Astronomy News

Astrophysicists Produce Image of Supermassive Black Hole’s Photon Ring

The emission from M87* has been resolved into a bright, thin ring (orange colormap), arising from the infinite sequence of additional images of the emission region, and the more diffuse primary image, produced by the photons that come directly toward Earth (in blue contours); when viewed at the imaging resolution of the Event Horizon Telescope, the two components blur together; however, by separately searching for the thin ring, it is possible to sharpen the view of M87*, isolating the fingerprint of strong gravity. Image credit: Broderick et al., doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7c1d.
Aug 17, 2022 by News Staff

In April 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration released stunning images of M87*, a supermassive black hole in the center of Messier 87, an elliptical galaxy some 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Now, astrophysicists have combined theoretical predictions and sophisticated imaging algorithms to remaster the original images of M87*. Their findings are consistent with theoretical predictions and offer new ways...

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An artist’s impression of the asteroid Polymele. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Trojan Asteroid Polymele Has Small Moon

Aug 17, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Jupiter trojan asteroid 15094 Polymele and its small satellite are among the targets of NASA’s Lucy mission, which will approach the asteroid system...

This image of NGC 7727 was captured by the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Sees Spectacular Cosmic Collision: NGC 7727

Aug 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have taken a picture of...

The NameExoWorlds 2022 competition offers the opportunity to name 20 exoplanets and their host stars. Image credit: IAU OAO / NARIT.

NameExoWorlds 2022: Here’s Your Chance to Name One of Webb’s Exoplanet Targets

Aug 16, 2022 by News Staff

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has announced a contest to name extrasolar planetary systems to be observed by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space...

Color image of the Sparkler galaxy made by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Image credit: Mowla et al., arXiv: 2208.02233.

Webb Spots Ancient Globular Clusters in Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy

Aug 15, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have spotted ancient globular clusters around a remarkable galaxy that is strongly gravitationally...

This Hubble image shows NGC 6540, a bulge globular cluster some 17,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Cohen.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on NGC 6540

Aug 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of the bulge globular cluster NGC 6540. This Hubble image shows...

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.

ESA’s Gaia Mission Sheds New Light on Past and Future of Our Sun

Aug 12, 2022 by News Staff

With an age of 4.57 billion years, the Sun is currently in its comfortable middle age, fusing hydrogen into helium and generally being rather stable; staid...

An artist’s impression of a Neptune-sized planet around an A-type star. Image credit: Steven Giacalone, University of California, Berkeley.

Neptune-Sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting A-Type Star HD 56414

Aug 12, 2022 by Natali Anderson

With an effective temperature of 8,500 K, the A-type star HD 56414 is one of the hottest stars known to host a planet smaller than Jupiter. An artist’s...

This illustration plots changes in the brightness of Betelgeuse, following the titanic mass ejection of a large piece of its visible surface; the escaping material cooled to form a cloud of dust that temporarily made the star look dimmer, as seen from Earth; this unprecedented stellar convulsion disrupted the monster star’s 400-day-long oscillation period that astronomers had measured for more than 200 years; the interior may now be jiggling like a plate of gelatin dessert. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Elizabeth Wheatley, STScI.

Betelgeuse is Still Recovering from Gigantic Surface Mass Ejection, Astronomers Say

Aug 11, 2022 by News Staff

Betelgeuse, a red supergiant star located around 650 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, underwent a historic dimming between December 2019...

In this multiwavelength view, radio emission from SNR G106.3+2.7 is blue and green, while yellow, orange, and red reveal radio waves from a vast cloud of interstellar gas; at center, the pink region shows where protons boosted by the supernova’s shock wave strike the gas, emitting a tell-tale glow of gamma rays. Image credit: Jayanne English, University of Manitoba / NASA / Fermi / Fang et al. / Canadian Galactic Plane Survey / DRAO / FCRAO.

Supernova Remnants are Sources of Extreme PeVatron Particles: Study

Aug 10, 2022 by News Staff

SNR G106.3+2.7, a supernova remnant located about 2,600 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus, is producing protons with energies 10 times greater...

This image from the Gemini North telescope shows a pair of interacting spiral galaxies: NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top). Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Astronomers Capture Ongoing Collision of Two Spiral Galaxies

Aug 9, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory, have captured a stunning image of a pair...

This Webb/NIRCam image shows Earendel (center), the most distant star ever detected. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI.

Webb Images Earendel, Farthest Known Star

Aug 9, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Earendel emitted its light approximately 900 million years after the Big Bang. This Webb/NIRCam image shows Earendel (center), the most distant star ever...

Artist’s impression of an infant star still surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. Image credit: L. Calçada / ESO.

ALMA Spots Circumplanetary Disk around Young Star AS 209

Aug 9, 2022 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the emission from 13CO — measure of the molecular gas distribution...

A simulated star-forming region where massive stars destroy their parent cloud. Image credit: STARFORGE.

Star Formation is Self-Regulatory Process, New Research Suggests

Aug 8, 2022 by News Staff

Although star formation is one of the most fundamental processes of astrophysics, there is no widely accepted theory of star formation, despite decades...

This Hubble image shows HH 505, a Herbig-Haro object located some 1,000 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Bally / M.H. Özsaraç.

Hubble Spots Mysterious Herbig-Haro Object in Orion Nebula

Aug 8, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a beautiful photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the Herbig-Haro (HH) object 505. This Hubble image shows HH 505, a...

This image from Webb’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) shows the Maisie’s galaxy, one of the earliest galaxies ever observed; if its estimated redshift of 14.3 is confirmed with future observations, that would mean we’re seeing it as it was just 290 million years after the Big Bang. Image credit: NASA / STScI / CEERS / TACC / S. Finkelstein / M. Bagley / Z. Levay.

Webb Spots Candidate for Most Distant Known Galaxy

Aug 4, 2022 by News Staff

The new Webb images, taken by its two cameras — the Near Infrared Camera and the Mid-Infrared Instrument — as part of the Cosmic Evolution...

This artist’s conception shows the merger between a neutron star and another star (seen as a disk, lower left) which caused an explosion resulting in SGRB 211106A (white jet, middle), and left behind what astronomers now know to be one of the most luminous afterglows on record (semi-spherical shock wave mid-right); while dust in the host galaxy obscured most of the visible light (shown as colors), millimeter light from the event (depicted in green) was able to escape and reach ALMA. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / M. Weiss, NRAO, AUI & NSF.

ALMA Looks at Neutron Star Merger in Millimeter Light

Aug 3, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have for the first time detected the millimeter afterglow of a short-duration...

This image of the Cartwheel Galaxy and its companion galaxies is a composite from Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI instrument. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Webb ERO Production Team.

Webb Captures Incredible Images of Cartwheel Galaxy

Aug 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using two instruments aboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have produced detailed images of the Cartwheel Galaxy and its two...

This Webb image shows multiply lensed background galaxies around SMACS J0723.3-7327 (cyan indicates already known multiple image systems; green indicates new multiply lensed sources); the insets show enlarged images of a very distant galaxy with some substructure indicated by the green arrows. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics.

Webb Spots Extremely Distant, Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy

Aug 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and elsewhere have analyzed an image taken by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of...

This image, taken by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows Messier 61, a barred spiral galaxy located 52.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. The observations were done as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project. Image credit: ESO / PHANGS.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Focuses on Messier 61

Aug 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have captured a stunning image...

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