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An artist’s impression of the ultrahot Neptune LTT 9779b and its parent star, LTT 9779. Image credit: Ricardo Ramirez, Universidad de Chile.

TESS Discovers First Known Ultrahot Neptune: LTT 9779b

Oct 1, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered an ultra-short-period Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting the bright Sun-like star LTT 9779. An artist’s impression of the ultrahot...

Stellar Occultation Reveals Binary Trans-Neptunian Object: 2014 WC510

Sep 30, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A trans-Neptunian object designated 2014 WC510 is, in fact, a close binary system, according to an analysis of data obtained by the Research and Education...

Abdullah et al. determined that matter makes up about 31% of the total amount of matter and energy in the Universe. Image credit: Mohamed Abdullah, University of California Riverside.

Astrophysicists Measure Total Amount of Matter in Universe

Sep 29, 2020 by News Staff

Using data on a sample of 756 galaxy clusters identified in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), a team of astrophysicists from the United States and Egypt...

An artist’s impression of an ultrahot Jupiter. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

CHEOPS Observes One of Hottest Exoplanets Known to Date: WASP-189b

Sep 29, 2020 by News Staff

Because of its proximity to its parent star, the dayside equilibrium temperature of the ultrahot Jupiter WASP-189b reaches 3,162 degrees Celsius (5,724...

An artist’s impression of BOSS-EUVLG1, a star-forming galaxy located some 12 billion light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM / IAC.

Astronomers Discover Most Luminous, Un-Obscured Star-Forming Galaxy Ever Seen

Sep 28, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A young starburst galaxy named BOSS-EUVLG1 is by far the most luminous, almost un-obscured star-forming galaxy known at any redshift. An artist’s impression...

This Hubble image shows NGC 5643, a grand design spiral galaxy some 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Lupus. The color image is composed of infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al / Mahdi Zamani.

Hubble Observes Grand Design Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5643

Sep 28, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an absolutely beautiful image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5643. This Hubble image shows...

An artist’s impression of the massive proto-binary system IRAS 16547-4247. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO.

ALMA Detects Salt, Water, Silicon Compounds and Methyl Cyanide around Two Massive Protostars

Sep 25, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected sodium chloride, silicon compounds, and water vapor in the circumstellar...

(3122) Florence will pass safely by Earth on September 1, at a distance of about 4.4 million miles. Image credit: University of Colorado.

Asteroid 2020 SW Flew Safely Past Earth Today

Sep 24, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 SW made its closest approach to Earth today at 7:12 a.m. EDT (4:12 a.m. PDT) at a distance of about 22,000...

The EHT Collaboration unveiled the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the center of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow. The shadow of a black hole seen here is the closest we can come to an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary -- the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name -- is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 25 billion miles (40 billion km) across. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

Crescent Shadow of Messier 87’s Supermassive Black Hole is Wobbling

Sep 23, 2020 by News Staff

In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) delivered the first resolved images of M87*, the supermassive black hole in the center of the giant elliptical...

This ALMA image shows the stellar wind around R Aquilae. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Decin et al.

ALMA Sees Complex Stellar Winds around Red Giant Stars

Sep 23, 2020 by News Staff

Stars with a mass of less than 8 solar masses end their lives as planetary nebulae, structures of ionized gas thrown off by the star and heated by the...

Antolin et al spotted nanojets in the solar corona. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Scientific Visualization Studio.

IRIS Captures First-Ever Clear Images of Nanojets in Solar Corona

Sep 22, 2020 by News Staff

The solar corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, is shaped and mysteriously heated to millions of degrees by the magnetic field of our star....

An artist’s impression of a stellar-mass black hole surrounded by a disk of gas and plasma gravitationally pulled from a close binary star companion. Image credit: NASA / CXC / M. Weiss.

Astrophysicists Suggest New Way to Detect Stellar-Mass Black Holes

Sep 22, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An analysis of archival X-ray data from NASA’s Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer has revealed a clear separation between the characteristics of stellar-mass...

Rosetta NavCam image taken on 14 March 2015 at 85.7 km from the center of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko; it has been cleaned to remove the more obvious bad pixels and cosmic ray artefacts, and intensities have been scaled. Image credit: ESA / Rosetta / NAVCAM / CC BY-SA IGO 3.0.

Ultraviolet Aurora Spotted on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Sep 21, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from several instruments aboard ESA’s Rosetta mission, researchers have found evidence of far-ultraviolet aurora on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. This...

An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414 system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Astronomers Find Two Massive Exoplanets in Nearby Binary System

Sep 21, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered two planets orbiting a bright dwarf star in the binary stellar system Gliese 414. An artist’s impression of the Gliese 414...

This Hubble image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5585. Hotspots of star formation can be seen along the galaxy’s faint spiral arms. These regions shine a brilliant blue, contrasting strikingly against the ever-black background of space. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. Two 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 / R. Tully / Gagandeep Anand.

Hubble Spots Dark Matter-Rich Spiral Galaxy

Sep 21, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photo of an unusual spiral galaxy called NGC 5585. This Hubble image...

An artist’s impression of a magnetar emitting a burst of radiation. Image credit: Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Precisely Measure Distance to Magnetar

Sep 18, 2020 by News Staff

Using NSF’s Very Long Baseline Array, an international team of astronomers has made the direct geometric measurement of the distance to XTE J1810-197,...

This image of Jupiter was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on August 25, 2020, when the planet was 653 million km (406 million miles) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / OPAL Team.

Hubble Captures Spectacular Photos of Jupiter and Its Icy Moon Europa

Sep 17, 2020 by News Staff

Two new photos, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, show Jupiter with its turbulent atmosphere and giant storms. One of the images also features...

Composite image of Uranus. Image credit: Marcos van Dam / W. M. Keck Observatory.

Herschel Measures Thermal Properties of Uranian Moons

Sep 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from the PACS photometer onboard ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have found that thermal properties of the five major moons...

An artist’s impression of the potential Jupiter-size planet WD 1856+534b and its much smaller host star, a dim white dwarf. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers Find Jupiter-Sized Exoplanet Orbiting White Dwarf

Sep 16, 2020 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and several ground-based telescopes, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting...