Astronomy News

Astrophysicists Conduct Most Precise Extrasolar Test Yet of Einstein’s Gravity

This Hubble image shows the diverse collection of galaxies in the galaxy cluster Abell S0740. The giant elliptical galaxy ESO 325-G004 looms large at the cluster’s center. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / J. Blakeslee, Washington State University.
Jun 21, 2018 by News Staff

Dr. Thomas Collett, an astrophysicist and cosmologist at the University of Portsmouth, UK, and co-authors have made the most precise test of Albert Einstein’s gravity on large astronomical scales to date. By combining data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the team’s results show that gravity in a giant elliptical galaxy called ESO 325-G004 behaves as predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity. This...

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An artist’s impression of an intermediate-mass black hole. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers See Best Evidence Yet of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

Jun 20, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers know that small black holes — objects ranging from 10 times to 100 times the Sun’s mass — are the remnants of dying stars, and...

Artist’s impression of the exoplanet Wolf 503b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Wolf 503b: Large Exoplanet Found 145 Light-Years Away

Jun 20, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

An extrasolar planet larger than the Earth has been discovered orbiting a nearby cool star, thanks to data gathered by NASA’s Kepler/K2 mission. Artist’s...

An artist’s impression of a starburst galaxy. This kind of galaxy is typically forming stars at such a high rate; they can form up to 1,000 times more stars per year, compared to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find Too Many Massive Stars in Nearby and Distant Star-Forming Galaxies

Jun 19, 2018 by News Staff

Two independent teams of astronomers have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy called...

This Hubble image shows the giant galaxy cluster RXC J0949.8+1707. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.

Hubble Sees One Distant Cluster Galaxy, Three Supernovae

Jun 18, 2018 by News Staff

Numerous fuzzy blobs and glowing shapes scattered across this image — taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — make up RXC J0949.8+1707,...

An artist’s conception of a tidal disruption event in the merging galaxy pair Arp 299; background is the Hubble image of Arp 299. Image credit: Sophia Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA / STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Destroys Star, Launches Jet of Matter

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the intense gravity of a supermassive...

Artist’s impression of a potentially habitable exomoon orbiting a giant planet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Identify 121 Gas Giants that May Have Habitable Moons

Jun 15, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from the United States, Australia, and Brazil has identified 121 giant exoplanets in the habitable zones of their...

An artist’s impression of protoplanets forming around a young star. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Three Giant Protoplanets around HD 163296

Jun 14, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have uncovered evidence that three infant planets are forming in the protoplanetary...

This 3D spectro-imaging data cube was produced using software called OsrsVol, short for OSIRIS-Volume Display; Ciurlo et al developed this custom volume rendering tool to separate G3, G4, and G5 from the background emission; once the 3D analysis was performed, the astronomers could clearly distinguish the G-objects, which allowed them to follow their movement and see how they behave around the supermassive black hole. Image credit: Ciurlo et al.

Strange Star-Like Objects Spotted near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Jun 13, 2018 by News Staff

Three new dusty stellar objects — so-called ‘G-type’ objects — have been spotted at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. This 3D spectro-imaging...

An artist’s concept of the K2-239 planetary system. Image credit: Gabriel Perez Diaz, SMM / IAC.

Astronomers Discover Five New Exoplanets Orbiting Cool Dwarf Stars

Jun 13, 2018 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler K2 mission have discovered two new planetary systems, one of which contains two super-Earths and the other...

This Hubble WFPC2 image shows Alpha Centauri A (left) and Alpha Centauri B (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

X-Rays Pose No Threat to Alpha Centauri AB Exoplanets, Chandra Data Show

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

New observations by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory indicate the two brightest stars in the triple-star system Alpha Centauri are not pummeling any...

Artist’s impression of diamond dust. Image credit: S. Dagnello.

Astronomers Find Rapidly Spinning Nanodiamonds in Dust Disks around Young Stars

Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

A faint and mysterious stream of microwaves emanating from young star systems far out in the Milky Way Galaxy could be caused by nanodiamonds about 1.5-2.2 nm...

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster RXC J0232.2-4420. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / RELICS.

Hubble Sees Massive Galaxy Cluster: RXC J0232.2-4420

Jun 11, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

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

This celestial firestorm is the blazing wreckage of a collision between two spiral galaxies NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, which are located about 62 million light-years from Earth. The two galaxies, whose bright yellow cores appear to the lower left and upper right of center, began their fateful confrontation a few hundred million years ago. The pair is nicknamed the Antennae Galaxies because of two long streamers of stars, gas, and dust that extend from the crash site. Wide-field images reveal the elongated ‘antennae’ formed during the initial impact, but this Hubble image concentrates on the heart of the galactic collision. Image credit: NASA / ESA / B. Whitmore, STScI.

Violent Galaxy Collisions Better at Activating Black Holes than Peaceful Mergers, Say Astronomers

Jun 8, 2018 by News Staff

When two galaxies collide, their central supermassive black holes also smash together. But before they do, these galaxies often flicker on, absorbing huge...

An artist’s impression of an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting an M-dwarf star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

We May Miss Life-Hosting Exoplanets If We Only Look for Their Oxygen

Jun 8, 2018 by James Romero

There could be a flaw in the search for atmospheric oxygen as a signature of life around most of our nearby exoplanets. A team from the University of Washington...

Globular clusters could be up to 4 billion years younger than previously thought. This image shows a binary star system within a globular cluster. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / University of Warwick.

Globular Star Clusters May Be Significantly Less Ancient than Previously Thought

Jun 7, 2018 by News Staff

Once thought to be formed soon after the Universe itself, new research from the Universities of Warwick and Auckland finds globular clusters may be only...

Two spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are locked in a swirling dance in this image from the VIMOS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: Juan Carlos Muñoz / ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Watches Galactic Dance

Jun 6, 2018 by News Staff

Two similarly-sized spiral galaxies — NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 — swing past each other in a cosmic dance choreographed by gravity. Two spiral...

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.

Recent Gravitational-Wave Event Likely Created Low-Mass Black Hole

Jun 5, 2018 by News Staff

A new study using X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory indicates that the neutron star merger that became the gravitational wave source,...

This Hubble image shows the dwarf galaxy IC 4870. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Dwarf Galaxy IC 4870

Jun 5, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the nearby dwarf galaxy IC 4870. This Hubble image shows the dwarf galaxy IC...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Does Small Fraction of Dark Matter Particles Carry Electric Mini-Charge?

Jun 4, 2018 by News Staff

A duo of astrophysicists is proposing a new model for the invisible material that makes up most of the Universe: it’s possible that a small fraction...

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