Astronomy News

Astronomers Discover Two Heavy Metal Stars

This is an artist's impression of the surface of the star HE 2359-2844. The very high temperature – about 38,000 degrees Celsius - makes the surface bluish in color. An alien observer close to the star might be able to see the lead- and zirconium-rich cloud layers using specially chosen filters (© C. S. Jeffery)
Aug 2, 2013 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Taiwan and the UK has discovered two unusual subdwarf stars with extremely high concentrations of lead in their atmospheres. This is an artist’s impression of the surface of the star HE 2359-2844. The very high temperature – about 38,000 degrees Celsius – makes the surface bluish in color. An alien observer close to the star might be able to see the lead- and zirconium-rich cloud layers using specially chosen...

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This image shows 20 of the quenched galaxies (NASA / ESA / M. Carollo, ETH Zurich).

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Quenched Galaxies

Aug 2, 2013 by News Staff

A large international team of astronomers has used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to learn more about so-called quenched galaxies – galaxies...

This artist's concept depicts a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Astrophysicists Find New Way to Determine How Fast Supermassive Black Holes Spin

Jul 30, 2013 by News Staff

A new way of measuring the spin in supermassive black holes, reported in a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (full paper in...

This artist’s impression shows HD 189733b, a gas giant that goes around its star once every 2.2 days. The inset shows HD 189733, its faint red companion and HD 189733b in X-rays (Illustration: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss; X-ray: NASA / CXC / SAO / K.Poppenhaeger et al)

HD 189733b: Chandra Sees Nearest Hot Jupiter in X-Rays

Jul 30, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has observed six transits of an exoplanet called HD 189733b, the closest...

This is a 3D visualization of ALMA observations of cold carbon monoxide gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 (ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Erik Rosolowsky)

ALMA May Help Solve Mystery of Missing Massive Galaxies

Jul 25, 2013 by News Staff

Very detailed new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) of nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 may help explain the strange...

This is an artist's impression of the snow line in TW Hydrae showing water ice covered dust grains in the inner disc, shown in blue, and carbon monoxide ice covered grains in the outer disc, shown in green (B. Saxton / A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO)

Snow Detected in Young Planetary System TW Hydrae

Jul 19, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time directly imaged a snow line at another star. This is...

This artist's conception portrays two neutron stars at the moment of collision. Such collisions produce rare heavy elements, including gold (Dana Berry / SkyWorks Digital, Inc.)

Gold on Earth Came from Colliding Stars, Astrophysicists Say

Jul 18, 2013 by News Staff

According to new research by Dr Edo Berger and his colleagues at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, all Earth’s gold likely came from...

This simulation of a gas cloud passing close to the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy shows the situation in mid-2013 (ESO / S. Gillessen / MPE / Marc Schartmann)

Astronomers Spy Mysterious Gas Cloud at Milky Way’s Galactic Center

Jul 17, 2013 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope has made detailed observations of a hot gas cloud being ripped apart by the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy. New...

This image combines data from two different observatories: Chandra X-ray data – purple; Hubble data - red, green, and blue. X-ray data from Chandra reveal the location of million-degree gas near the center of the planetary nebula. Hubble data show the intricate pattern of the outer layers of the star that have been ejected (X-ray: NASA / CXC / IAA-CSIC / N. Ruiz et al; optical: NASA / STScI)

Chandra Zooms in on Eskimo Nebula NGC 2392

Jul 12, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chandra X-ray observations of a remarkable planetary nebula called NGC 2392 have revealed superheated gas around the dense, hot core of the nebula. This...

An artist’s impression of HD 189733b, a huge gas giant that orbits very close to its host star HD 189733 (NASA / ESA / M. Kornmesser)

Hubble Sees True Color of Extrasolar Planet HD 189733b

Jul 11, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope’s Imaging Spectrograph has for the first time determined the true color of an extrasolar...

An artist's impression of the forming massive star (Manchester University)

ALMA Sees Birth of Most Massive Star in Milky Way Galaxy

Jul 10, 2013 by News Staff

European astronomers, using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama desert, have observed the birth of a massive...

This artist’s impression shows a galaxy in the distant Universe, just two billion years after the Big Bang, in the process of pulling in cool gas, shown in orange, from its surroundings (ESO / L. Calçada / ESA / AOES Medialab)

Distant Quasar Helps Catch Star-Forming Galaxy in Act of Feeding

Jul 5, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers, led by Dr Nicolas Bouche from the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology in Toulouse, France, have spotted a distant galaxy hungrily...

CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope, which has been used to confirm a population of Fast Radio Bursts, is shown superimposed on an image showing the distribution of gas in our Galaxy; an artist's impression of a single fast radio burst is shown located well away from the Galactic plane emission (Swinburne Astronomy Productions)

Astronomers Detect Mysterious Radio Bursts from Young Universe

Jul 5, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has detected mysterious bursts of radio waves originating from cosmological distances when the Universe was just half...

An artist’s impression shows a stage in the merger between Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (NASA / ESA / Z. Levay / R. van der Marel / STScI / T. Hallas / A. Mellinger)

Milky Way Galaxy Collided with Andromeda 10 Billion Years Ago, Astronomers Suggest

Jul 4, 2013 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy had a close encounter around 10 billion years ago, according to European astronomers led by Dr Hongsheng...

This image shows an extrasolar planet orbiting star Gliese 370 (ESO / M. Kornmesser)

60 Billion Potentially Habitable Planets May be Orbiting Red Dwarfs in Milky Way

Jul 2, 2013 by News Staff

According to a new study reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, there may be as many as 60 billion planets in the so-called habitable zone around...

This image shows the newly discovered exoplanets Kepler-66b and Kepler-67b in the open star cluster NGC 6811 (Michael Bachofner)

Astronomers Discover Two Exoplanets in Star Cluster NGC 6811

Jun 27, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international group of astronomers reporting in the journal Nature has discovered two extrasolar planets circling Sun-like stars in the open star cluster...

This is the view from the exoplanet Gliese 667Cd looking towards the planet’s parent star Gliese 667C (ESO / M. Kornmesser)

Astronomers Re-examine Gliese 667C, Suggest First System with Fully Packed Habitable Zone

Jun 25, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has used new observations of Gliese 667C to find evidence of up to seven planets circling the star, including three...

Galaxy pair Arp 142, below the center of the image (NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA)

Hubble Sees Colliding Galaxy Pair Arp 142

Jun 21, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new image of two interacting galaxies collectively...

This wide-field view of Andromeda contains optical data from the Burrell Schmidt telescope of the Warner and Swansey Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona. The marked area shows the region of the Chandra observations (NOAO / AURA / NSF / REU Prog. / B. Schoening, V. Harvey / Descubre Fndn. / CAHA / OAUV / DSA / V.Peris)

Astronomers Find 26 Possible Black Holes in Andromeda Galaxy

Jun 17, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international group of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has reported the detection of 26 black hole candidates in Messier 31,...

TW Hydrae protoplanetary disk (NASA / ESA / J. Debes, STScI / H. Jang-Condell, University of Wyoming / A. Weinberger, Carnegie Institution of Washington / A. Roberge, Goddard Space Flight Center / G. Schneider, University of Arizona, Steward Observatory / A. Feild, STScI, AURA)

Young Planet around TW Hydrae Challenges Theories on How Planets Form

Jun 15, 2013 by News Staff

A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org version) provides evidence that an extrasolar planet may be forming quite far from a small...

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