A new study details how researchers used data from blazars to measure the evolution of the EBL over the past five billion years for the first time. How much light has been emitted by all galaxies since the cosmos began? After all, every photon (particle of light) from ultraviolet to far infrared wavelengths ever radiated [...]

Using VLBA and the European VLBI Network, astronomers were able to accurately measure the distance to double-star system SS Cygni, resolving a major problem in the understanding of a class of stars that undergo regular outbursts. Sometimes astronomy is like real estate — what’s important is location, location, and location. Astronomers have resolved a major [...]

By using data from the Hubble Space Telescope combined with infrared data from ground-based telescopes, researchers were able to view the Ring Nebula’s true shape and construct a precise 3D model of the nebula. The Ring Nebula’s distinctive shape makes it a popular illustration for astronomy books. But new observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope [...]

New data has revealed that magnetars may be more diverse, and common, than previously thought. Researchers believe these findings with help them better understand supernova explosions and the number and evolution of magnetars. This graphic shows an exotic object in our galaxy called SGR 0418+5729 (SGR 0418 for short). As described in our press release [...]

ESO’s Very Large Telescope celebrates 15 years of success with a new image of the stellar nursery IC 2944. With this new view of a spectacular stellar nursery ESO is celebrating 15 years of the Very Large Telescope — the world’s most advanced optical instrument. This picture reveals thick clumps of dust silhouetted against the [...]

New research from the University of Leeds and University of Chicago reveals a model of Sun’s magnetic field. Sparked by a medium-sized (C-class) flare, a long, magnetic filament burst out from the Sun, producing one of the best shows that SDO has seen (Aug. 31, 2012). Viewed in the 304 Angstrom wavelength of extreme ultraviolet [...]

In a newly published study, researchers from John Hopkins University detail the role of turbulence in magnetic field misbehavior of solar flares. When a solar flare filled with charged particles erupts from the sun, its magnetic fields sometime break a widely accepted rule of physics. The flux-freezing theorem dictates that the magnetic lines of force [...]

The Herschel Space telescope has discovered a massive merging of two galaxies that took place when the universe was roughly 3 billion years old. The galaxies, collectively called HXMM01, are churning out the equivalent of 2,000 suns a year. Pasadena, California – A massive and rare merging of two galaxies has been spotted in images [...]

Hubble reveals the full beauty of a bull’s eye pattern of eleven or so concentric rings around the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. In this detailed view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the so-called Cat’s Eye Nebula looks like the penetrating eye of the disembodied sorcerer Sauron from the film adaptation of [...]

Theoretical physicists from the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology detail a new mathematical description of how dark matter particles behave, which could help narrow the search for them. Now that it looks like the hunt for the Higgs boson is over, particles of dark matter are at the top of the physics “Most [...]

NASA’s lunar monitoring program detected a bright impact on the Moon when a meteoroid hit the lunar surface in Mare Imbrium. The resulting flash was 10 times as bright as anything they’ve ever seen before and the impact site was glowing like a 4th magnitude star. For the past 8 years, NASA astronomers have been [...]

NASA’s Curiosity rover has completed the drilling of the second rock sample on Mars and should deliver portions of the sample in coming days to laboratory instruments inside the rover. Pasadena, California – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has used the drill on its robotic arm to collect a powdered sample from the interior of a [...]