Astronomy News

Astronomers Find 9,000-Light-Year-Long Wave-Shaped Structure in Milky Way

Visualization of the Radcliffe Wave. Image credit: Alyssa Goodman / Harvard University.
Jan 9, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from ESA’s Gaia star-mapping spacecraft, a team of astronomers from Austria and the United States has discovered a wave-shaped arrangement of dense gas in our own neighborhood of the Milky Way. Visualization of the Radcliffe Wave. Image credit: Alyssa Goodman / Harvard University. The newly-discovered structure — named ‘Radcliffe Wave’ in honor of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study — is about 9,000 light-years...

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This composite image shows dense swirls of gas and dust in the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. The image spans 600 light-years across and is helping astronomers learn how many massive stars are forming in the Galactic center. New data from SOFIA taken at 25 and 37 microns, shown in blue and green, are combined with data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, shown in red (70 microns), and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, shown in white (8 microns). Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / Herschel.

SOFIA Maps Most Energetic Portion of Milky Way

Jan 8, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) instrument onboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared...

An artist’s impression of TOI-700d, c, and b planets and their host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Earth-Sized Exoplanet Found in Habitable Zone around Red Dwarf

Jan 8, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, the agency’s Spitzer Space Telescope and other facilities, astronomers have discovered a compact...

An artist’s impression of TOI-1338b and its two host stars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Chris Smith.

TESS Discovers Its First Circumbinary Planet: TOI-1338b

Jan 8, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a massive exoplanet orbiting two stars in the TOI-1338 system. An...

An artist’s impression of a water-rich exoplanet with an oxygen-rich atmosphere orbiting a red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Friedlander-Griswold.

Astronomers Have New Way to Spot Oxygen in Atmospheres of Exoplanets

Jan 7, 2020 by News Staff

Since exoplanets are so far away, astronomers cannot look for signs of extraterrestrial life by visiting these distant worlds. Instead, they must use a...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy UGC 2885. Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Holwerda, University of Louisville.

Hubble Reveals What May Be Largest Spiral Galaxy Ever Seen

Jan 6, 2020 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a stunning new image of UGC 2885, a barred spiral galaxy located some 232 million light-years away in the...

An artist’s impression of a superflaring star. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / S. Wiessinger / Swift.

TESS Catches Superflares from 400 Solar-Type Stars

Jan 6, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have detected 1,216 superflare events on 400 solar-type stars. One of these stars,...

This Hubble image shows NGC 2770, a spiral galaxy located in the constellation of Lynx, 83.8 million light-years away. 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). It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Filippenko.

Hubble Snaps Stunning Image of NGC 2770

Jan 6, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing photo of a spiral galaxy called NGC 2770. This Hubble image shows NGC 2770, a spiral galaxy...

New Study Looks at Why Neptune-Sized and Larger Exoplanets are Rare

Jan 3, 2020 by News Staff

Sub-Neptunes — extrasolar planets with radii between 2.7 and 3 times that of Earth — are much more numerous than Neptune-sized and larger planets....

This CFHT image shows a huge ring of neutral hydrogen gas (red) around the galaxy AGC 203001. The two small red blobs show the distribution of neutral hydrogen around two other galaxies. Image credit: Omkar Bait, NCRA-TIFR & GMRT / Pierre-Alain Duc, ObAS & CFHT.

Enormous Ring of Neutral Hydrogen Found around Distant Massive Galaxy

Jan 3, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) have discovered an extremely large off-centered ring of neutral hydrogen gas around AGC 203001,...

The cover page of the Hubble’s Hidden Gems 2020 Calendar. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Team Produces 30th Anniversary Calendar for 2020

Jan 2, 2020 by News Staff

In September 2019, the Hubble team announced a social media initiative to celebrate three decades of success in discoveries with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

This composite image shows the Milky Way-like spiral galaxy Messier 106: X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory are shown in blue, radio data from the NSF’s Karl Jansky Very Large Array are shown in purple, optical data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are shown in yellow and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are shown in red. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Caltech / P. Ogle et al / STScI / JPL-Caltech / NSF / NRAO / VLA.

Astronomers Capture Galactic Fireworks in Nearby Spiral Galaxy

Jan 1, 2020 by News Staff

This impressive fireworks display, which involves a supermassive black hole, enormous shock waves and vast reservoirs of gas, is taking place in an intermediate...

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet DMPP-2b and its parent star DMPP-2. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick.

Astronomers Discover Three Compact Planetary Systems

Dec 31, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP) have discovered three new planetary systems — designated DMPP-1, 2 and 3 — hosting...

An artist’s impression of a terraformed Mars. Image credit: Daein Ballard / CC BY-SA 3.0.

High-Oxygen Exoplanetary Atmospheres More Common than Thought, Study Suggests

Dec 30, 2019 by The Conversation

The existence of habitable alien worlds has been a mainstay of popular culture for more than a century. In the 19th century, astronomers believed that...

This Hubble image shows NGC 4455, a barred spiral galaxy located some 22 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. The image was taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / I. Karachentsev et al.

Hubble Scores Stunning Close-Up View of NGC 4455

Dec 30, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a beautiful photo of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 4455. This Hubble image shows NGC 4455, a barred...

An artist’s impression of a hot-Jupiter exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers Two New Hot Jupiters

Dec 27, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have observed the transits of two hot-Jupiter...

HabEx, a space telescope with ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (near-IR) imaging and spectroscopic capabilities, will have three primary science goals: (I) seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (ii) map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (iii) enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own Solar System to galaxies and the Universe by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. Image credit: Gaudi et al.

HabEx: New Mission Proposed to Search for Second Earth

Dec 26, 2019 by News Staff

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) would use a telescope with a mirror larger than Hubble’s, and would employ origami techniques to utilize...

Phosphine Could Signal Existence of Alien Anaerobic Life on Rocky Planets

Dec 26, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers at MIT has found that phosphine, which is among the stinkiest, most toxic gases on Earth, cannot be produced in any other way except...

An artist’s impression of HD 213885b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Hot Super-Earth and Exo-Neptune Found Orbiting Sun-Like Star

Dec 26, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and three ground-based spectrographs, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period...

This composite image shows thousands of star-forming galaxies in radio light and the MeerKAT radio telescope array in the South African Karoo semidesert. The brightest spots are luminous radio galaxies powered by supermassive black holes. The myriad faint dots are distant star-forming galaxies like our own Milky Way, too faint to have been detected before now. Because radio waves travel at the speed of light, this image is a time machine that samples the star formation history of the Universe. Image credit: SARAO / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

MeerKAT Radio Telescope Spots Thousands of Star-Forming Galaxies

Dec 25, 2019 by News Staff

A new radio image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, presents a wide portrait of the...

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