Astronomy News

Astronomers Spot 73 Unusually Fast-Evolving Stellar Explosions

Images of one of the rapidly evolving transients, from 8 days before the maximum brightness to 18 days afterwards. This outburst took place at a distance of 4 billion light years. Image credit: M. Pursiainen / University of Southampton / DES Collaboration.
Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

A team of astronomers at the University of Southampton, UK, has found 73 rapidly evolving transients — very bright, but quick events — in a recent survey and are still struggling to explain their origin. Images of one of the rapidly evolving transients, from 8 days before the maximum brightness to 18 days afterwards. This outburst took place at a distance of 4 billion light years. Image credit: M. Pursiainen / University of Southampton...

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The infrared map constructed from the VVV survey of the inner Milky Way showing the three areas studied. Image credit: ESO / M. Rejkuba / F. Surot Madrid / E. Valenti.

Astronomers Creating First Large-Scale Age-Map of Milky Way’s Bulge

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

A team of European Southern Observatory (ESO) astronomers looking to better understand the formation history of our Milky Way Galaxy has started creating...

This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+223, whose light has taken over 5 billion years to reach us. Highlighted is the position where the Icarus star appeared -- its image magnified by a factor 2,000 by gravitational microlensing. The spiral galaxy in which the star is located can be seen three times on the sky -- multiplied by strong gravitational lensing. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, John Hopkins University / FrontierSN Team / T. Treu, University of California Los Angeles / P. Kelly, University of California Berkeley / GLASS Team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields Team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH Team / Z. Levay, STScI.

Icarus Star: Hubble Spies Most Distant Star Ever Seen

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

A blue supergiant star nicknamed Icarus is so far away that its light has taken 9 billion years to reach our planet. It appears to us as it did when the...

This is an image of the gravitational lens system SDSS J0146-0929 as photographed by Hubble. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Einstein Ring

Apr 2, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have spotted a so-called Einstein ring, a rare image of a distant galaxy lensed by gravity. This...

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took this image of NGC 1052-DF2 on November 16, 2017. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. van Dokkum, Yale University.

Hubble Discovers Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy with Almost No Dark Matter

Mar 29, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have discovered a unique galaxy — the first of its kind — that appears to contain virtually...

Astronomers Find Super-Earth with Mercury-Like Composition: K2-229b

Mar 28, 2018 by Natali Anderson

An international team of astronomers has discovered a planetary system containing at least three massive planets, orbiting the bright late-G/early-K-type...

Chaotic web of gas filaments and dark bubbles in a Milky Way stellar nursery. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / PACS / SPIRE / Hi-GAL Project / UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza - Università di Roma / E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS & INAF.

Herschel Sees Web of Gas Filaments in Nearby Star-Forming Region

Mar 28, 2018 by News Staff

A spectacular image from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory shows an intricate network of gas filaments and dark bubbles in a massive star-forming region...

KSN 2015K’s host is the star-forming spiral galaxy 2MASX-J13315109-1044061. Image credit: Rest et al, doi: 10.1038/s41550-018-0423-2.

Kepler Captures Details of Unusual Stellar Explosion: FELT Supernova

Mar 27, 2018 by News Staff

NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has caught a kind of stellar explosion called a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT) in the act. KSN 2015K’s host...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes NGC 5714

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5714. Image credit:...

This composite image shows the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

Hubble Discovers Origin of Mysterious Gas Cloud Heading toward Milky Way

Mar 23, 2018 by News Staff

In a cosmic tug-of-war between Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — two dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way — only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Scholz’s Star Disturbed Oort Cloud Objects 70,000 Years Ago

Mar 21, 2018 by Natali Anderson

About 70,000 years ago, a binary stellar system called ‘Scholz’s star’ passed within only 52,000 astronomical units (AU) of the Sun, i.e., within...

Astronomers Detect Radio Signals from Star-Eating Black Hole

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

Astronomers have detected radio echoes of a supermassive black hole feeding on a star, suggesting the black hole emits a jet of energy proportional to...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua. Image credit: Joy Pollard / Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF.

Interstellar Asteroid Oumuamua Likely Came from Double Star System

Mar 20, 2018 by News Staff

1I/2017 U1 ‘Oumuamua, the first asteroid of extrasolar origin identified in the Solar System, likely came from a binary star system, according to new...

According to Meurer et al, galaxies behave as clocks, rotating once a billion years at the very outskirts of their discs. This Hubble image shows the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Kuntz, JHU / F. Bresolin, University of Hawaii / J. Trauger, JPL / J. Mould, NOAO / Y.-H. Chu, UIUC / STScI.

Cosmic Clocks: Galaxies Behave Like Clocks, Rotating Once Every Billion Years

Mar 15, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers from Australia, China and the United States has discovered that all galaxies rotate once every billion years, no matter...

This view shows the entire sky at energies greater than 1 GeV based on five years of data from the LAT instrument on NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope; the most prominent feature is the bright band of diffuse glow along the map’s center, which marks the central plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration.

Mysterious Gamma-Ray Signal Comes from Ancient Stars at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of researchers has discovered that an anomalous gamma-ray signal from Milky Way’s center comes from 10 billion-year-old stars,...

Astronomers Find ‘Relic Galaxy’ in Milky Way’s Backyard

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

NGC 1277, a lenticular galaxy in the constellation Perseus, about 220 million light-years from us, has remained essentially unchanged for the past ten...

K2-151b, one of the 12 newly-discovered planets, orbits a metal-poor M-type dwarf star every 3.84 days. The size of K2-151b -- 1.35 Earth radii -- suggests that it is likely a rocky planet. Image credit: NASA / Ames / JPL-Caltech.

Kepler Finds Twelve Exoplanets around Low-Mass Stars

Mar 13, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of astronomers has announced the discovery of twelve planets orbiting nine low-mass stars. The discovery is based on data from the...

This illustration shows three steps Professor Riess and co-authors used to measure the Hubble constant to an unprecedented accuracy, reducing the total uncertainty to 2.3%. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Field, STScI / A. Riess, STScI & JHU.

Hubble Measures Universe Expansion, Gets Intriguing Hints of ‘New Physics’

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

A team of U.S. astronomers has used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to make a new measurement of the Hubble constant, the rate at which the Universe...

In this Hubble image, we see NGC 1015 face-on, with its beautifully symmetrical swirling arms and bright central bulge. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess, STScl & JHU.

Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Stunning Spiral Galaxy: NGC 1015

Mar 12, 2018 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this beautiful image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1015, also known as LEDA 9988, UGC 2124 and SDSS J023811.55-011907.5. In...

On August 31, 2012, a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the Sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The CME traveled at over 900 miles per second. It did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, with a glancing blow, causing aurora to appear on the night of September 3. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Researchers Recreate Solar Eruption in 3D

Mar 9, 2018 by News Staff

Using data from the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and NASA’s twin Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) satellites, solar...

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