Astronomy News

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

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.
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 distance of 427 light-years, it is one of the closest star-forming regions to our Solar System. A new study of the complex shows how our Solar System may have become enriched with short-lived radioactive elements. Evidence of this enrichment process has been around since the 1970s, when scientists...

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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....

This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1385. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Five 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 / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Looks at Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1385

Aug 16, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken a picture of a spiral galaxy called NGC 1385. This Hubble image shows the barred spiral...

On July 14, 2021, the Subaru Telescope captured more than a dozen meteors streaming from the same direction within a 10-second window. Image credit: Subaru Telescope / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / Asahi Shimbun Company.

Subaru Telescope Captures Rare Meteor Outburst

Aug 11, 2021 by News Staff

On July 14, 2021, the Subaru-Asahi Sky Camera on the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope at the summit of Maunakea, Hawai’i, captured a rare meteor outburst associated...

The two galaxies Norris et al. think are responsible for the streams of electrons (shown as curved arrows) that form the ‘dancing ghosts;’ but the authors don’t understand what is causing the filament labelled as 3. Image credit: Jayanne English & Ray Norris / EMU Project / Dark Energy Survey.

ASKAP Radio Telescope Spots ‘Dancing Ghost’ Galaxies

Aug 10, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, a radio telescope situated about 800 km north of Perth, in...

Red dwarfs flare actively and expel particles that can alter and evaporate the atmospheres of planets in their orbit. Image credit: Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam / J. Fohlmeister.

Impact of Superflares on Planet Habitability around Small Stars May Be Weaker than Thought

Aug 9, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have studied large, long-duration flares in white light on red dwarfs, a class...

This composite image features a spectacular set of eight separate concentric rings around a black hole in the V404 Cygni binary system, captured using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. The image also contains optical data from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii that show the stars in the field of view. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Wisconsin-Madison / Heinz et al. / Pan-STARRS.

Astronomers Spot Giant X-Ray Rings around Stellar-Mass Black Hole

Aug 9, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory have detected a set of eight X-ray rings around a low-mass black...

An Einstein ring formed by gravitationally lensed light from 2M1310-1714. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / T. Treu / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Gravity of Massive Galaxy Pair Magnifies Light from Distant Quasar

Aug 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Thanks to the presence of a gravitational lens, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured five separate images of 2M1310-1714, a quasar located...

Red giants near and far sweep across the sky in this illustration. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Chris Smith, KBRwyle.

TESS Detects 158,505 Pulsating Red Giant Stars

Aug 6, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite hunts for exoplanets, but its sensitive measurements of stellar brightness make it ideal for studying stellar...

This artist’s impression shows the warm terrestrial planet L 98-59b. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Five Exoplanets Orbit Nearby Red Dwarf Star

Aug 6, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The L 98-59 planetary system contains two non-transiting planets and three transiting terrestrial planets, one of which is a warm rocky world with half...

This image shows galaxy Arp 148, captured by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope; specially processed Spitzer data is shown inside the white circle, revealing infrared light from a supernova hidden by dust; this is one five hidden supernovae documented by Fox et al. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Spitzer Discovers Five Dust-Obscured Supernovae

Aug 4, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have looked for dust-extinguished supernovae in the nuclear regions of 40 luminous and ultra-luminous...

An artist’s impression of a thermonuclear supernova event. Image credit: ESA / ATG Medialab / C. Carreau.

Astronomers Spot Spinning Runaway Star

Aug 4, 2021 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers have detected 8.9-hr variability in both...

Giant Exoplanet Orbits Its Host Star Once Every 1.1 Million Years

Aug 3, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers with the COol Companions ON Ultrawide orbiTS (COCONUTS) program have directly imaged a massive exoplanet orbiting the low-mass red dwarf L...

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet Kepler-1704b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Failed Hot Jupiter Found in Wide Orbit around Kepler-1704

Aug 2, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers from the Giant Outer Transiting Exoplanet Mass (GOT ’EM) Survey have discovered a long-period giant planet circling the 7.4-billion-year-old...

Artist's rendering of the planetary system HR 8799 at an early stage in its evolution, showing the planet HR 8799c, a disk of gas and dust, and interior planets (Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics / Mediafarm)

Astronomers Measure Rotation Speeds of Planets in HR 8799 System

Aug 2, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) on the Keck II telescope at the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have obtained and analyzed the...

This Hubble image shows IC 1954, a spiral galaxy some 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Horologium. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Spiral Galaxy IC 1954

Aug 2, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a beautiful image of the small spiral galaxy IC 1954. This Hubble image shows IC 1954, a spiral galaxy...

Wilkins et al. observed bright flares of X-ray emissions, produced as gas falls into a supermassive black hole in I Zwicky 1; the flares echoed off of the gas falling into the black hole, and as the flares were subsiding, short flashes of X-rays were seen -- corresponding to the reflection of the flares from the far side of the disk, bent around the black hole by its strong gravitational field. Image credit: Dan Wilkins.

Astronomers Detect Light Echoes Coming from Behind Supermassive Black Hole

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, astronomers have observed X-ray flares emitted from around the supermassive black hole in...

An image of the Andromeda Galaxy from the Sardinia Radio Telescope after averaging over the whole bandwidth at 6.6 GHz. Image credit: Fatigoni et al., doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202040011.

Sardinia Telescope Captures Most Detailed Radio Image Ever Seen of Andromeda Galaxy

Jul 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using the Sardinia Radio Telescope, a 64-m fully steerable radio telescope near San Basilio, Sardinia, Italy, an international team of astronomers has...

An artist’s impression of binary black holes about to collide. Image credit: Mark Myers, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), Australian National University.

Gravitational-Wave-Detected Black Holes Could Be Product of Much Earlier Parent Mergers

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

While most of the binary black-hole mergers recently detected by NSF’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in the United States...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Galileo Project Will Search for ‘Evidence of Extraterrestrial Technological Artifacts’

Jul 28, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of astrophysicists has announced a new scientific project to search for evidence of potential astro-archeological artifacts or active...

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