Astronomy News

Astronomers Crack Mystery of X-Shaped Radio Galaxies

PKS 2014-55 is classified as ‘X-shaped’ because of its appearance in previous relatively blurry images. The detail provided in this radio image obtained with the MeerKAT telescope indicates that its shape is best described as a double boomerang. Two powerful jets of radio waves, indicated in blue color, each extend 2.5 million light-years into space. Eventually, they are ‘turned back’ by the pressure of tenuous intergalactic gas. As they flow back towards the central galaxy, they are deflected by its relatively high gas pressure into the shorter, horizontal, arms of the boomerang. The background image shows visible light from myriad galaxies in the distant Universe. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / SARAO / DES.
May 8, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, have solved a longstanding mystery of X-shaped radio galaxies. PKS 2014-55 is classified as ‘X-shaped’ because of its appearance in previous relatively blurry images. The detail provided in this radio image obtained with the MeerKAT telescope indicates that its shape is best described as a double boomerang. Two powerful jets of...

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This image shows Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley.

Juno, Hubble, Gemini Observatory Probe Jovian Storm Systems

May 8, 2020 by News Staff

Multiwavelength observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory combined with close-up views from NASA’s Juno spacecraft...

Hubble captured this image of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on December 9, 2019. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Meech, University of Hawaii / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles.

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Tracks Water Loss from Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

May 6, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have tracked water loss from 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar...

An artist’s impression of the HR 6819 triple system. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Astronomers Find Closest Black Hole

May 6, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory have found a...

An artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Exoplanets with Hydrogen-Rich Atmospheres Could Harbor Simple Life Forms

May 5, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has demonstrated that single-celled microorganisms such as Escherichia coli and...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3147, a spiral galaxy located some 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Draco. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Bianchi, Università degli Studi Roma Tre University / A. Laor, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology / M. Chiaberge, ESA, STScI & JHU.

Spiral Galaxies More Likely to Host Complex Life: Study

May 4, 2020 by News Staff

Giant elliptical galaxies are not as likely as previously thought to be cradles of complex life, according to a paper published in the Monthly Notices...

An artist’s impression of the HD 108236 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Finds Four-Planet System around Sun-Like Star

May 4, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have found four exoplanets — a hot super-Earth and three sub-Neptunes —...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3583. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three 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 / A. Riess et al.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of NGC 3583

May 4, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3583. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral...

An artist’s impression of a rocky exoplanet orbiting a white dwarf. Image credit: Jack Madden / Cornell University.

Next-Generation Telescopes Could Detect Signs of Life on Rocky Planets around White Dwarfs

May 1, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astrobiologists from the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University has developed a spectral field guide for Earth-like exoplanets transiting...

Flaring, active regions of the Sun are highlighted in this image combining observations from several telescopes. High-energy X-rays from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) are shown in blue; low-energy X-rays from Japan’s Hinode spacecraft are green; and extreme ultraviolet light from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is yellow and red. All three telescopes captured their solar images around the same time on April 29, 2015. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JAXA.

Study: Our Sun is Less Active than Other Solar-Type Stars

May 1, 2020 by News Staff

Magnetic activity on the Sun leads to solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other space weather that affects Earth. Similar activity on other stars...

Kluska et al provided model-independent reconstructed images of 15 protoplanetary disks selected from the Herbig AeBe survey carried out with PIONIER at the Very Large Telescope Interferometer. Image credit: Kluska et al, doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/201833774.

Astronomers Observe Inner Rims of Protoplanetary Disks around Young Massive Stars

Apr 30, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the PIONIER (Precision Integrated-Optics Near-infrared Imaging ExpeRiment) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer...

An artist’s illustration of the Kepler-88 planetary system. Image credit: Adam Makarenko / W.M. Keck Observatory.

Astronomers Find Long-Period Gas Giant around Kepler-88

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

Using the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) instrument on the 10-m Keck I telescope at W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have discovered a...

This artist’s impression shows how ULAS J1120+0641, a very distant quasar powered by a black hole with a mass two billion times that of the Sun, may have looked. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

New Measurements of Fine-Structure Constant Suggest Laws of Nature Not as Constant as Previously Thought

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

The fine-structure constant is a measure of electromagnetism — one of the four fundamental forces in nature; the others are gravity, weak nuclear...

Hubble resolved roughly 30 fragments of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) on April 20, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jewitt, University of California, Los Angeles / Q. Ye, University of Maryland.

Hubble Space Telescope Witnesses Breakup of Comet ATLAS

Apr 29, 2020 by News Staff

New images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the long-period comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and 23, 2020, provide the sharpest views...

Chandra and XMM-Newton data indicate that a white dwarf survived a close call with the central black hole in GSN 069. Image credit: NASA / CXO / CSIC-INTA / G. Miniutti et al / CXC / M. Weiss.

Near-Miss Tidal Disruption: White Dwarf Survives Close Encounter with Supermassive Black Hole

Apr 28, 2020 by News Staff

Professor Andrew King from the University of Leicester has shown that periodic X-ray eruptions from a galaxy called GSN 069 could result from the core...

An artist’s impression of a rocky asteroid. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, Space-art.co.uk / University of Warwick / University of Cambridge.

High-Inclination Centaur Asteroids Came from Interstellar Space: Study

Apr 28, 2020 by Natali Anderson

At least 17 high-inclination Centaurs and two trans-Neptunian objects were captured by the Solar System from the interstellar medium, according to a new...

This Hubble image shows a spiral galaxy called NGC 4100. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Ho.

Hubble Looks at Stunning Spiral Galaxy: NGC 4100

Apr 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 4100. This Hubble image shows a spiral...

This Hubble image shows the giant nebula NGC 2014 and its neighbor NGC 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / STScI.

NASA and ESA Unveil Turbulent Stellar Nursery as Official Hubble 30th Anniversary Image

Apr 24, 2020 by News Staff

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers used the telescope to take a portrait of the giant...

This image, taken on April 20, 2020, shows fragments of C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS). Image credit: Quanzhi Ye & Man-To Hui.

Astronomers Observe Disintegrating Comet ATLAS

Apr 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have been able to watch the long-period comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS)...

Simulation showing distribution of dark matter particles around a galaxy. Image credit: Gupta et al / ASTRO 3D / IllustrisTNG Collaboration.

Study: Massive Galaxies Grow Large by Eating Their Smaller Satellites

Apr 22, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, an international team of astronomers led by ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) combined data...

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