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An artist’s impression of the Peter Pan disk around WISE J080822.18-644357.3, a red dwarf located about 331 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Carina. Image credit: Jonathan Holden / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers Reveal Secrets of ‘Peter Pan’ Protoplanetary Disks

Jun 11, 2020 by News Staff

Peter Pan disks are a recently-discovered class of long-lived protoplanetary disks around low-mass stars that survive 5-10 times longer than typical protoplanetary...

An artist’s impression of the Roque 12 binary system in the Pleiades cluster. Image credit: Sci-News.com / NASA / ESA / AURA / Caltech.

Young Brown Dwarf in Pleiades Cluster Has Companion

Jun 11, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have found evidence of a substellar companion — a low-mass brown dwarf or a giant planet — orbiting Roque 12, a member of the young...

An artist’s impression of an orbital modulation model where the FRB progenitor (blue) is in an orbit with a companion astrophysical object (pink). Image credit: Kristi Mickaliger.

Enigmatic Fast Radio Burst Repeats on 157-Day Cycle

Jun 10, 2020 by News Staff

A research team led by University of Manchester astronomers has carried out a long-term monitoring campaign of a repeating fast radio burst called FRB...

An artist’s impression of a four-planet system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Sun-Like Star Kepler-160 Has Super-Earth in Habitable Zone

Jun 9, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope have discovered two new planets in the Kepler-160 planetary system. One of the new planets...

An artist’s impression of an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find Ultraluminous X-Ray Pulsar in Magellanic Bridge

Jun 8, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ISRO’s AstroSat space observatory have detected a very rare ultraluminous X-ray source in the Magellanic Bridge, a 43,000-light-year-long...

This Hubble image shows NGC 2608, a barred spiral galaxy located 64 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer. The picture was created from images taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It combines observations gathered in four different filters, bringing together visible and infrared light to show off this galaxy in all its glory. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al.

Hubble Looks at Peculiar Spiral Galaxy

Jun 8, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this stunning image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2608. This Hubble image shows NGC 2608, a barred spiral...

An artist’s impression of the early Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Find No Evidence of Elusive First-Generation Stars in Early Universe

Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found no evidence of hypothetical first-generation stars — called Population III stars...

About 3.5 million years, a tremendous explosion rocked the center of our galaxy. Our distant hominid ancestors, already afoot on the African plains, likely would have seen the resulting flare as a ghostly glow high overhead in the night sky. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Cecil, UNC, Chapel Hill & J. DePasquale, STScI.

Astronomers Uncover New Clues about Ancient Explosion in Milky Way’s Center

Jun 3, 2020 by News Staff

About 3.5 million years ago, a so-called Seyfert flare from Sagittarius A*, Milky Way’s supermassive black hole, created two enormous ionization cones...

An artist’s impression of the brown dwarf W1200-7845 and its disk. Image credit: William Pendrill / NASA.

Astronomers Find Young Brown Dwarf with Circumstellar Disk

Jun 3, 2020 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists has spotted a young brown dwarf with a disk that could potentially form exoplanets. Named W1200-7845,...

Neutron Star Cores May Contain Exotic Quark Matter

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Massive neutron stars have sizable quark-matter cores, according to a study published in the journal Nature Physics. An artist’s conception of a massive...

Our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by an enormous halo of plasma (seen in blue in this artists’ rendition). Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ohio State / A. Gupta et al.

Milky Way’s Halo Hotter than Previously Thought

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using deep X-ray observations from ESA’s XMM-Newton Observatory, astronomers have discovered that Milky Way’s halo — a large cloud of ionized...

Chandra Catches Relativistic Jets from Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have observed a pair of relativistic jets blasting away from a black hole in the binary system MAXI...

An artist’s impression of what one of extreme horizontal branch stars, and its giant whitish spot, might look like. The spot is bright, takes up a quarter of the star’s surface and is caused by magnetic fields. As the star rotates, the spot on its surface comes and goes, causing visible changes in brightness. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada, INAF-Padua / S. Zaggia.

Astronomers Detect Giant Spots on Extremely Hot Stars in Three Globular Clusters

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using several instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, VLT Survey Telescope and the New Technology Telescope, astronomers have discovered giant spots...

ASKAP Telescope Traces Four Fast Radio Bursts to Massive Galaxies

Jun 1, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory have tracked four mysterious blasts...

This Hubble image shows the massive globular cluster NGC 6441. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the ultraviolet 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 / G. Piotto.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of Globular Cluster NGC 6441

Jun 1, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful new image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of NGC 6441, one of about 150 globular clusters belonging to our Milky Way...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Could Be Hydrogen Ice-Rich Body

May 31, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers from the University of Chicago and Yale University show that the odd properties...

This Hubble image shows the star cluster Westerlund 2. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / A. Nota / Westerlund 2 Science Team.

Westerlund 2’s Core is No Place to Form Planets, Astronomers Say

May 29, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed young stars in a crowded stellar cluster called Westerlund 2. They’ve found that...

An artist’s impression of Planet Nine. Image credit: Tom Ruen / ESO.

‘Extreme’ Kuiper Belt Objects Cast Doubt on Hypothetical Planet Nine

May 28, 2020 by The Conversation

In 2016, Caltech astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown proposed a strange alignment of icy Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) on the outskirts of the Solar...

An artist’s conception illustrates the phenomena that make up the new class of cosmic explosions called fast blue optical transients. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

New Class of Cosmic Explosions Discovered: Fast Blue Optical Transients

May 28, 2020 by News Staff

Fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) share some characteristics with supernova explosions of massive stars and with explosions that generate gamma-ray...