Astronomy News

Terrestrial Exoplanets around Low-Mass Stars Probably Have Protective Magnetospheres

The artist's concept depicts a super-Earth-size planet. Image credit: NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech.
Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting close to low-mass parent stars likely have magnetic fields that protect them from stellar radiation, says a duo of astronomers at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. This artist’s conception shows a terrestrial exoplanet. Image credit: NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech. Low-mass M-class stars are among the most common in the Universe. Exoplanets orbiting near such stars are easier for scientists to target for study...

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The Sun emitted a significant solar flare, peaking at 10:58 a.m. EDT on September 28. This SDO image shows a subset of extreme UV light that highlights the extraordinarily hot material in flares and which is typically colorized in red. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Mid-Level Solar Flare

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a mid-level solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the lower right hand side of the...

This image snapped by Hubble reveals a detailed view of part of the disc of beautiful barred spiral galaxy NGC 613. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen's University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Breathtaking Picture of NGC 613

Sep 28, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of NGC 613, a barred spiral galaxy. This image snapped by Hubble reveals a detailed...

Vista Magellanic Clouds Survey view of the galaxy SAGE0536AGN (elliptical object in the center of the frame). Image credit: ESO / VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey / Royal Astronomical Society.

Monster Black Hole Found 2.3 Billion Light-Years Away

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from the UK has discovered a black hole of 350 million solar masses at the center of the galaxy SAGE1C J053634.78−722658.5 (SAGE0536AGN...

This Hubble image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as the Witch’s Broom Nebula (NGC 6960). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Get Best View Yet of Veil Nebula

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

About 8,000 years ago, Neolithic humans would have witnessed what appeared to be a bright new star blazing in the northern sky. In fact, it was the violent...

The upper two panels of this graphic represent a possible explanation for a recent increase in X-ray flares from Sagittarius A* seen by three X-ray telescopes. As part of a long monitoring campaign, astronomers observed the black hole as a mysterious object called G2 appeared to pass close to the black hole. The timing of G2’s passage could suggest that material from G2 caused the surge in X-ray activity, but it is also possible that this unrelated behavior of Sagittarius A*. The bottom panel is a view of the region around the black hole where red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high-energy X-rays detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Sagittarius A* itself is not visible in this image, but is embedded in the white dot at the end of the arrow. Image credit: NASA / CXC / MPE / G.Ponti et al. / M.Weiss.

X-Ray Observations of Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Reveal Unusual Activity

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

A long monitoring campaign of the Milky Way’s black hole, called Sagittarius A*, has revealed some unusual activity. Typically relatively quiet, the...

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1313. The very active state of this galaxy is very evident from the image, showing many star formation regions. A great number of supershell nebulae, that is, cocoon of gas inflated and etched by successive bursts of star formation, are visible. The green nebulosities are regions emitting in the ionized oxygen lines and may harbour clusters with very hot stars. This composite image is based on images obtained with the FORS1 instrument on one of the 8.2-m Unit Telescope of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Astronomers determined that this galaxy harbors a black hole 5,000 times more massive than our Sun. Image credit: ESO.

NGC 1313 X-1: Astronomers Find Intermediate-Mass Black Hole 5,000 Times Mass of Sun

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in the spiral galaxy NGC 1313 (also known as the Topsy Turvy Galaxy). This...

This WFI image shows the spectacular nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars is approximately 5,920 light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Unveil Detailed View of Messier 17

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers have obtained one of the sharpest views ever of a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas called Messier 17 (M17). This WFI image shows the...

Two black holes are entwined in a gravitational tango in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA.

Binary Supermassive Black Holes May Be Rarer Than Thought

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

There may be fewer supermassive black hole binaries at the cores of galaxies than previously thought, says a team of scientists from Brandeis University...

This is an artist's impression of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris b and its parent star. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Gemini Planet Imager Captures Best View Yet of Exoplanet Moving around its Sun

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A series of images taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on the Gemini South telescope in Chile shows an extrasolar gas giant called Beta Pictoris...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3521. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board Hubble. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3521

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 3521. This Hubble image shows the spiral...

Artist’s depiction of a black hole merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / A. Hobart / Josh Barnes, University of Hawaii / John Hibbard, NRAO.

Astronomers Find Closest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes

Sep 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of U.S. astronomers has found the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever discovered in the Universe. Artist’s depiction of a black hole...

This illustration shows what the activities of a Kardashev Type III civilisation might look like - encapsulating the energy of stars by so-called Dyson spheres is one way to harness enormous energies on galactic scales; the resulting waste heat products should be detectable by telescopes. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / ASTRON.

Astronomer Finds No Evidence of Kardashev Type III Civilizations in Local Universe

Sep 17, 2015 by News Staff

So-called Kardashev Type III civilizations – galaxy-spanning civilizations that command power equal to all of the stars in their galaxy – are...

This image shows the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, a close neighbor of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Despite their proximity, both galaxies have very distinct histories and characters. This galaxy is much smaller, fainter and older than the Milky Way and appears here as a cloud of faint stars filling most of the image. Many other much more distant galaxies can be seen shining right through the sparse stars of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Stunning Image of Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, astronomers have captured a new image of a nearby small...

This image was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at 3:12 a.m. EDT on September 13, 2015. The edge of Earth, visible near the top of the frame, appears fuzzy because Earth’s atmosphere blocks different amounts of light at different altitudes. On the left, the Moon’s edge is perfectly crisp, because it has no atmosphere. This image was taken in extreme UV wavelengths of 171 angstroms. Though this light is invisible to our eyes, it is typically colorized in gold. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s SDO Spacecraft Catches Double Solar Eclipse

Sep 15, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) spacecraft captured this image of Earth and the Moon transiting the Sun together on September 13, 2015. This...

The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming toward the Sun, as seen on September 14, 2015, by SOHO. This is the 3,000th comet discovered in the data from the space observatory since it launched in 1995, Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.

SOHO Observatory Discovers Its 3,000th Comet

Sep 15, 2015 by News Staff

On Sunday, September 13, the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 3,000th comet. The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3921, an interacting pair of galaxies in the late stages of its merger. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

NGC 3921: Hubble Spies Colliding Galaxies

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

A beautiful new image of two colliding spiral galaxies, known as NGC 3921, has been released by NASA. This Hubble image shows NGC 3921, an interacting...

This image, using data from Spitzer and the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56. At the middle of the picture is the largest, central member of the family of galaxies (upper right red dot of central pair). Unlike other central galaxies in clusters, this one is bursting with the birth of new stars. Image credit: NASA / STScI / ESA / JPL-Caltech / McGill.

Astronomers Discover Unique Cluster of Galaxies Almost 10 Billion Light-Years Away

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has discovered a distant cluster of galaxies with active star formation occurring in close proximity to the cluster’s...

This image shows Epsilon Lupi (center). Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Mysterious Magnetic Field Detected in Binary Star System Epsilon Lupi

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has detected a so-called ‘fossil’ magnetic field in both components of an early-type binary star system called Epsilon...

Tiny clouds of carbon monoxide in the dwarf galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte: the carbon monoxide emission is shown as black single contours inside the 1 arcmin x 1 arcmin white squares that outline the area mapped by ALMA. The inset in the top left is the full view of the galaxy. Image credit: Monica Rubio et al.

Dense Clouds of Star-Forming Gas Unexpectedly Discovered in WLM Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

A nearby dwarf irregular galaxy called the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) poses an intriguing mystery: how is it able to form large star clusters without...

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