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This image of the superluminous supernova DES15E2mlf was taken with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) gri-band filters mounted on the Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile on December 28, 2015, around the time when DES15E2mlf reached its peak luminosity. Image credit: D. Gerdes / S. Jouvel.

Astronomers Spot Most Distant Superluminous Supernova Yet

Jul 24, 2017 by News Staff

At a distance of 10 billion light-years, DES15E2mlf — a Type I superluminous supernova (SLSN-I) spotted by the Dark Energy Survey collaboration —...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board Hubble, shows the small irregular/spiral galaxy NGC 4248. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes NGC 4248

Jul 24, 2017 by Natali Anderson

NASA has released a stunning image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the irregular/spiral galaxy NGC 4248. This image, taken with the Wide...

The Weird! Signal. Instead of emanating from Ross 128, the most likely source of the signal is a satellite orbiting the Earth. Image credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory, University of Puerto Rico.

‘Weird!’ Signal from Ross 128 isn’t from Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Astronomers Say

Jul 23, 2017 by News Staff

Professor Abel Méndez, Director of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory and a planetary astrobiologist at the University of Puerto Rico, and colleagues...

Hubble Space Telescope Spots Martian Moon Phobos

Jul 21, 2017 by News Staff

When the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed Mars near opposition on May 12, 2016, Phobos — the larger and inner of the two natural satellites...

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope produced this composite image of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. Note that the center of the Galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

High-Energy ‘Trap’ Spotted in Milky Way’s Center

Jul 19, 2017 by News Staff

The center of our Milky Way Galaxy contains a ‘trap’ that concentrates some of the highest-energy cosmic rays, according to a new analysis of data...

Ross 128 (center), also known as HIP 57548 or IRAS 11451+0105, is a red dwarf star. It has 15% of the mass of the Sun and 21% of the Sun’s radius, but generates energy so slowly that it has only 0.036% of the Sun’s visible luminosity. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Arecibo Observatory’s Radio Telescope Detects Strange Signals from Nearby Star Ross 128

Jul 18, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the 305-m (1,000-foot) radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico, recently detected ‘strange’ signals coming from Ross...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4242. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Face-On Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 4242

Jul 17, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the face-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 4242. This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on...

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured an X-class solar flare erupting on the Sun on December 19, 2014. This image blends two wavelengths of extreme UV light, 171 (gold) and 131 (purple). Image credit: NASA / SDO / Duberstein.

Sun is Solar-Type Star After All

Jul 16, 2017 by News Staff

A study led by University of Montreal researchers has confirmed that our Sun is indeed a solar-type star. Published in the journal Science, the findings...

This artist’s impression shows the view from the surface of one of the exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / Spaceengine.org.

Astrophysicists Identify Major Challenges for Development of Life on TRAPPIST-1 Planets

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

According to two separate teams of astrophysicists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and the Lowell Center for Space Science and...

Artist’s concepts of Saturn, Jupiter, EBLM J0555-57Ab and the star TRAPPIST-1. EBLM J0555-57Ab has a mass comparable to the current estimate for TRAPPIST-1, but has a radius that is nearly 30% smaller. Image credit: Amanda Smith.

Newly-Discovered Saturn-Size Star is Smallest Yet

Jul 12, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, has announced the discovery of a low-mass star, called EBLM J0555-57Ab, roughly...

This is an artist's impression of the SN 1987A remnant. The image is based on real data and reveals the cold, inner regions of the remnant, in red, where tremendous amounts of dust were detected and imaged by ALMA. This inner region is contrasted with the outer shell, lacy white and blue circles, where the blast wave from the supernova is colliding with the envelope of gas ejected from the star prior to its powerful detonation. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Alexandra Angelich, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Supernova Remnant SN 1987A Reveals Clues to How Stars are Born

Jul 11, 2017 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), two teams of astronomers have discovered a rich inventory of molecules at the center of...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2500, which lies in the northern constellation of Lynx, about 32 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Barred Spiral Galaxy Image

Jul 10, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the nearby galaxy NGC 2500, also known as LEDA 22525 and IRAS 07581+5052. This image...

