Astronomy News

Solar Lensing Telescope: NASA Scientists Propose New Technique to Directly Image Surface of Distant Exoplanets

This artist’s concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. Image credit: NASA / Ames / SETI Institute / JPL-Caltech.
Oct 12, 2017 by News Staff

A space telescope placed far beyond the orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto could one day deliver high-resolution images of distant exoplanets, according to NASA physicist Slava Turyshev and colleagues. The secret to the telescope’s extraordinary power is the gravitational field of the Sun. This artist’s concept depicts Kepler-186f, the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone. Image credit: NASA / Ames / SETI...

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SMCN 2016-10a was discovered on October 14, 2016. Novae occur frequently in our Milky Way Galaxy, with a rate of around 35 each year, but SMCN 2016-10a is the first nova to have been detected in the Small Magellanic Cloud since 2012. Left: the nova system before eruption. Right: the nova system in outburst. Image credit: OGLE Survey.

Astronomers Discover One of Most Luminous Novae Ever

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

In a nearby dwarf galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud, astronomers have discovered possibly the most luminous nova ever. SMCN 2016-10a was discovered...

2012 TC4 appears as a dot at the center of this composite image of 37 individual 50-second exposures obtained with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2012. The asteroid is marked with a circle for a better identification. Image credit: ESO / ESA NEOCC / Olivier Hainaut, ESO / Marco Micheli, ESA / Detlef Koschny, ESA.

Small Asteroid 2012 TC4 to Whiz Safely by Earth This Week

Oct 11, 2017 by News Staff

Back in October 2012, a small (45-100 feet, or 15-30 m) asteroid known as 2012 TC4 had a close encounter with Earth. It passed our planet at a distance...

Artist’s impression of Planet Nine. Image credit: Tom Ruen / ESO.

Astronomers Say Evidence is Growing for Existence of Planet Nine

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

There are now five different lines of observational evidence pointing to the existence of Planet Nine, a super-Earth-sized world about 20 times farther...

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the blue compact dwarf galaxy LEDA 17302. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Displays Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy

Oct 9, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a galaxy known as LEDA 17302. It is a galaxy type known as a blue compact dwarf galaxy. This image, taken...

This illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Mysterious Long-Term Dimming of KIC 8462852 May Be Caused by Dust, Astronomers Say

Oct 9, 2017 by News Staff

University of Arizona astronomer Huan Meng and co-authors have found the long-term dimming of KIC 8462852 — a main-sequence F-type star located in...

Freon-40 discovered by ALMA around the infant stars in the IRAS 16293-2422 system. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA.

Freon-40 Detected around Protostars and Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Oct 6, 2017 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA)...

Astronomers Take Closer Look at Supergiant Binary Star HR 5171

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) have captured striking images of HR 5171, a unique binary stellar system in the constellation...

Artist’s illustration showing a massive exoplanet falling into its host star -- one of the possible explanations for the strange dimming of KIC 8462852. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Alfred Vidal-Madjar, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS.

Mysterious Star KIC 8462852 Continues to Baffle Astronomers

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

A star about 1,480 light-years from Earth called KIC 8462852 has been a fascinating mystery since its discovery was made public in September 2015. Astronomers...

An artistic illustration of a binary black hole. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Astronomers Discover Five New Double Supermassive Black Holes

Oct 4, 2017 by News Staff

Five new pairs of merging supermassive black holes have been discovered by combining data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Wide-Field Infrared...

This Hubble image shows the inner region of Abell 1689, an immense cluster of galaxies located 2.2 billion light-years away. The cluster’s gravitational field is warping light from background galaxies, causing them to appear as arcs. Dark matter in Abell 1689, which represents about 80% of its mass, is mapped by plotting these arcs. Image credit: NASA / ESA / JPL-Caltech / Yale / CNRS.

Researchers Find Evidence of Dynamical Dark Energy

Oct 3, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers led by University of Portsmouth Professor Gong-Bo Zhao has found that the nature of dark energy may not be the cosmological...

This Hubble image shows the Honeycomb Nebula (to the lower left) and part of the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Finds Cosmic Bubbles and Filaments in Large Magellanic Cloud

Oct 2, 2017 by News Staff

The Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy, is home to one of the largest and most intense regions of star formation known...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy NGC 4490. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Calzetti, UMass / LEGUS Team / J. Maund, University of Sheffield / R. Chandar, University of Toledo.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Messy Result of Cosmic Collision: NGC 4490

Sep 29, 2017 by News Staff

A striking new image captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy NGC 4490. The scattered and warped appearance of the galaxy is the...

Comet C/2017 K2: Hubble Spots Rare Visitor from Oort Cloud

Sep 29, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has photographed the farthest-discovered active inbound comet, C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS). The comet’s orbit indicates...

This colorful image of the Saturn Nebula was captured by the MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which mapped the gas and dust inside the nebula. Image credit: J. Walsh / ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Probes Interior of Saturn Nebula

Sep 28, 2017 by News Staff

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have produced the first detailed optical maps of the gas and dust distributed throughout the spectacular...

NGC 1964. Image credit: Jean-Christophe Lambry / ESO.

MPG/ESO Telescope Looks at NGC 1964

Sep 27, 2017 by News Staff

The MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has taken a picture of NGC 1964, an incredibly beautiful spiral galaxy in the constellation...

The star-forming dwarf galaxy J0811+4730 is a proxy for primordial galaxies. Image credit: University of Virginia.

Astronomers Find Record-Breaking Oxygen-Deficient Galaxy

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

The oxygen level in J0811+4730, a star-forming dwarf galaxy in the constellation Lynx, some 630 million light-years away, is the lowest yet discovered...

Gliese 3942b: Super-Earth Found Orbiting Nearby Star

Sep 25, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Dr. Manuel Perger, a postdoctoral researcher at Spain’s Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC), and colleagues have discovered a ‘super-Earth’ exoplanet...

LEDA 31961. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Views Peculiar Galaxy LEDA 31961

Sep 25, 2017 by News Staff

NASA has released a stunning image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the small galaxy LEDA 31961. LEDA 31961. Image credit: NASA / ESA...

At the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, cosmic rays have been detected from far off galaxies. Image credit: A. Chantelauze / S. Staffi / L. Bret / Pierre Auger Observatory.

Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Have Extragalactic Origins

Sep 22, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, astrophysicists have confirmed that cosmic rays with ultra-high energies come from outside our Milky Way Galaxy. At the Pierre Auger...

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