Astronomy News

Cosmic-Ray Showers Play Pivotal Role in Triggering Lightning Flashes

Lightning starts with a positive fast discharge, followed by an even faster and more extensive negative discharge observed in 3D; signal polarizations slant from the discharge propagation direction and rotate between the two opposite fast discharges; these features can only be due to a cosmic-ray shower that preconditioned the discharge path and guided the discharge current direction. Image credit: ELG21.
Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

How lightning is started in thunderstorms is poorly known. With a newly-developed 3D mapping and polarization system, physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory observed that some lightning flashes were not only started with the positive fast discharge, but it was followed immediately by an even faster and more extensive negative discharge. Surprisingly, the signal polarization is slanted from the discharge propagation direction, and the polarization...

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The elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (upper left) and the spiral galaxy NGC 3561A (lower right) form a shimmering guitar shape in the ongoing merger known collectively as Arp 105. Image credit: NASA / ESA / M. West, Lowell Observatory / Gladys Kober, NASA & Catholic University of America.

Hubble Observes Ongoing Merger of Two Massive Galaxies: Arp 105

Mar 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Arp 105 is characterized by a tidal tail of stars and gas more than 362,000 light-years long. The elliptical galaxy NGC 3561B (upper left) and the spiral...

This Hubble image shows NGC 4900, a spiral galaxy approximately 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S.J. Smartt / C. Kilpatrick.

Hubble Space Telescope Spies NGC 4900

Mar 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacular image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4900. This Hubble image shows NGC 4900,...

This Webb image shows part of Lynds 483. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb Captures Fantastic Detail of Lynds 483

Mar 7, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Two young protostars are responsible for the shimmering ejections of gas and dust that gleam in orange, blue, and purple in this color image of a portion...

Artist’s impression of a hypervelocity star ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud (shown on right). When a binary star system ventures too close to a supermassive black hole, the intense gravitational forces tear the pair apart. One star is captured into a tight orbit around the black hole, while the other is flung outward at extreme velocities -- often exceeding thousands of kilometers per second -- becoming a hypervelocity star. The inset illustration depicts this process: the original binary’s orbital path is shown as interwoven lines, with one star being captured by the black hole (near center of inset) while the other is ejected into space (lower right). Image credit: CfA / Melissa Weiss.

Astronomers Find Strong Evidence for Supermassive Black Hole in Large Magellanic Cloud

Mar 6, 2025 by News Staff

The mass of the supermassive black hole in the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, is about 600,000 solar...

This artist’s impression shows an exoplanet (left) that has approached too close to a white dwarf (right) and been torn apart by tidal forces from the star. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / M. Weiss.

Enigmatic X-Ray Emission from Distant White Dwarf Points to Destroyed Exoplanet

Mar 5, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers may finally have settled the question of what is causing highly energetic X-rays from WD 2226-210, a white dwarf star located at the center...

This artist’s concept depicts one of the possible scenarios for the Altjira system in the Kuiper Belt. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Kuiper-Belt Object Altjira is Likely a Hierarchical Triple System

Mar 4, 2025 by News Staff

Altjira, also known as 2001 UQ18, is located in the outer reaches of the Solar System, 6 billion km (3.7 billion miles) away, or 44 times the distance...

An artist’s impression of SIMP 0136. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Multiple Cloud Layers, Hot Spots and Changing Chemistry are Present in Extrasolar Worlds: Study

Mar 3, 2025 by News Staff

New observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope support the presence of three specific features — clouds, hot spots, and changing...

An artist’s illustration of the Amaterasu particle observed by a surface detector array of the Telescope Array experiment. Image credit: Osaka Metropolitan University / L-INSIGHT, Kyoto University / Ryuunosuke Takeshige.

Ultrahigh Energy Cosmic Rays are Produced in Neutron Star Mergers, Physicist Says

Mar 3, 2025 by News Staff

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays are the highest-energy particles in the Universe, whose energies are more than a million times what can be achieved by humans. Professor...

This artist’s impression shows the evolution of the Universe beginning with the Big Bang on the left followed by the appearance of the Cosmic Microwave Background. The formation of the first stars ends the cosmic dark ages, followed by the formation of galaxies. Image credit: M. Weiss / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Water was Already Present in Primordial Universe 100-200 Million Years after Big Bang

Mar 3, 2025 by News Staff

Described in a paper that appears today in the journal Nature Astronomy, the discovery means habitable exoplanets could have started forming much earlier...

This Hubble image shows NGC 5042, an intermediate spiral galaxy some 48 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at NGC 5042

Mar 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a beautiful new image of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 5042. This Hubble image...

This VLT image shows the near-Earth asteroid 2024 YR4. Image credit: ESO / O. Hainaut.

VLT Focuses on Near-Earth Asteroid 2024 YR4

Feb 27, 2025 by News Staff

A near-Earth asteroid called 2024 YR4 has been closely monitored in the past couple of months as its odds of impacting Earth in 2032 rose to around 3%....

Visualization of the Radcliffe Wave. Image credit: Alyssa Goodman / Harvard University.

Our Solar System Crossed ‘Radcliffe Wave’ during Miocene Epoch, Astronomers Say

Feb 25, 2025 by Natali Anderson

As our Solar System orbits the Milky Way, it encounters various environments, including dense regions of the interstellar medium. These encounters can...

This Hubble image shows part of the Veil Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Sankrit.

Hubble Space Telescope Explores Colorful Veil Nebula

Feb 24, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a small fraction of the Veil Nebula, which is part of a supernova remnant called...

Illustration of an Earth-like exoplanet after X-ray radiation exposure. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Ionizing Radiation from Nearby Supernova Altered Virus Evolution 2.5 Million Years Ago

Feb 20, 2025 by News Staff

This supernova event likely occurred in the Upper Centaurus Lupus association, a group of massive stars approximately 457 light-years away from Earth. Illustration...

This mosaic shows galaxies hosting intermediate-mass black hole candidates, arranged in increasing order of stellar mass. Image credit: Legacy Surveys / D. Lang, Perimeter Institute / NAOJ / HSC Collaboration / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DESI Discovers 2,800 New Black Holes

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) on NSF’s Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a program...

This artist’s concept portrays the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is More Active than Previously Thought

Feb 19, 2025 by News Staff

The accretion disk orbiting Sagittarius A* is emitting a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest, according to an analysis of new data from the...

This diagram shows the structure and motion of the atmosphere of WASP-121b. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Map Out 3D Structure of WASP-121b’s Atmosphere

Feb 18, 2025 by News Staff

Ultrahot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our Solar System, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes. Using four telescope...

Levin et al suggest that we could have more in common with our extraterrestrial neighbors than initially thought. Image credit: Fernando Ribas.

New Theory Increases Probability of Intelligent Life beyond Earth

Feb 18, 2025 by News Staff

In 1983, the theoretical physicist Brandon Carter concluded that the time it took for humans to evolve on Earth — relative to the total lifespan...

This VST image shows two elliptical galaxies: NGC 3640 and NGC 3641. Image credit: ESO / INAF / Mirabile et al. / Ragusa et al.

VST Traces History of Unusual Elliptical Galaxy

Feb 18, 2025 by Natali Anderson

A giant elliptical galaxy called NGC 3640 has engulfed several smaller galaxies in the past, according to an analysis of data from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope...

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