Astronomy News

Astronomers Discover Connection between Neptune’s Cloudy Weather and 11-Year Solar Cycle

This sequence of Hubble images chronicles the waxing and waning of the amount of cloud cover on Neptune. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Erandi Chavez, UC Berkeley / Imke de Pater, UC Berkeley.
Aug 17, 2023 by News Staff

Neptune is the most distant planet in the Solar System, an ice-giant that boasts an active and chaotic atmosphere. Using archival near-infrared observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the W.M. Keck Observatory and the Lick Observatory, a team of astronomers led by the University of California, Berkeley documented the evolution of Neptune’s cloud activity from 1994 to 2022. They calculated the fraction of Neptune’s disk that contained...

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In a few million years, HD 45166 will explode as a very bright, but not particularly energetic, supernova. During this explosion, its core will contract, trapping and concentrating the star’s already daunting magnetic field lines. The result will be a neutron star with a magnetic field far greater than its progenitor. Image credit: NOIRLab / AURA / NSF / P. Marenfeld / M. Zamani.

Highly Unusual Wolf-Rayet Star Will Evolve into Magnetar, Astronomers Say

Aug 17, 2023 by News Staff

Using spectropolarimetric data gathered by various telescopes around the globe, astronomers from the University of Amsterdam and elsewhere have identified...

This image shows the Maisie’s galaxy. Image credit: NASA / STScI / CEERS / TACC / University of Texas at Austin / S. Finkelstein / M. Bagley.

Webb Confirms Two Very Luminous Galaxies in Early Universe

Aug 15, 2023 by Natali Anderson

During the first 500 million years of cosmic history, the first stars and galaxies formed, seeding the Universe with heavy elements and eventually reionizing...

Hallakoun et al. report observations revealing an extremely irradiated low-mass companion to the hot white dwarf WD 0032-317. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Newly-Discovered Brown Dwarf is Hotter than the Sun

Aug 15, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

WD 0032-317B, a brown dwarf orbiting around the hot, low-mass white dwarf WD 0032-317, is estimated to have a surface temperature of about 8,000 K and...

This image, taken with the VIRCAM instrument on ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, shows NGC 6723, a globular cluster some 28,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. The image is based on data obtained through three filters. Image credit: ESO / Meingast et al.

VISTA Telescope Captures NGC 6723 in Infrared Light

Aug 14, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at Paranal Observatory have produced a spectacularly detailed infrared...

For most of the time, Saturn’s atmosphere looks hazy and featureless to the naked eye in contrast to Jupiter’s colorful and vibrant atmosphere. This picture changes when we look at Saturn using a radio eye. Despite bland looking at the visible wavelengths, different latitudes on Saturn show dramatic contrast in the radio emission. In 2015, Li et al. found substantial brightness temperature variations -- greater than the temperature increase caused by the 2010 storm -- as a function of latitude and radio wavelength based on spatially resolved radio images of Saturn, as obtained from the VLA. Via a spectral inversion study, they created a latitude-altitude map of ammonia concentration anomalies from these images and correlate the anomalies to the occurrences of past giant storms in the northern hemisphere. Image credit: S. Dagnello / NRAO / AUI / NSF / Li et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adg9419.

VLA Reveals Megastorm-Centric Disruptions in Saturnian Atmosphere

Aug 14, 2023 by News Staff

Planetary-scale giant storms erupt on Saturn periodically. There have been at least six recorded occurrences of past eruptions, and the most recent one...

This Hubble image shows ACO 3322, a very massive galaxy cluster located 2.6 billion light-years away in the constellation of Pictor. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / H. Ebeling.

Hubble Space Telescope Spots X-ray Bright Galaxy Cluster

Aug 14, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble astronomers have released a new image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the massive galaxy cluster ACO 3322. This Hubble image...

This Webb image shows Earendel, a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / D. Coe, STScI, AURA, ESA & Johns Hopkins University / B. Welch, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center & University of Maryland, College Park / Z. Levay.

Earendel is Massive B-Type Star, Webb Astronomers Say

Aug 9, 2023 by News Staff

Earendel, the farthest known star, is a massive B-type star more than twice as hot as our Sun, and about a million times more luminous, according to an...

