Astronomy News

Astronomers Find Three Luminous Dual Quasars

SDSS J141637.44+003352.2, a dual quasar at a distance for which the light reaching us was emitted 4.6 billion years ago. The two quasars are 13,000 light-years apart on the sky, placing them near the center of a single massive galaxy that appears to be part of a group, as shown by the neighboring galaxies in the left panel. In the lower panels, optical spectroscopy has revealed broad emission lines associated with each of the two quasars, indicating that the gas is moving at thousands of kilometers per second in the vicinity of two distinct supermassive black holes. The two quasars are different colors, due to different amounts of dust in front of them. Image credit: Silverman et al, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aba4a3.
Aug 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using the Subaru Telescope and W. M. Keck and Gemini observatories, astronomers have spotted three dual quasars — merging galaxy systems that have two supermassive black holes on a collision course with each other. SDSS J141637.44+003352.2, a dual quasar at a distance for which the light reaching us was emitted 4.6 billion years ago. The two quasars are 13,000 light-years apart on the sky, placing them near the center of a single massive galaxy...

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This multi-frequency composite VLBA image shows young radio jets originating near a supermassive black hole at the core of the active galaxy TXS 0128+554; the jets in this image started about 80 years ago, stopped, then resumed about 10 years ago. Image credit: Lister et al / Sophia Dagnello, NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Astronomers Observe Young, Radio-Emitting Jets in Distant Active Galaxy

Aug 27, 2020 by News Staff

Around five years ago, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected high-energy gamma rays coming from TXS 0128+554, an elliptical galaxy located...

When the bar (horizontal in yellow and white) is in its shorter phase on the left, a few spiral arms can be seen near, but not quite firmly connected to the bar. Meanwhile, when the bar is at its longest on the right, there are two stronger spiral arms passing through this time around. These are more clearly connected to either end of the bar, effectively dragging it out and slowing it down. Image credit: Hilmi et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/staa1934.

Astronomers Offer Solution to ‘Galactic Bar Paradox’

Aug 26, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers from Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, France and Japan may have solved the so-called ‘Galactic bar paradox,’ whereby...

An artist’s conception of the HR 858 planetary system. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Artificial Intelligence Validates 50 Exoplanets in Kepler Data

Aug 26, 2020 by News Staff

A team of astronomers in the United Kingdom has used a machine learning algorithm to analyze a sample of candidate exoplanets identified by NASA’s Kepler...

An artist’s impression of a free-floating exoplanet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, Caltech-IPAC.

Free-Floating Exoplanets May Outnumber Stars in Milky Way

Aug 25, 2020 by News Staff

Free-floating, or rogue, exoplanets — free-floating planetary-mass objects that do not orbit a star and instead travel through space — could...

The Solar System moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud. Image credit: NASA / Adler / University of Chicago / Wesleyan.

Solar System is Traveling through Cloud of Supernova Debris: Study

Aug 25, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of scientists has found interstellar iron-60, a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 2.6 million years that is predominantly produced...

The MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured this image of NGC 1365 in optical and infrared light, showing the gas and dust in the central region of the galaxy. Image credit: ESO / TIMER Survey.

VLT Snaps Spectacular Image of NGC 1365

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile have captured a beautiful image...

This Hubble image shows a small portion of the Cygnus Loop, a donut-shaped nebula located 2,400 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / W. Blair / Leo Shatz.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Outer Edge of Cygnus Loop

Aug 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows a tiny portion of a nebula called the Cygnus Loop. This Hubble image shows a small portion of...

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by Hubble on August 8, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Pagan, STScI / Q. Zhang, Caltech.

Hubble Captures Close-Up Image of Comet NEOWISE

Aug 21, 2020 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the coma of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and its dusty output. This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)...

Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast radiation and ultra-fast winds outward, as illustrated in this artist’s conception. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Detect Anomalous Cold Gas Outflow from Milky Way’s Center

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have observed cold, dense and high-velocity molecular gas outflowing from the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The presence of this gas is puzzling,...

Will Universe End with ‘Black Dwarf’ Supernova Explosions?

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A series of ‘black dwarf’ supernovae will be the last astrophysical events to occur in our Universe prior to the so-called heat death, when the Universe...

Chandra Spots High-Velocity Knots of Stellar Debris in Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show small knots of metal-rich debris in the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, also known as SN 1604,...

An artist’s conception of a potential solar companion, which theorists believe was developed in the Sun’s birth cluster and later lost. If proven, the solar companion theory would provide additional credence to theories that the Oort Cloud formed as we see it today, and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed in place. Image credit: M. Weiss.

Early Solar System May Have Had Two Suns

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj show that an equal-mass stellar companion...

An artist’s rendition of a supernova explosion. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / L. Calcada / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Nearby Supernovae Caused Late Devonian Extinctions, Scientists Say

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

Multiple supernova explosions about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and several subsequent extinction events at the Devonian-Carboniferous...

2020 QG (circled streak) was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on August 16, 2020. Image credit: ZTF / Caltech Optical Observatories.

Tiny Near-Earth Asteroid Makes Closest Fly-By of Earth on Record

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A small near-Earth asteroid designated 2020 QG safely flew past our planet on August 16 at 12:08 a.m. EDT (August 15 at 9:08 p.m. PDT) at a distance of...

An artist’s impression of one of the team’s discoveries -- the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld / William Pendrill.

Astronomers Find 95 New Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has spotted 95 new brown dwarfs near the Sun. An artist’s...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Isn’t Made of Hydrogen Ice, Study Says

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

‘Oumuamua, a recently-discovered cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin, is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all, according to a new study...

This Hubble image shows the Meathook Galaxy, a distorted spiral galaxy located 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Volans. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / S. Smartt et al.

Hubble Space Telescope Snaps Close-Up of Meathook Galaxy

Aug 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacular image of part of the distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2442/NGC 2443. This Hubble image shows...

This artist’s impression was generated using an image of Betelgeuse from 2019 taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Betelgeuse’s Mysterious Dimming Likely Caused by Huge Outburst

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

The red supergiant Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and appears even more luminous because it is so close to Earth, only 650 light-years...

A reconstructed image of SPT-S J041839-4751.9. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Rizzo et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2572-6.

ALMA Finds Young Milky Way-Like Galaxy in Early Universe

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered an extremely distant galaxy that looks surprisingly like our...

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