Astronomy News

Webb Detects Crucial Carbon Molecule in Protoplanetary Disk

This image taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a region where energetic ultraviolet light from the Trapezium Cluster -- located off the upper-left corner -- interacts with dense molecular clouds. The energy of the stellar radiation is slowly eroding the Orion Bar, and this has a profound effect on the molecules and chemistry in the protoplanetary disks that have formed around newborn stars here. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Zamani / PDRs4All ERS Team.
Jun 26, 2023 by News Staff

The vital role of a carbon molecule called methyl cation (CH3+) in interstellar carbon chemistry was predicted in the 1970s, but the unique capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have finally made observing it possible — in a region of space where planets capable of accommodating life could eventually form. This image taken by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a...

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This Hubble image shows ESO 174-1, a highly irregular galaxy some 11 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully.

Hubble Spots Highly Irregular Galaxy in Centaurus

Jun 26, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

An irregular galaxy called ESO 174-1 resembles a lonely, hazy cloud against a backdrop of bright stars. This Hubble image shows ESO 174-1, a highly irregular...

With a dayside temperature of roughly 380 K (107 degrees Celsius, 225 degrees Fahrenheit), TRAPPIST-1c is now the coolest rocky exoplanet ever characterized based on thermal emission. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

TRAPPIST-1c Has Very Thin, Carbon Dioxide-Poor Atmosphere

Jun 23, 2023 by News Staff

Seven rocky planets orbit the nearby dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, providing a unique opportunity to search for atmospheres on small planets outside the Solar...

GRB 191019A came from the collision of stars or stellar remnants in the jam-packed environment surrounding a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / M. Garlick / M. Zamani.

Long-Duration Gamma-Ray Burst Traced to Nucleus of Ancient Galaxy

Jun 22, 2023 by News Staff

Unlike most gamma-ray bursts, which are caused by exploding massive stars or the chance mergers of neutron stars, a long gamma-ray burst event dubbed GRB...

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.

Hot Earth or Young Venus: Nearby Super-Earth May Reveal Secrets about Edge of Habitability

Jun 22, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Venus and Earth provide astonishingly different views of the evolution of a rocky planet, raising the question of why these two rocky worlds evolved so...

IXPE and Chandra images have been combined to show X-ray data of the area around Sagittarius A. The lower panel combines IXPE data, in orange, with Chandra data in blue. The upper panel depicts a much wider field-of-view of the center of the Milky Way. The thin white lines layered onto the top panel frame the highlighted area, and indicate that the perspective in the bottom panel has been rotated approximately 45 degrees to the right. The combination of IXPE and Chandra data helped the astronomers determine that the X-ray light identified in the molecular clouds originated from Sagittarius A* during an outburst approximately 200 years ago. Image credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center / Marin et al. / CXC / SAO / L. Frattare / J.Major / K.Arcand.

IXPE Detects 200-Year-Old Flare from Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Jun 22, 2023 by News Staff

The center of the Milky Way Galaxy hosts Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole with a mass of about 4 million solar masses that is very quiescent....

Iglesias-Groth used spectra from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to conduct a search for the aromatic amino acid tryptophan in the interstellar gas of the young star cluster IC 348. Image credit: Jorge Rebolo-Iglesias / NASA / Spitzer Space Telescope.

Amino Acid Tryptophan Detected in Young Star Cluster

Jun 20, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Using infrared spectral data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias astronomer has detected the aromatic amino acid...

This artist’s impression shows AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star (right) powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star (left) and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio. Image credit: M. Garlick / University of Warwick / ESO.

Astronomers Discover Second-Ever White Dwarf Pulsar

Jun 19, 2023 by News Staff

White dwarf pulsars include a rapidly spinning, burnt-out stellar remnant called a white dwarf, which lashes a companion red dwarf with powerful beams...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6544, a globular cluster located more than 8,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Lewin / F.R. Ferraro.

Hubble Zooms in on Globular Cluster NGC 6544

Jun 19, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a very beautiful close-up shot of the star-studded globular cluster NGC 6544. This Hubble image shows NGC 6544, a globular...

