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This composite image shows Abell 1033, two merging galaxy clusters located about 1.6 billion light-years from Earth. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / Leiden University / F. de Gasperin et al; optical – SDSS; radio – LOFAR / ASTRON / NCRA / TIFR / GMRT.

Chandra Captures Collision of Two Galaxy Clusters: Abell 1033

Nov 19, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have determined that a massive group of galaxies called Abell 1033 is actually two galaxy...

An artist’s impression of W2246-0526, the most luminous galaxy ever discovered. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

Universe’s Most Luminous Galaxy Is Accreting Its Smaller Neighbors

Nov 19, 2018 by News Staff

WISE J224607.55-052634.9 (W2246-0526 for short), the most luminous galaxy ever discovered, is accreting (eating) at least three of its smaller neighbors,...

An artist’s impression of ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Interstellar Comet Oumuamua is Smaller than Previously Thought, Has Highly Reflective Surface

Nov 16, 2018 by News Staff

In October 2017, a fast moving comet of extrasolar origin, 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), was discovered close to the Earth with a ground-based telescope in...

An artist’s impression of a binary stellar system. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Did Ancient Egyptian Scribes Discover Algol’s Variability 3,000 Years before European Astronomers?

Nov 16, 2018 by News Staff

An ancient Egyptian Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days assigns luck with the period of 2.85 days. Previous astronomical, astrophysical and statistical...

An artist’s concept of a blue supergiant star that once existed inside a cluster of young stars in the spiral galaxy NGC 3938. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Astronomers Find Type Ic Supernova’s Progenitor Star

Nov 15, 2018 by News Staff

Two teams of astronomers have finally found the long-sought progenitor star to a Type Ic supernova by sifting through Hubble archival data. An artist’s...

An artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Frozen Super-Earth Found Orbiting Barnard’s Star

Nov 14, 2018 by News Staff

A potentially rocky super-Earth orbits one of our closest stellar neighbors, Barnard’s star, only 6 light-years away. An artist’s impression of Barnard’s...

Antlia 2: Enormous Dwarf Galaxy Discovered in Orbit around Milky Way

Nov 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Gaia satellite have discovered a new dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The dwarf galaxy, named Antlia 2, is...

Beta Pictoris b. Image credit: ESO / Anne-Marie Lagrange / SPHERE Consortium.

SPHERE Captures Young Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b Orbiting around Its Star

Nov 13, 2018 by News Staff

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

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster SDSS J1110+6459, which is located about 6 billion light-years from Earth. The image includes optical and infrared observations from 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 / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Sees Lensing Galaxy Cluster, Cosmic ‘Jellyfish’

Nov 12, 2018 by News Staff

Galaxy clusters are some of the most massive objects that can be found in the Universe. A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows one...

Images of four colliding galaxies, along with close-up views of their coalescing nuclei in the bright cores, are shown beneath the Hubble snapshots of NGC 6240. The left image of each pair, showing the merging galaxies, was taken by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). The right image, showing the bright cores, was taken in near-infrared light by the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, using adaptive optics to sharpen the view. The nuclei in each of the Hubble and Keck Observatory infrared photos are only about 3,000 light-years apart -- a near-embrace in cosmic terms. If there are pairs of black holes, they will likely merge within the next 10 million years to form a more massive black hole. These observations are part of the largest-ever survey of the cores of nearby galaxies using high-resolution images in near-infrared light taken by the Hubble and Keck observatories. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Koss, Eureka Scientific, Inc / W. M. Keck Observatory / Pan-STARRS.

Astronomers Find Supermassive Black Hole Pairs in Colliding Galaxies

Nov 9, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Michael Koss of Eureka Scientific Inc. has observed several pairs of galaxies in the final stages of merging together into...

James Clark and Dr. Kerri Cahoy propose that laser technology on Earth could emit a beacon strong enough to attract attention of alien astronomers from as far as 20,000 light-years away. Image credit: A. Fitzsimmons, ESO / Sci-News.com.

Megawatt-Class Lasers from Earth Could Attract Alien Astronomers, Says New Study

Nov 9, 2018 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, suggests that if a 1- to 2-megawatt (MW) laser were focused through a 30- to 45-m telescope and aimed...

An artist’s illustration of what the near-Earth asteroid Phaethon might look like up close. Image credit: Heather Roper.

Astronomers Puzzle Over Rare Blue Asteroid That Sometimes Behaves Like Comet

Nov 7, 2018 by News Staff

A large near-Earth asteroid called (3200) Phaethon is known to be blue in color and sometimes act like a comet. Using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility...

Composite image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2597 showing the fountain-like flow of gas powered by the supermassive black hole in the central galaxy. The yellow is ALMA data of the cold gas. The red is data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope showing the hot hydrogen gas in the same region. The extend purple is the extended hot, ionized gas as imaged by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Tremblay et al / AUI / NSF / B. Saxton / NASA / Chandra / VLT.

Giant ‘Fountain’ of Cold Molecular Gas Offers Clues to How Galaxies Evolve

Nov 6, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) have observed a supermassive black hole acting like a ‘monumental fountain’...

This image shows the binary star system 2MASS J18082002-5104378. Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD / DSS2.

One of Milky Way’s Oldest Stars Discovered

Nov 6, 2018 by News Staff

2MASS J18082002-5104378 B, an ultra metal-poor star located some 1,950 light-years away from Earth, is approximately 13.53 billion years old, making it...

This Hubble image shows the blue compact dwarf galaxy ESO 338-4. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Beautiful Dwarf Galaxy

Nov 5, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of a small galaxy called ESO 338-4. This Hubble image shows the blue compact dwarf...

This Hubble image shows the Serpens Nebula, a stellar nursery about 1,300 light-years away. Within the nebula, in the upper right of the image, a shadow is created by the protoplanetary disk surrounding HBC 672. While the disk of debris is too tiny to be seen even by Hubble, its shadow is projected upon the cloud in which it was born. In this view, the feature, the Bat Shadow, spans approximately 200 times the diameter of our own Solar System. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Cosmic ‘Bat Shadow’

Nov 1, 2018 by News Staff

Like a fly that wanders into a flashlight’s beam, a protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star HBC 672 is casting a giant shadow, nicknamed the ‘Bat...

This visualization uses data from simulations of orbital motions of gas swirling around at about 30% of the speed of light on a circular orbit around the supermassive black hole. Image credit: ESO / GRAVITY Collaboration / L. Calçada.

Astronomers Observe Interstellar Material Orbiting Close to Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Oct 31, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the GRAVITY instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have detected flares of infrared radiation coming from the...

Artist’s conception of NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Image credit: NASA / Ames / Dan Rutter.

NASA Ends Kepler Space Telescope’s Science Operations

Oct 31, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, which spent nine years in deep space collecting data that detected thousands of exoplanets, has run out of fuel needed...

A radio image of hydrogen gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud as observed by CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope. Image credit: Naomi McClure-Griffiths et al / CSIRO’s ASKAP Telescope.

Small Magellanic Cloud is Losing Its Star-Forming Material, Astronomers Find

Oct 31, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope has discovered that a nearby dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud has...