Astronomy News

Supermassive Black Holes Transport Matter into Cosmic Voids, Astronomers Say

This slab cut from the cube generated by the Illustris simulation shows the distribution of baryonic (normal) matter, with a width and height of 350 million light-years and a thickness of 300,000 light-years. Image credit: Markus Haider / Illustris Collaboration.
Feb 25, 2016 by News Staff

Cosmic voids — vast underdense regions, forming an essential feature of the cosmic web and occupying most of the volume of the Universe — could contain as much as 20% of the ‘normal’ matter (i.e. the matter that makes up stars, planets, gas and dust) in the cosmos, according to an international team of astronomers led by Dr. Markus Haider of the University of Innsbruck, Austria. This slab cut from the cube generated by the Illustris...

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An artist’s impression of FRB 110523 reaching Earth; the colors represent the burst arriving at different radio wavelengths, with long wavelengths (red) arriving seconds after short wavelengths (blue). Image credit: Jingchuan Yu / Beijing Planetarium.

Astronomers Detect Host Galaxy of Fast Radio Burst for the First Time

Feb 25, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of astronomers reported today that they had tracked down the location of a so-called fast radio burst (FRB), a mysterious and rarely...

This part of the image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy. Image credit: ESO / APEX / ATLASGAL Consortium / NASA / GLIMPSE Consortium / ESA / Planck.

APEX Captures Spectacular Image of Milky Way’s Galactic Plane

Feb 24, 2016 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), a 12-m radio telescope at 5,100 m altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert, astronomers have mapped the full...

Pseudo-color image of Messier 90 (NGC 4569); north is up, east left. Image credit: A. Boselli et al.

Astronomers Spot Galaxy with 300,000 Light-Year-Long Tail of Ionized Gas

Feb 23, 2016 by News Staff

Messier 90, the brightest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, has a 300,000 light-year-long tail of diffuse ionized gas flowing from it, says an international...

This Hubble image shows WR 31a, a type of star known as a Wolf–Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Incredible Image of Wolf-Rayet Star

Feb 22, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

WR 31a, a rare example of a massive star, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble image shows WR 31a, a type...

Illustration of the super-Jupiter 2M1207b. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI / Y. Zhou, University of Arizona.

Astronomers Measure Rotation of Cloudy Super-Jupiter

Feb 19, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, scientists have discovered that a giant extrasolar planet called 2MASSWJ 1207334-393254b has patchy clouds and...

This image shows NGC 4889 (largest object) in front of hundreds of background galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

NGC 4889: Hubble Focuses on Distant Elliptical Galaxy

Feb 17, 2016 by News Staff

This incredible image, taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the giant elliptical galaxy...

An artist’s impression of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e. According to Tsiaras and co-authors, the atmosphere of this planet consists mainly of hydrogen and helium. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomers Analyze Atmosphere of Super-Earth Exoplanet 55 Cancri e

Feb 17, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, European astronomers have been able to examine the atmosphere of the extrasolar planet 55 Cancri e in unprecedented...

An artist impression of HD 142527 based on ALMA data. According to astronomers, HD 142527 consists of a main star a little more than twice the mass of our Sun and a smaller companion star only about a third the mass of our Sun; they are separated by approximately one billion miles. The rendition shows a distinctive arc of dust (red) embedded in the protoplanetary disk. The red arc is free of gas, suggesting the carbon monoxide has frozen out, forming a layer of frost on the dust grains in that region. Astronomers speculate this frost provides a boost to planet formation. The two dots in the center represent the two stars in the system. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Images Shed More Light on Planet Formation around Binary Stars

Feb 17, 2016 by Natali Anderson

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile, an astronomer from the United States has taken a detailed look...

This Hubble ACS image shows the irregular reflection nebula IRAS 00044+6521. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Beams Back Spectacular Image of Reflection Nebula

Feb 15, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a remarkable image of a reflection nebula known as IRAS 00044+6521. This Hubble ACS image shows the irregular...

