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This image, taken with the Dark Energy Camera on the Victor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory shows the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. The image covers 0.5 by 0.25 degrees on the sky and contains over 180,000 stars, capturing a portion of our galaxy about 220 by 110 light-years across. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / STScI / W. Clarkson, UM-Dearborn / C. Johnson, STScI / M. Rich, UCLA.

Milky Way’s Central Bulge Stars Formed in Single Burst of Formation over 10 Billion Years Ago

Nov 5, 2020 by News Staff

Most stars in the central 1,000 light-years of the Milky Way’s hub formed when it was swollen with infalling gas more than 10 billion years ago, according...

This unusual celestial object, as seen by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is actually a combination of two lenticular galaxies, NGC 2292 and NGC 2293. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Keel, University of Alabama.

Hubble Sees Collision of Two Lenticular Galaxies

Nov 3, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Two massive lenticular galaxies, NGC 2292 and NGC 2293, approached one another too closely in the distant past, gravity causing them to affect each other...

This illustration shows radiation from flares from a red dwarf star like Barnard’s star eroding the atmosphere of an orbiting, rocky planet. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weis.

Barnard’s Star Not So Life-Friendly After All

Nov 2, 2020 by News Staff

Barnard’s star, a 10-billion-year-old red dwarf just 6 light-years from Earth, is still very active and potentially destructive for the atmospheres of...

This image, taken by the FORS 2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the Skull Nebula, a planetary nebula 1,671 light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Snaps Stunning Image of Skull Nebula

Nov 2, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured a beautiful image of a planetary nebula called the Skull Nebula. This image, taken by...

This Hubble image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy UGCA 193. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully / Gagandeep Anand.

Hubble Space Telescope Spies Spiral Galaxy Edge-On

Nov 2, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a spiral galaxy called UGCA 193. This Hubble image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy...

An artist’s impression of a gravitational microlensing event by a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: Jan Skowron / Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw.

Astronomers Discover Smallest Free-Floating Exoplanet Yet

Oct 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers from the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment) project have discovered a Mars- to Earth-mass free-floating, or rogue, planet through...

This image, taken by the Large Monolithic Imager on the 4.3-m Lowell Discovery Telescope on October 14, 2020, shows C/2014 OG392 (PANSTARRS) and its extensive coma; the dashed lines are star trails caused by the long exposure. Image credit: Northern Arizona University.

Cometary Activity Spotted on Distant Centaur

Oct 29, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Northern Arizona University and Lowell Observatory has discovered cometary activity on 2014 OG392, a distant centaur object...

A false-color view of Titan, a moon of Saturn surrounded by a thick orange haze. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona / University of Idaho.

Cyclopropenylidene Detected in Atmosphere of Titan

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Using high sensitivity spectroscopic observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected a small cyclic...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is Spinning Slowly, Astronomers Say

Oct 28, 2020 by News Staff

Supermassive black holes are characterized by just two numbers: mass and spin, but have a critical influence on the formation and evolution of galaxies....

An artist’s impression of a dusty, rotating distant galaxy in the early Universe: red color represents gas, and blue/brown represents dust as seen in radio waves with ALMA; many other galaxies are visible in the background, based on optical data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope and NAOJ’s Subaru Telescope. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ESO / NASA / STScI / NAOJ / Subaru.

Massive Galaxies in Early Universe were More Mature than Previously Thought

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

When the Universe was only 10% of its current age, most of the early galaxies experienced a so-called ‘growth spur.’ During this time, the galaxies...

Hubble Detects Iron and Iron Oxide on Asteroid Psyche

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed the main-belt asteroid (16) Psyche, the...

An artist’s impression of the LTT 9779 system. Image credit: Ethen Schmidt, Kansas University.

Astronomers Analyze Atmosphere of Ultrahot Neptune

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using data collected by the InfraRed Array Camera aboard NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), astronomers...

This ALMA image shows young planet-forming dust rings around IRS 63. Image credit: D. Segura-Cox, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.

Ring-Like Structures Spotted around Protostar IRS 63

Oct 27, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimetre Array (ALMA) have observed the emission from dust grains in the protoplanetary disk around...

This illustration highlights Clavius Crater on the Moon with an illustration depicting water trapped in the lunar soil there, along with an image of SOFIA. Image credit: NASA.

SOFIA Detects Molecular Water on Sunlit Surface of Moon

Oct 26, 2020 by News Staff

Using data gathered by the Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) onboard the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy...

This Hubble image shows NGC 34, a spiral galaxy located 271 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Adamo et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at NGC 34

Oct 26, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a beautiful picture of the unusual spiral galaxy NGC 34. This Hubble image shows NGC 34, a spiral galaxy...

An artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Identify Closest Stars that Could See Earth as Transiting Exoplanet

Oct 23, 2020 by News Staff

Using data gathered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ESA’s Gaia satellite, a team of U.S. astronomers has identified 1,004...

Composite image showing Io in radio (ALMA) and optical light (Voyager 1 and Galileo); the ALMA images show plumes of sulfur dioxide (in yellow); Jupiter is visible in the background (Hubble). Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / I. de Pater et al. / NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello / NASA / ESA.

ALMA Spots Volcanic Plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Io

Oct 22, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted airborne plumes of sulfur dioxide (SO2), sulfur monoxide (SO), and...

Anomalies in nuclear physics experiments may show signs of a new force. Image credit: Jw210913.

Physicists Propose New Theory on Origin of Dark Matter

Oct 21, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published this month in the journal Physical Review Letters, an international team of physicists described a new mechanism of dark matter production. Baker...

Stars identified by Donlon II et al. have formed shell structures in the aftermath of a radial merger occurring 3 billion years ago. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Astronomers Find Shell Structures in Milky Way Galaxy for First Time

Oct 20, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Flatiron Institute, and Queen’s University has spotted two...