Astronomy News

TRAPPIST-1’s Outer Planets May Harbor Water, New Study Finds

This artist’s concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of TRAPPIST-1f. Because this planet is thought to be tidally locked to its star, meaning the same face of the planet is always pointed at the star, there would be a region called the terminator that perpetually divides day and night. If the night side is icy, the day side might give way to liquid water in the area where sufficient starlight hits the surface. One of the unusual features of TRAPPIST-1 planets is how close they are to each other -- so close that other planets could be visible in the sky from the surface of each one. In this view, the planets in the sky correspond to TRAPPIST1e (top left crescent), d (middle crescent) and c (bright dot to the lower right of the crescents). TRAPPIST-1e would appear about the same size as the Moon and TRAPPIST1-c is on the far side of the star. The star itself, an ultra-cool dwarf, would appear about three times larger than our own Sun does in Earth’s skies. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Catlech.
Sep 1, 2017 by News Staff

In a research paper to appear in the Astronomical Journal (arXiv.org preprint), astronomers from MIT, the Geneva Observatory and elsewhere report that the outer planets in the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may hold substantial amounts of water. The results are based on observations of the host star made by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This artist’s concept allows us to imagine what it would be like to stand on the surface of TRAPPIST-1f. Because...

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Astronomers Detect Methylidynium in Distant Star-Forming Galaxies

Aug 31, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have detected the presence of CH+ — an ion of the CH molecule known as methylidynium to chemists — in distant...

The recovered nova of 1437 and its ejected shell (false color). The now-quiescent star that produced the nova shell is indicated with greenish-blue tick marks; it is far from the shell’s center today. However, its measured motion across the sky places it at the greenish-blue plus sign in 1437. The position of the center of the shell in 2016 and its deduced position in 1437 are indicated with yellow and magenta plus signs, respectively. Image credit: K. Ilkiewicz & J. Mikolajewska.

Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Nova First Spotted by Koreans 580 Years Ago

Aug 31, 2017 by News Staff

On March 11, 1437, Korean royal astronomers spotted a bright new star in the constellation Scorpius. From the ancient records, modern astronomers determined...

Astronomers Measure Magnetic Field of Far-Off Galaxy

Aug 30, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has measured the magnetic field of a star-forming galaxy nearly 4.6 billion light-years away. An image obtained using...

The two galaxies shown here, imaged by Hubble, are named NGC 5765A (the upper, red-tinted one) and NGC 5765B (the lower, blue-tinted one). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Peculiar Galaxy Pair: NGC 5765

Aug 28, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a remarkable new image of a pair of interacting galaxies known as NGC 5765. The two galaxies shown here,...

This image from Kepler shows members of the Pleiades star cluster taken during Campaign 4 of the K2 Mission. Kepler was not designed to look at stars this bright; they cause the camera to saturate, leading to long spikes and other artifacts in the image. Despite this serious image degradation, the new technique has allowed astronomers to carefully measure changes in brightness of these stars as Kepler observed them for almost three months. Image credit: NASA / Aarhus University / T. White.

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Variability in Pleiades

Aug 25, 2017 by News Staff

Using a novel photometric technique to enhance observations from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have performed the most detailed study yet...

An image showing X-rays detected from the Type Ia supernova SN 2012ca (inside the circle). According to astronomers, SN 2012ca occurred in the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009, located about 260 million light-years away. Image credit: Vikram Dwarkadas / Chandra X-ray Observatory.

X-Rays from Type Ia Supernova Detected for the First Time

Aug 23, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected the first X-rays from a Type Ia supernova, located inside the spiral-shaped galaxy ESO 336-G009. An image showing X-rays detected...

This is the most detailed image ever of the red supergiant star Antares, or any other star apart from the Sun. Image credit: K. Ohnaka / ESO.

Antares: Astronomers Snap Most Detailed Image of Star That’s Not the Sun

Aug 23, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Chile and Germany has managed to capture an image of unprecedented detail of another star — that isn’t...

