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

NASA Astronomers Discover 715 New Exoplanets

Feb 27, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers of NASA’s Kepler mission announced yesterday the discovery of 715 new extrasolar planets orbiting 305 stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. This...

This is an artist's impression of Tau Boötis b. Image credit: David Aguilar / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Tau Boötis b: Astronomers Detect Water in Atmosphere of Jupiter-like Exoplanet

Feb 26, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers led by Alexandra Lockwood from California Institute of Technology in Pasadena have detected the water vapor in the atmosphere of an extrasolar...

An image of the flash resulting from the impact of a large meteorite on the lunar surface on 11 September 2013, obtained with the 0.36-m-telescope in Sevilla, Spain. Image credit: Jose M. Madiedo / MIDAS.

Astronomers Document Record-Breaking Lunar Impact

Feb 24, 2014 by News Staff

On September 11, 2013, an object with the mass of a small car hit the lunar surface in Mare Nubium, an ancient lava-filled basin with a darker appearance...

This is an artist's impression of an asteroid breaking up. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers See Asteroids Hitting Distant Pulsar

Feb 21, 2014 by News Staff

According to astronomers led by Mr Paul Brook, a PhD student from the University of Oxford and CSIRO, a small pulsar dubbed PSR J0738-4042 is being pounded...

This is an artist's concept of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Caltech.

Scientists Discover Huge Gas Clouds Orbiting Supermassive Black Holes

Feb 21, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Alex Markowitz from the University of California, San Diego and the Karl Remeis Observatory in Bamberg, Germany, has discovered...

This image shows Cassiopeia A, a remnant that blew up as a supernova more than 11,000 years ago, leaving a dense stellar corpse and its ejected remains. Image credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Cassiopeia A: Astronomers Peer into Heart of Supernova

Feb 20, 2014 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has revealed how stars blow up in supernova explosions. This...

This new image from La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the star cluster Messier 7. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Stunning New Image of Messier 7

Feb 19, 2014 by News Staff

A team of astronomers using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile has captured a new image of the open star cluster...

This is an artist's impression of the brown dwarf ULAS J222711-004547. Image credit: Neil J Cook / University of Hertfordshire.

Astronomers Discover ‘Extremely Red’ Brown Dwarf

Feb 18, 2014 by News Staff

European astronomers led by Dr Federico Marocco from the University of Hertfordshire have discovered a brown dwarf with unusually red skies. Brown dwarf...

This image shows the galaxy Abell2744 Y1, one of the most distant galaxy candidates known. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / IAC.

Abell2744 Y1: Astronomers Discover Extremely Distant Galaxy

Feb 10, 2014 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers has reported the discovery of Abell2744 Y1 – one of the most distant galaxies ever found. This image shows the...

This image, taken from Digital Sky Survey, shows SMSS J031300.36-670839.3 (center of the image). Image credit: DSS.

SM0313: Oldest Known Star Discovered

Feb 10, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers led by Dr Stefan Keller of the Australian National University say they have discovered the oldest star ever seen in the Universe. This image,...

This is an artist's impression of an extrasolar gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Kepler-413b: Astronomers Discover Wobbly Exoplanet Orbiting Binary Star

Feb 6, 2014 by News Staff

NASA astronomers announced the discovery of a strange super-Neptune circling a pair of orange and red dwarfs known as Kepler-413. This is an artist’s...

This artist's impression shows an extrasolar gas giant orbiting a binary star system. Image credit: NASA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Kepler-34b Helps Explain How Circumbinary Exoplanets Form

Jan 31, 2014 by News Staff

Researchers reporting in the Astrophysical Journal Letters have found that the majority of circumbinary planets – planets that orbit two stars –...

This is an artist's impression of the brown dwarf Luhman 16B based on the first ever map of the weather on its surface. Image credit: ESO / I. Crossfield / N. Risinger.

Astronomers Create Cloud Map of Nearby Brown Dwarf Luhman 16B

Jan 29, 2014 by News Staff

European scientists using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have learned what the weather is like on the surface of one of the objects in a binary...

The Ultraviolet-Optical Telescope aboard Swift captured SN 2014J, circled, on January 22, 2014. Image credit: NASA / Swift / P. Brown, TAMU.

SN 2014J: Swift Zooms in on New Supernova in Messier 82

Jan 28, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Ultraviolet-Optical Telescope aboard NASA’s Swift spacecraft have snapped an image of a newly discovered stellar explosion...

This is a composite image of the galaxy cluster RX J1532.9+3021, located about 3.9 billion light years from Earth. The labels show the location of two enormous X-ray cavities, created by jets from a central black hole that have pushed aside hot gas. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / Stanford / J. Hlavacek-Larrondo et al.; optical – NASA / ESA / STScI / M. Postman & CLASH team.

RX J1532: Extremely Powerful Ultramassive Black Hole Discovered

Jan 25, 2014 by News Staff

An enormous black hole located in the center of the galaxy cluster RX J1532.9+3021 (RX J1532 for short) is one of the most powerful black holes in the...

This is an artist's impression of the Kepler-410A system. Image credit: Vincent Van Eylen, apadted by Sci-New.com.

Kepler-410Ab: Neptune-sized Exoplanet Discovered around Binary Star

Jan 23, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers led by Dr Vincent Van Eylen of Aarhus University, Denmark, has discovered a Neptune-sized extrasolar planet orbiting...

This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope, shows the Lagoon Nebula. Image credit: ESO / VPHAS+ team.

VST Zooms in on Lagoon Nebula

Jan 22, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope in Chile have captured a new view deep inside the Lagoon Nebula, also known as Messier 8 or NGC 6523. This...

This is an artist's impression of a T-dwarf. Image credit: R. Hurt / NASA.

HD 19467B: Astronomers Directly Image Rare Brown Dwarf

Jan 22, 2014 by News Staff

U.S. astronomers have captured a direct image of a very rare T-dwarf circling the nearby Sun-like star HD 19467. This is an artist’s impression of...

Radial metallicity gradients and age-metallicity relation of stars in the Milky Way disk. Image credit: University of Cambridge.

Milky Way Galaxy May Have Formed Inside-Out, Study

Jan 21, 2014 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy formed by expanding out from the center, suggests analysis of first data from the Gaia-ESO survey – the ground-based extension...