Astronomy News

Astronomers Spot Pulsar Wind Nebula in Distant Dwarf Galaxy

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.
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 the speed of light. Probably the most famous example of this type of nebula is the Crab Nebula in the constellation of Taurus — the result of a supernova that shone brightly in 1054 CE. Top left: a giant blue star, much more massive than our Sun, has consumed, through nuclear fusion at its center,...

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This artist’s conception illustrates the previously unknown complexity of the young galaxy A1689-zD1. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / B. Saxton, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

Early Galaxies May Have Been Bigger Than Previously Thought

Jun 14, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have observed a significant amount of cold, neutral gas in the outer regions...

The interstellar dust map made with Gaia’s data release 3. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC.

ESA’s Gaia Mission Releases Its Third Full Dataset

Jun 14, 2022 by News Staff

Gaia’s data release 3 (DR3) contains new and improved details for almost 2 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy as well as for a subset of solar system...

ALMA Images Highly Eccentric Debris Disk around HD 53143

Jun 14, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

HD 53143 is a one-billion-year-old solar-type star located 59.8 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. This composite image shows the HD 53143...

The star-filled sky in this Hubble photo lies in the direction of the Galactic center. The light from stars is monitored to see if any change in their apparent brightness is caused by a foreground object drifting in front of them. The warping of space by the interloper would momentarily brighten the appearance of a background star, an effect called gravitational lensing. One such event, OB110462, is shown in the four close-up frames at the bottom. The arrow points to a star that momentarily brightened, as first captured by Hubble in August 2011. This was caused by a foreground black hole drifting in front of the star, along our line of sight. The star brightened and then subsequently faded back to its normal brightness as the black hole passed by. Because a black hole doesn’t emit or reflect light, it cannot be directly observed. But its unique thumbprint on the fabric of space can be measured through these so-called microlensing events. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Sahu, STScI / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Detects Free-Floating Compact Object 5,000 Light-Years Away

Jun 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have for the first time discovered what may be an isolated stellar-mass black hole using the astrometric microlensing technique. They estimate...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster Terzan 9, a relic of a generation of long-lived stars that formed in the early Galaxy. 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 Spots Ancient Star Cluster near Milky Way’s Center

Jun 13, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is one of the best ever views of Terzan 9, one of the most central globular clusters in our Milky...

An UAP from a declassified video captured by a U.S. Navy aircraft. Image credit: U.S. Navy.

NASA Creates Independent Team to Study UAPs

Jun 9, 2022 by News Staff

NASA’s independent study team will examine unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs) from a scientific perspective. It will focus on identifying available...

In this composite image of Abell 2146, Chandra X-ray data (purple) shows hot gas, and Subaru Telescope optical data shows galaxies (red and white). Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Nottingham / Russell et al. / NAOJ / Subaru Telescope.

Chandra Spots 1.6-Million-Light-Year-Long Shock Wave in Abell 2146

Jun 9, 2022 by News Staff

Abell 2146 is a pair of colliding galaxy clusters located approximately 2.8 billion light-years away in the constellation of Draco. In this composite image...

This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Near the top, a long brown feature called a ‘brown barge’ extends 72,000 km (nearly 45,000 miles) in the east-west direction. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Wong et al. / de Pater et al. / M. Zamani.

Jupiter’s Atmosphere is Inhomogeneous, New Study Suggests

Jun 8, 2022 by News Staff

While the massive atmosphere of Jupiter consists mainly of hydrogen and helium, the key to understanding the gas giant’s formation and evolution lies...

An artist’s conception of a neutron star with an ultra-strong magnetic field, called a magnetar, emitting radio waves (red). Image credit: Bill Saxton, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Detect Repeating Fast Radio Burst Associated with Persistent Radio Emission

Jun 8, 2022 by News Staff

FRB 190520 is only the second example of a repeating fast radio burst with a compact source of persistent radio emission between bursts. An artist’s...

A patch of sky imaged by the 3D-DASH survey. Image credit: Mowla et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac71af.

