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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.

Beta Pictoris b: Scientists Measure Spin Rate of Exoplanet for First Time

Apr 30, 2014 by News Staff

Beta Pictoris b, a very young gas giant that orbits the star Beta Pictoris just 63 light-years away in the southern constellation of Pictor, has been found...

This image, with taken with the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager, shows the quasar QSO 1549+19; blue shows hydrogen gas surrounding and inflowing to the quasar. Image credit: Christopher Martin / Robert Hurt.

Astronomers Directly Observe Intergalactic Medium

Apr 30, 2014 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers using the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager has captured stunning images of the intergalactic medium – the diffuse gas...

This artist's impression shows the brown dwarf WISE 0855-0714. The color of the brown dwarf in this image is arbitrary; it would have different colors when viewed in different wavelength ranges. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Penn State University.

WISE 0855-0714: Astronomer Discovers Fourth-Closest Star System

Apr 28, 2014 by News Staff

U.S. astronomer using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (WISE 0855-0714...

This is an artist's impression of a debris disk around HD 141943. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Soummer, Ann Feild, STScI.

Hubble Discovers Five Debris Disks around Young Stars

Apr 25, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered five planetary disks around young stars. This image shows a debris disk around HD...

This image, taken with the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope, shows the field before the supernova PS1-10afx. Image credit: Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe / CFHT. The right inset shows PS1-10afx. Image credit: R. Chornock et al.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of Superluminous Supernova PS1-10afx

Apr 25, 2014 by News Staff

PS1-10afx, an unusually bright supernova that was discovered in 2010 using the Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System, is so luminous because...

This artist's impression shows a binary supermassive black hole system in the galaxy SDSS J120136.02+300305.5. Image credit: ESA / C. Carreau.

Binary Supermassive Black Hole System Discovered

Apr 24, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory have discovered, for the first time, a pair of supermassive black holes in orbit around one...

A collage of face-on, upper panel, and edge-on galaxy images from the SDSS sample. In both panels, from bottom to top galaxies increase in stellar mass. From left to right galaxies increase in bulge-to-total stellar mass ratio. Image credit: Asa Frederick Bluck.

Astronomers Discover Relationship between Color of Galaxy, Size of its Bulge

Apr 22, 2014 by News Staff

The more massive the bulge of a galaxy, the redder the galaxy, says a team of astronomers reporting in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical...

This artistic concept shows Kepler-186f. Image credit: NASA Ames / SETI Institute / JPL-CalTech.

Kepler-186f: Potentially Habitable Earth-like Exoplanet Found

Apr 18, 2014 by News Staff

A large team of astronomers has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-186. This artistic concept...

This new image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile shows the star formation region Gum 41. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture New Image of Nebula Gum 41

Apr 16, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at the La Silla Observatory, Chile, have captured a new image of the little-known nebula Gum 41. This new...

Using a technique called microlensing, astronomers discovered what could be either a moon and a planet - or a planet and a star. This artist's conception depicts the planet-moon scenario. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Discover First Exomoon Candidate

Apr 11, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using telescopes in New Zealand and Tasmania say they have observed an extrasolar moon candidate orbiting an object called MOA-2011-BLG-262. Using...

This image show member stars of the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Segue-1. Image credit: Marla Geha.

Segue-1 May be One of First Galaxies Ever Formed in Universe, Say Astronomers

Apr 10, 2014 by News Staff

According to astronomers led by Dr Anna Frebel from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy called Segue-1 may be one of first...

This image shows the planetary nebula Abell 33. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Zoom in on Planetary Nebula Abell 33

Apr 9, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have captured a beautiful new image of the planetary nebula Abell 33. This image shows the planetary nebula...

An artist's conception of how BOSS uses quasars to measure the distant Universe. Image credit: Zosia Rostomian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Andreu Font-Ribera, BOSS Lyman-alpha team, Berkeley Lab.

Astronomers Use Quasars to Measure Expansion Rate of Early Universe

Apr 8, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) have used 140,000 quasars to measure the expansion rate of the Universe when it was...

This composite image shows the galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102-4915, also known as the El Gordo Galaxy Cluster, the most massive cluster of galaxies ever seen to exist when the Universe was just half of its current age of 13.8 billion years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Jee, University of California, Davis / J. Hughes, Rutgers University / F. Menanteau, Rutgers University and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign / C. Sifon, Leiden Observatory / R. Mandelbum, Carnegie Mellon University / L. Barrientos, Universidad Catolica de Chile / K. Ng, University of California, Davis.

El Gordo: Hubble ‘Weighs’ Giant Galaxy Cluster

Apr 4, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have weighed the El Gordo Galaxy Cluster – the largest known galaxy cluster in the distant Universe. This...

This image shows a pair of galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller companion NGC 1317, right. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Zoom in on Intriguing Galaxy Pair NGC 1316-NGC 1317

Apr 3, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of astronomers using the MPG/ESO 2.2-m telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, has captured a new image of two galaxies:...

Astronomers Detect Ring System around Minor Planet Chariklo

Apr 1, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists led by Dr Felipe Braga-Ribas from Observatório Nacional/MCTI in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, have observed for the first time a minor planet with...

This is an artist's visualization of the dwarf planet Sedna. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, SSC-Caltech.

2012 VP113: New Dwarf Planet Discovered

Mar 27, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers Dr Chadwick Trujillo of Gemini Observatory in Hawaii and Dr Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Institution for Science have discovered a dwarf planet,...

Collage of galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey at infrared/submillimeter wavelengths by Herschel, left, and at visible wavelengths from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, right. The Herschel image is colored with blue representing cold dust and red representing warm dust; the SDSS image shows young stars in blue and old stars in red. Together, the observations plot young, dust-rich spiral/irregular galaxies in the top left, with giant dust-poor elliptical galaxies in the bottom right. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / HRS-SAG2 / HeViCS Key Programmes / Sloan Digital Sky Survey / L. Cortese, Swinburne University.

Herschel Completes Largest Ever Dust Census in Local Universe

Mar 25, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory have completed the largest-ever survey of cosmic dust, spanning 323 nearby galaxies located...

This image shows part of NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

Hubble Zooms in on Monkey Head Nebula

Mar 21, 2014 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning new image of the nebula NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. This...