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This artist’s illustration shows what one of the very first galaxies in the Universe might have looked like. Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions.

Universe’s Early Galaxies were Much Brighter than Expected

May 10, 2019 by News Staff

New data from Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes show that in a few specific wavelengths of infrared light, some of the first galaxies to form in the...

An artist’s impression of a supernova. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Universe’s Earliest Supernovae Ejected Powerful Jets, Astronomers Say

May 10, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from MIT has observed evidence that the Universe’s first stars exploded as asymmetric supernovae, strong enough to scatter heavy...

This image from Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Survey shows 2MASX J04180598-6336523, the host galaxy of the Type Ia supernova ASASSN-18tb; the position of the supernova is marked by the white ticks. Image credit: Kollmeier et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz953.

Astronomers Spot Extremely Rare Hydrogen-Cloaked Type Ia Supernova

May 8, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile, have detected the faint signal emitted by hydrogen gas in the remnant of...

The first artist’s illustration shows a key part of the process that created this new black hole, as the two neutron stars spin around each other while merging. The purple material depicts debris from the merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

LIGO and Virgo Observatories Detect Two New Gravitational Waves

May 8, 2019 by News Staff

On April 25 and 26, 2019, NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the European-based Virgo detector registered two new gravitational...

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster SPT-CL J0615-5746. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Karachentsev et al / High et al.

Hubble Sees Extremely Distant Lensing Galaxy Cluster

May 6, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A spectacular new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows SPT-CL J0615-5746, a very massive group of galaxies located approximately 7.7 billion...

Merging neutron stars. Image credit: Mark Garlick, University of Warwick.

Violent Collision of Two Neutron Stars Occurred near Pre-Solar Nebula 4.6 Billion Years Ago

May 5, 2019 by News Staff

According to new research, a nearby binary neutron-star merger gave birth to 0.3% of the Earth’s heaviest elements, including gold, platinum and uranium;...

Astronomers developed a mosaic of the distant Universe -- called the Hubble Legacy Field -- that documents 16 years of observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image contains nearly 265,000 galaxies that stretch back through 13.3 billion years of time to just 500 million years after the Big Bang. The new set of Hubble images, created from nearly 7,500 individual exposures, is the first in a series of Hubble Legacy Field images. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Illingworth & D. Magee, University of California, Santa Cruz / K. Whitaker, University of Connecticut / R. Bouwens, Leiden University / P. Oesch, University of Geneva / Hubble Legacy Field Team.

Hubble Captures Nearly 265,000 Galaxies in Legacy Field Image

May 2, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have produced the largest, most comprehensive ‘history book’ of galaxies in the Universe, using 16 years’ worth of observations from...

An artist’s impression of the changing jet orientation in the V404 Cygni system; each segment (as separated by the clock hands) shows the jets at a different time, oriented in different directions as seen in our high angular resolution radio imaging. Image credit: ICRAR.

Astronomers See Rapidly Swinging Jets Coming from V404 Cygni

May 2, 2019 by News Staff

V404 Cygni is a binary system comprising a black hole and a star orbiting one another. It lies in the constellation Cygnus at a distance of about 7,800...

Using the MUSE, an integral-field spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, Göttgens et al discovered the remains of a nova near the center of the globular cluster Messier 22. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Göttgens, Institute for Astrophysics, University of Göttingen.

Astronomers Find Ancient Nova Remnant in Messier 22

Apr 30, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A nova is a cataclysmic event on the surface of a white dwarf star in a binary stellar system that increases the overall brightness by several orders of...

This Hubble image shows the central part of the spiral galaxy NGC 2903. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Ho et al.

Hubble Observes Hidden Depths of NGC 2903

Apr 29, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an unprecedented image of the central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 2903. This Hubble image shows the...

This image shows the entire Large Magellanic Cloud, with some of the brightest objects marked. Image credit: Robert Gendler / ESO.

Universe is Expanding 9% Faster than Expected, New Hubble Measurements Show

Apr 26, 2019 by News Staff

Measurements of today’s expansion rate do not match the rate that was expected based on how the Universe appeared shortly after the Big Bang over 13...

This high-resolution image of Pluto was taken by New Horizons on July 14. Pluto’s surface sports a remarkable range of subtle colors, enhanced in this view to a rainbow of pale blues, yellows, oranges, and deep reds. Many landforms have their own distinct colors, telling a complex geological and climatological story that scientists have only just begun to decode. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Southwest Research Institute.

Pluto’s Atmosphere Predicted to Collapse by 2030

Apr 25, 2019 by News Staff

The tenuous nitrogen atmosphere of the dwarf planet Pluto is predicted to ultimately collapse and freeze over. This high-resolution image of Pluto was...

This Hubble image shows the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF4. Image credit: van Dokkum et al, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0d92.

Astronomers Find Second Galaxy with No Dark Matter

Apr 22, 2019 by News Staff

In 2018, a team of astronomers from the United States and Canada discovered that an ultra-diffuse galaxy called NGC 1052-DF2 (DF2 for short) contains virtually...

This is a superflare on an L-dwarf star. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Astronomers Detect Giant Stellar Flare on Ultracool Dwarf Star

Apr 22, 2019 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the United Kingdom and Germany has spotted a superflare coming from an L-dwarf star approximately 250 light-years away that’s...

This Hubble image shows a globular cluster called Messier 75. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Ferraro et al.

Hubble Observes Globular Cluster Messier 75

Apr 22, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released an absolutely beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the globular cluster Messier 75. This Hubble image shows...

This incredible image of the Southern Crab Nebula was taken to mark Hubble’s 29th anniversary in space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI.

Hubble Celebrates Its 29th Anniversary with Stunning View of Southern Crab Nebula

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured this colorful look at the hourglass-shaped...

Güsten et al detected the first type of molecule that ever formed in the Universe -- HeH+. This discovery confirms a key part of our basic understanding of the early Universe and how it evolved over billions of years into the complex chemistry of today. Image credit: NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Helium Hydride Ion Spotted in Space for First Time

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

When the Universe was still very young, only a few kinds of atoms existed. Astrophysicists believe that around 100,000 years after the Big Bang, ionized...

A fireball. Image credit: NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance / Sci-News.com.

Meteor of Interstellar Origin May Have Slammed into Earth in 2014

Apr 18, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A meteor seen over the South Pacific, off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, in 2014 likely came from interstellar space, according to new research...

An artist’s conception of HD 21749c, the first Earth-sized planet found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), as well as its sibling, HD 21749b, a warm sub-Neptune-sized world. Image credit: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

HD 21749c: TESS Discovers Its First Earth-Sized Exoplanet

Apr 17, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-sized planet — HD 21749c. An artist’s conception of HD 21749c,...