Astronomy News

Compact Object Collision with Companion Star Triggers Supernova Event

Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause bright radio emission seen by the VLA. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.
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 star — spiraled its way into the core of a companion star in the VT 1210+4956 system and caused it to explode as a supernova. Fast-moving debris from a supernova explosion triggered by a stellar collision in the VT 1210+4956 system crashes into material thrown out earlier, and the shocks cause...

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This DEC image shows Centaurus A, a giant galaxy located some 13 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / DOE / NSF / AURA / M. Soraisam, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign & NOIRLab / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NOIRLab.

Astronomers Capture Beautiful New Image of Centaurus A

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...

MG B2016+112: the X-ray light from one of the objects on the left (purple) has been warped by the gravity of the intervening galaxy to produce two beams and X-ray sources (A and B) detected in the Chandra image, which is represented by the dashed square on the right; the X-ray light from the fainter object (blue) produces an X-ray source (C) that has been amplified by the galaxy to be as much as 300 times brighter than it would have been without the lensing; the Chandra image is shown in the inset; these two X-ray-emitting objects are likely a pair of growing supermassive black holes or a growing supermassive black hole and a jet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss / SAO / Schwartz et al.

Chandra Observes Gravitationally-Lensed Supermassive Black Hole System

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 —...

This is an artist’s impression of a free-floating Y-dwarf. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Enigmatic Ancient Brown Dwarf Spotted in Solar Neighborhood

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...

Zoomed in view of an ALMA (red/orange) and Hubble (optical) composite of NGC 4921; it highlights filament structures resulting from the effects of ram-pressure stripping. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / S. Dagnello, NRAO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / K. Cook, LLNL / L. Shatz.

Astronomers Find Cosmic Boomerang in Coma Cluster Galaxy

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...

An artist’s conception of exoplanets in a dense star cluster. Image credit: Michael Bachofner.

Milky Way Galaxy’s Bulge Could Have Planetary Systems, Too

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...

This Hubble image shows a Herbig-Haro object labeled HH 111. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / B. Nisini.

Hubble Observes Enigmatic Herbig-Haro Object

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...

An artist’s impression of brown dwarf-like objects around TOI-148, TOI-587, TOI-681, and TOI-746b. Image credit: Roger Thibaut.

Astronomers Find Five Brown Dwarf-Like Objects with Masses near Hydrogen-Burning Limit

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...

An artist’s impression of a Hycean planet. Image credit: Amanda Smith, University of Cambridge.

Astronomers Identify New Class of Exoplanets: Hycean Worlds

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...

An artist’s impression of what the surface of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov might look like. Image credit: ESO / M. Kormesser.

Study: Interstellar Visitors Outnumber Solar System Objects in Oort Cloud

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...

The asteroid 2021 PH27 was imaged inside Mercury’s orbit and has been colored red and blue to show the two different times where it was imaged on August 13, 2021 -- just three minutes apart. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / DOE / DECam / AURA / S.S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution of Science.

Astronomers Discover Fastest-Orbiting Asteroid Ever Seen

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...

Sagittarius B2 is a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust that is located about 390 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Sagittarius B2 is the bright orange-red region to the middle left of the image, which is centered on the Galactic center. Image credit: ESO / APEX / MSX / IPAC / NASA.

Propionamide Detected in Space for First Time

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...

Dacheng Lin et al discovered a ‘wandering’ black hole in the lenticular galaxy GJ1417+52. The main panel has a wide-field, optical light image from Hubble. The black hole and its host galaxy are located within the box in the upper left. The inset on the left contains Hubble’s close-up view of GJ1417+52. Within this inset the circle shows a point-like source on the northern outskirts of the galaxy that may be associated with XJ1417+52. The inset on the right is Chandra’s X-ray image of XJ1417+52 in purple, covering the same region as the Hubble close-up. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / UNH / Dacheng Lin et al; optical – NASA / STScI.

Wandering Supermassive Black Holes May Be More Abundant than Previously Thought

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...

This Hubble image shows NGC 2164, a young open cluster located some 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the ultraviolet, near-infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. 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: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Kalirai / Milone.

Hubble Space Telescope Images NGC 2164

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,...

This pair of Hubble images of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS), taken on April 20 and April 23, 2020, reveal the breakup of the solid nucleus of the comet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Quanzhi Ye, University of Maryland / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Comet ATLAS May Be Broken-Off Piece of Larger, More Ancient Visitor

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...

A compilation of the new science results from LOFAR. Image credit: Ramírez-Olivencia et al. / NASA, ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA / A. Evans, University of Virginia, Charlottesville / NRAO / Stony Brook University / R. Cumming / C. Groeneveld / R. Timmerman / LOFAR / Kukreti / Sloan Digital Sky Survey / A. Kappes / F. Sweijen / DESI Legacy Imaging Survey / S. Badole / L. Calcada / W.L. Williams.

LOFAR Captures Most Detailed Images Ever Seen of Distant Galaxies

Aug 19, 2021 by News Staff

Using data from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a radio telescope that operates at frequencies between 10 and 240 MHz and consists of 52 stations spread...

This image, captured by CSIRO’s ASKAP radio telescope, shows the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: Pennock et al., doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab1858.

Astronomers Create New Radio Map of Large Magellanic Cloud

Aug 19, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope have observed the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite...

Stretching 3,300 light-years, a collection of young stars and star-forming clouds in the Sagittarius arm of our Milky Way Galaxy is the first major structure identified with such a dramatically different orientation relative to an arm. The background image shows the location of the splinter in the Milky Way. The yellow region in the center of the image is the Galaxy’s bright and crowded center. The Milky Way’s arms spiral around the center, and are full of stars and star-forming clouds of gas and dust. The inset provides a closer view of the structure, as well as its size and distance from the Sun. The nearby spiral arms are also noted. The star shapes indicate a star-forming region that may contain anywhere from dozens to thousands of stars. These stars and star-forming regions are moving through space together, at roughly the same speed and in the same direction. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

3,300-Light-Year-Long Linear Structure Spotted in Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm

Aug 18, 2021 by News Staff

Astrophysicists have mapped the 3D locations and velocities of star-forming regions in a segment of the Sagittarius arm using data from NASA’s Spitzer...

Multi-wavelength observations of the Ophiuchus star-forming region reveal interactions between clouds of star-forming gas and radionuclides produced in a nearby cluster of young stars. The top image (a) shows the distribution of aluminum-26 in red, traced by gamma-ray emissions. The central box represents the area covered in the bottom left image (b), which shows the distribution of protostars in the Ophiuchus clouds as red dots. The area in the box is shown in the bottom right image (c), a deep near-infrared color composite image of the L1688 cloud, containing many well known prestellar dense-gas cores with disks and protostars. Image credit: Forbes et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-021-01442-9.

Ophiuchus Star-Forming Complex Hosts Analogues of Early Solar System, Astronomers Say

Aug 17, 2021 by News Staff

The Ophiuchus star-forming complex is a complex of interstellar clouds, nebulae and prestellar cores in the constellation of Ophiuchus. At an estimated...

This illustration depicts the asteroid Phaethon being heated by the Sun. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / IPAC.

Sodium Vapor Outgassing Explains Asteroid Phaethon’s Cometlike Activity

Aug 17, 2021 by News Staff

The 5.8-km-wide (3.6-mile) near-Earth asteroid Phaethon, which is the source of the annual Geminid meteor shower, brightens as it gets close to the Sun....

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