Astronomy News

Astronomers Witness Birth of Massive Cluster Galaxy

B.H.C. Emonts et al found that the Spiderweb, a massive galaxy in the center of a distant protocluster, is forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. In this artist’s conception of the protocluster, the protogalaxies are shown in white and pink, and the blue indicates the location of the carbon monoxide gas. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.
Dec 3, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Massive galaxies may grow from cold molecular gas that condenses as stars rather than forming in violent mergers, according to an international team of astronomers that studied a protocluster of still-forming galaxies. B.H.C. Emonts et al found that the Spiderweb, a massive galaxy in the center of a distant protocluster, is forming from a large reservoir of molecular gas. In this artist’s conception of the protocluster, the protogalaxies are shown...

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Star of Bethlehem May Not Have Been Star After All, Says Astrophysicist

Dec 2, 2016 by News Staff

Grant Mathews, professor of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology in the University of Notre Dame’s College of Science, believes the event that led...

This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 4696. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Fabian.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Hidden Depths of NGC 4696

Dec 1, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of NGC 4696, an unusual looking galaxy with a bright core wrapped in a system...

An artist’s impression of a near-Earth asteroid. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

2015 TC25: Astronomers Find Smallest Known Near-Earth Asteroid

Dec 1, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by University of Arizona scientist Dr. Vishnu Reddy has obtained observations of the smallest near-Earth asteroid...

This artist’s view shows how the light coming from the surface of a strongly magnetic neutron star (left) becomes linearly polarized as it travels through the vacuum of space close to the star on its way to the observer on Earth (right). The polarization of the observed light in the extremely strong magnetic field suggests that the empty space around the neutron star is subject to a quantum effect known as vacuum birefringence. The magnetic and electric field directions of the light rays are shown by the red and blue lines. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Astronomers Report First Observational Evidence for Vacuum Birefringence

Nov 30, 2016 by News Staff

By studying the light emitted from the very dense and strongly magnetic neutron star RX J1856.5-3754, a team of astronomers has found the strongest observational...

Planets form around a young star in this artist’s concept. Image credit: David A. Hardy, www.astroart.org / NASA.

Solar System’s Birth was Triggered by Nearby Low-Mass Supernova, Researchers Say

Nov 29, 2016 by News Staff

A low-mass core-collapse supernova catalyzed the birth of our Solar System, according to a team of scientists led by University of Minnesota researcher. Planets...

This artist’s impression shows a super-Earth orbiting a red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA.

K2-3d: Ground-Based Telescope Observes Super-Earth Transiting Bright Star

Nov 28, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astronomers in Japan has conducted the first ground-based transit observation of K2-3d, a super-Earth within the habitable zone around a bright...

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the dwarf irregular galaxy IC 3583. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Dwarf Galaxy IC 3583

Nov 28, 2016 by News Staff

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy IC 3583, which lies in the constellation of Virgo, approximately 27.8 million light-years away. This...

The location of the FRB 150807. The yellow circle shows the typical location of an FRB. There are thousands of stars and galaxies in this direction. Because FRB 150807 was very bright the astronomers were able to locate it to a small region near the edge of that circle, shown as the pink banana-shaped region in the inset. In this region there are only six detected galaxies. The position of the most likely host galaxy, VHS7, is highlighted on the plot. Image credit: Vikram Ravi, California Institute of Technology / Ryan Shannon, ICRAR-Curtin & CSIRO.

Astronomers Report Most Luminous ‘Fast Radio Burst’ Ever Observed

Nov 21, 2016 by News Staff

A research team led by California Institute of Technology astronomer Vikram Ravi and Curtin University research fellow Ryan Shannon has detected the brightest...

Virgo I: New Dwarf Galaxy Discovered in Orbit around Milky Way

Nov 21, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have identified a new ultra-faint dwarf satellite companion of our Milky Way Galaxy. A schematic showing the locations of Virgo I and other...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows NGC 3274, a barred spiral galaxy about 21 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy PGC 213714 is also visible on the upper right of the frame, located much further away from us. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Calzetti.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 3274

Nov 21, 2016 by Natali Anderson

NASA has released a stunning photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 3274, a relatively faint galaxy in the constellation of Leo. This...

