Astronomy News

Hubble Spots Massive, ‘Dead’ Disk Galaxy in Early Universe

This artist’s concept shows what the young, ‘dead,’ disk galaxy MACS 2129-1 (right) would look like when compared with our Milky Way Galaxy (left). Although three times as massive as the Milky Way, it is only half the size. MACS 2129-1 is also spinning more than twice as fast as the Milky Way. Note that regions of the Milky Way are blue from bursts of star formation, while MACS 2129-1 is yellow, signifying an older star population and no new star birth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levy, STScI.
Jun 23, 2017 by News Staff

Using a powerful astronomical technique called gravitational lensing, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope made a stunning discovery — the first example of a compact yet massive, fast-spinning, disk-shaped galaxy that stopped making stars only a few billion years after the Big Bang. This artist’s concept shows what the young, ‘dead,’ disk galaxy MACS 2129-1 (right) would look like when compared with our Milky Way Galaxy (left). Although...

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A planetary mass object the size of Mars would be sufficient to produce the observed perturbations in the distant Kuiper Belt. Image credit: Heather Roper / Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona.

Mars-to-Earth-Mass Planet May Lurk in Outer Solar System: Planet 10

Jun 22, 2017 by News Staff

An unknown Mars-to-Earth-mass planet may lurk in the outer reaches of the Solar System, according to new research on the orbits of minor planets to be...

The Milky Way Galaxy has a strong preference for two types of planets: rocky planets up to 1.75 times the size of Earth, and gas-enshrouded mini-Neptunes, which are from 2 to 3.5 times the size of Earth. Our Galaxy rarely makes planets with sizes in between these two groups. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Small Exoplanets Come in Two Sizes: Rocky ‘Earths’ and Mini-Neptunes

Jun 20, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have classified extrasolar planets in the same way that biologists identify new species and have learned that the majority of planets found...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

Kepler Team Releases New Catalog of Exoplanet Candidates

Jun 20, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from NASA’s exoplanet-hunting Kepler mission has released a new catalog of transiting planet candidates. This is an artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows the dust and gas around a binary star system. Image credit: ESO / L. Calcada.

Low-Mass Stars are Born in Pairs, Astronomers Claim

Jun 19, 2017 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers from Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, low-mass stars are always born with a companion,...

This image, taken with Hubble’s WFC3 instrument, shows the spiral galaxy LEDA 16643. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Captures Stunning Image of LEDA 16643

Jun 19, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy LEDA 16643, which is found in the constellation Lepus. This image, taken with Hubble’s...

A ribbon of ammonia -- a tracer of star-forming gas -- in the Orion Molecular Cloud as seen with the GBT (orange); background in blue is an infrared image from NASA’s WISE telescope showing the dust in the region. Image credit: R. Friesen, Dunlap Institute / J. Pineda, MPIP / GBO / AUI / NSF / NASA.

Astronomers Spot Vast Filament of Star-Forming Gas in Orion Molecular Cloud

Jun 16, 2017 by News Staff

Dr. Rachel Friesen of the University of Toronto and colleagues have captured a detailed image of a 50-light-year-long filament of star-forming gas in the...

Artist illustration of the thick ring of dust that can obscure the energetic processes that occur near the supermassive black hole of an active galactic nucleus. Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / Lynette Cook.

NASA’s SOFIA Observatory Spots Compact Tori of Dust around Active Supermassive Black Holes

Jun 14, 2017 by News Staff

Using observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch telescope,...

This trio of nebulae -- the Omega Nebula (left), the Eagle Nebula (center), and Sharpless 2-54 (right) -- makes up just a portion of a vast complex of gas and dust within which new stars are springing to life and illuminating their surroundings. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope Captures Three Nebulae in One Image

Jun 14, 2017 by News Staff

Two spectacular and famous nebulae — the Eagle Nebula and the Omega Nebula — share the stage with their lesser-known neighbor, a glowing cloud...

The giant elliptical galaxy in the center of this Hubble image is the most massive and brightest member of the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Spanning a little more than one million light-years, the galaxy is about 10 times the diameter of the Milky Way Galaxy. Abell 2261 is located approximately 3 billion light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Postman, STScI / T. Lauer, NOAO / CLASH Team.

