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An artist’s impression of HR 6819, a close binary consisting of a stripped B-type star (background) and a rapidly rotating Be star (foreground). Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

HR 6819 is Binary System with No Black Hole, Astronomers Say

Mar 4, 2022 by News Staff

HR 6819, a highly intriguing object that was recently proposed as a multiple system containing a stellar-mass black hole, is in fact a binary star system...

Chandra Detects ‘Sonic Boom’ from Powerful Kilonova

Mar 3, 2022 by News Staff

The binary neutron-star merger GW170817 was discovered in August 2017. Many telescopes saw different kinds of light after the discovery, but only NASA’s...

During this phase of Webb’s alignment known as image stacking, individual segment images are moved so they fall precisely at the center of the field to produce one unified image instead of 18. Image credit: NASA / STScI.

Webb Continues On Its Path to Becoming Focused Observatory

Mar 2, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists and engineers on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope team have successfully worked through the second and third out of seven total phases...

This image from the Dark Energy Camera on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory shows NGC 1566, a grand-design spiral galaxy some 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani & D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Dark Energy Camera Snaps Breathtaking New Photo of NGC 1566

Mar 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, astronomers have captured...

Noise variations in the two regions covered by the second data release from the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey with the coverage of the 841 individual pointing outlined. The RA-13 (top) and RA-1 (bottom) regions span 4,178 and 1,457 square degrees and have median rms values of 74 μJy beam−1 and 106 μJy beam−1 respectively. Failed facets (white regions) are generally caused by either poor ionospheric conditions or dynamic range issues around bright sources such as 3C 48 and 3C 196. Image credit: Shimwell et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142484.

LOFAR Radio Telescope Maps More Than Quarter of Northern Sky

Feb 28, 2022 by News Staff

In the second data release from the ongoing LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky Survey, astronomers present radio images covering 27% of the northern...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy pair NGC 4496. The color image is composed of infrared, optical and ultraviolet observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Victor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Nine 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 / T. Boeker / B. Holwerda / Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / SDSS / R. Colombari.

Hubble Looks at Galaxy Pair NGC 4496

Feb 28, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed image of a pair of overlapping galaxies called NGC 4496. This...

An artist’s impression of Kepler-16b and its two parent stars. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt.

Circumbinary Exoplanet Detected via Radial Velocity Measurements

Feb 23, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Kepler-16b, a rare exoplanet that orbits around two stars, has been detected using the SOPHIE spectrograph at the 1.93-m telescope of the Observatoire...

An artist’s impression of WASP-121b. Image credit: Engine House VFX.

Hubble Maps Dark Side of Tidally-Locked Ultrahot Jupiter

Feb 23, 2022 by News Staff

Using data collected by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) infrared spectrograph onboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have obtained a detailed...

https://cdn.sci.news/images/2022/02/image_10579-Arp-143.jpg

Head-On Galaxy Collision Creates Tsunami of Starbirth

Feb 23, 2022 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures an ongoing head-on collision between the star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2445 an the less...

This image, taken by the Full Sun Imager (FSI) onboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter on February 15, 2022, shows the giant solar prominence eruption on the Sun. Image credit: ESA / NASA / Solar Orbiter / EUI.

Sun-Watching Space Observatories Spot Giant Solar Eruption

Feb 21, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter and the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft have captured the largest solar prominence...

This Hubble image shows the Arp 298 galaxy pair. The color image includes ultraviolet, optical and infrared observations from both Hubble’s WFC3 and ACS instruments. It is based on data obtained through seven filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Evans / R. Chandar.

Hubble Sees Stunning Pair of Interacting Galaxies: Arp 298

Feb 21, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of Arp 298, a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation...

An artist’s impression of a dwarf galaxy. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Astronomers Use Distributed Supercomputer to Reconstruct Ancient Dwarf Galaxy

Feb 18, 2022 by News Staff

Using the 1.5 PetaFLOPS MilkyWay@home distributed supercomputer, astronomers have calculated the original mass and size of a dwarf galaxy that was shredded...

An artist’s impression of the Roque 12 binary system in the Pleiades cluster. Image credit: Sci-News.com / NASA / ESA / AURA / Caltech.

Astronomers Find Widest-Separation Brown Dwarf Pair to Date

Feb 18, 2022 by Natali Anderson

At an estimated distance of 130.5 light-years, CWISE J014611.20-050850.0AB has a projected separation of 129 AU (astronomical units), or 129 times the...

This image shows the Milky Way Galaxy as seen by ESA’s Gaia spacecraft; the squares represent the location of globular clusters, the triangles the location of satellite galaxies, and the small dots are stellar streams; the dots and squares in purple are objects brought into the Milky Way by the Pontus merging galaxy. Image credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

Gaia Discovers New Fossil Galaxy Hidden in Milky Way’s Halo

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

Using data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, astronomers have looked for the remains of ancient dwarf galaxies in the Milky Way’s halo, which surrounds the...

Astronomers Find Obscuring Dust Ring around Supermassive Black Hole in Messier 77

Feb 17, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi AperTure mid-Infrared SpectroScopic Experiment (MATISSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer have spotted a dense,...

This radio-infrared image shows the radio galaxy Alcyoneus. Image credit: Oei et al., arXiv: 2202.05427.

LOFAR Telescope Spots Biggest Radio Galaxy Ever

Feb 16, 2022 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered radio galaxy, dubbed Alcyoneus, has a projected length of 16.3 million light-years (4.99 Mpc). This radio-infrared image shows the...

This IXPE image maps the intensity of X-rays coming from Cassiopeia A; colors ranging from cool purple and blue to red and hot white correspond with the increasing brightness of the X-rays; the image was created using X-ray data collected by IXPE between January 11 and 18, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ASI / IXPE.

IXPE Space Observatory Collects Its First Imaging Data

Feb 15, 2022 by News Staff

The Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), an international collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), has captured an image of...

This artist’s impression shows the merger of two white dwarfs. Image credit: Nicole Reindl, University of Potsdam.

Astronomers Discover New Type of Subdwarf Star

Feb 14, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Large Binocular Telescope have discovered two unusual hot subdwarf stars: PG 1654+322 and PG 1528+025. While normal stars have surfaces...

This image, taken by the SPHERE/IFS instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2016, shows three satellites (S1 in red circle, S2 in green, and S3 in blue) of the main-belt asteroid (130) Elektra. Image credit: Berdeu et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202142623.

Astronomers Find First-Ever Quadruple Asteroid

Feb 14, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered a third moon orbiting the main-belt asteroid (130) Elektra, making it the first quadruple asteroid ever found. This image,...