Astronomy News

Uninhabitable Venus Offers Lessons about Potential for Extraterrestrial Life

Kane & Byrne describe Venus as an anchor point from which planetary scientists can better understand the conditions that preclude life on exoplanets. Image credit: Kane & Byrne, doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02228-5.
Apr 23, 2024 by News Staff

Fully understanding how a rocky planet becomes habitable and remains so is a fundamental challenge for planetary scientists and astrobiologists, given the diversity and complexity of intrinsic and extrinsic processes that contribute to sustain habitable conditions over geological and biological time scales. In the face of this challenge, it is imperative that the full range of rocky planet atmospheric evolution data within our Solar System be exploited....

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This Hubble image shows ESO 422-41, a spiral galaxy some 34 million light-years away in the constellation of Columba. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / C. Kilpatrick.

Hubble Snaps Stunning Image of Small Spiral Galaxy

Apr 22, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of the spiral galaxy ESO 422-41, which is found in the constellation...

This Hubble image of the barred spiral galaxy UGC 12158 looks like someone took a white marking pen to it. In reality it is a combination of time exposures of a foreground asteroid moving through Hubble’s field-of-view, photobombing the observation of the galaxy. Several exposures of the galaxy were taken, what is evidence in the dashed pattern. The asteroid appears as a curved trail due to parallax: because Hubble is not stationary, but orbiting Earth, and this gives the illusion that the faint asteroid is swimming along a curved trajectory. The uncharted asteroid is in inside the asteroid belt in our Solar System, and hence is 10 trillion times closer to Hubble than the background galaxy. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Pablo García Martín, UAM / Joseph DePasquale, STScI / Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley.

Astronomers Discover 454 New Asteroids in Main Belt

Apr 19, 2024 by News Staff

A set of 632 main-belt asteroids (178 previously known and 454 unknown objects) has been identified in the archival images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

An artist’s impression of the brown dwarf W1935. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / L. Hustak, STScI.

Webb Detects Methane Emission from Cool Brown Dwarf

Apr 17, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have detected methane emission from CWISEP J193518.59-154620.3 (W1935 for short), an isolated...

The Jupiter-sized planet TOI-5205b has a surface temperature of 737 K and orbits its parent star, TOI-5205, at a distance of 0.02 AU. Image credit: Sci.News.

Purple is the New Green: Purple Bacteria Could Dominate Wide Range of Exoplanetary Environments

Apr 17, 2024 by News Staff

With more than 5,500 detected exoplanets, the search for life is entering a new era. Using life on Earth as a guide, astrobiologists from Cornell University...

The location of the first three black holes discovered by ESA’s Gaia mission in the Milky Way. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.

Surprisingly Massive Stellar-Mass Black Hole Detected in Nearby Binary System

Apr 16, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Using data from ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have discovered a nearby binary system composed of a giant star orbiting a dormant black hole of of stellar...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3783, a barred spiral galaxy some 135 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. The color image is composed of infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through five filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M.C. Bentz / D.J.V. Rosario.

Hubble Sees Beautiful Barred Spiral Galaxy: NGC 3783

Apr 15, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken a picture of the bright barred spiral galaxy NGC 3783, which is found in the constellation...

This image, taken with ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937. Image credit: ESO / VPHAS+ Team / CASU.

Astronomers Observe Result of Violent Stellar Merger

Apr 11, 2024 by News Staff

Most stellar magnetic fields — including the Sun’s — are produced by a dynamo that is generated in interior layers undergoing convection....

An artist’s impression of LTT 1445Ab in the triple-star system LTT 1445. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Scientists Discuss Physics and Mathematics behind ‘3 Body Problem’

Apr 10, 2024 by News Staff

Based on the book trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Chinese computer engineer Cixin Liu, Netflix’s sci-fi television series 3 Body Problem introduces...

An artist’s impression of the radio magnetar XTE J1810-197. Image credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav / Swinburne University of Technology.

Astronomers Detect Unusual Radio Pulses from Nearby Magnetar

Apr 8, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope (Murriyang) have detected unusual radio signals from XTE J1810-197, a radio magnetar (ultra-magnetic...

This VST image shows Gum 41, an emission nebula about 7,300 light-years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: ESO / VPHAS+ Team / CASU.

VST Captures Beautiful Emission Nebula: Gum 41

Apr 8, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers have produced this beautiful image of the little-known nebula Gum...

A slice of the 3D map of galaxies collected in the first year of the DESI survey with annotations identifying key features in the map. Earth is at the tip, with the furthest galaxies plotted at distances of 11 billion light-years. Each point represents one galaxy. This version of the DESI map includes 600,000 galaxies -- less than 0.1% of the survey’s full volume. Image credit: DESI Collaboration / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / R. Proctor.

DESI Creates Largest 3D Map of Our Expanding Universe Ever

Apr 8, 2024 by News Staff

To study dark energy’s effects over the past 11 billion years, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has created the largest 3D map of our...

This Hubble image shows IC 4633, a spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Apus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is mounted on NSF’s Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Five filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Galbany / J. Dalcanton / Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / L. Shatz.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Obscured Spiral Galaxy

Apr 8, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy IC 4633. This Hubble image shows IC 4633,...

An artist’s impression of the rainbow-like ‘glory effect’ in the atmosphere of WASP-76b. Image credit: ESA.

Astronomers Detect Rainbow-Like ‘Glory’ in Atmosphere of WASP-76b

Apr 5, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Using data from ESA’s Characterising ExOplanet Satellite (CHEOPS) and several other ESA and NASA missions, astronomers have detected signs of the rainbow-like...

An artist’s impression of a neutron star.

Dark Matter Capture and Annihilation Can Heat Old, Isolated Neutron Stars, Physicists Say

Apr 4, 2024 by News Staff

A team of particle physicists from the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, King’s College London and Fermi National Accelerator...

Messier 82 was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in 2006, which showed the galaxy’s edge-on spiral disk, shredded clouds, and hot hydrogen gas. The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope observed the core of Messier 82, capturing in unprecedented detail the structure of the galactic wind and characterizing individual stars and star clusters. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Hubble / Webb / STScI / A. Bolatto, UMD.

Webb Observes Hidden Depths of Messier 82

Apr 3, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a new image of the central starburst region of Messier 82 (M82, NGC 3034 or...

This Webb image shows I Zwicky 18, a blue compact dwarf galaxy some 59 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. A companion galaxy resides nearby to I Zwicky 18 can be seen at the bottom of the image. The companion may be interacting with the dwarf galaxy and may have triggered that galaxy’s recent star formation. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Hirschauer et al.

Webb Images Extremely Metal-Poor, Star-Forming, Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy

Apr 3, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a spectacular image of I Zwicky 18 (I Zw 18 for short), the archetypal extremely...

An artist’s impression of the center of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF.

ALMA Detects Over One Hundred Molecular Species in Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Apr 2, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected over 100 molecular species in the center of the starburst galaxy...

This Hubble image of a star-forming region containing massive, young, blue stars in the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Francesco Paresce, INAF-IASF Bologna / Robert O’Connell, UVA / SOC-WFC3 / ESO.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Young Stars

Apr 2, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have collected information on almost 500 stars as part of the Ultraviolet Legacy Library of Young...

Hidden in this deep sky image (left) is Uma3/U1, a miniscule group of stars (right) bound together by their own gravity in orbit around the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: CFHT / S. Gwyn / S. Smith.

Astronomers Discover Faintest Known Milky Way Satellite

Apr 1, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 (UMa3/U1 for short) is the least luminous and lowest-mass Milky Way satellite ever discovered, and possibly one of the most dark...

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