Astronomy News

Sep 9, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have measured the metallicity of the neutral interstellar medium towards 25 bright stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. Location of the observed O- and B- type stars on the Galactic plane. Image credit: De Cia et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03780-0. The interstellar medium — the space between the stars — comprises gases at different temperatures and densities and dust particles. The neutral...

Sep 7, 2021 by News Staff

Ultradiffuse galaxies are dwarf galaxies whose stars are spread out over a vast region, resulting in extremely low brightness, making them very difficult...

Sep 7, 2021 by News Staff

Using high-resolution observational of two very similar globular clusters, Messier 3 and Messier 13, astronomers have found an unexpected overabundance...

Sep 6, 2021 by News Staff

2021 PJ1, a near-Earth asteroid between 20 and 30 m (66-98 feet) across, safely flew past Earth on August 14, 2021 at a distance of over 1.7 million km...

Sep 6, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of a distant globular cluster called NGC 6717. This Hubble image...

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using data collected by the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS), astronomers have found evidence that a compact object — a black hole or neutron...

Sep 2, 2021 by News Staff

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

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

By combining gravitational lensing with the capabilities of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have detected two X-ray-emitting objects —...

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 (WISE 1534-1043 for short) — nicknamed ‘The Accident’ by its discoverer, citizen scientist Dan Caselden — is...

Aug 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the NASA/ESA Hubble...

Aug 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Milky Way’s bulge is the ancient and crowded central hub of our Galaxy. It contains about one quarter of the total stellar mass of the Milky Way...

Aug 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have imaged HH 111, one of the most well-known Herbig-Haro objects. This Hubble image shows a Herbig-Haro...

Aug 27, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered five transiting companions...

Aug 26, 2021 by News Staff

Hycean worlds are composed of water-rich interiors with massive oceans underlying hydrogen-rich atmospheres; with densities between those of rocky super-Earths...

Aug 24, 2021 by News Staff

The recent detection of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to visit our Solar System, implies that interstellar objects outnumber the non-interstellar...

Aug 24, 2021 by News Staff

The newly-discovered asteroid 2021 PH27 has a diameter of about 1 km (3,280 feet) and orbits the Sun in just 113 days — the shortest known orbital...

Aug 23, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Propionamide (C2H5CONH2), a complex alkyl amide with twelve atoms, is the largest peptide-like molecule detected in space, according to a new study led...

Aug 23, 2021 by News Staff

New research led by astronomers from the Harvard & Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics shows that the current census of supermassive black holes...

Aug 23, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides a detailed look at an open cluster known as NGC 2164. This Hubble image shows NGC 2164,...

Aug 20, 2021 by News Staff

The near-Sun comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) is the first member of a long-period comet group observed to disintegrate well before its closest approach to the...