Astronomy News

NGC 6338: Two Galaxy Groups are Colliding at Incredible Speed

This composite image of the galaxy group-galaxy group merger NGC 6338 contains X-ray data from Chandra (displayed in red) that shows hot gas with temperatures upward of about 20 million degrees Celsius, as well as cooler gas detected with Chandra and XMM (shown in blue) that also emits X-rays. The image contains optical data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Image credit: Chandra / NASA / CXC / SAO / E. O’Sullivan / ESA / XMM / SDSS.
Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, ESA’s XMM-Newton, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, and the Apache Point Observatory, astronomers have found that two groups of galaxies in the merging system NGC 6338 are slamming into each other at a whopping speed of about 6.4 millon km/h (4 million mph). The observations also revealed that the cool cores of these galaxy groups are embedded in a large region of shock-heated gas. This composite...

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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...

Forced magnetic reconnection, caused by a prominence from the Sun, was seen for the first time in images from SDO. This image shows the Sun on May 3, 2012, with the inset showing a close-up of the reconnection event imaged by SDO’s Atmospheric Imaging Assembly instrument, where the signature X-shape is visible. Image credit: NASA / SDO / Abhishek Srivastava / IIT.

Solar Dynamics Observatory Observes Forced Magnetic Reconnection in Sun’s Corona

Dec 18, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has directly observed a new type of magnetic explosion — called forced reconnection — in the solar...

This image, taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on July 18, 2019, shows NGC 1175. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Team.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Stunning Peanut Galaxy

Dec 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing photo of a galaxy called NGC 1175. This image, taken by Hubble’s Advanced...

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...

An artist’s impression of a carbon halo around a young star-forming galaxy. Image credit: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

ALMA Spots Carbon Halos around Early Star-Forming Galaxies

Dec 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted huge clouds of carbon gas around several young starburst galaxies...

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...

This Hubble image shows the central region of IC 2051, a spiral galaxy located 90 million light-years away in the constellation Mensa. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the optical and infrared parts of the spectrum. Three 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 / P. Erwin et al.

Hubble Snaps Close-Up of Spiral Galaxy IC 2051

Dec 16, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an outstanding image of the central part of the compact spiral galaxy IC 2051. This Hubble image shows...

X-ray image of the gravitational lens system SDSS J1004+4112 taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory; the central red extended emission is from the hot gas in the foreground lens galaxy cluster and the four blue point sources are the lensed images of the background quasar. Image credit: University of Oklahoma.

Free-Floating Planet-Mass Objects are Common in Galaxies

Dec 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using a technique called quasar microlensing, a team of astronomers at the University of Oklahoma has detected populations of free-floating planet-mass...

This image, taken by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope, shows the interacting galaxy pair NGC 5394-NGC 5395. Image credit: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory / Gemini Observatory / AURA.

Gemini North Telescope Captures Stunning Galaxy Collision

Dec 13, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers working at the NSF-supported Gemini Observatory have captured a new photo of interacting spiral galaxies NGC 5394 and NGC 5395, collectively...

Hubble Team Releases New Photos of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Dec 13, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured two new images of 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet to travel through...

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...

Merging Pair of Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies Spotted 13 Billion Light-Years Away

Dec 12, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers has spotted an unlensed, dusty star-forming galaxy...

An artist’s impression of an ultrahot Jupiter. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Water Vapor is Common in Atmospheres of Extrasolar Gas Giants, Study Shows

Dec 11, 2019 by News Staff

In a study published recently in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers analyzed spectroscopic atmospheric data from 19 exoplanets, ranging...

Magnetic fields in the spiral galaxy Messier 77, also known as M77 and NGC 1086, are shown as streamlines over a visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The magnetic fields align along the entire length of the massive spiral arms of Messier 77, implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy’s shape are also compressing the its magnetic field. This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as ‘density wave theory.’ SOFIA studied the galaxy using far-infrared light (89 microns) to reveal facets of its magnetic fields that previous observations using visible and radio telescopes could not detect. Image credit: NASA / SOFIA / JPL-Caltech / Roma Tre University.

Magnetic Fields Play Important Role in Shaping Spiral Galaxies

Dec 11, 2019 by News Staff

New infrared observations from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) of Messier 77, a spiral galaxy located 47 million light-years...

This image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the emission nebula RCW 36. Image credit: ESO.

Very Large Telescope Takes Close Look at Emission Nebula RCW 36

Dec 9, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Focal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have obtained a remarkable...

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...

NGC 3175 can be seen slicing across the frame in this Hubble image, with its mix of bright patches of glowing gas, dark lanes of dust, bright core, and whirling, pinwheeling arms coming together to paint a beautiful celestial scene. This image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Two 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 / D. Rosario et al.

Hubble Captures Detailed Image of Edge-On Spiral Galaxy NGC 3175

Dec 9, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an incredible snapshot of a nearby spiral galaxy called NGC 3175. NGC 3175 can be seen slicing across...

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