Astronomy News

Life as We Know It is Premature from Cosmic Perspective, Study Suggests

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.
Aug 2, 2016 by News Staff

The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, while Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago. Some cosmologists think this time gap means that life on other planets could be billions of years older than ours. However, a theoretical study by scientists from the University of Oxford and Harvard University suggests that life is actually premature from a cosmic perspective. This is an artist’s impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller. “If you...

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This image shows a small but bright globular cluster called NGC 4833, which lies in the constellation of Musca, about 22,000 light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Snaps Beautiful Image of Distant Globular Cluster

Aug 1, 2016 by Natali Anderson

This image from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is likely the best of the star cluster NGC 4833. This image shows a small but bright globular...

CX330. Image credit: C.T. Britt et al.

Astronomers Spot Loneliest Young Star

Jul 28, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers led by Texas Tech University scientist Dr. Christopher Britt has spotted a very young star, called CXOGBS J173643.8-282122...

This artist’s impression shows AR Scorpii. In this unique double star a rapidly spinning white dwarf star (right) powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star (left) and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio. Image credit: M. Garlick / University of Warwick / ESO.

Astronomers Find New Type of Binary Star

Jul 27, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of binary star, in which a rapidly-spinning white dwarf star sweeps powerful beams of...

Our Milky Way Galaxy is surrounded by an enormous halo of plasma (seen in blue in this artists’ rendition). Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss / Ohio State / A. Gupta et al.

Milky Way’s Halo Spins in the Same Direction as Galactic Disk, Say Astronomers

Jul 27, 2016 by News Staff

The gaseous halo of our Milky Way Galaxy is spinning in the same direction and at a similar speed as the Galaxy’s disk, which contains stars, planets,...

This image from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 is likely the best of the supernova remnant DEM L316A, which resides in the galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / Y. Chu.

Hubble Zooms in on Supernova Debris in Large Magellanic Cloud

Jul 25, 2016 by News Staff

A new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at the remains of a supernova explosion known as DEM L316A. This image...

In the center of this Hubble image is the immense galaxy cluster Abell S1063, located 4 billion light-years away, and surrounded by magnified images of galaxies much farther. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Lotz, STScI.

Hubble Snaps Extraordinary Image of Galaxy Cluster Abell S1063

Jul 21, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking photo of Abell S1063, a massive cluster of galaxies in the constellation Grus. In the center...

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...

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...

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