This image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory shows the reflection nebula IC 2631. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Snap Stunning Nebula Photo

Feb 10, 2016 by News Staff

An infant star lights up the nebula IC 2631 in this remarkable new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile. This...

An artist’s impression of the galaxies found in the ‘Zone of Avoidance.’ Image credit: ICRAR.

Hidden Galaxies Shed New Light on ‘Great Attractor’ Gravitational Anomaly

Feb 9, 2016 by News Staff

Almost 900 hidden nearby galaxies have been studied by an international team of astronomers, shedding new light on the Great Attractor — a diffuse...

This Hubble image shows the young planetary nebula Hen 2-437. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Sees Young Bipolar Planetary Nebula

Feb 8, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of the startlingly symmetrical nebula Hen 2-437. This Hubble image shows the young planetary...

This image shows part of the Rho Ophiuchi region; a much enlarged close-up infrared view of the young star J1628 from the Hubble Space Telescope is shown as an insert. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Astronomers Measure Temperature of Dust Grains in Young Star’s Protoplanetary Disc

Feb 3, 2016 by News Staff

A group of European astronomers led by Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux scientist Stephane Guilloteau has measured the temperature of large...

This artist’s concept shows an active supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light. Such black holes are often found at the hearts of elliptical galaxies. Not all black holes have jets, but when they do, the jets can be pointed in any direction. If a jet happens to shine at Earth, the object is called a blazar. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Unidentified Gamma-Ray Sources: Important Piece of Puzzle Coming in Place

Feb 1, 2016 by News Staff

This artist’s concept shows an active supermassive black hole with a jet streaming outward at nearly the speed of light. Such black holes are often found...

NGC 1487, pictured in this Hubble WFPC2 image, is the result of a merger between two or more smaller galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NGC 1487: Hubble Space Telescope Captures Beautiful Galactic Merger

Feb 1, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an amazing picture of a peculiar galaxy, NGC 1487. NGC 1487, pictured in this Hubble WFPC2 image, is the...

This composite image shows the size and location of the Smith Cloud on the sky. The cloud is 15 degrees across in angular size - the width of an outstretched hand at arm’s length. The apparent size of the full Moon is added for comparison. The Smith Cloud appears in false-color, radio wavelengths. The visible-light image of the background star field shows the cloud’s location in the direction of the summer constellation Aquila. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI / B. Saxton / F. Lockman / NRAO / AUI / NSF / A. Mellinger.

Astronomers Shed Light on Chemical Composition, Origin of Mysterious Smith Cloud

Jan 29, 2016 by News Staff

Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found faint chemical traces of our Milky Way Galaxy lurking inside the Smith Cloud, a gigantic...

BM 34757, one of the Babylonian cuneiform tablets translated by Prof. Ossendrijver. Image credit: Mathieu Ossendrijver, Humboldt University / British Museum.

Babylonian Astronomers Used Geometry to Calculate Jupiter’s Position

Jan 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to Prof. Mathieu Ossendrijver of Humboldt University in Germany, Babylonian astronomers used geometry to calculate the position of Jupiter —...

This Hubble image shows the globular star cluster NGC 1783. It is one of the biggest globular clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way Galaxy. First observed by the British astronomer John Herschel in 1835, this star cluster is approximately 160,000 light-years from our Solar System, and has a mass around 170,000 times that of the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

Study Reveals Why Globular Clusters Can Be Home to Different Generations of Stars

Jan 28, 2016 by News Staff

According to a new study published this week in the journal Nature, globular clusters make new stars by adopting stray cosmic gas and dust. This Hubble...

This VLT image shows the irregular dwarf galaxy IC 1613. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Survey Telescope Captures Incredible Image of Nearby Dwarf Galaxy

Jan 27, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope have assembled this colorful image of the small galaxy IC 1613. This VLT image shows the irregular dwarf...

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