This image from the Subaru Telescope shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7479. Image credit: Ichi Tanaka / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Subaru Telescope Observes NGC 7479

Aug 22, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The Subaru Telescope, the 8.2-m flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii, has...

This new image from Hubble shows the dwarf galaxy NGC 178. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spies Dwarf Galaxy NGC 178

Aug 21, 2017 by News Staff

This image of the small galaxy NGC 178 comes courtesy of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). This new image...

Gliese 832 Hosts at Least Three Exoplanets, Astrophysicists Say

Aug 18, 2017 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers from the Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics and the University of Texas at Arlington has spotted signs of an...

This image of the ‘jellyfish’ galaxy JO204 shows clearly how material is streaming out of the galaxy in long tendrils to the lower-left; red shows the glow from ionized hydrogen gas and the whiter regions are where most of the stars in the galaxy are located; some more distant galaxies are also visible. Image credit: ESO / GASP Collaboration.

MUSE Observations of ‘Jellyfish’ Galaxies Reveal New Way to Fuel Supermassive Black Holes

Aug 17, 2017 by News Staff

An international research team, led by Dr. Bianca Poggianti of the INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova, has used the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very...

This artist’s conception shows a hypothetical tidally-locked planet with two moons orbiting in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. Image credit: D. Aguilar / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Tidally-Locked Planets More Common than Previously Thought, Astronomer Says

Aug 16, 2017 by News Staff

Dr. Rory Barnes, an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program at the University of Washington, arrived at this finding...

This illustration shows a likely configuration of a gravitational lensing system discovered by the team: the milli-lens is located in or near the intervening spiral galaxy; the lens is magnifying blobs of jet material within the active galaxy PKS1413+135, but the blobs are too small to be seen in the radio image (top left); only when the blobs move far away from the yellow core do they expand and are visible as the pink blobs in the image. Image credit: Anthony Readhead / Caltech / MOJAVE.

Gravitational ‘Milli-Lens’ Reveals Clumps of Hot Gas Streaming from Supermassive Black Hole

Aug 16, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found evidence for a unique gravitational lensing system, in which a massive star cluster is magnifying an extremely...

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 1727. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Highly Distorted Spiral Galaxy: IC 1727

Aug 14, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 1727. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the...

This illustration shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system might look like from a vantage point near TRAPPIST-1f (at right). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

TRAPPIST-1 Planetary System Could Be 10 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Aug 14, 2017 by News Staff

A research team says the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system — a compact system of at least seven exoplanets with sizes similar to Earth — formed between...

This image shows the barred-ring spiral galaxy NGC 7098 (center). An array of distant galaxies are also visible throughout the frame, the most prominent being the small, edge-on, spiral galaxy visible to the left of NGC 7098, known as ESO 048-G007. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Captures Stunning Image of Barred-Ring Spiral Galaxy NGC 7098

Aug 10, 2017 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at Paranal Observatory in Chile has snapped an amazing new photo of NGC 7098, a spiral galaxy with numerous sets of...

Artist’s illustration of a four-planet system. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick, University of Warwick / Space-art.co.uk.

Four Exoplanets Detected around Nearby Star Tau Ceti

Aug 10, 2017 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has detected four possible alien worlds circling tau Ceti, which is less than 12 light-years from our Solar System. Artist’s...

The solar eclipse petroglyph in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Image credit: J. McKim Malville, University of Colorado.

Strange Petroglyph in Chaco Canyon May Represent Ancient Total Solar Eclipse

Aug 10, 2017 by News Staff

A petroglyph on the south face of Piedra del Sol, a free-standing rock in New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, may depict the solar corona observed during the...

According to Elbert et al, there are probably millions of stellar-remnant black holes in our Milky Way Galaxy -- far more than expected. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Milky Way Galaxy May Host Millions of Stellar-Remnant Black Holes

Aug 9, 2017 by News Staff

A trio of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine, claims that stellar-remnant black holes, which result from the collapse of massive stars...

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