Astronomy News

Huge Halo of Warm Gas around Magellanic Clouds is Key to Formation of Magellanic Stream

The Magellanic Stream in zenithal equal-area coordinates: (a) observed H I data for the Magellanic Stream, with the line-of-sight velocity indicated by the color scale and the relative gas column density indicated by the brightness; the points represent the sightlines with ultraviolet-absorption-line observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, colored by their line-of-sight velocity; these points show the extent of the ionized gas associated with the stream; (b) the results of the model including the Magellanic Corona and the Milky Way’s hot corona; gas originating in the disks of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is shown in the model, without separating neutral gas from ionized gas; this affects the morphology of the stream, causing the model to appear smoother and less fragmented than the data; however, the model reproduces the current spatial location and velocity of both clouds, and the velocity gradient of the gas along the stream; the Milky Way disk and background are extracted from real H I images. Image credit: Lucchini et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2663-4.
Sep 9, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Australia and the United States has found that a halo of warm ionized gas surrounding the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds acts as a protective cocoon, shielding the dwarf galaxies from the Milky Way Galaxy’s own halo and contributing most of the mass of the Magellanic Stream. The Magellanic Stream in zenithal equal-area coordinates: (a) observed H I data for the Magellanic Stream, with the line-of-sight velocity indicated...

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Wells et al estimate that there should be at least 10 -- currently undiscovered -- exoplanets which are favorably located to detect the Earth and are capable of sustaining life as we know it. Image credit: NASA.

Large-Scale SETI Survey of Vela Region Finds No Signs of Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Sep 8, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope have searched for technosignatures — indicators of advanced extraterrestrial...

This Hubble image NGC 1805, a globular cluster located 163,000 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. Four 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. Kalirai.

Hubble Sees Beautiful Globular Cluster: NGC 1805

Sep 7, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of a globular cluster called NGC 1805. This Hubble image NGC 1805, a globular cluster located...

This composite image shows both ALMA and SPHERE/VLT observations of the disk around GW Orionis. The ALMA image (blue) shows the disk’s ringed structure, with the innermost ring (part of which is visible as an oblong dot at the very center of the image) separated from the rest of the disk. The SPHERE observations (orange-red) allowed the astronomers to see for the first time the shadow of this innermost ring on the rest of the disk, which made it possible for them to reconstruct its warped shape. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / ESO / University of Exeter / Kraus et al.

Astronomers Find Misaligned and Warped Protoplanetary Disk around Triple-Star System

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the SPHERE (Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research) instrument...

An optical color image of the stellar field centered on HIP 109427, an A1-type star located 89 light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus, from the Pan-STARRS survey, showing the target fields of Green Bank and Parkes receivers, circled in red and white respectively; 46 sources with geometric distances calculated from Gaia data are marked with green crosses. Image credit: Wlodarczyk-Sroka et al, arXiv: 2006.09756.

New Study Expands Breakthrough Listen Initiative’s Search for Intelligent Life

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study to be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a research team led by University of Manchester astronomers extended...

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.

Astronomers Witness Birth of Intermediate-Mass Black Hole

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the twin LIGO detectors located in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington, and the Virgo detector located near Pisa, Italy, have...

An artist’s impression of plasma jets coming from a supermassive black hole in the central galaxy of the Phoenix cluster. Image credit: NAOJ.

Astronomers Detect Black-Hole Jets in Central Galaxy of Phoenix Cluster

Sep 1, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) have detected plasma jets coming from a supermassive black hole in the central galaxy of...

These images of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) were obtained with the Gemini North telescope on August 1, 2020. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / M. Drahus / P. Guzik.

Astronomers See Spirals in Gaseous Coma of Comet NEOWISE

Aug 31, 2020 by News Staff

New images of comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) show rapidly expanding spiral features in its coma produced by the rotation of its 5-km (3-mile) wide nucleus. These...

An artist’s impression of the hot Neptune TOI-824b and its parent star TOI-824. Also known as SCR J1448-5735, TYC 8688-915-1, TIC 193641523 and 2MASS J14483982-5735175, the star is around 70% the size and mass of the Sun and is 10.9 billion years old. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Rare Hot Neptune Found Orbiting Nearby Dwarf Star

Aug 31, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and two ground-based instruments, astronomers have discovered and confirmed a transiting hot...

