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This image shows the nearby globular cluster NGC 6397, located at a distance of 7,800 light-years in the southern constellation Ara. Image credit: NASA / ESA / T. Brown & S. Casertano, STScI / J. Anderson, STScI.

Astronomers Make First Precise Distance Measurement to Ancient Globular Cluster

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have for the first time precisely measured the distance to one of the oldest objects in the Universe...

10,000 Stellar-Mass Black Holes Exist in Milky Way’s Central Region, Astronomers Say

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered what they believe are 12 stellar-mass black holes gathered around Sagittarius A*,...

This illustration shows a red dwarf star orbited by a hypothetical exoplanet. Red dwarfs tend to be magnetically active, displaying gigantic arcing prominences and a wealth of dark sunspots. Red dwarfs also erupt with intense flares that could strip a nearby planet’s atmosphere over time, or make the surface inhospitable to life as we know it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / G. Bacon.

Intense X-Rays Could Sterilize Potentially Habitable Exoplanets

Apr 5, 2018 by News Staff

Intense radiation from host stars could strip away the ozone layer of Earth-like exoplanets and render them uninhabitable, according to a new study presented...

This artist’s impression shows how the Milky Way Galaxy would look seen from almost edge on and from a very different perspective than we get from the Earth. The central bulge shows up as a peanut-shaped glowing ball of stars and the spiral arms and their associated dust clouds form a narrow band. Image credit: ESO / NASA / JPL-Caltech / M. Kornmesser / R. Hurt.

Milky Way Galaxy is Slowly Increasing in Size, Study Suggests

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy, which is approximately 100,000 light-years in diameter, may be getting even bigger, according to a study by the Instituto de Astrofísica...

Images of one of the rapidly evolving transients, from 8 days before the maximum brightness to 18 days afterwards. This outburst took place at a distance of 4 billion light years. Image credit: M. Pursiainen / University of Southampton / DES Collaboration.

Astronomers Spot 73 Unusually Fast-Evolving Stellar Explosions

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers at the University of Southampton, UK, has found 73 rapidly evolving transients — very bright, but quick events — in a...

The infrared map constructed from the VVV survey of the inner Milky Way showing the three areas studied. Image credit: ESO / M. Rejkuba / F. Surot Madrid / E. Valenti.

Astronomers Creating First Large-Scale Age-Map of Milky Way’s Bulge

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

A team of European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers looking to better understand the formation history of our Milky Way Galaxy has started creating...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+223, whose light has taken over 5 billion years to reach us. Highlighted is the position where the Icarus star appeared -- its image magnified by a factor 2,000 by gravitational microlensing. The spiral galaxy in which the star is located can be seen three times on the sky -- multiplied by strong gravitational lensing. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, John Hopkins University / FrontierSN Team / T. Treu, University of California Los Angeles / P. Kelly, University of California Berkeley / GLASS Team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields Team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH Team / Z. Levay, STScI.

Icarus Star: Hubble Spies Most Distant Star Ever Seen

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

A blue supergiant star nicknamed Icarus is so far away that its light has taken 9 billion years to reach our planet. It appears to us as it did when the...

This is an image of the gravitational lens system SDSS J0146-0929 as photographed by Hubble. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Einstein Ring

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted a so-called Einstein ring, a rare image of a distant galaxy lensed by gravity. This...

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this image of NGC 1052-DF2 on November 16, 2017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. van Dokkum, Yale University.

Hubble Discovers Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy with Almost No Dark Matter

Mar 29, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a unique galaxy — the first of its kind — that appears to contain virtually...

Astronomers Find Super-Earth with Mercury-Like Composition: K2-229b

Mar 28, 2018 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered a planetary system containing at least three massive planets, orbiting the bright late-G/early-K-type...

Chaotic web of gas filaments and dark bubbles in a Milky Way stellar nursery. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / PACS / SPIRE / Hi-GAL Project / UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza - Università di Roma / E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS & INAF.

Herschel Sees Web of Gas Filaments in Nearby Star-Forming Region

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A spectacular image from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory shows an intricate network of gas filaments and dark bubbles in a massive star-forming region...

KSN 2015K’s host is the star-forming spiral galaxy 2MASX-J13315109-1044061. Image credit: Rest et al, doi: 10.1038/s41550-018-0423-2.

Kepler Captures Details of Unusual Stellar Explosion: FELT Supernova

Mar 27, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has caught a kind of stellar explosion called a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT) in the act. KSN 2015K’s host...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 5714

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. Image credit:...

This composite image shows the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

Hubble Discovers Origin of Mysterious Gas Cloud Heading toward Milky Way

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

In a cosmic tug-of-war between Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way — only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Scholz’s Star Disturbed Oort Cloud Objects 70,000 Years Ago

Mar 21, 2018 by Natali Anderson

About 70,000 years ago, a binary stellar system called ‘Scholz’s star’ passed within only 52,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, i.e., within...

Astronomers Detect Radio Signals from Star-Eating Black Hole

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected radio echoes of a supermassive black hole feeding on a star, suggesting the black hole emits a jet of energy proportional to...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: Joy Pollard / Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF.

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Likely Came from Double Star System

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid of extrasolar origin identified in the Solar System, likely came from a binary star system, according to new...

According to Meurer et al, galaxies behave as clocks, rotating once a billion years at the very outskirts of their discs. This Hubble image shows the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Kuntz, JHU / F. Bresolin, University of Hawaii / J. Trauger, JPL / J. Mould, NOAO / Y.-H. Chu, UIUC / STScI.

Cosmic Clocks: Galaxies Behave Like Clocks, Rotating Once Every Billion Years

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Australia, China and the United States has discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter...

This view shows the entire sky at energies greater than 1 GeV based on five years of data from the LAT instrument on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; the most prominent feature is the bright band of diffuse glow along the map’s center, which marks the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration.

Mysterious Gamma-Ray Signal Comes from Ancient Stars at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of researchers has discovered that an anomalous gamma-ray signal from Milky Way’s center comes from 10 billion-year-old stars,...