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Powerful new computer suggest that spiral arms in disk galaxies arise as a result of the influence of giant molecular clouds (Thiago Ize / Chris Johnson / Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute)

Study Provides New Insights into Origin of Spiral Arms in Disk Galaxies

Apr 3, 2013 by News Staff

U.S. astrophysicists report computer simulations that seem to resolve long-standing questions about the origin and life history of spiral arms in disk...

Composite image of the supernova remnant 1987A (ICRAR)

Radio Astronomers Uncover Secrets of Supernova Remnant 1987A

Apr 2, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Australia and Hong Kong using the Australia Telescope Compact Array has observed the supernova remnant 1987A...

The spiral galaxy NGC 1068 (NASA / ESA / A. van der Hoeven)

Hubble Sees Spiral Galaxy NGC 1068

Apr 2, 2013 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a stunning new image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1068, also known as Messier 77. The spiral...

This image shows the suspected progenitor of a new kind of supernova called Type Iax. Material from a hot, blue helium star at right is funneling toward a carbon/oxygen white dwarf star at left, which is embedded in an accretion disk. In many cases the white dwarf survives the subsequent explosion (Christine Pulliam / CfA)

New Class of Supernova Discovered, Called Type Iax

Mar 27, 2013 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr Alicia Margarita Soderberg from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has announced the discovery of a new type...

Planck Scientists: Universe is 100 Million Years Older than Previously Estimated

Mar 25, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists using ESA’s Planck satellite have released the most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Cosmic microwave...

This composite image of SN 1604 shows Chandra X-ray emission from iron in blue, and also Spitzer infrared (IR) emission in pink. The IR emission is very similar in shape and location to X-ray emission from material that was expelled by the giant star companion to the white dwarf before the latter exploded. This material forms a disk around the center of the explosion (X-ray: NASA / CXC / NCSU / M.Burkey et al; IR: NASA / JPL-Caltech)

X-Ray Data Reveal Origin of Kepler’s Supernova

Mar 21, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

New data obtained with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory point to the origin of the supernova SN 1604, the famous explosion that was discovered by the...

Artist’s impression of the GX 339-4 binary system, which consists of a 7-solar-mass black hole that accretes mass from its companion, a low-mass star, shown on the left (ESA / ATG medialab)

Herschel Sees Formation of Black-Hole Jets

Mar 20, 2013 by News Staff

For the first time ever, a multinational team of astronomers from France, the UK, the United States, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Australia, has...

Artist's rendering of the planetary system HR 8799 at an early stage in its evolution, showing the planet HR 8799c, a disk of gas and dust, and interior planets (Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics / Mediafarm)

Water Vapor, Carbon Monoxide Found on Extrasolar Gas Giant

Mar 15, 2013 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size extrasolar planet. Artist’s rendering of the...

Astronomers Discover Third-Closest Star System

Mar 15, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

A newly discovered binary brown dwarf is the third-closest star system to our Solar System, and the closest system discovered since 1916. An artist’s...

This image combines data from ALMA and Hubble. Shown in red is the distant, background galaxy, being distorted by the gravitational lens effect produced by the galaxy in the foreground, shown in blue as measured by Hubble. The background galaxy appears warped into a so-called Einstein ring: a circle of light around the foreground galaxy (Dan Marrone)

ALMA Sees Highly Active Galaxies in Early Universe

Mar 14, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an array of 66 radio telescopes located in the dry and cloudless Atacama Desert...

Image of the triplet quasar QQQ J1519+0627 (© Emanuele Paolo Farina, via Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Astronomers Detect Extremely Rare Triple Quasar

Mar 13, 2013 by News Staff

By combining multiple telescope observations and advanced modeling, a multinational team of astronomers has discovered an extremely rare triple quasar...

PS1-12sk, circled, is classified as a very rare Type Ibn supernova - only the sixth such example found out of thousands of supernovae (CfA / PS1 Science Consortium)

Astronomers Discover Extremely Rare Type Ibn Supernova

Mar 12, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has announced the discovery of a very rare Type Ibn supernova on the outskirts of a bright elliptical galaxy located...

This image shows a protoplanet circling the young star HD100546 (ESO)

Astronomers Capture First Photo of Jupiter-like Exoplanet Forming

Mar 4, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers led by Dr Sascha Quanz from the ETH Zurich’s Institute for Astronomy, Switzerland, has obtained what is likely the...

Supernova 2013X (Southern Methodist University)

U.S. Astronomy Students Discover Two Type 1a Supernovae

Mar 1, 2013 by News Staff

A team of students from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, using the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment’s telescope ROTSE3b at the McDonald...

This image shows a supermassive black hole surrounded by a hot accretion disk, while some inspiraling material is funneled into a wispy blue jet (NASA / JPL-Caltech)

Astronomers: Supermassive Black Hole in NGC 1365 Spins at Nearly Light-Speed

Feb 28, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers using data from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array and ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray satellites has been able...

This image shows the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy surrounded by a faint halo of old stars (NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI)

Milky Way’s Cannibal Past Revealed

Feb 27, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found tantalizing evidence for the existence of a shell of stars that...

An artist’s impression of a habitable planet orbiting a white dwarf. The ghostly blue ring is a planetary nebula - hydrogen gas the star ejected as it evolved from a red giant to a white dwarf (David A. Aguilar / CfA)

White Dwarfs Hold Key to Finding Extraterrestrial Life

Feb 26, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

A new theoretical study of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting white dwarf stars, accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical...

Kepler Discovers Tiny Extrasolar Planet

Feb 21, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has made the first observations of a planet outside our Solar System that’s...

VISTA Telescope Catches Space Lobster

Feb 20, 2013 by Natali Anderson

A new infrared image from ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile reveals a landscape of...