Brightest Cluster Galaxy Alignments Traced Back 10 Billion Years

Jun 13, 2017 by News Staff

A new study based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has shown that so-called brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) — the very...

Artist’s impression of Orion KL Source I. The massive protostar is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust. The outflow is launched from the surface of the outer disk. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Observes Massive Protostar in Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Jun 12, 2017 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has determined how the gas flow from a massive infant star is launched. The researchers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter...

The white dwarf star Stein 2051B (center) is 17 light-years away and the background star is 5,000 light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Sahu, STScI.

Stein 2051B Shows How Gravity Can Bend Starlight

Jun 12, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope observed the nearby white dwarf star Stein 2051B as it passed in front of a background star. During the close alignment,...

This illustration shows one possible scenario for the super-Earth HD 3167d. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

HD 3167d: New Super-Earth Discovered around Nearby Star

Jun 11, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Dr. Jessie Christiansen, a staff scientist at the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute, and colleagues have discovered a ‘super-Earth’ exoplanet orbiting...

This image portrays a simulation of the Universe. Each of the tiniest of the dots denotes an entire galaxy. Matter in the Universe is arrayed on a series of filaments that surround vast voids. Image credit: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.

Milky Way Galaxy Resides in Enormous Cosmic Void

Jun 9, 2017 by News Staff

A new study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison supports the idea that our Milky Way Galaxy and its neighbors exist in one of the holes, or voids, of...

This artist’s impression displays TRAPPIST-1 and its planets reflected in a surface. Image credit: NASA / R. Hurt / T. Pyle.

Scientists Identify Possible Compositions of Seven TRAPPIST-1 Exoplanets

Jun 9, 2017 by News Staff

Using numerical simulations to identify planets stable for millions of years, a team of researchers concluded that six of the seven roughly Earth-sized...

This image shows a region of star formation where methyl isocyanate was found. The insert shows the molecular structure of this chemical. Image credit: L. Calcada / ESO / Digitized Sky Survey 2.

ALMA Detects Prebiotic Molecule in Multiple Protostar System

Jun 8, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have harnessed the power the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to detect methyl isocyanate — a chemical building...

This illustration reveals how the gravitation of the white dwarf Stein 2051B warps space and bends the light of a distant star behind it. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured images of Stein 2051B as it passed in front of the background star. During the close alignment, Stein 2051B deflected the starlight, which appeared offset by about 2 milli-arcseconds from its actual position. From this measurement, astronomers calculated that the white dwarf’s mass is roughly 68% of the Sun’s mass. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Hubble Measures Deflection of Star’s Light by Foreground White Dwarf

Jun 7, 2017 by News Staff

The first observation of displacement of a star due to bending of its light by another celestial body other than our Sun is revealed in new research. This...

Composite image of the Boomerang Nebula: ALMA observations (orange) showing the hourglass-shaped outflow, which is embedded inside a roughly round ultra-cold outflow; the hourglass outflow stretches more than 1.9 trillion miles from end to end, and is the result of a jet that is being fired by the central star, sweeping up the inner regions of the ultra-cold outflow like a snow-plow; the ultra-cold outflow is about 10 times bigger. The ALMA data are shown on top of an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (blue). Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Probes Boomerang Nebula, Universe’s Coldest Known Object

Jun 6, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) may have solved the mystery of the coldest known object in the cosmos —...

KELT-9b: Newly-Discovered ‘Hot Jupiter’ Hotter Than Most Stars

Jun 6, 2017 by News Staff

A newly-discovered Jupiter-like exoplanet called KELT-9b is only 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (927 degrees Celsius, or 1,200 degrees Kelvin) cooler than our...

This series of dots with varying distances between them shows the slow dance of two members of the brown-dwarf binary system Luhman 16AB. The image is a stack of 12 images made over the course of three years with Hubble. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Bedin et al.

Hubble Observes Graceful Dance of Luhman 16AB Brown Dwarfs

Jun 5, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to track the two components of Luhman 16AB, the third closest system to the Solar System. This...

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