Astronomy News

Milky Way Galaxy Has Four Spiral Arms, New Study Confirms

Galactic distribution of massive young stars and compact and ultra-compact H II regions with luminosities greater than 10^4 times that of the Sun. The map shows the positions of the complexes and individual sources as red and blue circles, respectively. The sizes of the markers give an indication of their luminosity, as depicted in the upper-right corner. The position of the Sun is shown by the small circle above the Galactic Centre. The two solid lines enclose the Galactic Center region that was excluded from survey due to problems with source confusion and distance determination. The smaller of the two dot–dashed circles represents the locus of tangent points, while the larger circle shows the radius of the solar circle. Image credit: Urquhart JS et al / Robert Hurt, the Spitzer Science Center / Robert Benjamin.
Dec 29, 2013 by News Staff

A 12-year study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has confirmed that our Milky Way Galaxy has four spiral arms, following years of debate that it has only two arms. Galactic distribution of massive young stars and compact and ultra-compact H II regions with luminosities greater than 10^4 times that of the Sun. The map shows the positions of the complexes and individual sources as red and blue circles, respectively....

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This image shows the variable star RS Puppis. Image credit: NASA / ESA / the Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / Hubble-Europe Collaboration / H. Bond, STScI and Penn State University.

Hubble Zooms in on Variable Star RS Puppis

Dec 26, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have observed RS Puppis – a type of star known as a Cepheid variable star – over a period...

This is an artist's impression of a gamma-ray burst. Image credit: NASA.

Astronomers Discover New Kind of Gamma-Ray Burst

Dec 24, 2013 by News Staff

Australian researchers have discovered a new type of gamma-ray burst (GRB) called radio faint GRB. This is an artist’s impression of a gamma-ray...

View of the Fomalhaut triple star system from Earth; the small inset shows a zoom of the newly discovered comet belt around Fomalhaut C as seen at infrared wavelengths by Herschel. Image credit: Grant Kennedy / Paul Kalas.

Comet Belt Discovered around Fomalhaut C

Dec 23, 2013 by News Staff

Fomalhaut C – the least massive star in the Fomalhaut system – has been found to host comet belt, according scientists reporting in the journal...

This image shows the supernova SNLS-06D4eu and its host galaxy, arrow. The supernova and its host galaxy are so far away that both are a tiny point of light that cannot be clearly differentiated in this image. The large, bright objects with spikes are stars in our own galaxy. Every other point of light is a distant galaxy. Image credit: University of California, Santa Barbara.

Hydrogen-Free Superluminous Supernovae: New Subclass of Stellar Explosions Found

Dec 20, 2013 by News Staff

According to an international group of astronomers, two unusual stellar explosions detected in 2006 and 2007 are a new subclass of superluminous supernova...

An artist's conception of the binary system WISE 1049-5319 with the Sun in the background (Janella Williams / Penn State University)

Possible Exoplanet Found Orbiting Nearby Binary Luhman 16AB

Dec 17, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected what they think may be an exoplanet circling a brown dwarf pair called Luhman 16AB, the third-closest star system to the Sun. An...

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant. Observers in China and Japan recorded the supernova nearly 1,000 years ago, in 1054. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Hester and A. Loll, Arizona State University.

Noble Gas Molecule Detected in Space for First Time

Dec 13, 2013 by News Staff

A molecule containing the noble gas argon has been discovered in the beautiful Crab Nebula, the remains of a star that exploded 1,000 years ago. Before...

HD 106906b: Unique Super-Jupiter Exoplanet Discovered

Dec 6, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a giant extrasolar planet orbiting its star at more than 20 times the average Neptune-Sun...

This composite image shows the X-ray binary Circinus X-1. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / University of Wisconsin-Madison / S.Heinz et al; optical - DSS; radio – CSIRO / ATNF / ATCA.