Hubble Captures Spectacular Near-Infrared Image Showing Early Universe

Jun 7, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers from the 3D-Drift And SHift (3D-DASH) program have released the largest near-infrared image ever taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A...

This image shows NGC 1087, a barred spiral galaxy some 80 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. Image credit: ESO / ALMA / NAOJ / NRAO / PHANGS.

Astronomers See Star-Forming Material in NGC 1087

Jun 7, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

As part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, astronomers have taken a picture of a barred spiral galaxy called...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth planet Ross 508b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Super-Earth Found Orbiting Nearby Red Dwarf Ross 508

Jun 6, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Using the radial velocity technique, astronomers have discovered a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting near the inner edge of the habitable zone of the cool...

This Hubble image shows Ruprecht 106, a globular cluster some 69,100 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Two 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 / A. Dotter.

Hubble Snaps Brilliant Image of Ruprecht 106

Jun 6, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the globular cluster Ruprecht 106. This Hubble image shows Ruprecht 106, a globular...

An artist’s impression of a giant galaxy with a high-energy jet. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Spots Unknown Radio Structure around Distant Quasar

Jun 3, 2022 by News Staff

Using archival and new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have imaged 3C 273, a radio-loud quasar located some...

This image of the Carina Nebula reveals the dynamic cloud of interstellar matter and thinly spread gas and dust as never before; the massive stars in the interior of this cosmic bubble emit intense radiation that causes the surrounding gas to glow; by contrast, other regions of the nebula contain dark pillars of dust cloaking newborn stars. Image credit: ESO / J. Emerson / M. Irwin / J. Lewis.

Astronomers Discover 116,027 New Variable Stars

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

Using machine learning techniques and data from the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) and several other surveys, astronomers have identified...

This diagram shows three layers of aerosols in the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. The height scale on the diagram represents the pressure above 10 bar. The deepest layer (Aerosol-1 layer) is thick and composed of a mixture of hydrogen sulfide ice and particles produced by the interaction of the planets’ atmospheres with sunlight. The key layer that affects the colors is the middle layer, which is a layer of haze particles (Aerosol-2 layer) that is thicker on Uranus than on Neptune. Irwin et al. suspect that, on both planets, methane ice condenses onto the particles in this layer, pulling the particles deeper into the atmosphere in a shower of methane snow. Because Neptune has a more active, turbulent atmosphere than Uranus does, the team believes Neptune’s atmosphere is more efficient at churning up methane particles into the haze layer and producing this snow. This removes more of the haze and keeps Neptune’s haze layer thinner than it is on Uranus, meaning the blue color of Neptune looks stronger. Above both of these layers is an extended layer of haze (Aerosol-3 layer) similar to the layer below it but more tenuous. On Neptune, large methane ice particles also form above this layer. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / NASA / JPL-Caltech / B. Jónsson.

Haze Layers are Responsible for Different Blue Hues of Neptune and Uranus, Scientists Say

Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of planetary researchers led by University of Oxford scientists has performed an analysis of visible/near-infrared observations of...

MeerKAT image of the PSR J0901-4046 region at 1.28 GHz. Image credit: Caleb et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-022-01688-x.

Astronomers Discover Unusual Radio-Emitting Neutron Star

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

Radio-emitting neutron stars are objects with spin periods ranging from milliseconds to tens of seconds; as they age and spin more slowly, their radio...

An artist’s impression of a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Cosmic Hitchhikers: Advanced Aliens Might Use Free-Floating Exoplanets for Interstellar Travel

May 30, 2022 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the International Journal of Astrobiology, Houston Community College researcher Irina Romanovskaya proposes that free-floating...

This Hubble image shows Arp 303, a galaxy pair located some 275 million light-years away in the constellation of Sextans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Larson, STScI / J. Dalcanton, University of Washington / G. Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.

Hubble Looks at Pair of Star-Forming Spiral Galaxies

May 30, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a colorful image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the galaxy pair Arp 303. This Hubble image shows Arp 303, a galaxy...

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