Tag Archive for 'Milky Way'

An artist’s impression of the giant exoplanet DMPP-2b and its parent star DMPP-2. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick.

Astronomers Discover Three Compact Planetary Systems

Dec 31, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers from the Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP) have discovered three new planetary systems — designated DMPP-1, 2 and 3 — hosting...

An artist’s impression of a terraformed Mars. Image credit: Daein Ballard / CC BY-SA 3.0.

High-Oxygen Exoplanetary Atmospheres More Common than Thought, Study Suggests

Dec 30, 2019 by The Conversation

The existence of habitable alien worlds has been a mainstay of popular culture for more than a century. In the 19th century, astronomers believed that...

HabEx, a space telescope with ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (near-IR) imaging and spectroscopic capabilities, will have three primary science goals: (I) seek out nearby worlds and explore their habitability; (ii) map out nearby planetary systems and understand the diversity of the worlds they contain; (iii) enable new explorations of astrophysical systems from our own Solar System to galaxies and the Universe by extending our reach in the UV through near-IR. Image credit: Gaudi et al.

HabEx: New Mission Proposed to Search for Second Earth

Dec 26, 2019 by News Staff

The Habitable Exoplanet Observatory (HabEx) would use a telescope with a mirror larger than Hubble’s, and would employ origami techniques to utilize...

This image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope shows NGC 2264. The newly-revealed protostars appear as pink and red specks toward the center of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / P.S. Teixeira, Center for Astrophysics.

Spitzer Space Telescope Sees Protostars in NGC 2264

Dec 24, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA has released a photo taken by its Spitzer Space Telescope that shows numerous newborn stars, or protostars, in NGC 2264. This image from NASA’s...

A faint gamma-ray glow around the Geminga pulsar. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M. Di Mauro.

Fermi Finds Enormous Gamma-Ray Halo around Nearby Pulsar

Dec 23, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered a gamma-ray glow around Geminga,...

An artist’s impression of the warm Jupiter TOI-677b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers New Warm Jupiter

Dec 23, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers has discovered a warm giant exoplanet orbiting the bright star TOI-677. An artist’s impression of the warm Jupiter...

This image, taken by Spitzer’s Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instrument, shows the Perseus molecular cloud. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Spitzer Observes Perseus Molecular Cloud

Dec 20, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released a stunning image of the Perseus molecular cloud, a giant stellar nursery about 600 light-years away in the northern constellation of...

ESA’s Cheops spacecraft lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Image credit: ESA.

ESA Launches Exoplanet-Studying Satellite Cheops

Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

The CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) — the first mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) dedicated to the study of exoplanets —...

This composite image, which combines infrared (blue), radio (red) and microwave (green) observations from the GISMO instrument, reveals emission from cold dust, areas of vigorous star formation, and filaments formed at the edges of a bubble blown by some powerful event at the Milky Way Galaxy’s center. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

GISMO Sees Huge Molecular Clouds and Filaments in Milky Way’s Central Region

Dec 18, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA-designed Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO), a bolometer camera installed on the 30-m IRAM radio telescope, has produced...

Astronomers Measure Size and Mass of Nearby Pulsar, Create Map of Its Surface Hot Spots

Dec 17, 2019 by News Staff

Using the X-ray data from NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), astronomers have produced a map of hot spots on the surface of a...

Taken with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, this stunning image shows the Milky Way’s central region with an angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds. The image combines observations in three different wavelength bands. Image credit: ESO / Nogueras-Lara et al.

VLT Observes Milky Way’s Central Region

Dec 16, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured a stunning new image of the Milky Way’s densest region of stars, gas and dust, which...

An artistic illustration of a binary black hole. Image credit: NASA / ESA / G. Bacon, STScI.

Milky Way’s Central Black Hole May Have a Supermassive Companion

Dec 16, 2019 by The Conversation

Do supermassive black holes have friends? The nature of galaxy formation suggests that the answer is yes, and in fact, pairs of supermassive black holes...

An artist’s impression of the super-Earth Gliese 1252b and its parent star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Hot Super-Earth Found Orbiting Red Dwarf Star Gliese 1252

Dec 16, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and multiple ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period...

Milky Way’s center produces more high-energy gamma rays than can be explained by known sources. This image shows the Milky Way in visible light and a gamma-ray map from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / A. Mellinger, Central Michigan University / T. Linden, University of Chicago.

Annihilating Dark Matter May Lurk in Milky Way’s Center

Dec 12, 2019 by News Staff

Gamma rays — the most energetic waves in the electromagnetic spectrum — are typically produced by the hottest, most extreme objects in the...

An artist’s impression of the Saturn-sized exoplanet TOI 813b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TOI 813b: Saturn-Sized Exoplanet Found Orbiting Subgiant Star

Dec 9, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Citizen scientists from the Planet Hunters TESS (PHT) project have discovered a Saturn-sized planet orbiting around TOI 813, a bright subgiant star located...

From a great distance, our Milky Way Galaxy would look like a thin disk of stars that orbits once every few hundred million years around its central region, where hundreds of billions of stars provide the gravitational ‘glue’ to hold it all together. But this pull of gravity is much weaker in the Galaxy’s far outer disk. There, the hydrogen atoms making up most of the Milky Way’s gas disk are no longer confined to a thin plane, instead they give the disk an S-like, or warped, appearance. Image credit: Xiaodian Chen.

Milky Way’s Thick Disk is 10 Billion Years Old, Astronomers Say

Dec 6, 2019 by News Staff

Our Milky Way Galaxy consists of two disk-like structures, known as ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ disks. The thick disk contains only about 20% of the Galaxy’s...

This illustration shows the white dwarf WD J0914 and its Neptune-like exoplanet. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find Neptune-Like Exoplanet Orbiting White Dwarf

Dec 5, 2019 by News Staff

A Neptune-like exoplanet orbits an Earth-sized white dwarf star called WD J091405.30+191412.25 (WD J0914 for short) once every 10 days, leaving a comet-like...

This illustration shows a gas giant exoplanet orbiting its parent star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / L. Calcada.

Study Finds No Clear Correlation between Compositions of Giant Exoplanets and Their Host Stars

Dec 4, 2019 by News Staff

There isn’t a strong correlation between gas giant and host star compositions when it comes to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, according to...

This schematic of the heliosphere shows the solar wind begins slowing at approximately 4 AU radial distance from the Sun and continues to slow as it moves toward the outer Solar System and picks up interstellar material. Current extrapolations reveal the termination shock may currently be closer than found by the Voyager spacecraft. However, increasing solar activity will soon expand the heliosphere and push the termination shock farther out, possibly to the 84-94 AU range encountered by the Voyager spacecraft. Image credit: Southwest Research Institute / NASA / Adler Planetarium.

Solar Wind Slows in Outer Heliosphere, Data from New Horizons Confirm

Dec 4, 2019 by News Staff

As the solar wind — the supersonic stream of charged particles blown out by the Sun — moves farther from the Sun, it encounters an increasing...

Astronomers Find ‘Impossible’ Stellar Black Hole in Milky Way

Nov 29, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exceptionally massive black hole of stellar origin with a mass 68 times that of the Sun. An artist’s...

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