This Hubble image shows NGC 2188, a barred spiral galaxy located 27 million light-years away in the constellation of Columba. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully.

Hubble Spies Barred Spiral Galaxy Edge-On

Aug 31, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have taken a picture of the edge-on barred spiral galaxy NGC 2188. This Hubble image shows NGC 2188,...

This image shows the location of the 43 quasars Lehner et al used to probe Andromeda’s gaseous halo. These quasars are scattered far behind the halo, allowing scientists to probe multiple regions. Looking through the immense halo at the quasars’ light, the team observed how this light is absorbed by the halo and how that absorption changes in different regions. By tracing the absorption of light coming from the background quasars, the astronomers are able to probe the halo’s material. Image credit: NASA / ESA / E. Wheatley, STScI.

Astronomers Create Map of Andromeda Galaxy’s Gaseous Halo

Aug 28, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found that a halo of diffuse plasma around the Andromeda galaxy, which is located 2.5 million...

SDSS J141637.44+003352.2, a dual quasar at a distance for which the light reaching us was emitted 4.6 billion years ago. The two quasars are 13,000 light-years apart on the sky, placing them near the center of a single massive galaxy that appears to be part of a group, as shown by the neighboring galaxies in the left panel. In the lower panels, optical spectroscopy has revealed broad emission lines associated with each of the two quasars, indicating that the gas is moving at thousands of kilometers per second in the vicinity of two distinct supermassive black holes. The two quasars are different colors, due to different amounts of dust in front of them. Image credit: Silverman et al, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba4a3.

Astronomers Find Three Luminous Dual Quasars

Aug 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using the Subaru Telescope and W. M. Keck and Gemini observatories, astronomers have spotted three dual quasars — merging galaxy systems that have...

This multi-frequency composite VLBA image shows young radio jets originating near a supermassive black hole at the core of the active galaxy TXS 0128+554; the jets in this image started about 80 years ago, stopped, then resumed about 10 years ago. Image credit: Lister et al / Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Observe Young, Radio-Emitting Jets in Distant Active Galaxy

Aug 27, 2020 by News Staff

Around five years ago, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected high-energy gamma rays coming from TXS 0128+554, an elliptical galaxy located...

When the bar (horizontal in yellow and white) is in its shorter phase on the left, a few spiral arms can be seen near, but not quite firmly connected to the bar. Meanwhile, when the bar is at its longest on the right, there are two stronger spiral arms passing through this time around. These are more clearly connected to either end of the bar, effectively dragging it out and slowing it down. Image credit: Hilmi et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa1934.

Astronomers Offer Solution to ‘Galactic Bar Paradox’

Aug 26, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Japan may have solved the so-called ‘Galactic bar paradox,’ whereby...

An artist’s conception of the HR 858 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Artificial Intelligence Validates 50 Exoplanets in Kepler Data

Aug 26, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers in the United Kingdom has used a machine learning algorithm to analyze a sample of candidate exoplanets identified by NASA’s Kepler...

An artist’s impression of a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, Caltech-IPAC.

Free-Floating Exoplanets May Outnumber Stars in Milky Way

Aug 25, 2020 by News Staff

Free-floating, or rogue, exoplanets — free-floating planetary-mass objects that do not orbit a star and instead travel through space — could...

The Solar System moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud. Image credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.

Solar System is Traveling through Cloud of Supernova Debris: Study

Aug 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has found interstellar iron-60, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 2.6 million years that is predominantly produced...

The MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured this image of NGC 1365 in optical and infrared light, showing the gas and dust in the central region of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO / TIMER Survey.

VLT Snaps Spectacular Image of NGC 1365

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have captured a beautiful image...

This Hubble image shows a small portion of the Cygnus Loop, a donut-shaped nebula located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Blair / Leo Shatz.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Outer Edge of Cygnus Loop

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a tiny portion of a nebula called the Cygnus Loop. This Hubble image shows a small portion of...

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by Hubble on August 8, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Pagan, STScI / Q. Zhang, Caltech.

Hubble Captures Close-Up Image of Comet NEOWISE

Aug 21, 2020 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the coma of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and its dusty output. This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)...

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