Astronomy News

Supermassive Binary Black Hole Found in Nearest Quasar Markarian 231

This Hubble image shows the extraordinary galaxy Markarian 231. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / A. Evans, University of Virginia, Charlottesville / NRAO / Stony Brook University.
Aug 27, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists and astronomers, led by Dr Youjun Lu of the National Astronomical Observatories of China, has found a supermassive pair of black holes in Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth. The discovery of two black holes – one larger one and a second, smaller one – is evidence of a binary black hole and suggests that supermassive black holes assemble their masses through violent mergers. This Hubble image...

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This Hubble image shows a bipolar planetary nebula named the Twin Jet Nebula, located about 5,560 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Bipolar planetary nebulae are formed when the central object is not a single star, but a binary system. Studies have shown that the nebula’s size increases with time, and measurements of this rate of increase suggest that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1,200 years ago. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt.

Astronomers Capture Incredible Image of Twin Jet Nebula

Aug 26, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured...

This SDO image shows a subset of extreme UV light that highlights the extremely hot solar material, which is typically colorized in red. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s SDO Captures Image of Mid-Level Solar Flare

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured this stunning ultraviolet image of a powerful solar flare – as seen in the bright spot in the...

This Hubble image shows the intermediate-age globular cluster NGC 1783. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Far-Off Star Cluster

Aug 24, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of a globular cluster known as NGC 1783. This Hubble image shows the intermediate-age...

X-ray view of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. This image was put together in a new study by compiling all observations of this region that were performed with ESA’s XMM-Newton, adding up to over one month of monitoring in total. The image combines data collected at energies from 0.5 to 2 keV (shown in red), 2 to 4.5 keV (shown in green) and 4.5 to 12 keV (shown in blue). It spans about 2.5 degrees across, equivalent to about 1,000 light-years. Image credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / G. Ponti et al.

XMM-Newton Snaps Stunning X-ray Portraits of Milky Way’s Central Region

Aug 22, 2015 by News Staff

New images from ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray Observatory reveal some of the most intense processes taking place at the hearth of our Milky Way Galaxy. X-ray...

This image shows an open star cluster known as IC 4651. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Image of Open Star Cluster IC 4651

Aug 20, 2015 by News Staff

This incredible image of the open star cluster IC 4651 was captured using the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory,...

This artist’s concept of a young solar system shows gas giants forming first, while the gas nebula is present. Prof Martin Duncan and co-authors used computer simulations to nail down how Jupiter and Saturn evolved in our own Solar System. These calculations show that the cores of gas giants likely formed by gradually accumulating a population of ‘planetary pebbles’ - icy objects about a foot in diameter. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Researchers Shed New Light on How Gas Giants Formed in Early Solar System

Aug 20, 2015 by News Staff

In a paper published online today in Nature, an international team of scientists explains how the cores of gas giants formed through the accumulation of...

This image shows a collisional ring galaxy called the Kathryn’s Wheel. The image measures approximately 4 arcminutes across, and was taken by the Cerro-Tololo InterAmerican Observatory 4-m telescope in Chile. Image credit: Ivan Bojicic / Quentin A. Parker et al.

Kathryn’s Wheel: Astronomers Discover Nearest Collisional Ring Galaxy

Aug 17, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers announced yesterday the discovery of the closest collisional ring galaxy to our Milky Way. This image shows a collisional...

This Hubble image shows the nebula M1-67 around the Wolf-Rayet star WR 124. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Hubble Snaps Stunning Image of Wolf-Rayet Star

Aug 17, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a beautiful image of a Wolf-Rayet star surrounded by a nebula of...

These Hubble images show elliptical galaxies with dark, wispy dust lanes, the signature of a recent galaxy merger. The dust is the only relic of a smaller galaxy that was consumed by the larger elliptical galaxy. The X in the images marks the location of supernova explosions that are associated with the galaxies. Each supernova may have been gravitationally kicked out of its host galaxy by a pair of central supermassive black holes. When two galaxies merge, so do their supermassive black holes. Prof Foley suggests the supernovae were stars that were once part of double-star systems. These systems wandered too close to the binary black holes, which ejected them from their galaxies. Eventually, the stars in each system moved close enough together to trigger a supernova blast. These outcast supernovae are located at various distances from their home galaxies. SN 2000ds (left) is at least 12,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 2768; SN 2005cz (right) is at least 7,000 light-years from its galaxy, NGC 4589. NGC 2768 resides 75 million light-years from Earth, and NGC 4589 is 108 million light-years away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Foley, University of Illinois.

