ALMA Discovers Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies
Researchers using the radio telescope ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) observed signals of oxygen, carbon, and dust from a galaxy in the early Universe 13…
Astronomy
Hubble Views Rose-Like Bloom in Spiral Galaxy NGC 972
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week shows bright, colourful pockets of star formation blooming like roses in a spiral galaxy named NGC…
TESS Mission Discovers Smallest Planet to Date
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet,…
Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life
Cyanide and carbon monoxide are both deadly poisons to humans, but compounds containing iron, cyanide, and carbon monoxide discovered in carbon-rich meteorites by a team…
Saturn’s Moon Titan Might Be Encrusted With Alien Crystals
The frigid lakeshores of Saturn’s moon Titan might be encrusted with strange, unearthly minerals, according to new research being presented here. Scientists re-creating Titan-esque conditions…
Hubble Space Telescope Views ‘Trillions of Stars’
This Hubble Picture of the Week shows the spiral galaxy Messier 98, which is located about 45 million light-years away in the constellation of Coma…
First Detection of Polarized Radio Waves in Gamma Ray Burst Jets
Good fortune and cutting-edge scientific equipment have allowed scientists to observe a Gamma Ray Burst jet with a radio telescope and detect the polarisation of…
Astronomers Confirm the Low Density of Kepler Exoplanets
The Kepler mission and its extension, called K2, discovered thousands of exoplanets. It detected them using the transit technique, measuring the dip in light intensity…
Astronomers Discover Cool Halo Gas Spinning Like Galactic Disks
A group of astronomers led by Crystal Martin and Stephanie Ho of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has discovered a dizzying cosmic choreography among…
Hubble Image of the Week – Irregular Galaxy IC 10
This image shows an irregular galaxy named IC 10, a member of the Local Group — a collection grouping of over 50 galaxies within our…
Moon Contains Clues to the Ancient Mysteries of the Sun
The Sun is why we’re here. It’s also why Martians or Venusians are not. When the Sun was just a baby four billion years ago,…
Martian Dust Storms Can Regenerate and Sustain Themselves
Dust is a critical component in the Martian atmosphere. It influences the atmosphere’s circulation by heating or cooling it and is in turn redistributed around…
New Class of ‘Cold Quasars’ Was Unknown Until Now
Astronomers have discovered a new class of “cold quasars” that could change our perception of how galaxies mature. The discovery was announced June 12 at…
Astronauts View an Aurora From the International Space Station
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Christina Koch snapped this image of an aurora, saying: “Years ago at the South Pole, I looked up…
SOFIA Reveals What May Be Keeping Milky Way’s Black Hole Quiet
Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and our Milky Way is no exception. But many other galaxies have highly active black…
Inward Migration of Mimas Helped Shape Saturn’s Rings
The Solar System’s second largest planet both in mass and size, Saturn is best known for its rings. These are divided by a wide band,…
Hubble Image of the Week – An Explosive Galaxy
When massive stars die at the end of their short lives, they light up the cosmos with bright, explosive bursts of light and material known…
Scientists Trace Co-Evolution of Galaxies and Supermassive Black Holes
The formation and growth of galaxies in the early universe is a key research topic for future giant telescopes like the Giant Magellan Telescope and…