Astronomy News | Sci.News

ESA Releases Gaia’s Billion-Star Map of Milky Way Galaxy

Sep 15, 2016 by News Staff

On its way to assembling the most detailed 3D map ever made of our Galaxy, ESA’s Gaia spacecraft has pinned down the precise position on the sky and...

The first detection of Pluto in X-rays has been made using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The main panel in this graphic is an optical image taken from New Horizons on its approach to Pluto, while the inset shows an image of Pluto in X-rays from Chandra. There is a significant difference in scale between the optical and X-ray images. New Horizons made a close flyby of Pluto but Chandra is located near the Earth, so the level of detail visible in the two images is very different. The Chandra image is 180,000 miles across at the distance of Pluto, but the planet is only 1,500 miles across. Pluto is detected in the X-ray image as a point source, showing the sharpest level of detail available for Chandra or any other X-ray observatory. This means that details over scales that are smaller than the X-ray source cannot be seen here. Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / JHUAPL / R.McNutt et al; optical – NASA / JHUAPL.

NASA’s Chandra Observatory Detects X-Rays from Pluto

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have made the first detections of X-rays from Pluto. This X-ray emission comes from interaction between...

Artist’s impression of the dust disk and a forming Neptune-like planet around TW Hydrae. Image credit: NAOJ.

Astronomers Spot Formation Site of Neptune-Like Exoplanet

Sep 14, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found signs of a growing Neptune-like planet in the protoplanetary disk...

This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 in 1998. In the center of the nebula the fast evolving star SAO 244567 is located. Observations made within the last 45 years showed that the surface temperature of the star increased by almost 40,000 degree Celsius. Now new observations of the spectra of the star have revealed that SAO 244567 has started to cool again. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Observes Rapidly Evolving Central Star of Stingray Nebula

Sep 13, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have been able to study stellar evolution in real time. This image of the Stingray Nebula was taken...

This image snapped by Hubble’s ACS instrument shows PGC 83677, a lenticular galaxy located 300 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Captures Image of Little-Known Lenticular Galaxy

Sep 12, 2016 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of lenticular galaxy PGC 83677. This image snapped by Hubble’s ACS instrument shows...

This artist’s conception illustrates what a T-type brown dwarf might look like. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Find 165 Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Sep 11, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered 165 new ultracool brown dwarfs — objects that have a size between that of a gas giant and that...

This Hubble image shows the globular cluster NGC 6101. Globular clusters are spherical collections of old stars (10-13 billion years old) which orbit around a galactic center. Image credit: NASA / ESA.

NGC 6101: Star Cluster with Hundreds of Black Holes?

Sep 9, 2016 by News Staff

Computer simulations of a globular cluster called NGC 6101 reveal that it contains several hundreds of stellar-mass black holes, until now thought impossible. This...

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the star cluster Terzan 5. Image credit: F. Ferraro / NASA / ESA / ESO.

Astronomers: Star Cluster Terzan 5 is ‘Living Fossil’

Sep 7, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck Telescope have revealed the unusual mix of stars in the...

This truly gorgeous new Hubble image shows N159, a star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Observes Cosmic Maelstrom

Sep 5, 2016 by News Staff

This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a maelstrom of gas and dust within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy...

Artist’s concept of giant planets orbiting in double-star system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle.

Astronomers Discover Three Giant Exoplanets in ‘Twin’ Binary System

Sep 2, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of astronomers from the United States and Chile has detected three giant planets in the HD 133131 system, a pair of stellar ‘twins’...

The Sun’s corona and solar wind. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Lisa Poje.

Latest Images from NASA’s STEREO Spacecraft Reveal Origins of Solar Wind

Sep 1, 2016 by News Staff

The details of the transition from defined rays in the upper atmosphere of the Sun to the solar wind have always been a mystery. Using NASA’s STEREO...

Earth-Moon system. Image credit: Comfreak.

Moon Mission Could Reveal the Story of Earth’s Journey around the Milky Way

Sep 1, 2016 by James Romero

A researcher’s proposal for an ESA mission to return to the Moon could lay the groundwork for a full-surface geological survey from a permanent lunar...

This composite image shows the young galaxy cluster CL J1001 in X-rays from Chandra (purple), infrared data from ESO’s UltraVISTA survey (red, green, and blue), and radio waves from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (green). Image credit: X-ray – NASA / CXC / CEA / T. Wang et al; infrared – ESO / UltraVISTA; radio – ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / ALMA.

Astronomers Find Young Galaxy Cluster 11.1 Billion Light-Years Away

Aug 31, 2016 by News Staff

Using five space- and four ground-based telescopes, an international team of astronomers has found the most distant galaxy cluster to date. This composite...

This artist’s impression shows our Milky Way Galaxy as it may have appeared 6 million years ago during a phase of quasar-like activity. Outside of that bubble, a pervasive ‘fog’ of million-degree gas might account for the galaxy’s missing matter of 130 billion solar masses. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / CfA.

Milky Way Galaxy Underwent Brief Period of Quasar-Like Activity 6 Million Years Ago

Aug 30, 2016 by News Staff

Milky Way’s center is currently a quiet place. But it wasn’t always this way – a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (arXiv.org...

An artist’s conception of Planet Nine. Image credit: Robin Dienel.

Hunt for Planet Nine Reveals New Trans-Neptunian Objects

Aug 29, 2016 by News Staff

In the race to discover the recently proposed Planet Nine, a team of astronomers has discovered ten previously unknown objects beyond the orbit of the...

This Hubble WFPC2 image shows Alpha Centauri A (left) and Alpha Centauri B (right). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Image of Alpha Centauri AB

Aug 29, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble Space Telescope team has released an incredible new image of the binary star Alpha Centauri AB. This Hubble WFPC2 image shows Alpha Centauri...

The ultra-diffuse galaxy Dragonfly 44 and its immediate surroundings. The galaxy consists almost entirely of dark matter, and has a remarkable appearance: it is a low surface brightness, spheroidal object that is peppered with faint, compact sources. Image credit: Pieter van Dokkum / Roberto Abraham / Gemini Observatory / SDSS / AURA.

Dragonfly 44: Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Made Mostly of Dark Matter

Aug 25, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Gemini North telescope have found a galaxy that consists almost entirely of dark matter, the mysterious...

Blazars are the most common sources detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. As matter falls toward the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center, some of it is accelerated outward at nearly the speed of light along jets pointed in opposite directions. When one of the jets happens to be aimed in the direction of Earth, as illustrated here, the galaxy appears especially bright and is classified as a blazar. Image credit: M. Weiss / CfA.

NASA Space Telescopes Reveal Unexpected Blazar Connection

Aug 24, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers studying black-hole-powered galaxies called blazars have uncovered a surprising link between two very different wavelengths of the light these...

This artist’s impression shows Proxima b orbiting Proxima Centauri, which at only 4.23 light-years is the closest star to our Solar System. The double star Alpha Centauri AB also appears in the image between the exoplanet and Proxima itself. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Earth-Mass Exoplanet Found in Habitable Zone around Proxima Centauri

Aug 24, 2016 by James Romero

A planet described as the ‘single most promising exoplanet discovered to date in terms of habitability’ and a ‘natural location where our civilization...