Astronomy News

Milky Way’s Stellar Halo is Oblong and Tilted, Astronomers Say

This artist’s illustration emphasizes the shape of the stellar halo surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Melissa Weiss / Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.
Nov 21, 2022 by News Staff

Accounting for approximately 1% of the total stellar mass, the stellar halo — the diffuse cloud of stars surrounding the Galactic disk — plays an outsized role in our understanding of the Milky Way. For decades, the general assumption has been that the halo is more or less spherical and isotropic, or the same in every direction. Now new research led by the Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics shows the halo is oblong and...

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Two galaxies in the Arp-Madore 417-391 system (right) form a ring shape, which is narrow and blue, and the cores of the two galaxies form a bulge on the ring’s side. Two smaller spiral galaxies appear left of center as well as a few stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. Dalcanton.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Peculiar Galaxy Merger

Nov 21, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

This system of two massive galaxies — located in the southern constellation of Eridanus — is called Arp-Madore 417-391. Two galaxies in the...

Kishimoto et al. captured a long-sought-after view of the dusty inner region in NGC 4151. Image credit: Georgia State University / CHARA Array.

Astronomers Detect Innermost Dusty Ring of Active Galactic Nucleus

Nov 19, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array interferometer at the Mount Wilson Observatory have observed the long-sought,...

GLASS-z12 is captured in this Webb image of the outer regions of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / T. Treu, UCLA.

Webb Discovers Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxies in Early Universe

Nov 17, 2022 by News Staff

The two newfound galaxies, dubbed GLASS-z12 and GLASS-z10, existed approximately 350 and 450 million years after the Big Bang. GLASS-z12 (redshift of 12.5)...

The protostar IRAS 04368+2557, shown in this Webb image, is embedded within LDN 1527, a cloud of material that is feeding its growth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Sees Hourglass-Like Nebula around Young Protostar

Nov 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have revealed new details surrounding the dark...

Ecker et al. suggest that light (heavy) stars have stiff (soft) cores and soft (stiff) outer layers. Image credit: Peter Kiefer / Luciano Rezzolla.

Theoretical Study Sheds More Light on Internal Properties of Neutron Stars

Nov 15, 2022 by News Staff

Using more than 10 million randomly generated equations of state that satisfy nuclear theory and astronomical observations, astrophysicists from the Institut...

Bonsor et al. present distinct observational evidence from white dwarf planetary systems for planetesimal formation occurring during the first few hundred thousand years after cloud collapse in exoplanetary systems. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Stars and Building Blocks of Their Planets ‘Grow Up’ Together, New Study Suggests

Nov 15, 2022 by News Staff

The timing and locations of formation of planetesimals — the building blocks of planets — are crucial to the understanding of planet formation....

This Hubble image shows the dense core CB 130-3. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / STScI / C. Britt / T. Huard / A. Pagan.

Hubble Spots Carbon-Chain-Rich Molecular Cloud

Nov 14, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a detailed photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the orange molecular cloud CB 130-3. This Hubble image shows...

This new view of the Cone Nebula was captured with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO.

ESO Celebrates Its 60th Anniversary with Stunning View of Cone Nebula

Nov 10, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

On October 5, 1962, five countries agreed to create the European Southern Observatory (ESO) through the signature of a convention. Now, six decades later...

This image, taken by the Near-Infrared Camera aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, displays countless stars in the dwarf irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte as well as dozens of background galaxies. The image includes 0.9-micron light shown in blue, 1.5-micron in cyan, 2.5-micron in yellow, and 4.3-micron in red. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / K. McQuinn, Rutgers University / A. Pagan, STScI.

Webb Focuses on Isolated Dwarf Galaxy

Nov 10, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The new image of the dwarf irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte demonstrates the remarkable ability of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to...

A multiply imaged supernova in the archival Hubble imaging of the Abell 370 galaxy-cluster field. Image credit: Chen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05252-5.

Hubble Observes Early Phases of Supernova in Early Universe

Nov 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-discovered core-collapse supernova, or Type II supernova, seen at a lookback time of approximately 11.5 billion years, is strongly lensed by...

Contour map of the integrated atomic hydrogen emission in the vicinity of Stephan’s Quintet overlaid on the composite color image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Astronomers Spot Enormous Gas Cloud around Stephan’s Quintet

Nov 8, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) have discovered a 2-million-light-year-wide cloud of atomic hydrogen around...

This image from the VISTA InfraRed CAMera (VIRCAM) instrument on ESO’s 4.1-m Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) shows NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right) nebulae. Image credit: ESO / VVVX Survey.

VISTA Sees Two Stunning Nebulae in Carina

Nov 8, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s 4.1-m Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy have captured a new view of two bright nebulae: NGC 3603 and NGC 3576. This...

TMC-1. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Detect Two New Organic Molecules in Interstellar Medium

Nov 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the 40-m radio telescope at Yebes Observatory have detected two new complex molecules, butadiynethionyl (HCCCCS) and ethynylbutatrienyliden...

An artist’s impression of the white dwarfs WD J2147-4035 and WD J1922+0233 surrounded by orbiting planetary debris, which will accrete onto the stars and pollute their atmospheres. WD J2147-4035 is extremely red and dim, while WD J1922+0233 is unusually blue. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Planetary Debris Spotted around 11-Billion-Year-Old White Dwarf

Nov 7, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

WD J2147-4035, an 11-billion-year-old white dwarf located 91 light-years away in the constellation of Grus, is accreting debris from orbiting planetesimals,...

This Hubble image shows NGC 7038, a spiral galaxy some 220 million light-years away in the constellation of Indus. The color image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Jones / G. Anand / L. Shatz.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on NGC 7038

Nov 7, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing new photo of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 7038. This Hubble image shows NGC 7038, a spiral...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77, which lies in the constellation Cetus, about 62 million light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

IceCube Observatory Detects High-Energy Neutrinos from Messier 77

Nov 6, 2022 by News Staff

Messier 77, also known as NGC 1068, LEDA 10266 and Cetus A, is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Cetus. This image shows the barred spiral...

An artist’s concept of the Gaia BH1 binary system. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / Spaceengine / M. Zamani.

Dormant Stellar-Mass Black Hole Detected 1,600 Light-Years Away

Nov 4, 2022 by News Staff

Gaia BH1 has a mass of 9.62 times the mass of the Sun and is orbited by a bright Sun-like star at about the same distance as our planet orbits the Sun....

An artist’s impression of a magnetar. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / S. Wiessinger.

Distant Magnetar Has Solid Surface with No Atmosphere

Nov 4, 2022 by News Staff

Magnetars are neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields, which can be observed in X-rays. Polarization measurements could provide information on...

An artist’s impression of a hot Jupiter in a binary stellar system. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Hot-Jupiter Exoplanets Slow Down Aging Process for Their Host Stars

Nov 3, 2022 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft, astronomers have looked for the effects of massive, close-in planets...

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