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This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Study: Universe Might Be 1.2 Billion Years Younger

Jul 27, 2020 by News Staff

The Universe is assumed to be around 13.8 billion years old, but new calculations suggest it could be younger than that. This artist’s impression shows...

This Hubble image shows the open cluster NGC 2203. The image includes optical and near-infrared observations from 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 / L. Girardi

Hubble Space Telescope Views NGC 2203

Jul 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking photo of the open cluster NGC 2203. This Hubble image shows the open cluster...

Hubble captured this image of Saturn and its rings on July 4, 2020. Two of Saturn’s icy moons are clearly visible in this image: Mimas (right) and Enceladus (bottom). Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.

Hubble Delivers Incredible New Image of Saturn

Jul 23, 2020 by News Staff

NASA has released a stunning image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of Saturn and its ring system. Hubble captured this image of Saturn...

An artist’s impression of the Saturn-sized exoplanet TOI 813b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Discover One of the Coolest Transiting Gas Giants

Jul 23, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), astronomers have discovered a transiting...

This image, captured by the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows TYC 8998-760-1 accompanied by two giant planets, TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c. The two planets are visible as two bright dots in the center (TYC 8998-760-1b) and bottom right (TYC 8998-760-1c) of the frame. Other bright dots, which are background stars, are visible in the image as well. Image credit: ESO / Bohn et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Two Giant Exoplanets around Young Sun-Like Star

Jul 22, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a...

This composite image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4217. Magnetic field lines (green), revealed by the VLA, extend far above and below the plane of the galaxy. Image credit: Y. Stein, Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / NRAO / SDSS / KPNO / J. English, University of Manitoba / R.-J. Dettmar & A. Miskolczi, Ruhr-Universität Bochum / R.J. Rand, U.N.M. / J. Irwin, Queen’s University.

Radio Telescope Sees X-Shaped Magnetic Field of NGC 4217

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of radio astronomers has used data from NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to generate a detailed map of the magnetic...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 3470 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Saturn-Like Exoplanet Found in Habitable Zone of Gliese 3470

Jul 21, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Amateur astronomers from the Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project, the first international program coordinated by amateur astronomers to search for potentially...

Sloan Digital Sky Survey Collaboration Releases New 3D Map of Universe

Jul 20, 2020 by News Staff

Astrophysicists and cosmologists from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have released the largest 3D map of the Universe ever created, filling in the...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4848. The picture was snapped by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The image was made through two filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Gregg.

Hubble Sees Beautiful Spiral Galaxy with Ghostly Arms

Jul 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4848. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy...

This new picture of the Cosmic Microwave Background, the oldest light in the Universe, was taken by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. This covers a swath of the sky 50 times as wide as the Moon, representing a region of space 20 billion light-years across. The light, emitted just 380,000 years after the Big Bang, varies in polarization (represented here by redder or bluer colors). Image credit: ACT Collaboration.

Universe is 13.77 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) have taken a fresh look at the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the oldest light in our Universe....

This two-panel illustration shows a black hole surrounded by a disk of gas, before and after the disk is partially dispersed. In the left panel, the ball of white light above the black hole is the black hole corona, a collection of ultra-hot gas particles that forms as gas from the disk falls into the black hole. The streak of debris falling toward the disk is what remains of a star that was torn apart by the black hole’s gravity. The right panel shows the black hole after the debris from the star has dispersed some of the gas in the disk, causing the corona to disappear. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Colliding Star Destroys Supermassive Black Hole’s Corona in Distant Galaxy

Jul 17, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has watched as an X-ray corona of a supermassive black hole in the active galactic nucleus 1ES 1927+654 was abruptly...

The afterglow of GRB 181123B (marked with a circle), captured by the Gemini-North telescope. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Paterson & W. Fong, Northwestern University / Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage / Mahdi Zamani / Davide de Martin.

Short Gamma-Ray Burst Localized to Extremely Distant Galaxy

Jul 16, 2020 by News Staff

An international of astronomers has observed an optical afterglow of a short gamma-ray burst, thought to be from the merger of two neutron stars, and localized...

An artist’s impression of a thermonuclear supernova: the material ejected by the supernova will initially expand very rapidly, but then gradually slow down, forming an intricate giant bubble of hot glowing gas; eventually, the charred remains of the white dwarf that exploded will overtake these gaseous layers, and speed out onto its journey across our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Thermonuclear Supernova Ejects White Dwarf from Binary System

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

A white dwarf star called SDSS J124043.01+671034.68 (SDSS J1240+6710) is traveling at 900,000 km/h (559,234 mph) through our Milky Way Galaxy. It also...

An artist’s impression of the immediate vicinity of the massive protostar G358.93-0.03-MM1. Image credit: Xi Chen, Guangzhou University / Zhi-Yuan Ren, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science.

Astronomers Detect Spiral-Arm Structures around High-Mass Protostar

Jul 14, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

New observations of a high-mass protostar in the massive star-forming region G358.93-0.03 shed light on how these young stellar objects accumulate their...

ASKAP radio continuum image of ORC 1 (contours) overlaid onto a DES 3-color composite image. Two galaxies of interest: ‘C’ lies near the center of ORC 1 and ‘S’ coincides with the southern radio peak. Image credit: Norris et al, arXiv: 2006.14805.

New Class of Radio-Astronomical Objects Discovered: Odd Radio Circles

Jul 13, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered an unexpected new class of radio-astronomical objects, consisting of a circular disk, which in some...

This Hubble image shows the free-floating evaporating gaseous globule J025027.7+600849. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. 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 / R. Sahai.

Hubble Spots Rare ‘Free-Floating Evaporating Gaseous Globule’

Jul 13, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an outstanding image of J025027.7+600849 (J0250 for short), a rare type of stellar...

Siraj & Loeb explore the possibility that accretion flares resulting from the tidal disruption of small Oort Cloud bodies by a putative primordial black hole could power an observable optical signal that could be searched for with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Image credit: Sci-News.com / Zdeněk Bardon / ESO.

Astronomers Develop Method to Detect Tiny Black Holes in Outskirts of Our Solar System

Jul 13, 2020 by News Staff

Amir Siraj and Professor Avi Loeb from the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University have developed a new method to search for primordial black holes...

This image from the WISPR instrument on board NASA’s Parker Solar Probe shows comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) on July 5, 2020, shortly after its closest approach to the Sun. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL / Naval Research Lab / Parker Solar Probe / Brendan Gallagher.

Parker Solar Probe Sees Comet NEOWISE’s Twin Tails

Jul 10, 2020 by News Staff

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has captured unique images of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and its two tails. This image from the WISPR instrument on board NASA’s...

This image of C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was captured on July 09, 2020 by Raman Madhira at Ray’s Astrophotography Observatory. Image credit: Raysastrophotograhy / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Comet NEOWISE Now Visible to the Unaided Eye

Jul 10, 2020 by News Staff

Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), a recently-discovered visitor from distant parts of our Solar System, is putting on a spectacular nighttime display. This image...