Astronomy News

Free-Floating Planet-Mass Objects are Common in Galaxies

X-ray image of the gravitational lens system SDSS J1004+4112 taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory; the central red extended emission is from the hot gas in the foreground lens galaxy cluster and the four blue point sources are the lensed images of the background quasar. Image credit: University of Oklahoma.
Dec 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using a technique called quasar microlensing, a team of astronomers at the University of Oklahoma has detected populations of free-floating planet-mass objects — exoplanets and/or primordial black holes — in two extragalactic systems: a lensing galaxy called Q J0158-4325 and the lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J1004+4112. These are only the second and third such detections in galaxies beyond our own. X-ray image of the gravitational lens system...

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This image, taken by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope, shows the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5394-NGC 5395. Image credit: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory / Gemini Observatory / AURA.

Gemini North Telescope Captures Stunning Galaxy Collision

Dec 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers working at the NSF-supported Gemini Observatory have captured a new photo of interacting spiral galaxies NGC 5394 and NGC 5395, collectively...

Hubble Team Releases New Photos of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Dec 13, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured two new images of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to travel through...

Milky Way’s center produces more high-energy gamma rays than can be explained by known sources. This image shows the Milky Way in visible light and a gamma-ray map from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / A. Mellinger, Central Michigan University / T. Linden, University of Chicago.

Annihilating Dark Matter May Lurk in Milky Way’s Center

Dec 12, 2019 by News Staff

Gamma rays — the most energetic waves in the electromagnetic spectrum — are typically produced by the hottest, most extreme objects in the...

Merging Pair of Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies Spotted 13 Billion Light-Years Away

Dec 12, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has spotted an unlensed, dusty star-forming galaxy...

An artist’s impression of an ultrahot Jupiter. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Water Vapor is Common in Atmospheres of Extrasolar Gas Giants, Study Shows

Dec 11, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published recently in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers analyzed spectroscopic atmospheric data from 19 exoplanets, ranging...

Magnetic fields in the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as M77 and NGC 1086, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The magnetic fields align along the entire length of the massive spiral arms of Messier 77, implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy’s shape are also compressing the its magnetic field. This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as ‘density wave theory.’ SOFIA studied the galaxy using far-infrared light (89 microns) to reveal facets of its magnetic fields that previous observations using visible and radio telescopes could not detect. Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / JPL-Caltech / Roma Tre University.

Magnetic Fields Play Important Role in Shaping Spiral Galaxies

Dec 11, 2019 by News Staff

New infrared observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) of Messier 77, a spiral galaxy located 47 million light-years...

This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the emission nebula RCW 36. Image credit: ESO.

Very Large Telescope Takes Close Look at Emission Nebula RCW 36

Dec 9, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Focal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have obtained a remarkable...

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

TOI 813b: Saturn-Sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting Subgiant Star

Dec 9, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Citizen scientists from the Planet Hunters TESS (PHT) project have discovered a Saturn-sized planet orbiting around TOI 813, a bright subgiant star located...

NGC 3175 can be seen slicing across the frame in this Hubble image, with its mix of bright patches of glowing gas, dark lanes of dust, bright core, and whirling, pinwheeling arms coming together to paint a beautiful celestial scene. This image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. 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 / D. Rosario et al.

Hubble Captures Detailed Image of Edge-On Spiral Galaxy NGC 3175

Dec 9, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an incredible snapshot of a nearby spiral galaxy called NGC 3175. NGC 3175 can be seen slicing across...

From a great distance, our Milky Way Galaxy would look like a thin disk of stars that orbits once every few hundred million years around its central region, where hundreds of billions of stars provide the gravitational ‘glue’ to hold it all together. But this pull of gravity is much weaker in the Galaxy’s far outer disk. There, the hydrogen atoms making up most of the Milky Way’s gas disk are no longer confined to a thin plane, instead they give the disk an S-like, or warped, appearance. Image credit: Xiaodian Chen.

Milky Way’s Thick Disk is 10 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Dec 6, 2019 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy consists of two disk-like structures, known as ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ disks. The thick disk contains only about 20% of the Galaxy’s...

This composite image shows the surroundings of a supermassive black hole that is triggering star formation across the longest distance ever seen; as hot gas swirls around the black hole, it emits large amounts of X-rays that Chandra detects; the black hole is also the source of radio-wave emission from a jet of high-energy particles -- previously detected by scientists with the VLA -- that stretches about a million light-years. Image credit: NASA / CXC / INAF / R. Gilli et al / NRAO / VLA / STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Triggers Star Formation in Multiple Galaxies

Dec 5, 2019 by News Staff

Enormous black holes usually affect their surroundings through the so-called ‘negative feedback’ — in other words, suppressing the formation...

This illustration shows the white dwarf WD J0914 and its Neptune-like exoplanet. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find Neptune-Like Exoplanet Orbiting White Dwarf

Dec 5, 2019 by News Staff

A Neptune-like exoplanet orbits an Earth-sized white dwarf star called WD J091405.30+191412.25 (WD J0914 for short) once every 10 days, leaving a comet-like...

This illustration shows a gas giant exoplanet orbiting its parent star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / L. Calcada.

Study Finds No Clear Correlation between Compositions of Giant Exoplanets and Their Host Stars

Dec 4, 2019 by News Staff

There isn’t a strong correlation between gas giant and host star compositions when it comes to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, according to...

Hubble captured this view of comet 46P/Wirtanen on December 13, 2018. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Bodewits, Auburn University / J.-Y. Li, Planetary Science Institute.

TESS Observes Huge Outburst from Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 4, 2019 by News Staff

On September 26, 2018, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observed an outburst of gas, ice and dust from the nucleus of comet 46P/Wirtanen....

SDO image of the solar corona in UV light (yellow lines represent the magnetic field on the surface of the Sun). Image credit: NASA / SDO / AIA / LMSAL.

Researchers Crack Mystery of Sun’s Magnetic Waves

Dec 3, 2019 by News Staff

For more than six decades, observations of our Sun have shown that as magnetic waves leave its interior they grow in strength, but until now there has...

This Hubble image shows the face-on spiral galaxy NGC 5468. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). 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 / W. Li et al / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 5468

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of a spiral galaxy called NGC 5468. This Hubble image shows the face-on...

Astronomers Find ‘Impossible’ Stellar Black Hole in Milky Way

Nov 29, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exceptionally massive black hole of stellar origin with a mass 68 times that of the Sun. An artist’s...

NGC 4631 is seen edge-on, with its disk of stars shown in pink; the filaments, shown in green and blue, extend beyond the disk into the galaxy’s extended halo; green indicates filaments with their magnetic field pointing roughly toward us and blue with the field pointing away; this phenomenon, with the field alternating in direction, has never before been seen in the halo of a galaxy. This VLA image shows a companion galaxy -- a small elliptical galaxy called NGC 4627 -- just above NGC 4631. Image credit: Jayanne English, University of Manitoba / Silvia Carolina Mora-Partiarroyo & Marita Krause of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy / Maria Patterson & Rene Walterbos, New Mexico State University / Arpad Miskolczi, University of Bochum / NRAO.

Astronomers Spot Huge Magnetic Structures in ‘Whale Galaxy’

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have captured a new image of the edge-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 4631 (also known as ‘Whale...

Astronomers Capture New Image of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Nov 27, 2019 by News Staff

A group of Yale University astronomers has captured a stunning new image of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to travel through our Solar...

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