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This artist's impression shows the structure of our Milky Way Galaxy, including the location of the spiral arms and other components such as the bulge. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESO / R. Hurt.

Dark Matter May Have Caused Earth’s Cataclysms, Mass Extinctions

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

The Solar System’s movement through a dark-matter halo enveloping our Milky Way Galaxy may perturb the orbits of comets and lead to additional heating...

Resembling looming rain clouds on a stormy day, dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, also known as Centaurus A. The warped shape of NGC 5128’s disk of gas and dust is evidence for a past collision and merger with another galaxy. The resulting shockwaves cause hydrogen gas clouds to compress, triggering a firestorm of new star formation. At a distance of just over 11 million light-years, NGC 5128 contains the closest active galactic nucleus to Earth. The center is home for a supermassive black hole that ejects jets of high-speed gas into space, but neither the supermassive black hole or the jets are visible in this image. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage / STScI / AURA / Hubble Collaboration / R. O'Connell, University of Virginia / WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee.

Dark Matter Influences Growth of Galaxies’ Central Supermassive Black Holes

Feb 20, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of elliptical galaxies led by Dr Akos Bogdan of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has revealed a surprising link between galaxies’...

Exoplanet KIC 1255b orbits its parent star followed by a comet-like dust tail. Image credit: Maciej Szyszko.

KIC 1255b: Astronomers Observe Giant Dust Tail of Disintegrating Exoplanet

Feb 19, 2015 by News Staff

Using the ULTRACAM instrument on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, a group of astronomers led by Jakub Bochinski of Open University in Milton Keynes,...

This false-color composite image shows the Scholz’s binary star (center). Image credit: V. D. Ivanov et al., 10.1051/0004-6361/201424883.

Scholz’s Star: Binary System Passed through Outer Oort Cloud 70,000 Years Ago

Feb 18, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Dr Eric Mamajek of the University of Rochester has determined that 70,000 years ago the recently discovered,...

This image shows the location of the mysterious plume (circled) on Mars; south is up. Image credit: W. Jaeschke / D. Parker.

High-Altitude Clouds or Auroras? Researchers Puzzled by Mysterious Plumes on Mars

Feb 17, 2015 by News Staff

Strange plumes that have been observed above the surface of the Red Planet are baffling scientists. This image shows the location of the mysterious plume...

This image shows the globular star cluster Palomar 12. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Spies Distant Globular Cluster Palomar 12

Feb 16, 2015 by News Staff

The Advanced Camera for Surveys on board NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a beautiful image of a globular star cluster called Palomar 12. This...

New ALMA data reveal a diffuse envelope of carbon monoxide gas (shown in red), which surrounds regions of active star formation (yellow); by dissecting these regions with this powerful radio telescope, astronomers are uncovering clues to the processes and conditions that drive furious star formation; the ALMA data are superimposed on a Hubble image. Image credit: B. Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / A. Leroy / STScI / NASA / ST-ECF / ESA / CADC / NRC / CSA.

Astronomers Peer into Heart of Nearby Starburst Galaxy NGC 253

Feb 16, 2015 by News Staff

To understand why some galaxies burst while others do not, Dr David Meier of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and the New Mexico Institute of Mining...

A supermassive black hole digesting the remnants of a star. Image credit: NASA.

Interstellar Science Team Provides New Insights into Rapidly Spinning Black Holes

Feb 14, 2015 by News Staff

In a new paper published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, the team responsible for the visual effects at the center of Christopher Nolan’s...

Kepler-432b: Astronomers Discover New Super-Jupiter Exoplanet

Feb 12, 2015 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, two teams of astronomers, led by Mauricio Ortiz from the University of Heidelberg and Simona Ciceri of the...

Barnard 5 seen within its neighborhood, embedded in dust (blue) as seen with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, in infrared light. Image credit: Bill Saxton / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Observe Birth of Quadruple Star System in Molecular Cloud Barnard 5

Feb 12, 2015 by News Staff

For the first time, astronomers have caught a multiple-star system in the beginning stages of its formation. Barnard 5 seen within its neighborhood, embedded...

