A team of CfA astronomers is reporting that the object they observed using the Pan-STARRS telescope was a supermassive black hole, roughly two million solar masses in size, devouring what was probably a 5 billion year old star. Black holes can come in a wide range of masses. Some, with only about one solar mass, [...]

Data captured by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope show direct evidence of a supermassive black hole using its powerful gravitational forces to rip apart a helium rich star that resides in a galaxy roughly 2.7 billion light-years away. This marks the first time that astronomers have been able to identify a black [...]

NASA’s HiRISE spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Mars, spotted these interesting patterns, which are actually rare lava flows. This is the first time that lava flows have been seen on Mars, and the corkscrew snail shell-like patterns are indicative of previous volcanic activity. The formations are in an area called Athabasca Valles, which is a [...]

New images captured by Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope show clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula Messier 78. The images were created by overlaying the APEX observations on a visible-light image in orange, allowing astronomers a closer look for studying the dusty clouds in which stars are born. Dust may sound boring and uninteresting [...]

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, scientists discovered a new ultraluminous X-ray source located in spiral galaxy M83, which is roughly 15 million light years from Earth. The ULX was produced by a black hole that is part of class of black holes capable of producing as much energy in X-rays as a million suns radiate [...]

Physicists from Yale University have engineered a “random laser” which they believe will improve both processing time and the clarity of the images from devices that use laser illumination. The published study describes their findings in detail and explains how random lasers enable faster image generation while generating speckle-free images. Using “random lasers” as a [...]

A new image produced from exposures in visible and infrared light from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 shows a star from the Egg Nebula running out of nuclear fuel and entering the protoplanetary nebula stage. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been at the cutting edge of research into what happens to stars like our [...]

Using images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, scientists were able to locate an aging star releasing large amounts of dust as it begins the “red giant” phase of its life. Scientists know of only one other star currently in this stage, Sakurai’s Object, and state that this is a very rare observation. PASADENA, California [...]

A new technique developed by scientists at the University of Liverpool may help medical experts develop ways to reduce the risk of fibrillation by showing them a 3-D image of the heart and the fibers that control heart rhythm. The new 3-D images could further understanding of how the body’s heartbeat can be disturbed, which [...]

While studying images from the Cassini spacecraft, scientists discovered holes in Saturn’s 550,000 mile F ring. These holes, called “mini-jets” by the scientists, have filled scientists in on the behavior of Saturn’s F ring and show that the F ring region is filled with objects from a half mile in size to a hundred miles [...]

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 shows stellar grouping NGC 2040, also known as LH 88. These bright stars shining through what looks like a haze in the night sky are part of a young stellar grouping in one of the largest known star formation regions of [...]

The NASA Dawn mission is receiving 40 extra days to explore Vesta and scientists plan to make the most out of it. They hope to learn more about this mysterious asteroid while extending the observations at Dawn’s current low-altitude mapping orbit and building the best possible maps of the elemental composition of Vesta’s surface. PASADENA, [...]