Astronomy News

Earth Has New, Temporary Mini-Moon: Rocket Booster from 1960s-Era

This photo shows a Centaur upper-stage rocket before being mated to an Atlas booster in 1966. Image credit: NASA.
Nov 17, 2020 by News Staff

On November 8, 2020, our planet captured a tiny object — the Centaur upper stage rocket booster that helped lift NASA’s Surveyor 2 spacecraft toward the Moon in 1966 — from its orbit around the Sun and will keep it as a temporary moon for about four months before it escapes back to a solar orbit. This photo shows a Centaur upper-stage rocket before being mated to an Atlas booster in 1966. Image credit: NASA. The Surveyor 2 lunar lander...

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An artist’s impression of glycine together with dark interstellar clouds in the lab. Image credit: Harold Linnartz.

Amino Acids Can Form Long Before Stars and Planets: Study

Nov 16, 2020 by News Staff

Glycine and other amino acids form in dense interstellar clouds well before they transform into new stars and planets, suggests a new study led by researchers...

An artist’s impression of the planetary system LHS 1140. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Three Planets Orbit Nearby Red Dwarf LHS 1140

Nov 16, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy UGC 12588. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Two 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 / R. Tully / Gagandeep Anand.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Faint Spiral: UGC 12588

Nov 16, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing new photo of a spiral galaxy called UGC 12588. This Hubble image shows the...

This composite image of the planetary nebula IC 4593 contains X-rays (Chandra) from gas that has been heated to over a million degrees. These high temperatures were likely generated by material that blew away from the shrunken core of the star and crashed into gas that had previously been ejected by the star. Visible light data from Hubble in the image show combinations of nitrogen, oxygen, and hydrogen. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UNAM / J. Toala et al. / STScI.

Chandra Finds Hot Bubble in Planetary Nebula IC 4593

Nov 13, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have spotted a bubble of ultrahot gas at the center of a planetary nebula called IC 4593. This composite...

This image shows the glow from the GRB 200522A kilonova caused by the merger of two neutron stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / W. Fong, Northwestern University / T. Laskar, University of Bath.

Hubble Detects Unexplained Near-Infrared Emission from Neutron-Star Merger

Nov 13, 2020 by News Staff

Several billion years ago, a short gamma-ray burst unleashed more energy in a half-second than our Sun will produce over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime....

This composite image shows the galaxy cluster HSC J023336-053022, also known as ACT-CL J0233.6-0530 or XLSSC 105. Image credit: Green Bank Observatory / National Science Foundation / Subaru Telescope / National Astronomical Observatory of Japan / HSC-SSP Collaboration / ESA / XMM-Newton / XXL Survey Consortium.

Giant Galaxy Cluster Acts as Cosmic Furnace

Nov 12, 2020 by News Staff

HSC J023336-053022, a massive galaxy cluster located approximately 4 billion light-years away from Earth, is heating the material within it to hundreds...

These illustrations show three versions of a rocky planet with different amounts of internal heating from radioactive elements. The middle planet is Earth-like, with plate tectonics and an internal dynamo generating a magnetic field. The top planet, with more radiogenic heating, has extreme volcanism but no dynamo or magnetic field. The bottom planet, with less radiogenic heating, is geologically ‘dead,’ with no volcanism. Image credit: Melissa Weiss.

Internal Heating from Radioactive Elements May Be Crucial to Planet Habitability, Study Says

Nov 12, 2020 by News Staff

The thermal evolution of rocky planets depends on the heat input from three long-lived radiogenic elements: potassium, thorium, and uranium. Concentrations...

As the Universe evolves, matter concentrations are surrounded by gas halos getting hotter and bigger. Image credit: D. Nelson / Illustris Collaboration.

Universe is Getting Hotter, Says New Study

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

The mean temperature of gas across the Universe has increased more than 10 times over the last 10 billion years and reached about 2 million Kelvin today,...

This artist's impression shows the exoplanet Corot-7b, which is so close to its Sun-like host star that it must experience extreme conditions. Image credit: ESO / L. Calcada.

Weather Forecast for Lava Planet K2-141b: Rock Rains and Supersonic Winds

Nov 10, 2020 by News Staff

Using computer simulations, an international team of astronomers has studied the weather conditions on K2-141b, an Earth-size exoplanet with supersonic...

An artist’s impression of BDR J1750+3809. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / ASTRON.

LOFAR Radio Telescope Directly Detects New Brown Dwarf

Nov 9, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope have discovered a new brown dwarf, a substellar object not quite massive enough to fuse...

An artist’s impression of the SGR 1935+2154 magnetar in outburst, showing complex magnetic field structure and beamed emission. Image credit: McGill University Graphic Design Team.

Fast Radio Burst Detected from Magnetar in Milky Way

Nov 9, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) and FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) telescopes...

This Hubble image shows the strong-lensing galaxy cluster SDSS J0901+1814. The lensed star-forming galaxy LRG-3-817 is seen as a long arc to the left of the cluster’s central galaxy. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and 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: Hubble / ESA / NASA / S. Allam et al.

Massive Cluster’s Gravity Magnifies Light from Extremely Distant Star-Forming Galaxy

Nov 9, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

SDSS J0901+1814, a giant galaxy cluster located 3.9 billion light-years away in the constellation of Cancer, is so massive that its gravity distorts and...

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...

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