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The view of the Galactic center observed with the NIRC2 instrument on the Keck II telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory. This image is high-pass filtered and shows the position of several S stars close to Sgr A*, which is indicated by a black cross. The star in the white dashed circle shows a magnitude of 16.3 mag, while the star in the blue circle is 17 mag faint. Here north is up and east is to the left. Image credit: Peissker et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac752f.

Fast-Moving Star Orbits Milky Way’s Central Black Hole in Just Four Years

Jul 6, 2022 by Natali Anderson

The newly-found star, named S4716, reaches a speed of 8,000 km/sec and comes as close as 98 astronomical units (AU) to Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black...

Multi-wavelength image of Westerhout 50 (red - radio, green - optical, yellow - soft X-rays, magenta - medium energy X-rays, cyan - hard X-ray emission). The eastern lobe X-ray image highlights the XMM-Newton data (with the brightening at the edge of the field of view cropped here to highlight the source emission). The western lobe X-ray image shows only partial Chandra coverage of part of the nebula. Image credit: Safi-Harb et al., arXiv: 2207.00573.

Astronomers Find Evidence for Unusual Particle Acceleration in Manatee Nebula

Jul 5, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and its Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have...

Sagittarius B2 is a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust that is located about 390 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Sagittarius B2 is the bright orange-red region to the middle left of the image, which is centered on the Galactic center. Image credit: ESO / APEX / MSX / IPAC / NASA.

ALMA Detects Interstellar Propanol and Its Isomer in Milky Way’s Center

Jul 5, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected two complex organic molecules — isopropanol (i-C3H7OH) and...

This Hubble image shows LEDA 17532, a multi-armed galaxy merger some 520 million light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Keel.

Hubble Observes Multi-Armed Galaxy Merger

Jul 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released an incredibly beautiful image of a peculiar galaxy called LEDA 17532. This Hubble image shows LEDA 17532, a multi-armed galaxy...

This image shows the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Pegasus V (center). Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Pegasus V: New Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy Spotted in Outskirts of Andromeda

Jul 1, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered a new ultra-faint dwarf galaxy in the constellation of Pegasus and characterized it using deep imaging with the Gemini Multi-Object...

This composite image of H1821+643 contains X-rays from Chandra (blue) that have been combined with radio data from NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (red) and an optical image from the PanSTARRS telescope on Hawaii (white and yellow). Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Cambridge / Sisk-Reynés et al. / NSF / NRAO / VLA / PanSTARRS.

Chandra Finds Slow-Rotating Supermassive Black Hole in Distant Quasar

Jul 1, 2022 by News Staff

A supermassive black hole in the center of H1821+643, a quasar about 3.4 billion light-years away from Earth, is rotating at about half the speed of light. This...

This Hubble image shows the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Josh Barrington.

Hubble Spots Glowing Plumes in Tarantula Nebula

Jun 30, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope of the outskirts of the Tarantula Nebula, which is located in the Large Magellanic...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6569, a globular cluster located in the constellation of Sagittarius. 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 Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three 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 / R. Cohen.

Hubble Sees Sparkling Globular Cluster in Milky Way’s Bulge

Jun 27, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacularly detailed image of the Galactic bulge globular cluster NGC 6569. This Hubble image shows...

Color images of NGC 1309 both before and after SN 2012Z. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / McCully et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac3bbd.

Hubble Finds Half-Exploded Star in NGC 1309

Jun 24, 2022 by News Staff

There are different types of supernova explosions. Type Ia supernovae, also known as thermonuclear supernovae, occur in binary star systems. To trigger...

On May 27, 2022, DART’s high-resolution camera DRACO captured this image of Vega, a young massive star located 25 light-years away in the constellation of Lyra. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

NASA’s DART Spacecraft Focuses on Vega

Jun 23, 2022 by News Staff

Since its launch on November 24, 2021, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has journeyed toward its September 26, 2022 encounter...

Map of sulfur dioxide (a) band depth and (b) band area for all four Hubble visits. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Bjorn Jonsson / Becker et al., doi: 10.3847/PSJ/ac69eb.

Hubble Explores Surface of Europa in Mid-UV

Jun 22, 2022 by News Staff

The new mid-ultraviolet (UV) maps of Europa, created using data from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble...

