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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...

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...