Astronomy News

Exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and c Confirmed to be Rocky

Jul 21, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

TRAPPIST-1b and c, the two innermost planets in the three-planet system TRAPPIST-1, are primarily rocky, unlike gas giants such as Jupiter, according to a group of astronomers led by MIT scientist Julien de Wit. This artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three exoplanets orbiting the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. These alien worlds – named TRAPPIST-1b, c and d – have sizes and temperatures similar...

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An artist’s rendition of the K2-72 planetary system. Image credit: NASA / JPL.

NASA’s Kepler/K2 Mission Confirms 104 New Extrasolar Planets

Jul 20, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A team of astronomers has reported a huge haul of new exoplanets discovered and confirmed using data from the first year of the Kepler/K2 mission. Among...

This Hubble image shows the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 3125. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Captures Stunning Image of Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Jul 18, 2016 by News Staff

This image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the star-forming galaxy NGC 3125. This...

This is one slice through the map of the large-scale structure of the Universe from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. Each dot in this picture indicates the position of a galaxy 6 billion years into the past. The image covers about 1/20th of the sky, a slice of the Universe 6 billion light-years wide, 4.5 billion light-years high, and 500 million light-years thick. Color indicates distance from Earth, ranging from yellow on the near side of the slice to purple on the far side. Galaxies are highly clustered, revealing superclusters and voids whose presence is seeded in the first fraction of a second after the Big Bang. This image contains 48,741 galaxies, about 3% of the full survey dataset. Grey patches are small regions without survey data. Image credit: Daniel Eisenstein / SDSS-III Collaboration.

Astronomers Create 3D Map of 1.2 Million Galaxies to Study Properties of Dark Energy

Jul 15, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS, part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III) have produced the largest-ever 3D map of...

This artist’s impression shows the water snow-line around the young star V883 Orionis. Image credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ.

ALMA Spots Water Snow-Line around Young Star V883 Orionis

Jul 14, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope have taken the first-ever image of a water snow-line within a protoplanetary...

Dwarf planet Sedna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, SSC-Caltech.

2015 RR245: New Dwarf Planet Discovered in Solar System’s Kuiper Belt

Jul 12, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of our Solar System just...

This image of the Orion Nebula was obtained from multiple exposures using VLT’s HAWK-I infrared camera. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected. Image credit: H. Drass et al / ESO.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Peers Deep into Heart of Orion Nebula

Jul 12, 2016 by News Staff

A group of astronomers has used the High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I), an infrared instrument installed on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT)...

This artist's impression shows the brown dwarf WISE 0855-0714. The color of the brown dwarf in this image is arbitrary; it would have different colors when viewed in different wavelength ranges. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Penn State University.

Scientists Find Evidence of Water in Infrared Spectrum of Nearby Brown Dwarf

Jul 11, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers have succeeded in obtaining an infrared spectrum of the recently discovered brown dwarf WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (WISE 0855 for short), providing...

This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys is likely the best of the spiral galaxy LEDA 56779. The brilliant object at right is a star in our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Grogin, STScI.

Hubble Spots Lonely Star-Forming Spiral

Jul 11, 2016 by News Staff

The subject of this Hubble image is LEDA 56779, a spiral galaxy located 300 million light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. This image from...

While many other images of the famous Crab Nebula, the remnant of a star that began its life with about 10 times the mass of our Sun, have focused on the filaments in the outer part of the nebula, this new image from Hubble shows the very heart of the object including the central neutron star - it is the rightmost of the two bright stars near the center of this image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Hester, ASU / M. Weisskopf, NASA / MSFC.

Hubble Space Telescope Peers into Heart of Crab Nebula

Jul 8, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has zoomed in on the center of the Crab Nebula — a ten-light-year-wide remnant of a star’s supernova explosion...

This artist’s impression shows a view of the triple-star system HD 131399 (also known as HIP 72940 and 2MASS J14542529-3408342) from close to the Jupiter-like exoplanet orbiting in the system. HD 131399Ab and appears at the lower-left of the picture. Image credit: L. Calcada / ESO.

HD 131399Ab: Astronomers Find Super-Jupiter in Triple-Star System

Jul 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found a young Jupiter-like planet in a triple-star system. This artist’s impression shows...

