Dwarf’ Supernova Explosions?

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A series of ‘black dwarf’ supernovae will be the last astrophysical events to occur in our Universe prior to the so-called heat death, when the Universe...

Chandra Spots High-Velocity Knots of Stellar Debris in Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show small knots of metal-rich debris in the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, also known as SN 1604,...

An artist’s conception of a potential solar companion, which theorists believe was developed in the Sun’s birth cluster and later lost. If proven, the solar companion theory would provide additional credence to theories that the Oort Cloud formed as we see it today, and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed in place. Image credit: M. Weiss.

Early Solar System May Have Had Two Suns

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj show that an equal-mass stellar companion...

An artist’s rendition of a supernova explosion. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / L. Calcada / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Nearby Supernovae Caused Late Devonian Extinctions, Scientists Say

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

Multiple supernova explosions about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and several subsequent extinction events at the Devonian-Carboniferous...

2020 QG (circled streak) was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on August 16, 2020. Image credit: ZTF / Caltech Optical Observatories.

Tiny Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Closest Fly-By of Earth on Record

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 QG safely flew past our planet on August 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (August 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT) at a distance of...

An artist’s impression of one of the team’s discoveries -- the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld / William Pendrill.

Astronomers Find 95 New Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has spotted 95 new brown dwarfs near the Sun. An artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Isn’t Made of Hydrogen Ice, Study Says

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

‘Oumuamua, a recently-discovered cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin, is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all, according to a new study...

This Hubble image shows the Meathook Galaxy, a distorted spiral galaxy located 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Close-Up of Meathook Galaxy

Aug 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacular image of part of the distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2442/NGC 2443. This Hubble image shows...

This artist’s impression was generated using an image of Betelgeuse from 2019 taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Betelgeuse’s Mysterious Dimming Likely Caused by Huge Outburst

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

The red supergiant Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and appears even more luminous because it is so close to Earth, only 650 light-years...

A reconstructed image of SPT-S J041839-4751.9. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Rizzo et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2572-6.

ALMA Finds Young Milky Way-Like Galaxy in Early Universe

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered an extremely distant galaxy that looks surprisingly like our...

An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s TESS Spacecraft Completes Its Primary Mission

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

On July 4, 2020, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) completed its primary mission and is continuing its search for new extrasolar worlds. An...

This composite image shows the Sun with open magnetic field lines (colored) overlapping with regions with enhanced helium abundance. Image credit: NASA.

Helium Structures Spotted in Solar Corona

Aug 11, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s HERSCHEL (Helium Resonance Scattering in the Corona and Heliosphere) sounding rocket have obtained global images of the helium...

This image of Eurybates and its moon (circled) was captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on September 14, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Noll et al, arXiv: 2008.01858.

Hubble Spots Small Moon Orbiting Trojan Asteroid Eurybates

Aug 10, 2020 by Natali Anderson

The trojan asteroid (3548) Eurybates, one of the targets of NASA’s upcoming Lucy mission, has a tiny moon. This image of Eurybates and its moon (circled)...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1614. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Four 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. Adamo.

Hubble Snaps Image of Distorted Spiral Galaxy: NGC 1614

Aug 10, 2020 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the highly distorted barred spiral galaxy NGC 1614. This Hubble image shows...

An artist’s impression of Hubble observing the total lunar eclipse. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Hubble Probes Earth’s Atmosphere during Total Lunar Eclipse

Aug 6, 2020 by News Staff

Taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse in January 2019, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have measured the amount of ozone in the...

These pre-explosion (left panel and right top panel) and post-explosion (right bottom panel) images from Hubble show SN 2019ehk and its host galaxy Messier 100. The location of SN 2019ehk is marked by red lines and the alignment uncertainty is indicated by pink ellipses. Image credit: Jacobson-Galán et al, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab9e66.

Astronomers Catch X-Rays from Calcium-Rich Supernova

Aug 5, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have for the first time used X-ray imaging to examine a calcium-rich supernova. Their findings, published in the Astrophysical Journal, show...

An artist’s conception of the dwarf star TVLM-513-46546 and its massive planet TVLM 513b. Image credit: Luis A. Curiel Ramirez.

Radio Astronomers Discover Saturn-Sized Exoplanet around Ultracool Dwarf

Aug 5, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NSF’s Very Long Baseline Array, a continentwide system of 10 radio telescope antennas located between Hawaii and Puerto Rico, have...

This ALMA image shows the planet-forming disk around the young star RU Lupi. The inset image (lower left, red disk) shows the DSHARP observation of the dust disk with rings and gaps that hint at the presence of forming planets. The new observation shows a large spiral structure (blue), made out of gas, that spans far beyond the compact dust disk. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / J. Huang and S. Andrews / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Gaseous Spiral Arms around Young Variable Star

Aug 4, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a giant set of spiral arms around the young variable star RU...

VLT/SPHERE/ZIMPOL images of (31) Euphrosyne. Image credit: Yang et al, arXiv: 2007.08059.

VLT Measures Main-Belt Asteroid Euphrosyne and Its Moon

Aug 3, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using the high-angular resolution observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have determined the 3D shape, diameter and density...

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