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This image shows the peculiar galaxy ESO 162-17. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Zooms in on Peculiar Galaxy ESO 162-17

Apr 20, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have taken a stunning image of the galaxy ESO 162-17. This image...

Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A. The warped shape of NGC 5128’s disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, NGC 5128 contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / R. O'Connell, University of Virginia / WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee.

Star Formation Stops in Cores of Elliptical Galaxies First, Astronomers Say

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Science has revealed that 3 billion years after the Big Bang, elliptical galaxies still made stars on their outskirts, but no...

This image shows Abell 3827, a massive galaxy cluster approximately 1.3 billion light years away. The blue structures surrounding the central galaxies are gravitationally lensed views of a much more distant galaxy behind the cluster. Observations of the central four merging galaxies have provided hints that the dark matter around one of the galaxies is not moving with the galaxy itself, possibly implying dark matter-dark matter interactions of an unknown nature are occurring. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Observe Potential Signs of Self-Interacting Dark Matter

Apr 15, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the MUSE instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile, an international group of scientists led by Dr Richard Massey...

This map of our Milky Way Galaxy shows the location of the gas giant OGLE-2014-BLG-0124Lb and other exoplanets discovered with microlensing. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Discover Extrasolar Gas Giant 13,000 Light-Years Away

Apr 15, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Polish Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory...

This image, from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows the ultraluminous infrared galaxy Arp 220. Image credit: NASA / ESA / C. Wilson, McMaster University.

Search for Extraterrestrial Super-Civilizations Finds Nothing in 100,000 WISE Galaxies

Apr 15, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers led by Roger Griffith of the Pennsylvania State University say they have found no evidence of so-called Type III Kardashev super-civilizations...

This map shows the detailed distribution of dark matter across a large area of sky. The color scale represents projected mass density: red and yellow represent regions with more dense matter. Clusters of galaxies are represented by gray dots on the map - bigger dots represent larger clusters. The insets are images of two galaxy clusters and a cosmic void. Image credit: Dark Energy Survey.

Scientists Create Dark Matter Map

Apr 14, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using data from the Dark Energy Camera (DEC) – an imaging device that is the primary instrument for the Dark Energy Survey – have...

This image shows the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 2865. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Judy Schmidt.

Hubble Sees Shell Elliptical Galaxy NGC 2865

Apr 13, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a remarkable new view of a distant galaxy called NGC 2865. This image shows the shell...

Astronomers have reported near-infrared interferometric measurements of the angular size of Nova Delphini 2013, starting one day after the explosion and continuing with extensive time coverage during the first 43 days. The image shows Tycho's supernova remnant. Image credit: X-ray - NASA / CXC / SAO; infrared - NASA / JPL-Caltech; optical - MPIA / Calar Alto / O.Krause et al.

Type Ia Supernovae More Diverse than Thought

Apr 13, 2015 by News Staff

Type Ia supernovae, which are bright beacons used as distance markers both for studying the expansion rate of the Universe, and for measuring cosmological...

This illustration depicts a view of the night sky from a hypothetical planet within the young Milky Way Galaxy 10 billion years ago; glowing pink clouds of hydrogen gas harbor countless newborn stars, and the bluish-white hue of young star clusters litter the landscape; the star-birth rate is 30 times higher than it is in our Galaxy today; our Sun, however, is not among these fledgling stars; the Sun will not be born for another 5 billion years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI.

Astronomers Trace Evolution of Milky Way-Like Galaxies

Apr 10, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that Milky Way-like galaxies underwent a stellar ‘baby boom’ in their early history, creating stars...

Artist impression of the protoplanetary disc around MWC 480. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Complex Organic Molecules Detected in Protoplanetary System MWC 480

Apr 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected the presence of complex carbon-based molecules – methyl cyanide...

This composite image shows the gravitationally lensed galaxy SDP.81; the bright orange central region of the ring reveals the glowing dust in this distant galaxy; the surrounding lower-resolution portions of the ring trace the millimeter wavelength light emitted by carbon monoxide; the diffuse blue element at the center of the ring is from the intervening lensing galaxy. Image credit: ALMA / NRAO / ESO / NAOJ / B. Saxton / AUI / NSF / NASA / ESA / Hubble / T. Hunter.

ALMA Images of Lensed Galaxy SDP.81 Reveal Einstein Ring

Apr 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured stunning images of a gravitationally lensed galaxy called HATLAS...

This is a close-up of the central region of the globular cluster Messier 22, as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope Views Globular Cluster Messier 22

Apr 6, 2015 by News Staff

This newly released Hubble image shows Messier 22, the brightest globular cluster visible from the northern hemisphere. This is a close-up of the central...

A growing black hole can be seen at the center of a faraway galaxy in this artist’s concept. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Black Holes Don’t Erase Information, Study Shows

Apr 3, 2015 by News Staff

Some scientists have argued for decades that black holes are the ultimate vaults, entities that suck in information and then evaporate without leaving...

VLA Observations Shed More Light on How Massive Stars Form

Apr 3, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers, led Dr Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large...

This Hubble image shows ghostly green filaments, lying within galaxy 2MASX J22014163+1151237. This filament was illuminated by a blast of radiation from a quasar - a very luminous and compact region that surrounds the supermassive black hole at the center of its host galaxy. Its bright green hue is a result of ionized oxygen, which glows brightly at green wavelengths. Image credit: NASA / ESA / W. Keel, University of Alabama.

Hubble Captures Mysterious ‘Quasar Ghosts’

Apr 2, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have photographed eight unusual looped structures – ephemeral ‘ghosts’ of quasars that flickered...

The Planck all-sky map at submillimeter wavelengths; the band running through the middle corresponds to dust in the Milky Way Galaxy; the black dots indicate the location of the proto-cluster candidates identified by Planck and subsequently observed by Herschel. The inset images showcase some of the observations made by Herschel’s SPIRE instrument; the contours represent the density of galaxies. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration / H. Dole / D. Guéry / G. Hurier / IAS / University Paris-Sud / CNRS / CNES.

Astronomers Discover Over 200 Young Galactic Clusters in Distant Cosmos

Apr 1, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers using data from two ESA’s space telescopes, Planck and Herschel, has identified more than 200 proto-clusters of...

This is a Hubble Space Telescope photo of NGC 3021. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Riess, STScI.

Gorgeous New Image from Hubble Space Telescope Shows Spiral Galaxy NGC 3021

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning new image of the spiral galaxy...

This image shows an artistic representation of an active supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab.

Astronomers See Supermassive Black Hole in Action

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers, led by Dr Francesco Tombesi of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, has observed two related phenomena...

Artist’s impression of the terrestrial exoplanet Gliese 667 Cb with the Gliese 667 A/B binary in the background. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

Rocky Exoplanets around Binary Stars May Be Widespread, Astrophysicists Say

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

According to astrophysicists Dr Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Dr Ben Bromley of the University of Utah, terrestrial, Earth-like...