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The CME traveled at over 900 miles per second. It did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow, causing aurora to appear on the night of September 3. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

HAWC Observatory Detects High-Energy Gamma Rays from the Sun

Aug 7, 2023 by News Staff

New results from the High Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory extend the bright, hard gamma-ray emission from the solar disk observed with NASA’s...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6684, a lenticular galaxy some 44 million light-years away in the constellation of Pavo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully.

Hubble Focuses on Beautiful Lenticular Galaxy

Aug 7, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing new photo of the lenticular galaxy NGC 6684. This Hubble image shows NGC...

An artist’s impression of a gas-giant exoplanet. Image credit: Sci.News.

Astronomers Discover Jupiter-Sized Exoplanet around Low-Mass Star

Aug 4, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from TRAPPIST-South/North, SPECULOOS, and MuSCAT3 facilities, astronomers have discovered an unusual Jupiter-sized exoplanet orbiting the red...

This Webb/NIRcam composite image shows the Ring Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / JWST Ring Nebula Team / Roger Wesson.

Webb Captures Stunning Images of Ring Nebula

Aug 3, 2023 by News Staff

New images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope show the intricate and ethereal beauty of the famous Ring Nebula, also known as Messier 57,...

This image was taken during commissioning of Euclid to check that the focused NISP instrument worked as expected. Image credit: ESA / Euclid / Euclid Consortium / NASA.

ESA’s Euclid Spacecraft Snaps Its First Test Images

Aug 2, 2023 by News Staff

Euclid, built and operated by ESA, with contributions from NASA, will observe billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years to create the largest,...

This image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822, which was observed by Webb’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Meixner.

Webb Takes Close Look at Barnard’s Galaxy

Aug 1, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the barred irregular galaxy NGC 6822. This image shows the irregular galaxy...

This artist’s illustration shows the Neptune-sized exoplanet AU Mic b passing in front of its host red dwarf star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Joseph Olmsted, STScI.

Young Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Sporadically Burps Hydrogen as It Circles Its Parent Star

Jul 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A process called photoevaporation is a potential explanation for several features within exoplanet demographics. Atmospheric escape observed in young Neptune-sized...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6652, a globular cluster located around 30,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Sarajedini / G. Piotto.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on NGC 6652

Jul 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a high-resolution close-up image of the globular cluster NGC 6652 captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble image...

A spectroscopic map of Ganymede derived from Webb measurements shows light absorption around the poles characteristic of hydrogen peroxide; the circle outlines the surfaces of the moon. Image credit: Samantha Trumbo, Cornell University.

Webb Detects Hydrogen Peroxide on Ganymede

Jul 30, 2023 by News Staff

Jupiter’s moon Ganymede is the only satellite in the Solar System known to have an intrinsic magnetic field. Interactions between this field and the...

This Webb image shows a pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. To find them, trace the bright pink and red diffraction spikes until you hit the center. The stars are within the orange-white splotch. They are buried deeply in a disk of gas and dust that feeds their growth as they continue to gain mass. The disk is not visible, but its shadow can be seen in the two dark, conical regions surrounding the central stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Sees Pair of Herbig-Haro Objects in Near-Infrared Light

Jul 28, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a new image of Herbig-Haro (HH) 46/47, a tightly bound pair of actively forming...

This composite image shows V960 Mon, a young star located over 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros. Observations obtained using the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch (SPHERE) instrument on ESO’s VLT, represented in yellow in this image, show that the dusty material orbiting V960 Mon is assembling together in a series of intricate spiral arms extending to distances greater than the entire Solar System. Meanwhile, the blue regions represent data obtained with ALMA. The ALMA data peers deeper into the structure of the spiral arms, revealing large dusty clumps that could contract and collapse to form giant planets roughly the size of Jupiter via a process known as gravitational instability. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / Weber et al.

Astronomers See Signs of Planet Formation around V960 Mon

Jul 26, 2023 by News Staff

The formation of giant planets has traditionally been divided into two pathways: core accretion and gravitational instability. However, in recent years,...

NGC 1532 is caught in a lopsided tug of war with its smaller neighbor, NGC 1531. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / R. Colombari / M. Zamani / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Dark Energy Camera Focuses on Massive Spiral Galaxy and Its Companion

Jul 25, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) at NSF/NOIRLab Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have captured a stunning photo of...

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