Astronomer Throws Light on Origins of Outcast Supernovae

Aug 16, 2015 by News Staff

Outcast supernovae that explode all alone in space present a scientific mystery. Prof Ryan Foley from the University of Illinois has developed a theory...

An artistic conception of the young Jovian planet 51 Eridani b. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / Franck Marchis / SETI Institute.

51 Eridani b: Jupiter-Like Exoplanet Discovered 97 Light-Years Away

Aug 14, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini Planet Imager have discovered a young Jupiter-like planet orbiting a nearby star known as 51 Eridani. An artistic conception...

RGG 118: Astronomers Find Smallest Known Supermassive Black Hole

Aug 12, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the 6.5-m Clay Telescope in Chile has found the smallest supermassive black hole ever...

Kepler-453b (right) orbits a pair of stars. Image credit: Mark Garlick, markgarlick.com.

Kepler-453b: Astronomers Discover New Circumbinary Exoplanet

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Israel, Europe, Korea and the United States has announced the discovery of a circumbinary gas giant in the habitable zone of...

A galaxy from the GAMA survey observed at different wavelengths from the far UV to the far IR. Image credit: ICRAR / GAMA.

Universe is Slowly Fading, Astronomers Say

Aug 11, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers studying more than 221,000 galaxies has measured the energy generated within a large portion of space more precisely than ever before,...

EGSY8p7: Astronomers Find Most Distant Known Galaxy

Aug 10, 2015 by News Staff

Known by its catalog name, EGSY-2008532660 (EGSY8p7 for short), the galaxy is so far away that light from it now reaching ground-based telescopes shows...

The object in this Hubble image is a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 428. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Barred Spiral NGC 428

Aug 10, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured this image of part of an...

Using the Cosmic Web Imager (CWI) to study a system with two quasars 10 billion light-years away, the astronomers have unveiled a protogalaxy being fed cool gas by a filament of the cosmic web. The quasar UM 287 is the larger object at right; the newly-discovered protogalaxy is above and to the left of UM 287. This picture combines a visible light image of the system with CWI data; a filament of the cosmic web can be seen funneling cold gas onto the protogalaxy. Image credit: Chris Martin / PCWI / Caltech.

Astronomers Discover Enormous Protogalaxy 10 Billion Light-Years Away

Aug 7, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager have discovered a giant protogalaxy 10 billion light-years away, and found that it is connected to a filament...

An image of the distribution of GRBs on the sky at a distance of 9 billion light-years, centered on the newly-discovered ring-like structure; the positions of the GRBs are marked by blue dots, and the Milky Way is indicated for reference, running from left to right across the image. Image credit: Lajos Balazs.

Astronomers Discover Ring-Like Structure 5.6 Billion Light-Years Across

Aug 5, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Hungary and the United States has announced the discovery of the largest regular formation in the observable Universe –...

This VLT image shows the planetary nebula ESO 378-1. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers See Colorful ‘Owl’ in the Sky

Aug 5, 2015 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile has captured the best view yet of the little-known nebula ESO 378-1, also known as the Southern Owl Nebula, PN K...

An artist’s impression of the binary system PSR J1023+0038: the extremely dense, rapidly-spinning neutron star, just 10-15 km in size, is in a close orbit with a more normal companion star. The strong gravity of the neutron star pulls gas from its companion, which spirals in towards the neutron star, forming a disk. Some fraction of that gas gets accelerated outwards in energetic, oppositely-directed jets, which give off the radio waves that can be seen by Earth’s radio telescopes. Image credit: ICRAR.

Neutron Stars Rival Black Holes in Producing Powerful Jets

Aug 4, 2015 by News Staff

Neutron stars may rival black holes in their ability to accelerate powerful jets of material to nearly the speed of light, says a group of scientists from...

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