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Hubble Spots Unusual Binary Asteroid in Main Belt

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted an unusual object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: two asteroids orbiting...

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

Double Supermassive Black Hole is Most Compact Ever Found

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered what may be the most compact binary supermassive black hole ever known in a galaxy about 400 million light years from Earth. An...

Regulus. Image credit: DSS / Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Astronomers Detect Polarized Light from Regulus

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Nearly five decades after it was first predicted that rapidly rotating hot stars would emit polarized light, astronomers have succeeded in observing the...

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 6753, which lies in the constellation Pavo, about 148 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt.

Hubble Snaps Photo of Unusual Spiral Galaxy NGC 6753

Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

NGC 6753 is a whirl of color in this remarkable image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — the bursts of blue throughout the spiral arms are...

This artist’s impression shows WASP-12b, an alien world as black as fresh asphalt, orbiting a star like our Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

WASP-12b: Hubble Spots Almost Completely Black Exoplanet

Sep 15, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the well-studied hot Jupiter WASP-12b reflects almost no light, making it appear...

An artist’s impression showing WASP-19b, in which atmosphere astronomers detected titanium oxide for the first time. WASP-19b’s atmosphere is estimated to have a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Celsius. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Hot-Jupiter WASP-19b Has ‘Titanium’ Skies

Sep 14, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have detected titanium oxide in the atmosphere of the hot-Jupiter exoplanet WASP-19b. An artist’s...

Hypothetical Planet 9. Image credit: R. Hurt, IPAC / Caltech.

Planet 9, Probably Not a Scooped Up Exoplanet

Sep 14, 2017 by James Romero

Suggestions that the hypothesized Planet 9 formed outside our solar system, or was even stolen from a rival solar system, have been dealt a blow by investigations...

A selection of SAMI galaxies imaged with NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / Caroline Foster, University of Sydney / Dan Taranu, University of Western Australia.

Astronomers Measure How Galaxy’s Spin Affects Its Shape

Sep 12, 2017 by News Staff

A new study, led by University of Sydney astronomer Caroline Foster, is the first to confirm that increased rotation alters the shape of galaxies: faster-spinning...

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5398. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5398

Sep 12, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a remarkable new picture of NGC 5398. This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on board the...

This artist’s illustration depicts a two billion year old star called Gliese 176 (GJ 176), located 30 light-years from Earth, with the exoplanet Gliese 176b in orbit around it. The large dark area is a ‘coronal hole,’ a phenomenon associated with low levels of magnetic activity. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Astronomers Use X-Rays to Determine Hospitability of Sun-Like Stars for Extraterrestrial Life

Sep 11, 2017 by News Staff

X-rays emitted by a Sun-like star may provide valuable information about whether its planetary system will be hospitable to life, a new study suggests....

Composite image of the X-ray pulsar SXP 1062 surrounded by the supernova remnant. The false-color image combines X-ray (blue) and optical data (oxygen - green, hydrogen - red). Image credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / L. Oskinova, University of Potsdam / M. Guerrero, Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia / Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory / R. Gruendl & Y. H. Chu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Astronomers Observe ‘Glitch’ in Binary Pulsar for First Time

Sep 8, 2017 by News Staff

The discovery of the largest timing irregularity yet observed in a pulsar is the first confirmation that binary pulsars (pulsars orbiting with a companion...

Wells et al estimate that there should be at least 10 -- currently undiscovered -- exoplanets which are favorably located to detect the Earth and are capable of sustaining life as we know it. Image credit: NASA.

Alien Astronomers On At Least Nine Known Exoplanets Could Spot Earth

Sep 8, 2017 by News Staff

Queen’s University Belfast astronomer Robert Wells and co-authors have turned exoplanet-hunting on its head, in a new study that instead looks at how...

An X9.3-class solar flare flashes in the middle of the Sun on September 6, 2017. This image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at 11:58:42 UTC and shows light in the 304 angstrom wavelength. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / SDO.

NASA’s Sun Watching Observatory Sees Two Powerful Solar Flares

Sep 7, 2017 by Sergio Prostak

On September 6, 2017, an active region on the Sun released two X-class solar flares, captured here by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). An X9.3-class...

PSR J0952-0607 (lower right) rotates 707 times a second and now ranks as second-fastest pulsar known. The location of LOFAR’s first millisecond pulsar discovery, PSR J1552+5437, which spins 412 times a second, is shown at upper left. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration / ASTRON.

Second-Fastest-Spinning Pulsar Found

Sep 6, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered a pulsar — the core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova — spinning at more than...

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5559, which lies in the constellation Boötes, about 252 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Stunning Spiral: NGC 5559

Sep 4, 2017 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5559. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC...

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.

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

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...

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...