Tag Archive for 'Star'

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...

VLA Observations Shed More Light on How Massive Stars Form

Apr 3, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers, led Dr Carlos Carrasco-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large...

This image shows the famous Trifid Nebula to the right of center; it appears as faint and ghostly at these infrared wavelengths when compared to the familiar view at visible wavelengths; this transparency has brought its own benefits - many previously hidden background objects can now be seen clearly; among these are two newly discovered Cepheid variable stars, the first ever spotted on the far side of our Milky Way Galaxy near its central plane. Image credit: ESO / VVV consortium / D. Minniti.

Stars May Generate Sound, Physicists Say

Mar 24, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists headed by Dr G. Ravindra Kumar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, has provided experimental...

The star cluster Camargo 438. Image credit: D. Camargo / NASA / WISE.

Astronomers Discover Two Very Distant Star Clusters

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Brazilian astronomers using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer have discovered two clusters of stars forming at the very edge of our...

This image from Hubble shows the T Tauri variable star V1331 Cyg. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Karl Stapelfeldt, GSFC / B. Stecklum & A. Choudhary, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg.

Hubble Sees Young Star V1331 Cyg, Its Nebular Environment

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking image of a young variable star known as V1331 Cyg and its dusty environment. This...

Comparing Hubble images of the gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star Beta Pictoris taken in 1997 and 2012, astronomers find that the dust distribution has barely changed over 15 years despite the fact that the entire structure is orbiting the star like a carousel. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Apai, University of Arizona, Tucson / G. Schneider, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Hubble Sees Gas-and-Dust Disk around Beta Pictoris

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

Using the unique observing capabilities of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have produced the most detailed picture so far of an edge-on...

Barnard 5 seen within its neighborhood, embedded in dust (blue) as seen with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, in infrared light. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Observe Birth of Quadruple Star System in Molecular Cloud Barnard 5

Feb 12, 2015 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have caught a multiple-star system in the beginning stages of its formation. Barnard 5 seen within its neighborhood, embedded...

Zoom on the CMB polarization, filtered to show mostly the signal detected on scales around 5 degrees on the sky. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration.

Universe’s First Stars Appeared 100 Million Years Later than Thought

Feb 6, 2015 by News Staff

Thanks to new data from European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope, researchers have found that the reionization – one of the most important...

Hot stars burn brightly in this image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, showing the UV side of a familiar face. At 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda galaxy is our Milky Way's largest galactic neighbor. The galaxy spans 260,000 light-years across. The bands of blue-white making up the galaxy's striking rings are neighborhoods that harbor hot, young, massive stars. Dark blue-grey lanes of cooler dust show up starkly against these bright rings, tracing the regions where star formation is currently taking place in dense cloudy cocoons. Eventually, these dusty lanes will be blown away by strong stellar winds, as the forming stars ignite nuclear fusion in their cores. Meanwhile, the central orange-white ball reveals a congregation of cooler, old stars that formed long ago. When observed in visible light, the galaxy’s rings look more like spiral arms. The UV image shows that these arms more closely resemble the ring-like structure previously observed in infrared wavelengths with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope; astronomers interpreted these rings as evidence that the galaxy was involved in a direct collision with its neighbor, Messier 32, more than 200 million years ago. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

New Study Reveals Turbulent History of Andromeda Galaxy

Jan 12, 2015 by News Staff

A study of the motions of different stellar populations in the Andromeda’s disk has revealed a violent history of mergers with dwarf galaxies in the...

NGC 6819. Image credit: Roberto Mura / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Astronomers Uncover Relationship between Rotation Rates of Stars, Their Ages

Jan 6, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Soren Meibom, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and his colleagues from Germany and the United States say they can...

This Hubble/ALMA composite image shows the nearby lenticular galaxy NGC 1266; ALMA data are orange. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ALMA / NRAO / ESO / NAOJ.

‘Perfect Storm’ Prevents Star Formation in Lenticular Galaxy NGC 1266

Dec 18, 2014 by News Staff

By observing the dust and gas at the center of NGC 1266, a team of astronomers led by Dr Katherine Alatalo of the California Institute of Technology in...

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