A schematic view of the history of the accretion disk and the flyby object: the three plots starting from the bottom left are snapshots from the numerical simulation, capturing the system right at the flyby event, 4,000 years after, and 8,000 years after, respectively; the top right image is from the ALMA observations, showing the disk with spirals and the two objects around it, corresponding to the system at 12,000 years after the flyby event. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-022-01681-4.

ALMA Images Spiral Protostellar Disk near Milky Way’s Center

Jun 21, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have discovered a massive accretion disk with two spiral arms around a 32-solar-mass...

An artist’s impression of the HD 33142 planetary system, which is located 397 light-years away in the constellation of Lepus. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Three Massive Planets Orbit Nearby Giant Star HD 33142

Jun 20, 2022 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers, using the radial velocity (RV) method, has discovered a third planet in the planetary system HD 33142. An artist’s...

As a metallic asteroid such as Psyche cooled and solidified, iron volcanoes may have erupted onto its surface. Image credit: Elena Hartley.

ALMA Creates Detailed Maps of Main-Belt Asteroid Psyche

Jun 20, 2022 by News Staff

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array located on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile allowed the acquisition of temperature images of (16) Psyche,...

This Hubble image shows the massive galaxy cluster Abell 1351. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Several 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 / H. Ebeling / L. Shatz.

Hubble Focuses on Lensing Galaxy Cluster Abell 1351

Jun 20, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the massive and rich galaxy cluster Abell 1351. This Hubble image shows the massive...

This Hubble image shows a blue stellar system. Image credit: Michael Jones.

New Type of Stellar System Discovered

Jun 17, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have spotted five blue stellar systems — which they say appear through a telescope as blue blobs and are about the size of dwarf galaxies...

These images of dusty disks around young massive stars were taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument on the Gemini South telescope, the International Gemini Observatory. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / E. Rich, Michigan University.

Gemini Planet Imager Detects Protoplanetary Disks around Young Stars

Jun 17, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini Planet Imager instrument at the Gemini South telescope in Chile have imaged a sample of 44 bright Herbig Ae/Be and T-Tauri...

This composite image shows the Tarantula Nebula. The background image, taken in the infrared, is itself a composite: it was captured by the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), shows bright stars and light, pinkish clouds of hot gas. The bright red-yellow streaks that have been superimposed on the image come from radio observations taken by the ALMA, revealing regions of cold, dense gas which have the potential to collapse and form stars. The unique web-like structure of the gas clouds led astronomers to the nebula’s spidery nickname. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / Wong et al. / M.-R. Cioni / VISTA Magellanic Cloud Survey / Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit.

Astronomers Capture Spectacular Image of Tarantula Nebula

Jun 16, 2022 by News Staff

In a new high-resolution image, we see the Tarantula Nebula — a luminous star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of...

Top left: a giant blue star, much more massive than our Sun, has consumed, through nuclear fusion at its center, all its hydrogen, helium, and heavier elements up to iron. It now has a small iron core (red dot) at its center. Unlike the earlier stages of fusion, the fusion of iron atoms absorbs, rather than releases, energy. The fusion-released energy that has held up the star against its own weight now is gone, and the star will quickly collapse, triggering a supernova explosion. Top right: the collapse has begun, producing a superdense neutron star with a strong magnetic field at its center (inset). The neutron star, though containing about 1.5 times the mass of the Sun, is only about the size of Manhattan. Bottom left: the supernova explosion has ejected a fast-moving shell of debris outward into interstellar space. At this stage, the debris shell is dense enough to shroud from view any radio waves coming from the region of the neutron star. Bottom right: As the shell of explosion debris expands over a few decades, it becomes less dense and eventually becomes thin enough that radio waves from inside can escape. This allowed observations by the VLA Sky Survey to detect bright radio emission created as the rapidly spinning neutron star’s powerful magnetic field sweeps through the surrounding space, accelerating charged particles. This phenomenon is called a pulsar wind nebula. Image credit: Melissa Weiss, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Spot Pulsar Wind Nebula in Distant Dwarf Galaxy

Jun 15, 2022 by News Staff

A pulsar wind nebula is created when the powerful magnetic field of a rapidly spinning neutron star accelerates surrounding charged particles to nearly...