The photo of the super-Jupiter HIP 65426b. Image credit: ESO / SPHERE Consortium / G. Chauvin et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Super-Jupiter around HIP 65426

Jul 9, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

Using an adaptive optics system and coronagraphic facility at ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered and directly...

This artist’s illustration portrays what the gravitationally lensed galaxy SGAS 1110 might look like up close. A sea of young, blue stars is streaked with dark dust lanes and studded with bright pink patches that mark sites of star formation. SGAS 1110 is one of more than 70 studied as part of the Sloan Giant Arcs Survey, an imaging survey that searched 240 galaxy clusters to find new examples of gravitational lensing. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI.

Hubble Finds Patches of Newborn Stars in Galaxy 11 Billion Light-Years from Earth

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a detailed image of an extremely distant, gravitationally lensed galaxy they believe...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77, which lies in the constellation Cetus, about 62 million light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Very Large Telescope Takes Close Look at Messier 77

Jul 7, 2017 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the spiral galaxy Messier 77. This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier...

False-color near-infrared image of the core of the young massive cluster RCW 38 taken with the adaptive-optics camera NACO on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. RCW 38 lies at a distance of about 5,500 light years from the Sun. The field of view of the central image is approximately 1 arc minute, or 1.5 light-years across. The insets, each spanning about 0.07 light-years on a side, show a subset of the faintest and least massive cluster candidate brown dwarfs (indicated by arrows) of RCW 38 discovered in this new image. Image credit: Muzic et al.

Milky Way Galaxy is Home to At Least 25 Billion Brown Dwarfs

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

A new estimate suggests that the Milky Way’s population of brown dwarfs — objects too large to be a planet but too small to be a star — exceeds...

A hypervelocity star leaving the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ruth Bazinet, CfA / Sci.News.

Hypervelocity Stars are ‘Runaways’ from Large Magellanic Cloud, Astronomers Say

Jul 5, 2017 by News Staff

Hypervelocity stars — ultrafast stars with speeds up to a few hundred miles per second above the average — were likely ejected from the Large...

This composite, false-color infrared image of Jupiter reveals haze particles over a range of altitudes, as seen in reflected sunlight. It was taken using the Gemini North telescope’s Near-InfraRed Imager (NIRI) on May 18, 2017. The multiple filters corresponding to each color used in the image cover wavelengths between 1.69 microns and 2.275 microns. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot (GRS) appears as the brightest (white) region at these wavelengths, which are primarily sensitive to high-altitude clouds and hazes near and above the top of Jupiter's convective region. The GRS is one of the highest-altitude features in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Narrow spiral streaks that appear to lead into it or out of it from surrounding regions probably represent atmospheric features being stretched by the intense winds within the GRS, such as the hook-like structure on its western edge (left side). Some are being swept off its eastern edge (right side) and into an extensive wave-like flow pattern, and there is even a trace of flow from its northern edge. Other features near the GRS include the dark block and dark oval to the south and the north of the eastern flow pattern, respectively, indicating a lower density of cloud and haze particles in those locations. Both are long-lived cyclonic circulations, rotating clockwise -- in the opposite direction as the counterclockwise rotation of the GRS. A prominent wave pattern is evident north of the equator, along with two bright ovals, which are anticyclones that appeared in January 2017. Both the wave pattern and the ovals may be associated with an impressive upsurge in stormy activity that has been observed in these latitudes this year. Another bright anticyclonic oval is seen further north. High hazes are evident over both polar regions with much spatial structure not previously been seen quite so clearly in ground-based images. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / AURA / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Infrared Images of Jupiter from Subaru and Gemini Telescopes to Enhance Juno Flyby

Jul 4, 2017 by News Staff

High-resolution imaging of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot by the Subaru Telescope and the Gemini North telescope, both on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea peak, is...

Ground-Based Telescope Detects Methanol at Saturn’s Moon Enceladus

Jul 3, 2017 by News Staff

Using the IRAM radio telescope, astronomers have observed an extended gas cloud around Saturn’s moon Enceladus and detected the signature of the organic...