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An artist’s impression of a mini-Neptune exoplanet and its parent star. Image credit: Adam Makarenko, Keck Observatory.

Two Mini-Neptunes Lose Their Puffy Atmospheres, Transform into Super-Earth Exoplanets

Feb 4, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have identified two mini-Neptune exoplanets — TOI-560b and HD 63433c — that are losing their puffy atmospheres and likely transforming...

An image of the spectral index of radio-emitting filaments in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: Yusef-Zadeh et al., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac4802.

New MeerKAT Image Reveals Radio-Emitting Filaments in Milky Way’s Center

Feb 3, 2022 by News Staff

The new image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, South Africa, shows nearly 1,000 magnetized...

The complex, cirrus-like emission from the Galactic center super bubble dominates this MeerKAT image. This is traversed by the Radio Arc, a complex of many parallel radio filaments. The radio bubble nestles against the diffuse Sagittarius A region in the lower center of the image. The bright dot near the center of this region is Sagittarius A*. Image credit: I. Heywood, SARAO.

Astronomers Release Unprecedented Radio Image of Milky Way’s Center

Feb 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the MeerKAT telescope at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) in Cape Town, South Africa, shows radio emission from numerous...

Astronomers Identify Second Earth Trojan Asteroid: 2020 XL5

Feb 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

2020 XL5 will be an Earth Trojan asteroid for at least 4,000 years, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications. This composite...

An artist’s impression of a transition disk around an evolved binary star. Image credit: N. Stecki.

Astronomers Spot Second-Generation Planet-Forming Disks around Ancient Binary Stars

Feb 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers have assembled a catalog of all known Galactic binaries featuring massive disks of gas and dust that are similar to the protoplanetary disks...

Massive Gas Giant Found Circling TOI-2180

Jan 31, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists has discovered a giant exoplanet orbiting the G5-type star TOI-2180. An artist’s impression...

This Hubble image shows NGC 1705, a dwarf galaxy located 18.7 million light-years away in the constellation of Pictor. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Chandar.

Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on NGC 1705

Jan 31, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of the dwarf galaxy NGC 1705. This Hubble image shows NGC 1705,...

An artist’s impression of an ultrahot Jupiter. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Detect Titanium Oxide and Several Metals in Atmosphere of WASP-189b

Jan 28, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The temperature of a planet’s atmosphere decreases with increasing altitude, unless a shortwave absorber that causes a temperature inversion exists....

This image shows several supra-arcade downflows occurring in a solar flare; the downflows appear directly above the bright flare arcade; this solar flare occurred on June 18, 2015. Image credit: SDO / NASA.

Astronomers Propose New Explanation for Finger-Like Features Seen in Some Solar Flares

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

Dr. Chengcai Shen from the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and colleagues have analyzed images of the so-called supra-arcade downflows...

An artist’s impression of what the object might look like if it’s a magnetar. Image credit: ICRAR.

Radio Astronomers Discover Compact Object with Ultra-Powerful Magnetic Field

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) telescope have discovered a spinning object that pulses every 18.18 minutes; they’ve localized...

The sinuous young stellar jet, MHO 2147, meanders lazily across a field of stars in this image captured by the Gemini South telescope. 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 / L. Ferrero, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

Two Bipolar Stellar Jets Observed from Young Stars

Jan 26, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Gemini Multi-conjugate Adaptive Optics System (GeMS) and the Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) on the 8.1-m Gemini South telescope...

An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA.

Webb Arrives at Second Lagrange Point of Sun-Earth System

Jan 25, 2022 by News Staff

On January 24, 2021, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope fired its thrusters for 297 seconds to complete the final post launch course correction...

This image shows two spiral galaxies: NGC 4567 (left) and NGC 4568 (right). The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Observe Pair of Colliding Spiral Galaxies

Jan 25, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

ESO astronomers have released an absolutely beautiful photo taken by the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument on ESO’s...

This image shows NGC 7764A, a group of three galaxies located 425 million light-years away in the constellation of Phoenix. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Victor M. Blanco 4-m Telescope in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL, DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / ESO / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Spots Beautiful Trio of Galaxies

Jan 24, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this image of a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. This image shows NGC 7764A,...

A pullout of the central region of the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 traces an outflow, or bridge of hot gas 230 light-years long, connecting the galaxy’s massive black hole and a star-forming region. Hubble data on the velocity of the outflow from the black hole, as well as the age of the young stars, indicates a causal relationship between the two. A few million years ago, the outflow of hot gas slammed into the dense cloud of a stellar nursery and spread out, like water from a hose impacting a mound of dirt. Now clusters of young stars are aligned perpendicular to the outflow, revealing the path of its spread. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Zachary Schutte & Amy Reines, eXtreme Gravity Institute, Montana State University / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Supermassive Black Hole Triggered Star Formation in Dwarf Galaxy

Jan 20, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have observed the central regions of Henize 2-10, a dwarf starburst galaxy previously reported to have a central massive black hole, at optical...

An artist’s impression of a group of stellar-mass black holes in the center of NGC 6397. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / N. Bartmann.

Universe is Teeming with Quintillions of Stellar-Mass Black Holes

Jan 19, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of astrophysicists from Italy and the United Kingdom has calculated that in the observable Universe, a sphere of diameter around 90 billion light-years,...

The streak from a Starlink satellite appears in this image of the Andromeda galaxy, taken by the Zwicky Transient Facility during twilight on May 19, 2021. Image credit: ZTF / Caltech.

Astronomers Analyze Impact of SpaceX’s Starlink Satellites

Jan 18, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have analyzed archival images from NSF’s Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which provides an ideal setup to study the effects of low-Earth-orbit...

An artist’s impression of the super-Neptune exoplanet TOI-1728b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Computer Simulations Shed New Light on Gas Giant Formation

Jan 17, 2022 by News Staff

Solar system’s gas giants, such as Jupiter, Saturn, and massive exoplanets, were formed via the gas accretion onto the solid cores, each with a mass...

A slice through the 3D map of galaxies from the first few months of the DESI survey. The Earth is at the center, with the furthest galaxies plotted at distances of 10 billion light-years. Each point represents one galaxy. This version of the DESI map shows a subset of 400,000 of the 35 million galaxies that will be in the final map. Image credit: D. Schlegel / DESI / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DESI Creates Largest and Most Detailed Map of Universe Ever

Jan 17, 2022 by News Staff

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a multi-object survey spectrograph installed on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m Telescope at Kitt Peak National...