Astronomy News

Astronomers Find Brightest Quasar of Early Universe

Less than a billion years after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole began devouring anything within its gravitational grasp; this triggered a firestorm of star formation around the black hole; a galaxy was being born; a blowtorch of energy blazed across the Universe. Now, 12.8 billion years later, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured the beacon from this event. But the telescope needed help to spot it: the gravitational warping of space by a comparatively nearby intervening galaxy greatly amplified and distorted the quasar’s light, making it the brightest such object seen in the early Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.
Jan 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted the brightest quasar ever seen in the early Universe. Less than a billion years after the Big Bang, a supermassive black hole began devouring anything within its gravitational grasp; this triggered a firestorm of star formation around the black hole; a galaxy was being born; a blowtorch of energy blazed across the Universe. Now, 12.8 billion years later, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope...

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The globally distributed dishes of the European VLBI Network are linked with each other and the 305-m William E. Gordon Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Together they have localized FRB121102’s exact position within its host galaxy. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar, www.artsource.nl.

Second Repeating Fast Radio Burst Detected

Jan 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astrophysicists from the CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) Collaboration have spotted 13 new fast radio bursts (FRB) — powerful...

TESS discovered three small exoplanets around nearby stars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / MIT News.

TESS Discovers Its Third Small Exoplanet: Sub-Neptune HD 21749b

Jan 9, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its third small exoplanet, named HD 21749b. The discovery will be reported in a paper...

Star formation in dwarf galaxies can slowly ‘heat up’ the dark matter, pushing it outwards. The left image shows the hydrogen gas density of a simulated dwarf galaxy, viewed from above. The right image shows the same for a real dwarf galaxy, IC 1613. In the simulation, repeated gas inflow and outflow causes the gravitational field strength at the center of the dwarf to fluctuate. The dark matter responds to this by migrating out from the center of the galaxy, an effect known as ‘dark matter heating.’ Image credit: Read et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty3404.

Astrophysicists Find First Observational Evidence for ‘Dark Matter Heating’

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists from the University of Surrey, Carnegie Mellon University and ETH Zürich has found evidence that dark matter...

Hubble Captures Best Ever Image of Triangulum Galaxy

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking portrait of the Triangulum Galaxy, displaying a full spiral face aglow with the light of nearly...

This new image from Hubble shows an elliptical galaxy called Messier 105. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Sarazin et al.

Hubble Looks at Stunning Elliptical Galaxy Messier 105

Jan 8, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 105. This new image from Hubble shows an elliptical...

Large Magellanic Cloud on Collision Course with Milky Way Galaxy

Jan 7, 2019 by News Staff

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy located approximately 163,000 light-years away, is on a collision course with the Milky Way with which it will...

An artist’s impression of a warped disk around a protostar. Image credit: RIKEN.

ALMA Spots Warped Disk around Infant Protostar

Jan 2, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have observed a warped disk around a recently-formed protostar. An artist’s...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the reflection nebula NGC 1333 and associated Herbig-Haro objects. The picture was snapped by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). 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 / K. Stapelfeldt.

Hubble Finds Group of Herbig-Haro Objects within NGC 1333

Jan 1, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spotted a group of five Herbig-Haro objects — tiny patches of nebulosity associated with newborn stars —...

An artist’s rendering of the corona around a black hole. Image credit: RIKEN.

Supermassive Black Holes Have Weaker Coronal Magnetic Field Than Expected

Dec 31, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Supermassive black holes that lurk at the center of most galaxies are surrounded by coronas — mysterious features that are sources of highly energetic...

Banerjee et al propose a new model with dark energy and our Universe riding on an expanding bubble in an extra dimension. Image credit: Suvendu Giri.

Universe May Be Riding on Expanding Bubble in Extra Dimension

Dec 28, 2018 by News Staff

A team of theoretical physicists at Uppsala University, Sweden, has devised a new model for our Universe — one that may solve the mystery of dark...

This image taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the binary system R Aquarii and the jets of material spewing from the stellar couple. Image credit: ESO / Schmid et al.

Astronomers Obtain Sharpest Ever Image of R Aquarii

Dec 27, 2018 by News Staff

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

This Hubble image shows RS Puppis, one of the most luminous in the class of Cepheid variable stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / H. Bond, STScI and Pennsylvania State University.

Hubble Observes Variable Star RS Puppis and Surrounding Nebula

Dec 25, 2018 by News Staff

NASA has released a striking photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of RS Puppis, a Cepheid type variable star. The brightest star in the Hubble...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 1466. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

NGC 1466: Brilliant Globular Cluster Shines in New Hubble Photo

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of an ancient star cluster called NGC 1466. This Hubble image shows the...

These three radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2003 SD220 were obtained on December 15-17, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSSR / NSF / GBO.

Asteroid 2003 SD220 Makes Close Approach to Earth

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers working with NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network, NSF’s Green Bank Telescope and Arecibo Observatory’s 1,000-foot (305-m) antenna have...

ALMA image of 46P/Wirtanen taken on December 2, 2018, as the comet approached Earth. The image shows the concentration and distribution of HCN molecules near the center of the comet’s coma. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Cordiner / NASA / CUA.

ALMA Takes Close Look at Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 24, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) captured the radio image of 46P/Wirtanen on December 2, 2018, when the comet...

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.

Hubble and SOFIA Capture New Images of Comet 46P/Wirtanen

Dec 21, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) snapped stunning images of a short-period comet...

The galaxy cluster Abell S1063 was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as part of the Frontier Fields Program. The huge mass of the cluster -- containing both baryonic matter and dark matter -- acts as cosmic magnification glass and deforms objects behind it. In the past astronomers used this gravitational lensing effect to calculate the distribution of dark matter in galaxy clusters. A more accurate and faster way, however, is to study the intracluster light (visible in blue), which follows the distribution of dark matter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Montes, University of New South Wales.

Intracluster Light Illuminates Dark Matter in Galaxy Clusters

Dec 20, 2018 by News Staff

Dark matter is a mysterious substance that makes up about 85% of the matter in the Universe. It does not emit any kind of electromagnetic radiation and...

Material from the dusty and gas-rich disk (orange) plus hot gas (blue) mildly flows onto the star, creating a hot spot. Image credit: Caltech / T. Pyle, IPAC.

Astronomers Spot Young Star in ‘Growth Spurt’

Dec 19, 2018 by News Staff

A young star in the midst of a dramatic growth phase has been observed with the help of ESA’s Gaia satellite and NASA’s Near-Earth Object Wide-field...

Simulation of galaxies and gas in the Universe: within the gas in the (blue) filaments connecting the (orange) galaxies lurk rare pockets of pristine gas. Image credit: TNG Collaboration.

Astronomers Find Pristine Gas Cloud 12.3 Billion Light-Years Away

Dec 18, 2018 by News Staff

According to a Swinburne University of Technology-led study, the newly-discovered relic cloud of gas is unpolluted by stars even 1.5 billion years after...

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