Tag Archive for 'Star'

Messier 87 is the dominant galaxy at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of galaxies. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Detect Stellar Pulsations in Messier 87

Nov 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A team of astronomers has measured the ‘heartbeats’ of stars within Messier 87, a giant elliptical galaxy located some 53 million light-years from...

Our Solar System is located at the center of the circle on this artist’s impression of the Milky Way Galaxy. The insert shows one view from the 3D visualization tool developed by the astronomers. Image credit: ESA / H. Bouy, CSIC-INTA / J. Alves, University of Vienna.

ESA’s Hipparcos Satellite Sheds New Light on Solar Neighborhood

Nov 16, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from ESA’s Hipparcos space astrometry mission have produced a 3D visualization of all of O and B type stars within 1,630 light...

Chemical makeup of the oldest stars in the Milky Way points to huge explosions called hypernovae. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Find 13 Billion Year Old Stars at Milky Way’s Center

Nov 12, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered the oldest stars ever seen, dating from before the Milky Way Galaxy formed, when the Universe was just...

An artist’s impression of the debris disc around J1228+1040 (left) at the same scale as Saturn and its rings (right). While the star has about 7 times smaller diameter than Saturn, it has a mass 2,500 times greater. Image credit: Mark Garlick, www.markgarlick.com / University of Warwick / ESO / NASA / Cassini.

VLT Captures Image of Debris Disk around Nearby White Dwarf

Nov 11, 2015 by News Staff

The sight of a massive asteroid being ripped apart by a white dwarf called SDSS J122859.93+104032.9 (J1228+1040 for short) and forming a debris disk has...

Right: observations taken by the ESO’s Very Large Telescope show a protoplanetary disk around the young star MWC 758; the disk has two spiral arms that extend over 10 billion miles from the star. Left: a computer model reproduces the two-spiral-arm structure; the X is the location of a putative planet. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / M. Benisty et al / Ruobing Dong / Zhaohuan Zhu.

Spiral Arms Around Young Stars May Be Evidence of Giant Planets, Scientists Say

Oct 30, 2015 by News Staff

Spiral-arm-like features seen around two newborn stars, SAO 206462 and MWC 758, may be evidence for the presence of giant, unseen planets, says a team...

This diagram shows the locations of the newly-discovered Cepheids in an artist’s rendering of our Milky Way Galaxy; the yellow star indicates the position of our Solar System. Image credit: ESO / Microsoft WorldWide Telescope.

Astronomers Discover New Component of Milky Way Galaxy

Oct 28, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Survey (VVV) ESO Public Survey, astronomers have discovered a previously unknown component of the...

In this artist’s conception, a dwarf planet vaporizes as it orbits a white dwarf star. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

NASA’s Kepler K2 Mission Discovers Planet-Destroying White Dwarf Star

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has uncovered evidence of a minor planet being torn apart as it spirals around WD 1145+017, a white dwarf located...

ASASSN-14li: X-Ray Telescopes Catch Supermassive Black Hole Shredding Star to Pieces

Oct 22, 2015 by News Staff

Using a trio of X-ray telescopes, astronomers have observed material being blown away from a supermassive black hole after it tore a star apart. The event...

This image shows XX Triangulum (center), a red giant star about 1,500 light-years away. Image credit: NASA / IPAC / 2MASS / Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Newly-Released Video Shows Evolution of Starspots on Red Giant

Oct 20, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, Germany, has created a video that shows the evolution of stellar spots on the...

This image of part of an edge-on disk around AU Microscopii reveals wave-like features. Image credit: NASA / ESA / ESO / A. Boccaletti, Paris Observatory.

Strange, Fast-Moving Structures Spotted around Nearby Star AU Microscopii

Oct 8, 2015 by News Staff

Using images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has discovered unique structures...

The artist's concept depicts a super-Earth-size planet. Image credit: NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech.

Terrestrial Exoplanets around Low-Mass Stars Probably Have Protective Magnetospheres

Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting close to low-mass parent stars likely have magnetic fields that protect them from stellar radiation, says a duo of astronomers...

This image shows Epsilon Lupi (center). Image credit: Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg / SIMBAD.

Mysterious Magnetic Field Detected in Binary Star System Epsilon Lupi

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has detected a so-called ‘fossil’ magnetic field in both components of an early-type binary star system called Epsilon...

This is an artistic impression of the Kepler-444 planetary system. Image credit: Tiago Campante / Peter Devine.

Even 11+ Billion-Year-Old Stars Have Earth-Like Planets

Jun 30, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers has determined precise ages and other fundamental properties of 33 Kepler stars with the so-called ‘solar-like oscillations.’...

This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows a butterfly-like nebula around the red giant star L2 Puppis. Image credit: ESO / Pierre Kervella.

ESO’s VLT Spies Butterfly-Like Planetary Nebula around L2 Puppis

Jun 10, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the SPHERE-ZIMPOL instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have confirmed the presence of the circumstellar dust disk around...

Images of HD 115600 showing a bright nearly edge-on debris ring located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Image credit: Thayne Currie et al.

Gemini Planet Imager Spots Kuiper Belt-like Dust Ring around HD 115600

May 27, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Gemini Planet Imager at the Gemini South telescope in Chile have identified a disc-shaped bright ring of dust around a nearby young...

Artist’s impression of one of the possible galaxy strangulation mechanisms: star-forming galaxies (fed by gas inflows) are accreted into a massive hot halo, which ‘strangles’ them and leads to their death. Image credit: University of Cambridge.

New Study Reveals What Quenches Star Formation in Galaxies

May 14, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Nature, the primary mechanism for stopping star formation in galaxies is the so-called ‘strangulation,’...

55 Cancri e is so close to its host star that it must experience extreme conditions. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada.

European Astronomers Find Evidence of Volcanic Activity on 55 Cancri e

May 5, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Cambridge in the UK and the University of Liege in Belgium has detected changing temperatures on a terrestrial...

Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A. The warped shape of NGC 5128’s disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, NGC 5128 contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / R. O'Connell, University of Virginia / WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee.

Star Formation Stops in Cores of Elliptical Galaxies First, Astronomers Say

Apr 17, 2015 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Science has revealed that 3 billion years after the Big Bang, elliptical galaxies still made stars on their outskirts, but no...

This illustration depicts a view of the night sky from a hypothetical planet within the young Milky Way Galaxy 10 billion years ago; glowing pink clouds of hydrogen gas harbor countless newborn stars, and the bluish-white hue of young star clusters litter the landscape; the star-birth rate is 30 times higher than it is in our Galaxy today; our Sun, however, is not among these fledgling stars; the Sun will not be born for another 5 billion years. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Z. Levay, STScI.

Astronomers Trace Evolution of Milky Way-Like Galaxies

Apr 10, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has found that Milky Way-like galaxies underwent a stellar ‘baby boom’ in their early history, creating stars...

Artist impression of the protoplanetary disc around MWC 480. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Complex Organic Molecules Detected in Protoplanetary System MWC 480

Apr 8, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected the presence of complex carbon-based molecules – methyl cyanide...

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