Astronomy News

Astronomers Measure Mass of Young Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b

This artist’s impression shows how the gas giant exoplanet inside the disc of Beta Pictoris may look. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.
Aug 24, 2018 by News Staff

A duo of astronomers at Leiden University in the Netherlands has deduced the mass of Beta Pictoris b from the motion of its parent star, which lies 63 light-years from Earth and is estimated to be only 20 million years old, over a long period of time as captured by ESA’s Gaia satellite and its predecessor, the Hipparcos satellite. Beta Pictoris b is a gas giant similar to Jupiter but, according to the new estimate, is 9 to 13 times more massive. This...

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Wide field image of the Leo I galaxy group. BST1047+1156 is located at the center of the white box. Image credit: Mihos et al, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/aad62e.

Astronomers Discover Possible New Member of Leo I Galaxy Group

Aug 23, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Case Western Reserve University undergraduate student Chris Carr and colleagues have spotted a very diffuse extragalactic cloud in a group of galaxies...

NGC 3199 appears to plough through the star-studded sky like a ship through stormy seas. Image credit: ESO.

NGC 3199: Crescent-Shaped Nebula Shines in New VST Photo

Aug 21, 2018 by News Staff

The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured an amazing new photo of a nebula known as NGC 3199. NGC 3199 appears...

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

Water-World Exoplanets Are Common in Milky Way Galaxy, Astronomers Say

Aug 20, 2018 by News Staff

A research team led by Harvard University astronomer Li Zeng has shown that water is likely to be a major component of extrasolar planets which are between...

Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens a new window on the evolving Universe, tracking the birth of stars over the last 11 billion years back to the cosmos’ busiest star-forming period, about 3 billion years after the Big Bang. This new image from Hubble encompasses a sea of approximately 15,000 galaxies -- 12,000 of which are starburst galaxies -- widely distributed in time and space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, University of Geneva / M. Montes, University of New South Wales.

New Hubble Image Reveals 15,000 Galaxies Deep in Universe

Aug 20, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have assembled one of the most comprehensive portraits yet of the Universe’s evolutionary history. Hubble’s ultraviolet vision opens a...

This image shows the newly-discovered galaxy cluster with the central giant elliptical galaxy, which harbors a supermassive black hole. Image credit: Taweewat Somboonpanyakul.

New Massive Galaxy Cluster Discovered

Aug 17, 2018 by News Staff

Dr. Michael McDonald of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and co-authors have uncovered a new massive cluster of galaxies hiding...

An artist’s impression of a gamma-ray burst’s jet. Image credit: S. Wiessinger / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Bright Gamma-Ray Burst Pulses Exhibit Time-Reversible Wavelike Structures

Aug 17, 2018 by News Staff

A research team headed by College of Charleston astrophysicist Jon Hakkila has discovered a peculiarity in the light curves of astronomical phenomena called...

Artist’s impression of a sunset on the ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b. Image credit: Denis Bajram.

Astronomers Find Iron and Titanium in Atmosphere of Ultrahot Jupiter

Aug 16, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have detected atomic iron and titanium in the atmosphere of KELT-9b, a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a star in the constellation Cygnus, about...

Computer simulation of a region of the Universe wherein a low-density ‘void’ (dark blue region at top center) is surrounded by denser structures containing numerous galaxies (orange/white). Image credit: TNG Collaboration.

Early Universe’s Most Opaque Place Contained Relatively Little Matter: Study

Aug 15, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have known that roughly 12 billion years ago, the gas in deep space was much more opaque than it is now in some regions, although the opacity...

An artist’s impression of a habitable exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf. Image credit: Sci-News.com / NASA.

Stellar Flares: Life Givers or Sterilizers of Worlds?

Aug 15, 2018 by James Romero

Have Carl Sagan and astrobiologists been too hard on stellar flares? A new study imagines an alternative scenario where they power photosynthesis around...

Neutron stars are the smallest, densest stars in the Universe. True to their name, neutron stars are composed almost entirely of neutrons. Duer et al suggest that some properties of neutron stars may be influenced not only by their multitude of densely packed neutrons, but also by a substantially smaller fraction of protons -- positively charged particles that make up just 5% of a neutron star. This is an illustration of a neutron star. Image credit: Casey Reed, Penn State University.

Protons May Have Outsize Influence on Properties of Neutron Stars

Aug 14, 2018 by News Staff

A study conducted by an international consortium called the CLAS Collaboration, made up of 182 members from 42 institutions in 9 countries, has confirmed...

An artist’s conception of exoplanets in a dense star cluster. Image credit: Michael Bachofner.

Milky Way’s Biggest Globular Cluster Unlikely to Host Habitable Exoplanets

Aug 14, 2018 by News Staff

Close encounters between stars in Omega Centauri, the only star cluster visible to the naked eye, leave little room for habitable planets, according to...

An artist’s concept of a Sun-mass star passing close to the early Solar System. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Passing Star May Have Shaped Early Outer Solar System

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

A close flyby of a Sun-mass star several billion years ago could explain some unusual features observed in the outer Solar System. An artist’s concept...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster RXC J0142.9+4438. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.

Hubble Spots Massive Galaxy Cluster

Aug 13, 2018 by News Staff

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

This image shows low-mass galaxies NGC 4485 and NGC 4490. Image credit: Adam Block / Mount Lemmon SkyCenter / University of Arizona.

Dwarf-Galaxy Mergers May Seed Future Stars

Aug 10, 2018 by News Staff

In a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Columbia University astronomer Sarah Pearson and co-authors show how gas...

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

Ultrahot Jupiters Have Starlike Atmospheres, Astronomers Say

Aug 10, 2018 by News Staff

Recent observations by NASA’s space telescopes of ultrahot Jupiter-like exoplanets have surprised astronomers. The spectra of these planets have suggested...

This deep image of the area of sky around the elliptical galaxy NGC 5018 offers a spectacular view of its tenuous streams of stars and gas. These delicate features are hallmarks of galactic interactions, and provide vital clues to the structure and dynamics of early-type galaxies. Image credit: Spavone et al / ESO.

Astronomers Observe NGC 5018 Galaxy Group

Aug 9, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) have examined a small group of five galaxies in the southern hemisphere. The results will be published...

This TESS image shows the comet C/2018 N1. Image credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Spots Comet C/2018 N1

Aug 7, 2018 by News Staff

Before NASA’s newest planet-hunter TESS started science operations on July 25, the spacecraft sent back a series of images showing the motion of C/2018...

This Hubble/ACS image shows NGC 2108, a globular cluster located in the constellation Dorado, about 164,000 light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Globular Cluster NGC 2108

Aug 6, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking photo of the colorful globular cluster NGC 2108. This Hubble/ACS image shows NGC 2108, a globular...

Artist’s conception of SIMP01365, an object with 12.7 times the mass of Jupiter, but a magnetic field 200 times more powerful than Jupiter’s. Image credit: Chuck Carter, Caltech / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Free-Floating Exoplanet Has Extremely Strong Magnetic Field

Aug 6, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array have detected a ‘rogue’ planetary-mass object with a surprisingly powerful magnetic field. Artist’s...

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