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This image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416 combines data from three telescopes - Hubble (showing the galaxies and stars), Chandra (diffuse emission in blue), and the Jansky Very Large Array (diffuse emission in pink). MACS J0416 acts as a powerful natural lens by bending and magnifying the light of far-more-distant objects behind it. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CXC / NRAO / AUI / NSF / STScI / G. Ogrean, Stanford University / J. Lotz, STScI / HFF Team.

Astronomers Snap Image of Huge Cluster of Galaxies

Mar 21, 2016 by News Staff

Astronomers have taken a stunning photo of a very massive cluster of galaxies, MACS J0416.1-2403. This image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0416 combines...

This galaxy, named SDSS J094700.08+254045.7, is one of the biggest and brightest super spirals; its starry disk and spiral arms stretch about 320,000 light-years across, or more than three times the breadth of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: SDSS.

Astronomers Discover Monstrous ‘Super Spirals’

Mar 18, 2016 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr. Patrick Ogle from the California Institute of Technology has discovered a new type of galaxy called a super spiral. Images...

Artist’s impression of the giant molecular clouds surrounding the Milky Way’s center, bombarded by very high energy protons accelerated in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / H.E.S.S. Collaboration.

PeVatron: Source of Very-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Discovered at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 17, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) Observatory, a system of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in Namibia, astronomers have...

In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the brilliance of R136, a young star cluster in 30 Doradus. The image is composed of observations from both Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Paul Crowther, University of Sheffield.

Hubble Discovers Nine Extremely Massive Stars in R136

Mar 17, 2016 by News Staff

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have identified nine extremely massive stars in the young star cluster R136. In this image, the...

SDO image of the solar corona in UV light (yellow lines represent the magnetic field on the surface of the Sun). Image credit: NASA / SDO / AIA / LMSAL.

NASA Solar Researchers Create Magnetic Map of Sun

Mar 16, 2016 by News Staff

This illustration lays a depiction of the Sun’s magnetic fields over an image obtained by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) on March 12. SDO...

This artist’s impression shows the very bright patches of material in the crater Occator and elsewhere. Image credit: ESO / L.Calçada / NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA / Steve Albers / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

HARPS Discovers Surprising Changes of Ceres’ Bright Spots

Mar 16, 2016 by News Staff

New observations using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph – a high-precision instrument on the 3.6-m telescope at...

Artist’s impression of a black hole feasting on matter from its companion star in a binary system. Image credit: ESA / ATG medialab.

Astronomers Spot Flashes of Red Light from V404 Cygni

Mar 15, 2016 by News Staff

Violent red flashes have been observed during the 2015 outburst of the nearby black-hole V404 Cygni. An artist’s impression of a black hole, similar...

This composite image of the galaxy cluster MACS J0717 was made by combining data from NASA’s Chandra and Hubble space telescopes, and NRAO’s Jansky Very Large Array. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CXC / NRAO / AUI / NSF / STScI / R. van Weeren, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics / J. Lotz, STScI / HFF Team.

Three Telescopes Capture Image of Extremely Distant Galaxy Cluster

Mar 14, 2016 by Natali Anderson

NRAO’s Karl J. Jansky Very Large Array and two of NASA’s space telescopes — Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble — have captured a stunning...

VLTI Captures Best-Ever View of Old Star’s Dusty Disc

Mar 9, 2016 by News Staff

ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Paranal Observatory, Chile, has taken the sharpest image ever seen of the disc of gas and dust around...

This Hubble image shows thousands of galaxies swimming in the inky blackness of space; a few foreground stars from our Milky Way Galaxy are also visible. Image credit: NASA / ESA / HST Frontier Fields Team / STScI / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Focuses on Pandora’s Box

Mar 7, 2016 by News Staff

This parallel field observation from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals a diverse collection of galaxies in the direction of the constellation Sculptor. This...

GN-z11. Image credit: NASA / ESA / P. Oesch, Yale University / G. Brammer, STScI / P. van Dokkum, Yale University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

GN-z11: Astronomers Discover Farthest Galaxy Yet

Mar 3, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have found a surprisingly bright, infant galaxy 13.4 billion light-years from us, making it the...

Astronomers Detect Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Mar 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

For the first time, astronomers have detected repeating short bursts of radio waves — so-called fast radio bursts — coming from an extremely...

VLT Survey Telescope Captures Vast Nebula Illuminated by Giant Stars

Mar 2, 2016 by News Staff

RCW 106, a vast cloud of gas and dust, along with its rich and fascinating surroundings, are captured in this incredible photo from ESO’s VLT Survey...

The emission-line star Hen 2-80 (center) and surroundings. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Sees Unusual Star

Feb 29, 2016 by News Staff

The subject of this Hubble image is Hen 2-80, a star located in the constellation Crux at a distance of approximately 2,300 light-years away from Earth. The...

This slab cut from the cube generated by the Illustris simulation shows the distribution of baryonic (normal) matter, with a width and height of 350 million light-years and a thickness of 300,000 light-years. Image credit: Markus Haider / Illustris Collaboration.

Supermassive Black Holes Transport Matter into Cosmic Voids, Astronomers Say

Feb 25, 2016 by News Staff

Cosmic voids — vast underdense regions, forming an essential feature of the cosmic web and occupying most of the volume of the Universe — could...

An artist’s impression of FRB 110523 reaching Earth; the colors represent the burst arriving at different radio wavelengths, with long wavelengths (red) arriving seconds after short wavelengths (blue). Image credit: Jingchuan Yu / Beijing Planetarium.

Astronomers Detect Host Galaxy of Fast Radio Burst for the First Time

Feb 25, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of astronomers reported today that they had tracked down the location of a so-called fast radio burst (FRB), a mysterious and rarely...

This part of the image of the Milky Way has been released to mark the completion of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy. Image credit: ESO / APEX / ATLASGAL Consortium / NASA / GLIMPSE Consortium / ESA / Planck.

APEX Captures Spectacular Image of Milky Way’s Galactic Plane

Feb 24, 2016 by News Staff

Using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), a 12-m radio telescope at 5,100 m altitude in the Chilean Atacama desert, astronomers have mapped the full...

Pseudo-color image of Messier 90 (NGC 4569); north is up, east left. Image credit: A. Boselli et al.

Astronomers Spot Galaxy with 300,000 Light-Year-Long Tail of Ionized Gas

Feb 23, 2016 by News Staff

Messier 90, the brightest galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, has a 300,000 light-year-long tail of diffuse ionized gas flowing from it, says an international...

This Hubble image shows WR 31a, a type of star known as a Wolf–Rayet star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Incredible Image of Wolf-Rayet Star

Feb 22, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

WR 31a, a rare example of a massive star, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This Hubble image shows WR 31a, a type...