This Hubble image shows the dwarf galaxy LEDA 677373. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Finds Victim of Cosmic Crime

Jul 4, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an ancient and faint dwarf galaxy called LEDA 677373. This Hubble image shows the dwarf galaxy LEDA 677373....

This image combines an image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in the optical and observations of the Jovian aurora in the ultraviolet. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Hubble Observes Spectacular Auroras on Jupiter

Jun 30, 2016 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured stunning new ultraviolet images of the auroral lights in the atmosphere of the Solar System’s largest...

The view towards the east from the Carregal do Sal megalithic cluster, at dawn at the end of April around 4,000 BC, as reconstructed using a Digital Elevation Model and Stellarium. Aldebaran, the last star to rise before the Sun, is rising directly above Serra da Estrela, the ‘mountain range of the star.’ Image credit: Fabio Silva.

Iberian Megalithic Tombs: 6,000-Year-Old Lensless Telescopes?

Jun 30, 2016 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the UK is exploring what might be described as the first astronomical observing tool, potentially used by humans around 4,000...

A Hubble image of the spiral galaxy NGC 7714, which has been dramatically distorted in shape by a close interaction with another nearby galaxy. Minor, but frequent, disturbances such as this cause a burst of star formation, accounting for around half of all new stars being formed in the local Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Gal-Yam, Weizmann Institute of Science.

Minor Mergers of Galaxies are Important Drivers of Star Formation, Astronomer Says

Jun 30, 2016 by News Staff

Almost 55 percent of the star formation arises from minor mergers between galaxies, according to an astronomer who analyzed data collected as part of the...

Kiso 5639 is a member of a class of galaxies called ‘tadpoles’ because of their bright heads and elongated tails. New Hubble/WFC3 observations comprising this image cover a wide portion of the spectrum, including ultraviolet, optical, H-alpha, and infrared emission. Together, they paint a beautifully detailed picture of Kiso 5639. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Elmegreen, Vassar College / B. Elmegreen, IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center / J. Almeida, C. Munoz-Tunon, & M. Filho, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias / J. Mendez-Abreu, University of St. Andrews / J. Gallagher, University of Wisconsin-Madison / M. Rafelski, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / D. Ceverino, Center for Astronomy at Heidelberg University.

Kiso 5639: Hubble Space Telescope Photographs Cosmic Tadpole

Jun 29, 2016 by News Staff

The newest photo from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is of a rare type of galaxy, known as a ‘tadpole.’ Kiso 5639 is a member of a class of galaxies...

This false-color image of Jupiter was created by selecting and combining the best images obtained from many short VISIR exposures at a wavelength of 5 micrometers. Image credit: L. Fletcher / ESO.

Astronomers Release New Infrared Images, High-Resolution Maps of Jupiter

Jun 28, 2016 by News Staff

Amazing new infrared images and high-resolution maps of Jupiter give a glowing view of Juno’s target, several days ahead of the NASA mission’s arrival...

This Hubble image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 1569. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Aloisi Ford / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NGC 1569: Hubble Probes Interior of Small Star-Forming Galaxy

Jun 27, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an absolutely beautiful image of the interior of NGC 1569, one of the most active galaxies in our local...

This Hubble image shows Neptune (SDS-2015 resides near and below a patch of bright clouds in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere). Image credit: NASA / ESA / M.H. Wong & J. Tollefson, University of California at Berkeley.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees New ‘Dark Spot’ on Neptune

Jun 23, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers detected a dark spot in the atmosphere of Neptune, in images taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on May 16, 2016. This...

This X-ray image shows extended emission around the magnetar Swift J1834.9-0846. The glow arises from a cloud of fast-moving particles produced by the neutron star and corralled around it. Color indicates X-ray energies, with 2,000-3,000 electron volts (eV) in red, 3,000-4,500 eV in green, and 5,000 to 10,000 eV in blue. The image combines observations by XMM-Newton taken on March 16 and October 16, 2014. Image credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / G. Younes et al.

‘Wind Nebula’ Spotted around Magnetar

Jun 22, 2016 by News Staff

Using ESA’s X-ray space observatory XMM-Newton, astronomers have spotted for the first time an enigmatic cloud of high-energy particles called a wind...

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