Astronomy News

ALMA Detects Hydrogen Cyanide Belt in Stratosphere of Neptune

This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the narrow angle camera of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. The images were taken at a range of 7.1 million km (4.4 million miles) from the planet, 4 days and 20 hours before closest approach. The picture shows the Great Dark Spot and its companion bright smudge; on the west limb the fast moving bright feature called Scooter and the little dark spot are visible. These clouds were seen to persist for as long as Voyager’s cameras could resolve them. North of these, a bright cloud band similar to the south polar streak may be seen. Image credit: NASA / JPL.
May 21, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have produced a detailed map of intensity and abundance of gaseous hydrogen cyanide in the upper stratosphere of Neptune, the eighth and farthest-known solar system planet from the Sun. This picture of Neptune was produced from the last whole planet images taken through the green and orange filters on the narrow angle camera of NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. The images were...

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ALMA detected the emission from carbon ions in the BRI 1335-0417 galaxy. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / T. Tsukui & S. Iguchi, doi: 10.1126/science.abe9680.

ALMA Spots Candidate for Most Distant Known Spiral Galaxy

May 20, 2021 by News Staff

The star-forming disk galaxy with a two-armed spiral morphology, named BRI 1335-0417, existed when the Universe was just 1.4 billion years old. ALMA detected...

An artist’s impression of a pulsar. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

FAST Radio Telescope Discovers 201 New Pulsars

May 20, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) have discovered 201 pulsars, including currently the faintest pulsars...

Iron and Nickel Detected in Atmospheres of Solar System Comets

May 20, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have detected neutral atoms of two heavy metals — iron (Fe I) and nickel (Ni I) — in the atmospheres...

This image shows the spectrum of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov on the bottom right superimposed to a real photo of the comet taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in 2019; the lines of nickel are indicated by orange dashes. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada / O. Hainaut / P. Guzik & M. Drahus.

Astronomers Detect Nickel in Coma of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

May 19, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Using spectroscopic observations from ESO’s Very Large Telescope, a duo of astronomers from Poland has detected atomic nickel vapor in the cold coma...

An impression of the encounter between the Milky Way and the Sausage dwarf galaxy. Image credit: V. Belokurov / Juan Carlos Muñoz / ESO.

New Research Sheds Light on Formation History of Milky Way

May 18, 2021 by News Staff

Recent results based on data from ESA’s Gaia mission have revealed that the stellar content of the inner halo of our Milky Way Galaxy is dominated by...

Sketch of the relative positions of NASA’s and ESA’s spacecraft that observed the February 12, 2021 coronal mass ejections; ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft was ‘behind’ the Sun from the perspective of Earth; the Earth was about 12 degrees west of Sun-center as seen from Solar Orbiter; ESA’s Proba-2, which orbits the Earth, and the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), which is located in orbit around the Lagrange point 1, 1.5 million km in front of the Earth towards the Sun, also viewed the coronal mass ejection; NASA’s STEREO-A (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) also caught a glimpse of the event from its viewpoint away from the direct Sun-Earth line; together the spacecraft provide valuable, different perspectives on the same event. Image credit: ESA.

Solar Orbiter Observes Two Huge Eruptions on Sun

May 18, 2021 by News Staff

The Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), the Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) and the Metis coronagraph onboard the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter captured different...

This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the massive galaxy cluster ACO S 295. The image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instruments in the infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Seven filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / F. Pacaud / D. Coe.

Hubble Spots Massive Cluster of Galaxies: ACO S 295

May 17, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released an incredibly beautiful shot of ACO S 295, a massive galaxy cluster located some 3.5 billion light-years away in the small...

This visible-light image of Jupiter was created from data captured on January 11, 2017 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Near the top, a long brown feature called a ‘brown barge’ extends 72,000 km (nearly 45,000 miles) in the east-west direction. The Great Red Spot stands out prominently in the lower left, while the smaller feature nicknamed Red Spot Jr. (known to Jovian scientists as Oval BA) appears to its lower right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / Wong et al. / de Pater et al. / M. Zamani.

Astronomers Capture Stunning New Images of Jupiter

May 12, 2021 by News Staff

Three images of Jupiter from the 8-m Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North telescope at the Gemini Observatory and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope show...

This image, taken with ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the HII region DG121, which is also known as RCW 7, GAL 232.62+01.00, and IRAS 07299-1651. The brightest star in DG121, seen near the center in the picture, is HD 60068. Image credit: ESO.

VLT Observes Huge Cloud of Ionized Hydrogen

May 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have taken a picture of DG121, a HII region located in the constellation of Puppis. This image, taken with...

An artist’s impression of the sub-Neptune exoplanet TOI-220b and its host star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Finds Massive Exoplanet around 10-Billion-Year-Old Dwarf Star

May 10, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite have discovered a sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting TOI-220, a bright and old K-type dwarf...

This Hubble image shows the emission nebula NGC 2313. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Sahai.

Hubble Spots Beautiful Emission Nebula in Monoceros

May 10, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of an emission nebula called NGC 2313. This Hubble image shows the emission nebula...

This overlay shows radio (orange) and infrared images of the giant molecular cloud W49A, where new stars are being formed. Image credit: De Pree et al. / Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / AUI / NSF / Spitzer / NASA.

Astronomers Take Closer Look at Giant Molecular Cloud W49A

May 5, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have captured new, high-resolution radio images of a massive star-forming region called...

An artist’s impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

TESS Detects Bright, Long-Lasting Gamma-Ray Burst

May 4, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) exoplanet-hunting mission have detected the rising and decaying optical afterglow...

An artist’s impression of an antimatter star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Antimatter Stars Could Be Lurking in Milky Way

May 4, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have identified 14 candidate antistars — stars made of antimatter — in...

This Hubble image shows the giant galaxy cluster Abell 3827. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Massey.

Hubble Observes Massive Galaxy Cluster: Abell 3827

May 3, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Abell 3827, a galaxy cluster located approximately 1.3 billion light-years away in the southern constellation of Indus, is so massive that its gravity...

This composite image, taken by JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft, shows Venus. Image credit: JAXA / ISAS / DARTS / Damia Bouic.

Radio Astronomers Measure Fundamental Properties of Venus

Apr 30, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using Earth-based radar observations have measured some of the fundamental properties of the planet Venus: the precise length of a day, the...

This Hubble image shows the young exoplanet PDS 70b. Image credit: Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Captures First-Ever Ultraviolet Image of Exoplanet

Apr 30, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have imaged a Jupiter-sized, still-forming planet around the orange dwarf star PDS 70. This is the...

This image of the irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans B, taken by the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m Telescope, features red-colored star-forming regions near the galaxy’s center; surrounding the galaxy are several bright stars that are located much closer to us in our Milky Way Galaxy, identified by the crisscross patterns created by light interacting with the structure of the telescope, as well as numerous fuzzy-looking background galaxies that appear small because they are much farther away than Sextans B. Image credit: KPNO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Massey, Lowell Observatory / G. Jacoby / K. Olsen / C. Smith, AURA & NSF / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.

Astronomers Snap Detailed Image of Dwarf Galaxy Sextans B

Apr 29, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory have captured a breathtaking photo of an irregular dwarf galaxy...

The first artist’s illustration shows a key part of the process that created this new black hole, as the two neutron stars spin around each other while merging. The purple material depicts debris from the merger. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss.

Black Hole-Neutron Star Mergers May Help Precisely Measure Universe’s Rate of Expansion

Apr 29, 2021 by News Staff

Gravitational-wave and electromagnetic observations of neutron-star-black-hole mergers can provide precise local measurements of the Universe’s rate...

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