Astronomy News

Helium-Rich Gas Giants May Be Common in Milky Way Galaxy

This artist’s concept depicts a proposed helium-atmosphere planet called Gliese 436b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.
Jun 12, 2015 by News Staff

Gaseous planets with helium-rich atmospheres may be common in our Galaxy, according to a new study accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org preprint). This artist’s concept depicts a proposed helium-atmosphere planet called Gliese 436b. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. To date, astronomers using NASA’s Kepler space telescope have discovered hundreds of candidate planets that fall into the category of the so-called warm...

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This is an artist’s concept of a hot Jupiter exoplanet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Astronomers Discover Stratosphere on Hot Jupiter WASP-33b

Jun 11, 2015 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have detected a stratosphere – an atmospheric region that is very important to life –...

NGC 6503: Hubble Space Telescope Spots Lonely Galaxy

Jun 11, 2015 by News Staff

The sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of a galaxy called NGC 6503. This...

This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows a butterfly-like nebula around the red giant star L2 Puppis. Image credit: ESO / Pierre Kervella.

ESO’s VLT Spies Butterfly-Like Planetary Nebula around L2 Puppis

Jun 10, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the SPHERE-ZIMPOL instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have confirmed the presence of the circumstellar dust disk around...

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 Sees Star Nurseries in Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy SDP 81

Jun 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile have captured detailed images of the gravitationally...

This image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy PGC 18431. Image credit: ESA /Hubble / NASA.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Dwarf Galaxy PGC 18431

Jun 8, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken an image of the dwarf irregular galaxy PGC 18431. This image shows the...

This is an artist’s concept of a Type Ia supernova exploding in the intergalactic space between galaxies within a galactic cluster. Image credit: Alex Parker / NASA / SDSS.

Hubble Confirms Two Solitary Supernovae

Jun 5, 2015 by News Staff

New observations with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope confirm that two Type Ia supernovae discovered six years ago...

This image shows the scale and comparative brightness of Pluto’s small satellites. Charon is placed at the bottom for scale. The image illustrates that two of the moons are highly oblate and that the reflectivity among the moons varies from dark charcoal to the brightness of sand. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI.

Astronomers Observe Chaotic Rotation of Pluto’s Small Moons

Jun 3, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has found that two of Pluto’s small moons, Nix and Hydra, are not neatly...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

Terrestrial Exoplanets Have Circular Orbits, Say Astronomers

Jun 2, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers at Aarhus University in Denmark, Earth-sized terrestrial planets orbit their host stars in circular patterns, much like...

This image of Messier 84 does not show the whole galaxy but only its very interesting center, and is likely to be the best image of the region ever captured. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Mysterious Galaxy Messier 84

Jun 1, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have photographed an unusual galaxy called Messier 84. This image of Messier 84 does not show the...

This artist’s impression illustrates how high-speed jets from supermassive black holes would look. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / L. Calçada, ESO.

New Study Finds Link between Black Holes with Relativistic Jets, Galactic Mergers

May 29, 2015 by News Staff

A new study, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (arXiv.org preprint), finds a link between the presence of supermassive black holes...

In this image of the central region of the elliptical galaxy NGC 3862, an extragalactic jet of material moving at nearly the speed of light can be seen at the three o’clock position. The jet of ejected plasma is powered by energy from a supermassive black hole at NGC 3862’s center. A sequence of Hubble images of knots (in red, green, and blue) shows them moving along the jet over a 20-year span of observing. Astronomers were surprised to discover that the central knot (green) caught up with and merged with the knot in front of it (blue). Image credit: NASA / ESA / E. Meyer, STScI.

Hubble Focuses on Extragalactic Jet

May 29, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a collision between two knots of ejected matter in the extragalactic jet blasting out...

Images of HD 115600 showing a bright nearly edge-on debris ring located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Image credit: Thayne Currie et al.

Gemini Planet Imager Spots Kuiper Belt-like Dust Ring around HD 115600

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini Planet Imager at the Gemini South telescope in Chile have identified a disc-shaped bright ring of dust around a nearby young...

This image of the nebula RCW 34 was taken using ESO’s Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Image of Glowing Nebula RCW 34

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile have released a new image of a spectacular...

This global view of Io was obtained by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft on 19 September 1997 at a range of more than 500,000 km (310,000 miles). In this image, deposits of sulfur dioxide frost appear in white and grey hues while yellowish and brownish hues are probably due to other sulfurous materials. Bright red materials and ‘black’ spots with low brightness mark areas of recent volcanic activity and are usually associated with high temperatures and surface changes. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona.

Astronomers Spot Huge Lava Lake at Volcano Loki on Io

May 26, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists analyzing high-resolution images from the Large Binocular Telescope Observatory in Arizona have discovered an enormous lava lake on Io, the...

This image of the Arches Cluster of young, massive stars was obtained with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

Hubble Zooms in on Arches Cluster

May 25, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a new image of the Arches Cluster, the densest known cluster...

This illustration reveals a vast disk of gas surrounding the Wolf-Rayet star Nasty 1, shown at center. A close companion star is pulling gas from the star, shown by the bridge of bright material connecting the two stars. This act of celestial cannibalism exposes the massive star’s hot, helium core. Some of the material, however, is escaping into space, forming the huge disk. This disk structure has never been seen before around a Wolf-Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Nasty 1: Hubble Uncovers Surprising New Clues about Unique Wolf-Rayet Star

May 22, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a pancake-shaped disk of gas around an extremely bright star...

This artist’s concept depicts the extremely luminous infrared galaxy WISE J2246-0526. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Astronomers Discover Universe’s Most Luminous Galaxy

May 21, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered the most luminous galaxy ever found. This artist’s concept depicts...

An image from a simulation in which a Type Ia supernova explodes, as shown in brown. The supernova material is ejected outward at a velocity of about 10,000 km per second and slams into its companion star, as shown in light blue. The collision produces an UV pulse, which is emitted from the conical hole carved out by the companion star. Image credit: Dan Kasen, University of California Berkeley.

Astronomers Observe Supernova Smash into Companion Star

May 21, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) has witnessed a supernova smashing into a nearby white dwarf, shocking it,...

This image uses data from the FORS instrument on the Very Large Telescope. The stellar core of the Medusa Nebula is not the bright star in the center of this image - this is a foreground star called TYC 776-1339-1. Medusa’s central star is a dimmer, bluish star lying just off-center of the crescent shape and in the right-hand part of this image. Image credit: ESO.

ESO’s VLT Sees Beautiful Medusa Nebula

May 20, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have managed to obtain the most detailed image ever taken of the Medusa Nebula. This image...

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