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This WFI image shows the spectacular nebula Messier 17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula. This vast region of gas, dust and hot young stars is approximately 5,920 light-years away. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Unveil Detailed View of Messier 17

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers have obtained one of the sharpest views ever of a vast interstellar cloud of dust and gas called Messier 17 (M17). This WFI image shows the...

Two black holes are entwined in a gravitational tango in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA.

Binary Supermassive Black Holes May Be Rarer Than Thought

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

There may be fewer supermassive black hole binaries at the cores of galaxies than previously thought, says a team of scientists from Brandeis University...

This is an artist's impression of the young exoplanet Beta Pictoris b and its parent star. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.

Gemini Planet Imager Captures Best View Yet of Exoplanet Moving around its Sun

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A series of images taken with the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) on the Gemini South telescope in Chile shows an extrasolar gas giant called Beta Pictoris...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3521. The image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board Hubble. Image credit: NASA/ ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt, Queen’s University Belfast / Robert Gendler.

Hubble Space Telescope Zooms in on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3521

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning new image of a flocculent spiral galaxy called NGC 3521. This Hubble image shows the spiral...

Artist’s depiction of a black hole merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / A. Hobart / Josh Barnes, University of Hawaii / John Hibbard, NRAO.

Astronomers Find Closest Pair of Supermassive Black Holes

Sep 17, 2015 by News Staff

A team of U.S. astronomers has found the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever discovered in the Universe. Artist’s depiction of a black hole...

This illustration shows what the activities of a Kardashev Type III civilisation might look like - encapsulating the energy of stars by so-called Dyson spheres is one way to harness enormous energies on galactic scales; the resulting waste heat products should be detectable by telescopes. Image credit: Danielle Futselaar / ASTRON.

Astronomer Finds No Evidence of Kardashev Type III Civilizations in Local Universe

Sep 17, 2015 by News Staff

So-called Kardashev Type III civilizations – galaxy-spanning civilizations that command power equal to all of the stars in their galaxy – are...

This image shows the Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy, a close neighbor of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Despite their proximity, both galaxies have very distinct histories and characters. This galaxy is much smaller, fainter and older than the Milky Way and appears here as a cloud of faint stars filling most of the image. Many other much more distant galaxies can be seen shining right through the sparse stars of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Stunning Image of Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

Using the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile, astronomers have captured a new image of a nearby small...

This image was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory at 3:12 a.m. EDT on September 13, 2015. The edge of Earth, visible near the top of the frame, appears fuzzy because Earth’s atmosphere blocks different amounts of light at different altitudes. On the left, the Moon’s edge is perfectly crisp, because it has no atmosphere. This image was taken in extreme UV wavelengths of 171 angstroms. Though this light is invisible to our eyes, it is typically colorized in gold. Image credit: NASA / SDO.

NASA’s SDO Spacecraft Catches Double Solar Eclipse

Sep 15, 2015 by News Staff

NASA’s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) spacecraft captured this image of Earth and the Moon transiting the Sun together on September 13, 2015. This...

The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming toward the Sun, as seen on September 14, 2015, by SOHO. This is the 3,000th comet discovered in the data from the space observatory since it launched in 1995, Image credit: NASA / ESA / SOHO.

SOHO Observatory Discovers Its 3,000th Comet

Sep 15, 2015 by News Staff

On Sunday, September 13, the NASA/ESA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 3,000th comet. The dot in the cross-hairs is a comet streaming...

This Hubble image shows NGC 3921, an interacting pair of galaxies in the late stages of its merger. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, geckzilla.com.

NGC 3921: Hubble Spies Colliding Galaxies

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

A beautiful new image of two colliding spiral galaxies, known as NGC 3921, has been released by NASA. This Hubble image shows NGC 3921, an interacting...

This image, using data from Spitzer and the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy cluster SpARCS1049+56. At the middle of the picture is the largest, central member of the family of galaxies (upper right red dot of central pair). Unlike other central galaxies in clusters, this one is bursting with the birth of new stars. Image credit: NASA / STScI / ESA / JPL-Caltech / McGill.

Astronomers Discover Unique Cluster of Galaxies Almost 10 Billion Light-Years Away

Sep 11, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has discovered a distant cluster of galaxies with active star formation occurring in close proximity to the cluster’s...

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...

Tiny clouds of carbon monoxide in the dwarf galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte: the carbon monoxide emission is shown as black single contours inside the 1 arcmin x 1 arcmin white squares that outline the area mapped by ALMA. The inset in the top left is the full view of the galaxy. Image credit: Monica Rubio et al.

Dense Clouds of Star-Forming Gas Unexpectedly Discovered in WLM Dwarf Galaxy

Sep 10, 2015 by News Staff

A nearby dwarf irregular galaxy called the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM) poses an intriguing mystery: how is it able to form large star clusters without...

These panels show different components of near-infrared background light detected by the NASA/ ESA Hubble Space Telescope in deep-sky surveys. The one on the upper left is a mosaic of images taken over a ten-year period. When all the stars and galaxies are masked, the background signals can be isolated, as seen in the second and third panels. The one on the upper right reveals ‘intrahalo light’ from rogue stars torn from their host galaxies, and the lower panel captures the signature of the first galaxies formed in the Universe. Image credit: Ketron Mitchell-Wynne / University of California, Irvine.

New Method Helps Detect Signs of Primordial Galaxies

Sep 9, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has generated the most accurate statistical description yet of early galaxies as they existed in the Universe about...

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and an interstellar filament. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration.

Planck Captures Magellanic Clouds, Interstellar Filament 300 Light-Years Away

Sep 8, 2015 by News Staff

This image portrays the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – two spectacular, naked-eye companion galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy; and a filament...

This image shows the spiral galaxy Messier 63, widely known as the Sunflower Galaxy. The image was taken with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.

Messier 63: ‘Sunflower’ Blooms in New Hubble Image

Sep 7, 2015 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this beautiful image of the famous galaxy Messier 63, also known as the Sunflower Galaxy. This image shows...

This image snapped by the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope reveals a detailed view of part of the Prawn Nebula, also known as Gum 56. It shows clumps of hot new-born stars nestled in among the clouds that make up the nebula. Image credit: ESO.

Astronomers Capture Cosmic ‘Prawn’

Sep 2, 2015 by News Staff

Using the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, astronomers have captured an image of part of the gigantic nebula Gum 56. This...

Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of the spiral galaxy Messier 96 in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / LEGUS Team / R. Gendler.

Hubble Zeroes in on Messier 96

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

This newly-released image from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a Milky Way-like galaxy Messier 96. Dust...

$Herschel images of a small fraction of the galaxies analyzed in the new study. The images have a size of 5 x 5 arcsec2. The circle has a radius of 1.5 arcsec. Image credit: Stephen Eales et al.$

Astronomers Find First Direct Evidence of Galaxy ‘Metamorphosis’

Aug 28, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of astronomers has shown that a large proportion of galaxies have undergone a major ‘metamorphosis’ since they were initially...