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Captures Smiling Galaxy Cluster

Feb 11, 2015 by News Staff

An unusual galaxy cluster called SDSS J1038+4849 appears to smile at us in a newly-released image from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). This...

Artist’s impression of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428; the size of the central stars has been exaggerated to better illustrate their appearance. Image credit: Gabriel Perez / SMM / IAC.

Astronomers Discover Close Pair of White Dwarfs in Center of Planetary Nebula Henize 2-428

Feb 10, 2015 by News Staff

At the heart of the unusual planetary nebula Henize 2-428, a group of astronomers led by Dr Miguel Santander-Garcia from the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional...

This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the spiral galaxy NGC 7814. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Snaps Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 7814 (Little Sombrero)

Feb 9, 2015 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have obtained a new image of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 7814. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope...

Fractal. Image credit: G. Stolyarov / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Find Fractal Patterns in Variable Stars

Feb 9, 2015 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr John Lindner from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the College of Wooster, Ohio, has found evidence for fractal...

This is an artist's impression of an exoplanet. Image credit: Ron Miller.

Billions of Earth-Like Exoplanets Exist in Our Milky Way Galaxy, Say Scientists

Feb 6, 2015 by News Staff

A group of researchers from Australia and Denmark led by Dr Charley Lineweaver of the Australian National University has calculated that there are hundreds...

Zoom on the CMB polarization, filtered to show mostly the signal detected on scales around 5 degrees on the sky. Image credit: ESA / Planck Collaboration.

Universe’s First Stars Appeared 100 Million Years Later than Thought

Feb 6, 2015 by News Staff

Thanks to new data from European Space Agency’s Planck space telescope, researchers have found that the reionization – one of the most important...

The Hubble image on the left (unlabeled at top left, labeled at bottom left) shows the beginning of the event, which took place on January 24, 2015. From left to right the moons Callisto and Io are above Jupiter's cloud tops. The shadows from Europa (not seen in the image), Callisto, and Io are strung out from left to right. Near the end of the event, approximately 42 minutes later (right-side image), Europa has entered the frame at lower left. Slower-moving Callisto is above and to the right of Europa. Fastest-moving Io is approaching the eastern limb of the planet; its shadow is no longer visible on Jupiter. Europa's shadow is toward the left side of the image, and Callisto's shadow to the right. Missing from the sequence is the moon Ganymede, which was outside Hubble's field of view and too far from Jupiter in angular separation to be considered part of the conjunction. The moons in these photos have distinctive colors. The ancient, cratered surface of Callisto is brownish; the smooth icy surface of Europa is yellow-white; and the volcanic, sulfur-dioxide surface of Io is orange. The apparent fuzziness of some of the shadows depends on the moons' distances from Jupiter. The farther away a moon is from the planet, the softer the shadow, because the shadow is more spread out across the disk. The images were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in visible light. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble Heritage Team / STScI / AURA.

Hubble Sees Triple Transit of Galilean Moons

Feb 6, 2015 by News Staff

The Wide Field Camera 3 on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a rare look at three of Galilean moons – Io, Callisto, and Europa –...

This image shows the famous Trifid Nebula to the right of center; it appears as faint and ghostly at these infrared wavelengths when compared to the familiar view at visible wavelengths; this transparency has brought its own benefits - many previously hidden background objects can now be seen clearly; among these are two newly discovered Cepheid variable stars, the first ever spotted on the far side of our Milky Way Galaxy near its central plane. Image credit: ESO / VVV consortium / D. Minniti.

Astronomers Zoom in on Trifid Nebula, Discover Two Distant Cepheids

Feb 4, 2015 by News Staff

A team of astronomers led by Dr István Dékány from Millennium Institute of Astrophysics and the Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, has...

This image shows the peculiar galaxy Arp 230. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA.

Hubble Space Telescope Captures Galaxy Arp 230

Feb 4, 2015 by News Staff

A new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows Arp 230, a peculiar galaxy located at a distance of about 80 million light-years. This image shows...