In shaping the Universe, gravity builds a vast cobweb-like structure of filaments tying galaxies and clusters of galaxies together along invisible bridges hundreds of millions of light-years long. This is known as the cosmic web. Image credit: Springel et al. / Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.

New Link Found between Dark Matter and Universe’s Clumpiness

Jun 14, 2023 by News Staff

New research from the University of Toronto suggests that the so-called clumpiness problem, which centers on the unexpectedly even distribution of matter...

An artist’s rendition of a multiplanetary circumbinary system. Image credit: NASA’s Ames Research Center / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle.

Astronomers Discover New Multiplanetary Circumbinary System

Jun 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Circumbinary planetary systems contain planets that orbit around two stars in the center instead of just one, like in our Solar System. An artist’s rendition...

NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (top left) and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory (sensor strings, bottom). Image credit: NASA / Fermi / Aurore Simonnet, Sonoma State University.

Could Quantum Properties of Spacetime Slow Down Neutrinos?

Jun 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, astrophysicists have found preliminary evidence for gamma-ray...

Webb captured extraordinarily detailed images and spectra of galaxies that existed when the Universe was only 900 million years old. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Simon Lilly, ETH Zurich / Daichi Kashino, Nagoya University / Jorryt Matthee, ETH Zurich / Christina Eilers, MIT / Rongmon Bordoloi, NCSU / Ruari Mackenzie, ETH Zurich / Alyssa Pagan, STScI / Ruari Mackenzie, ETH Zurich.

Star-Forming Galaxies Reionized Early Universe, Astronomers Say

Jun 12, 2023 by News Staff

Only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the infant Universe was brimming with opaque hydrogen gas that trapped light at some wavelengths from...

Parker Solar Probe has flown through the solar corona and sampled particles and magnetic fields there. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Parker Solar Probe Identifies Mechanism Driving Fast Solar Wind

Jun 12, 2023 by News Staff

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has flown close enough to the Sun to detect the fine structure of the solar wind close to where it is generated at the solar...

This Hubble image shows NGC 7292, an irregular galaxy some 44 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Two 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 / C. Kilpatrick.

Hubble Space Telescope Inspects NGC 7292

Jun 12, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the remarkable low surface brightness galaxy NGC 7292. This Hubble image shows...

SN 2023ixf (lower left) exploded in one of the spiral arms of Messier 101. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Rodriguez, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Gemini North Telescope Observes Supernova Explosion in Messier 101

Jun 9, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A supernova dubbed SN 2023ixf was discovered on May 19, 2023 by the Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki. SN 2023ixf (lower left) exploded in one of the...

The very massive first-generation stars with a mass range from 140 to 260 solar masses are predicted to enrich the early interstellar medium through pair-instability supernovae; decades of observational efforts, however, have not been able to uniquely identify the imprints of such very massive stars on the most metal-poor stars in the Milky Way. Image credit: NAOC.

Galactic Halo Star’s Chemical Signature Indicates Existence of Very Massive Stars in Early Universe

Jun 7, 2023 by News Staff

Early Universe’s stars had up to several hundred solar masses. The earliest stars of 140-260 solar masses became pair-instability supernovae (PISNe)....

The hyperluminous star-forming galaxy GN-z11 hosts an accreting black hole. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz / Sci.News.

Webb Detects Small and Vigorous Black Hole in Early Universe

Jun 6, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

The newly-discovered black hole resides in the hyperluminous galaxy GN-z11 at a redshift of 11 and could have originated from a stellar mass seed at redshifts...

In this image of NGC 5068, from Webb’s MIRI instrument, the dusty structure of the spiral galaxy and glowing bubbles of gas containing newly-formed star clusters are particularly prominent. Three asteroid trails intrude into this image, represented as tiny blue-green-red dots. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / J. Lee / PHANGS-JWST Team.

Webb Observes Hidden Depths of NGC 5068

Jun 6, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured stunning images of the face-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068. In this image...

In this false-color Webb image, the foreground galaxy is shown in blue, while the SPT0418-47 galaxy is red; the organic molecules are highlighted in orange. Image credit: J. Spilker / S. Doyle / NASA / ESA / CSA.

Webb Finds Complex Organic Molecules in Early Universe

Jun 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in SPT-S J041839-4751.9 (SPT0418-47 for short),...

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