Kepler 11145123 is the roundest natural object ever measured in the Universe. Stellar oscillations imply a difference in radius between the equator and the poles of only 3 km. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick.

Kepler 11145123 is Most Spherical Natural Object Ever Seen, Astronomers Say

Nov 18, 2016 by News Staff

Kepler 11145123, a slowly rotating star roughly 5,000 light-years away, is the most spherical natural object ever measured, more spherical than the Sun,...

An artist’s concept of Gliese 536b orbiting its star, 33 light-years from Earth. Image credit: Gabriel Perez / Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

Gliese 536b: Super-Earth Found Orbiting Nearby Star

Nov 18, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has discovered a super-Earth planet in orbit around Gliese 536, a red dwarf star approximately 33 light-years away. An...

This Hubble image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 4789A. The image also reveals numerous other galaxies, far more distant, that appear as fuzzy shapes spread across the image. The colors in this image have been deliberately exaggerated to emphasize the mix of blue and red stars. The blue stars are bright, hot and massive stars that have formed relatively recently, whereas the red stars are much older. The presence of both tells us that stars have been forming in this galaxy throughout its history. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Snaps Breathtaking Image of Little-Known Dwarf Galaxy

Nov 14, 2016 by News Staff

NGC 4789A, a small galaxy approximately 14 million light-years away, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble...

This illustration depicts a newly discovered brown dwarf. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Brown Dwarf 16,300 Light-Years Away

Nov 11, 2016 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers has spotted a brown dwarf orbiting a K-type dwarf star approximately 16,300 light-years away. The object was discovered...

Artist’s impression of the dust disk and a forming Neptune-like planet around TW Hydrae. Image credit: NAOJ.

ESO’s Exoplanet Hunter Spots Curious Features in Planet-Forming Disks around Three Young Stars

Nov 9, 2016 by News Staff

New observations with SPHERE, an advanced exoplanet-hunting instrument on the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, have revealed striking...

This image, a composite of data from ALMA and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a very rare cosmic sight: a pair of interacting galaxies that have taken on an ocular structure. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Kaufman.

Colliding Galaxies Produce Bizarre Eye-Shaped Structure

Nov 8, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the United States, France and the UK has observed a tsunami of stars and gas that is crashing midway through the disk of the...

CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. Image credit: Shaun Amy.

Breakthrough Listen: Parkes Radio Telescope Turns to Proxima b

Nov 8, 2016 by News Staff

Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever research program aimed at finding evidence of advanced civilizations beyond Earth, today announced its first observations...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the lenticular galaxy NGC 1222. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 1222

Nov 7, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this incredible image of NGC 1222, a large lenticular galaxy with a starburst nucleus. This image from...

Left: this deep Hubble image of the galaxy cluster ZwCl 1715.5+4229 (also known as ZwCl 8193) shows the full extent of the giant galaxy 2MASX 17171926+4226571 and some of its gravitationally lensed background galaxies. The white ‘X’ marks the VLBA radio position, the white ‘+’ marks the Hubble optical position of the giant galaxy’s core, and the white box bounds the zoomed image at right. Right: this shallower zoomed Hubble image of the galaxy cluster reveals the core of the giant galaxy, the smaller galaxy, several cluster galaxies, and extended interaction debris. The Hubble position of the giant galaxy’s core is marked by the white ‘+,’ and optical identification of B3 1715+425 is enclosed by a white circle centered on its Hubble position. Image credit: J.J. Condon et al / NASA / ESA / Hubble / NSF / VLBA.

Astronomers Find ‘Nearly Naked’ Supermassive Black Hole Two Billion Light-Years Away

Nov 3, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by National Radio Astronomy Observatory astronomer James Condon has found the shredded remains of a small galaxy that passed through...

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