Chandra Discovers Youngest X-ray Binary in Milky Way

Dec 5, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have reported the discovery of the youngest X-ray binary ever found in our Milky Way Galaxy. This...

This is an artist's impression of a star's light illuminating the atmosphere of an exoplanet. Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers Detect Signs of Water on Five Exoplanets

Dec 4, 2013 by News Staff

Two teams of scientists using the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have detected faint signatures of water in the atmospheres...

About 44 million stars and galaxies, among them hundreds of thousands that are unexpectedly fading or brightening, have been catalogued by astronomers from Australia and UK. Image credit: NASA / ESA / W. Clarkson, Indiana University and UCLA / K. Sahu, STScI.

Astronomers Create Catalogue of 44 Million Stars and Galaxies

Dec 2, 2013 by News Staff

By combining photographic and digital data from the US Naval Observatory-B and Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR9 catalogues, astronomers have made one of the...

This image shows ULX-1 near a spiral arm of the galaxy Messier 101. Image credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory / Spitzer Satellite / Hubble Space Telescope / GALEX Satellite.

ULX-1: Astronomers Discover Tiny, Strange Black Hole in Messier 101

Nov 28, 2013 by News Staff

New observations of the galaxy Messier 101 have yielded the discovery of an unusual black hole that can sustain a hugely voracious appetite while consuming...

This image shows the emission nebula NGC 2035 in Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Sees Dragon’s Head Nebula in Large Magellanic Cloud

Nov 27, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers used ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile to observe the emission nebula NGC...

This composite image shows the Tycho supernova remnant. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / Rutgers / K. Eriksen et al.; optical: DSS.

Astronomers Shed More Light on Tycho’s Supernova Remnant

Nov 26, 2013 by News Staff

New observations of the famous Tycho’s supernova remnant by the Suzaku X-ray astronomy satellite have revealed that a reverse shock wave racing inward...

This image shows Stephan's Quintet - NGC 7317, NGC 7318a, NGC 7318b and NGC 7319 - a compact group of galaxies located about 280 million light years away. A prominent foreground galaxy called NGC 7320 is not a member of the group. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / CfA / E.O'Sullivan; optical - Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope / Coelum.

Astronomers Say Galaxies in Groups are Running out of Fuel

Nov 25, 2013 by News Staff

A team of scientists using the Arecibo radio telescope measured the hydrogen content of 250 galaxies located in different environments to show that galaxies...

Optical afterglow of GRB 130427A. Image credit: J. Mats / H. Lars / H. Patrik.

GRB 130427A: Brightest Ever Gamma-Ray Burst Detected

Nov 21, 2013 by News Staff

An unusual stellar explosion observed on April 27, 2013 by NASA’s Swift satellite is the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded, says a multinational...

A jet from the supermassive black hole in the center of Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / UCLA / Z. Li et al; radio – NRAO / VLA.

Chandra Captures Jet from Supermassive Black Hole in Milky Way’s Center

Nov 21, 2013 by News Staff

Astronomers used data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Very Large Array radio telescope to detect a jet from Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*),...

This is an artist's impression of a brown dwarf. Image credit: John Pinfield.

Milky Way Galaxy’s Oldest Brown Dwarfs Discovered

Nov 20, 2013 by News Staff

British astronomers reporting in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (arXiv.org) have found two of the oldest brown dwarfs in...

What Our Milky Way Galaxy Looked Like 11 Billion Years Ago

Nov 15, 2013 by News Staff

Using Hubble’s deep-sky surveys, NASA astronomers have studied the evolution of 400 Milky Way-like galaxies to show how our own Galaxy looked like...

This is a model of the black hole system with jets. Image credit: J. Miller-Jones, ICRAR / R. Hynes.

Scientists Solve Long Standing Mystery of Black Hole Jets

Nov 13, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of researchers using ESA’s XMM-Newton Space Telescope has found the first evidence of heavy atoms in jets emitted by a stellar-mass...

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