Astronomy News

Radioactive Molecule Found in Stellar Merger Remnant

An artist’s impression of the collision of two stars, like the ones that formed CK Vulpeculae. The inset illustrates the inner structure of one red giant before the merger. A thin layer of 26Al (brown) surrounds a helium core. An extended convective envelope (not to scale), which forms the outermost layer of the star, can mix material from inside the star to the surface, but it never reaches deep enough to dredge 26Al up to the surface. Only a collision with another star can disperse 26Al. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.
Aug 2, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) have made the first definitive detection of a radioactive molecule in interstellar space. The observations reveal that this molecule — a form, or isotopologue of aluminum monofluoride (26AlF) — was dispersed into space after the collision of two stars, a rare cosmic event that was witnessed on Earth as a nova in...

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Exoplanet Hunters Create Reference Catalog of Solar System Bodies’ Light-Fingerprints

Aug 1, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers at Carl Sagan Institute, Cornell University, has produced a reference catalog of spectra and geometric albedos for 19 objects that...

Illustration of the early solar disk, with an inset image of a blue crystal of hibonite, one of the first minerals to form in the Solar System. Image credit: Field Museum / University of Chicago / NASA / ESA / E. Field, STScl.

Meteorite Researchers Find Strong Evidence Early Sun Was Highly Active

Jul 31, 2018 by News Staff

By examining microscopic ice-blue crystals of mineral hibonite trapped inside a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite, an international team of scientists was...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 83. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / W. Blair, STScI & JHU / Carnegie Institution of Washington / Las Campanas Observatory / NOAO.

Astronomers Find New Place to Look for Gravitational Waves: Outskirts of Spiral Galaxies

Jul 31, 2018 by News Staff

Conditions favorable for gravitational wave-emitting mergers of massive black holes exist in the outer gas disks of big spiral galaxies, according to a...

An artist’s illustration of NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

NASA’s Planet-Hunter TESS Starts Hunting

Jul 30, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has begun its search for planets around stars within 300 light-years of the Sun. An artist’s illustration...

Acting as a ‘natural telescope’ in space, the gravity of SDSS J1152+3313 magnifies, brightens, and distorts a distant starburst galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Uses Cosmic Lens to Capture Distant Star-Forming Galaxy

Jul 30, 2018 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope demonstrates the immense effects of gravity; more specifically, it shows the effects of gravitational...

An artist’s impression of HD 26965b and its star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

HD 26965b: Super-Earth Found Just 16 Light-Years Away

Jul 30, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet with several times the mass of the Earth orbiting a nearby star. A paper reporting this discovery is published...

This image shows the recent observations of the planets Mars and Saturn made with Hubble. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / OPAL Team / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Mars and Saturn Photographed Near Opposition

Jul 27, 2018 by News Staff

In summer 2018 Mars and Saturn are, one after the other, in opposition to Earth. Around the time of opposition, a planet is at its closest distance to...

Einstein’s General Relativity Passes Black Hole Test

Jul 27, 2018 by News Staff

At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies the 4-million-solar-mass black hole named Sagittarius A*. This gravitational monster is surrounded by a group...

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The CME traveled at over 900 miles per second. It did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow, causing aurora to appear on the night of September 3. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Reveals Sounds of the Sun

Jul 26, 2018 by News Staff

Data from the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) have captured the dynamic movement of the Sun’s atmosphere for over two decades. Now,...

An artist’s concept showing the gaseous halo surrounding a galaxy, illuminated by a narrow band of ultraviolet light called Lyman alpha emission. Image credit: T. Klein, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Giant Gaseous Halo Surrounds Young Star-Forming Galaxy

Jul 26, 2018 by News Staff

Q2343-BX418, a young star-forming galaxy located about 10 billion light years away from Earth, is surrounded by an enormous halo of gas, according to new...

Andromeda Galaxy Merged with Massive Neighbor 2 Billion Years Ago

Jul 24, 2018 by News Staff

The Andromeda galaxy, also known as Messier 31, collided and merged with a large galaxy approximately 2 billion years ago, according to new research. Even...

This color image of NGC 6744 was made from separate exposures taken in the visible, ultraviolet and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Seven 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.

Hubble Sees Beautiful Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744

Jul 23, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a detailed view of part of NGC 6744, one of the most Milky Way-like spiral galaxies...

Artist’s illustration depicting the destruction of a young planet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Young Star Caught Snacking on Planetary Debris

Jul 19, 2018 by News Staff

For decades, astronomers have puzzled over the variability of young stars residing in Taurus-Auriga dark clouds, a group of molecular clouds located in...

This image of Neptune was obtained during the testing of the Narrow-Field adaptive optics mode of the MUSE/GALACSI instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / P. Weilbacher, AIP.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Captures Sharp Images of Neptune

Jul 19, 2018 by News Staff

The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has achieved the first light with a new adaptive optics mode...

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet 2MASS 0249c. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Find Twin of Giant Exoplanet Beta Pictoris b

Jul 18, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a giant gaseous planet orbiting a pair of brown dwarfs called 2MASS J02495639-0557352AB (2MASS 0249 for short). The new exoplanet,...

Various groupings of Jupiter’s moons with the newly-discovered ones shown in bold; Valetudo has a prograde orbit that crosses the retrograde orbits. Image credit: Roberto Molar-Candanosa / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Discover Twelve New Jovian Moons

Jul 18, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr. Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution for Science has discovered twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter: eleven ‘normal’...

Using NASA/ESA Hubble and ESA’s Gaia space telescopes, Riess et al have made the most precise measurements to date of the Universe’s expansion rate. This is calculated by gauging the distances between nearby galaxies using special types of stars called Cepheid variables as cosmic yardsticks. By comparing their intrinsic brightness as measured by Hubble, with their apparent brightness as seen from Earth, scientists can calculate their distances. Gaia further refines this yardstick by geometrically measuring the distances to Cepheid variables within the Milky Way Galaxy. This allowed astronomers to more precisely calibrate the distances to Cepheids that are seen in outside galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Universe’s Expansion Measured with Greatest Precision Yet

Jul 16, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA’s Gaia space observatory to make the most precise measurements of the expansion rate...

This image, taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy cluster SDSS J1336-0331. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Catches Enormous Cluster of Galaxies

Jul 16, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of a massive galaxy cluster called SDSS J1336-0331. This image, taken with the Wide...

A bi-static radar image of the binary asteroid 2017 YE5 from the Arecibo Observatory and the Green Bank Observatory on June 25, 2018. Image credit: Arecibo / GBO / NSF / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Spot Rare Binary Asteroid: 2017 YE5

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

New observations by NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar in California, Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico and the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia...

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