Sombrero Galaxy Exhibits Dual Characteristics
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope revealed that the Sombrero galaxy, also known as NGC 4594, is one of the first known galaxies to exhibit dual characteristics,…
Astronomy News
Earth in Motion and the Galaxies Around it
Once scientists realized that their understanding of the distribution of galaxies was incorrect, researchers began studying the large scale structure of the universe to better…
No Evidence of Dark Matter Around the Sun
A new study is going against widely believed theories about dark matter. While using telescopes including the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory,…
Infant Galaxy Showcases Star Systems in the Early Universe
A rare cosmic zoom lens, which uses the gravity of a large mass to magnify light from distant objects, has allowed a team of US…
Radio Telescope Square Kilometer Array Will be Powered by $43-Million IBM Supercomputer
The world’s largest telescope will be the Square Kilometer Array, and when it starts peering into radio waves emanating from the skies, it will generate…
Curious Findings from Early Stages of Planet Formation
While using infrared spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope to analyze the dust in several young brown dwarf disks, scientists discovered that the cold outer…
Hubble Captures New Image of Messier 9
The power of the Hubble Space Telescope never ceases to amaze. Pictured above is the most detailed image ever taken of the globular cluster Messier…
Emerald-Cut Dwarf Galaxy Located 70 Million Light-Years Away
This rare rectangular-shaped galaxy was located 70 million light-years away, 21 Mpc, in the Eridanus Group, in the constellation Eridanus. LEDA 074886 has been dubbed…
Origins of Type Ia Supernovae
While studying SN 2011fe and using X-ray and ultraviolet observations from NASA’s Swift satellite, researchers were able to provide new insights into the origins of…
Quasars Acting as Gravitational Lenses Viewed by Hubble
Quasars, which are powered by supermassive black holes, are among the brightest objects in the universe and make it nearly impossible for astronomers to estimate…
Gas Flows Back Into Star-Forming Galaxies
To better understand how galaxies continue to turn one solar mass’s worth of matter per year into stars, a team of astronomers examined gas associated…
Spacecraft to Explore Supermassive Black Holes at Center of Galaxies
By the standards of space-based astronomy, NASA’s new NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) telescope that will be launched later this month has a modest budget…
“Zoom-Ins” Track and Model Parcels of Gas as They Move Inward Towards the Torus
Scientists aren’t sure how quasars form, how they develop in time, or how (or what) physical processes generate their stupendous energies; but by using a…
Searching for “Bubbles” in the Milky Way
While looking over data from the Spitzer Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) and Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer Galactic (MIPSGAL) surveys, volunteers have…
The Most Distant Cluster of Red Galaxies Ever Observed
Missed by previous surveys, astronomers using FourStar find 30 red galaxies, which form the earliest known “galaxy city” in the universe, located 10.5 billion light…
Atmosphere of Super-Earth GJ1214b Possibly Includes Abundant Water Vapor
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers probed the atmosphere around the transiting super-Earth known as GJ1214b and concluded that unless the atmosphere has a thick…
Ultra-Fast Outflows are Common Features of Black-Hole-Powered Galaxies
Researchers targeted 42 nearby active galaxies and used data from the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton satellite and NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite to show…
NASA Launched Rocket into Aurora Borealis
Astronomers launched a NASA-funded rocket into the aurora borealis, which are colloquially known as the northern lights. The 46-foot rocket, the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling in the Alfvén…