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This image shows the Eagle Nebula’s Pillars of Creation as seen in visible light, capturing the multi-colored glow of gas clouds, wispy tendrils of dark cosmic dust, and the rust-colored elephants’ trunks of the nebula’s famous pillars. The dust and gas in the pillars is seared by the intense radiation from young stars and eroded by strong winds from massive nearby stars. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Hubble Heritage Team.

Astronomers Create Hubble Source Catalog

Mar 16, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers has created a new comprehensive catalog of astronomical objects observed with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This image shows...

This image shows the compact dwarf galaxy SBS 1415+437. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Alessandra Aloisi, STScI / Nick Rose.

Hubble Zeroes in on Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS 1415+437

Mar 16, 2015 by News Staff

Scientists using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have looked at a dwarf galaxy called SBS 1415+437 with unprecedented clarity. This image shows the...

A rippled Milky Way Galaxy may be 50 percent larger than previously estimated. Image credit: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Our Milky Way Galaxy May Be Larger Than Thought

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Yan Xu of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, our Galaxy is at least 50 percent larger than is commonly estimated. A...

This image shows the newly-discovered dwarf galaxy Reticulum 2. Image credit: Sergey E. Koposov et al / Dark Energy Survey.

Reticulum 2: Gamma Rays from Dwarf Galaxy May Be Clue on Mysterious Dark Matter

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers, led by Dr Alex Geringer-Sameth of Carnegie Mellon University, has detected gamma rays emanating from the recently discovered dwarf...

VLT Survey Telescope Focuses on Ara OB1 Stellar Association

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

Dusty star nurseries, clusters and emission nebulae can be seen in this composite image from ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope at Paranal Observatory, Chile. This...

This VLA radio image shows the galaxy cluster Abell 2256. Image credit: Owen et al. / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Abell 2256: Radio Telescope Zooms in on Gigantic Collision of Galaxies

Mar 10, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have captured the most detailed image yet of the merging cluster Abell 2256. This VLA radio...

This image shows the newly-discovered dwarf galaxy Eridanus 2. Image credit: Sergey E. Koposov et al / Dark Energy Survey.

Astronomers Discover Nine New Satellites of Milky Way Galaxy

Mar 10, 2015 by News Staff

Using the data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), astronomers have found nine new ultra-faint Milky Way satellites. Based on the morphological properties,...

This image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy UCG 8201. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Dwarf Irregular Galaxy UGC 8201

Mar 9, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new image of the M81 group post-starburst galaxy UGC 8201. This image shows...

This artist’s conception shows the extrasolar planet Gliese 581d. Image credit: Tyrogthekreeper / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Potentially Habitable Super-Earth Gliese 581d Probably Does Exist, Scientists Say

Mar 9, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé from the Queen Mary University of London and Dr Mikko Tuomi from the University of Hertfordshire have dismissed...

An artist impression of the mass-transfer phase followed by a double-detonation supernova that leads to the ejection of US 708. While this illustration shows the supernova, bottom center, and the ejected star, left, at the same time, in reality the supernova would have been faded away long before the star reached that position. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / S. Geier.

US 708: Hypervelocity Star Ejected by Supernova Breaks Galactic Speed Record

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of astronomers led by Dr Stephan Geier from the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany, has determined that a hypervelocity...

This image shows four different images of SN Refsdal whose light has been distorted and magnified by the massive galaxy cluster MACS J1149+2223 in front of it. The huge mass of the cluster and one of the galaxies within it is bending the light from a supernova behind them and creating four separate images of the supernova. The light has been magnified and distorted due to gravitational lensing and as a result the images are arranged around the elliptical galaxy in a formation known as an Einstein cross. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Rodney, JHU / FrontierSN team / T. Treu, UCLA / P. Kelly, UC Berkeley / GLASS team / J. Lotz, STScI / Frontier Fields team / M. Postman, STScI / CLASH team / Z. Levay, STScI.

SN Refsdal: Hubble Spots Four Magnified Images of Same Supernova

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

Due to the gravitational lensing technique, a team of astronomers led by Dr Patrick Kelly from the University of California, Berkeley, has observed four...

The exoplanet 30 Ari Bb orbits its primary star, yellow, in about a year’s time; the star, 30 Ari B, has a companion - the small red dwarf shown at upper left; this pair of stars is itself locked in a long-distance orbit with another pair of stars, upper right, known as 30 Ari A. Image credit: Karen Teramura / UH IfA.

30 Ari Bb: Super-Jupiter Exoplanet Orbiting in Quadruple Star System

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of astronomers headed by Dr Lewis Roberts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, an extrasolar gas giant called 30 Arietis...

The star cluster Camargo 438. Image credit: D. Camargo / NASA / WISE.

Astronomers Discover Two Very Distant Star Clusters

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Brazilian astronomers using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer have discovered two clusters of stars forming at the very edge of our...

This image from Hubble shows the T Tauri variable star V1331 Cyg. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Karl Stapelfeldt, GSFC / B. Stecklum & A. Choudhary, Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg.

Hubble Sees Young Star V1331 Cyg, Its Nebular Environment

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking image of a young variable star known as V1331 Cyg and its dusty environment. This...

This spectacular view from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy cluster Abell 1689. The galaxy A1689-zD1 is located in the box, although it is still so faint that it is barely seen in this picture. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Bradley, Johns Hopkins University / R. Bouwens, University of California, Santa Cruz /H. Ford, Johns Hopkins University / G. Illingworth, University of California, Santa Cruz.

A1689-zD1: Astronomers Find Highly Evolved Galaxy in Early Universe

Mar 3, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists, headed by Dr Darach Watson of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, has used the X-ray instrument on ESO’s Very...

The background image in this composite shows the Hubble image of the region known as the Hubble Deep Field South. New observations using VLT’s MUSE instrument have detected remote galaxies that are not visible to Hubble; two examples are highlighted in this composite view; these objects are completely invisible in the Hubble picture but show up strongly in the appropriate parts of the three-dimensional MUSE data. Image credit: ESO / MUSE Consortium / R. Bacon.

ESO’s VLT Telescope Sees Deep Universe in 3D

Feb 26, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using the MUSE instrument on European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile have been able to get...

This image shows SDSS J0100+2802 (center), the brightest quasar in the early Universe. Image credit: Sloan Digital Sky Survey.

Astronomers Discover Record-Breaking Quasar

Feb 25, 2015 by News Staff

A group of astronomers from the United States, China, Chile, and Australia, has discovered the brightest quasar in the early Universe, powered by the most...

This image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 4424. To the left there are two bright objects in the frame: the brightest is another, smaller galaxy known as LEDA 213994, and the object closer to NGC 4424 is an anonymous star in our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Gilles Chapdelaine.

Hubble Presents Amazing New Image: NGC 4424

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

This new image from the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showcases NGC 4424, a 12th magnitude barred spiral galaxy...

Comparing Hubble images of the gas-and-dust disk encircling the young star Beta Pictoris taken in 1997 and 2012, astronomers find that the dust distribution has barely changed over 15 years despite the fact that the entire structure is orbiting the star like a carousel. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Apai, University of Arizona, Tucson / G. Schneider, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Hubble Sees Gas-and-Dust Disk around Beta Pictoris

Feb 23, 2015 by News Staff

Using the unique observing capabilities of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have produced the most detailed picture so far of an edge-on...