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CDF-S XT1 became 1,000 times brighter over a few hours before fading dramatically in about a day. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Pontifical Catholic University / F.Bauer et al.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Records Mysterious Explosion 10.7 Billion Light-Years Away

Mar 31, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers have discovered a mysterious flash of X-rays using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in the deepest X-ray image...

This Hubble image shows the supernova remnant N103B (top of the image). N103B was a Type Ia supernova, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Owing to its relative proximity to Earth, astronomers observe the remnant to search for a potential stellar survivor of the explosion. The orange-red filaments visible in the image show the shock fronts of the supernova explosion. These filaments allow astronomers to calculate the original centre of the explosion. The filaments also show that the explosion is no longer expanding as a sphere, but is elliptical in shape. Astronomers assume that part of material ejected by the explosion hit a denser cloud of interstellar material, which slowed its speed. The shell of expanding material being open to one side supports this idea. The gas in the lower half of the image and the dense concentration of stars in the lower left are the outskirts of the rich star cluster NGC 1850. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Astronomers Observe Type Ia Supernova Remnant in Large Magellanic Cloud

Mar 30, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to observe N103B, a supernova remnant in our neighboring galaxy the Large...

Swift J0042.6+4112 is brighter at high energies than the Andromeda galaxy’s entire black hole population. The inset image shows the pulsar candidate in blue, as seen in X-ray light by NASA’s NuSTAR mission. The background image of the Andromeda galaxy was taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer in UV light. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC / JHU.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Andromeda’s Hard X-Rays

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

The Andromeda galaxy (also known as Messier 31) features a dominant source of hard X-rays, but its identity was mysterious until now. An international...

SDO image of the solar corona in UV light (yellow lines represent the magnetic field on the surface of the Sun). Image credit: NASA / SDO / AIA / LMSAL.

Astronomers Detect Planetary Waves on Sun

Mar 28, 2017 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) and STEREO (Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory) missions, astronomers have detected so-called...

Artist’s impression of a galaxy forming stars within powerful outflows of material blasted out from supermassive black holes at its core. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Spots New Type of Star Formation

Mar 27, 2017 by News Staff

New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope have revealed stars forming in the powerful outflows in galaxies, which are driven by central supermassive...

In this Hubble image the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4424 is seen edge on, but from above you would be able to see the arms of the galaxy wrapping around its center to give the characteristic spiral form. The smaller, flatter, bright galaxy sitting just below NGC 4424 is named LEDA 213994. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 4424

Mar 27, 2017 by Natali Anderson

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the galaxy NGC 4424, which is found in the constellation of Virgo. In this Hubble image the...

An artist’s impression of the brown dwarf SDSS J0104+1535. Image credit: John Pinfield.

Record-Breaking Brown Dwarf Spotted 750 Light-Years Away

Mar 25, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have identified a brown dwarf — an object too large to be a planet but too small to be a star — with the ‘purest’ composition...

The elliptical galaxy 3C186, located about 8 billion years from Earth, is most likely the result of a merger of two galaxies. This is supported by arc-shaped tidal tails, usually produced by a gravitational tug between two colliding galaxies, identified by M. Chiaberge et al. The merger of the galaxies also led to a merger of the two supermassive black holes in their centers, and the resultant black hole was then kicked out of its parent galaxy by the gravitational waves created by the merger. The bright, star-like looking quasar can be seen in the center of the image. Its former host galaxy is the faint, extended object behind it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. Chiaberge, STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Found 35,000 Light-Years from Home

Mar 24, 2017 by News Staff

Astronomers have uncovered a monster black hole that has been propelled out of the center of a distant galaxy, called 3C 186, by what could be the power...

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

TRAPPIST-1 System Ideal for Planet-Hopping Life?

Mar 24, 2017 by James Romero

Exoplanet hunters struck gold earlier this year with the discovery of seven rocky bodies orbiting around dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, a find that both raised...

This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula is composed of several pointings of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in optical and near-infrared light. The revealed stars are shown with a bright red color in the image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Spots Fast-Moving Runaway Star in Kleinmann-Low Nebula

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

In the search for free-floating exoplanets and brown dwarfs, astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have created a mosaic image of the Kleinmann-Low...

This Hubble image captures an ongoing cosmic collision between two galaxies: NGC 3447A and NGC 3447B. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Two Galaxies Merging: NGC 3447

Mar 20, 2017 by News Staff

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies (NGC 3447A and NGC 3447B) merging into one approximately 60 million light-years...

A present-day near-miss of two spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, which may be comparable to the early flyby of the Andromeda galaxy past our own Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESO.

Discovery Challenges Our Current Understanding of Gravity

Mar 16, 2017 by News Staff

Einstein’s theory of gravity may have to be rewritten, after a team of astronomers at the University of St Andrews discovered a 10-million-light-year-wide...

Schematic representation of rotating disc galaxies in the early Universe (right) and the present day (left). New VLT observations suggest that such massive star-forming disc galaxies in the early Universe were less influenced by dark matter (shown in red), as it was less concentrated. As a result the outer parts of distant galaxies rotate more slowly than comparable regions of galaxies in the local Universe. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

Universe’s Early Galaxies Were Less Influenced by Dark Matter

Mar 15, 2017 by News Staff

New observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) indicate that massive, star-forming galaxies during the peak epoch of galaxy formation, 10 billion...

An artist’s impression of a white dwarf star (left) in orbit around a black hole and so close that much of its material is being pulled away. There is a hotspot where the gas from the white dwarf hits the disc of matter swirling around the black hole. The black hole itself is surrounded by a cloud of ionized gas, which contains large amounts of oxygen. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Astronomers Find Record-Breaking White-Dwarf-Black-Hole Binary in Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

Mar 14, 2017 by News Staff

Using data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR telescope, a team of astronomers has found evidence...

The massive black hole shown at left in this drawing is able to rapidly grow as intense radiation from a galaxy nearby shuts down star formation in its host galaxy. Image credit: John Wise, Georgia Tech.

How Universe’s First Supermassive Black Holes Were Born

Mar 13, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists from the United States, Ireland and Finland has come up with the formula for the formation of the first supermassive...

This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera, shows the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 1448. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Takes Close Look at NGC 1448

Mar 13, 2017 by Natali Anderson

This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a detailed view of part of the disc of NGC 1448, one of the nearest luminous galaxies...

Could Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts Be Powering Extragalactic Light Sails?

Mar 12, 2017 by News Staff

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) — powerful radio flashes lasting just milliseconds, with mysterious origins that continue to be a matter of debate —...

This artist’s impression shows what the galaxy A2744_YD4 might look like. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

ALMA Detects Vast Amounts of Interstellar Dust, Oxygen in Very Young, Distant Galaxy

Mar 9, 2017 by News Staff

New observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have demonstrated that A2744_YD4 — the youngest and most remote galaxy...

A Neptune-mass exoplanet. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / Francis Reddy.

Kepler’s K2 Mission Helps Discover Five New Exoplanets

Mar 6, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on its K2 mission, astronomers have discovered five new planets around other stars, including two extraordinary companions...