Galaxies had 'mature' shapes 11.5 billion years ago
An international team of astronomers led by BoMee Lee has established that mature-looking galaxies existed much earlier than previously known, about 11.5 billion years ago.
Aug 14th, 2013
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Dwarf galaxy caught ramming into a large spiral
Observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have revealed a massive cloud of multimillion-degree gas in a galaxy about 60 million light years from Earth. The hot gas cloud is likely caused by a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much larger galaxy called NGC 1232.
Aug 14th, 2013
Read moreA magnetar at the heart of our Milky Way
Radio astronomers use pulsar with strong magnetic field to investigate supermassive black hole.
Aug 14th, 2013
Read morePrecisely measuring the velocity of a supernova shockwave
A research team has succeeded in precisely measuring the expansion velocity of a shockwave of the supernova remnant W44.
Aug 13th, 2013
Read moreCosmology in the lab using laser-cooled ions
Scientists used laser-cooled ions in so-called 'ion Coulomb crystals'. They were able to show for the first time how symmetry breaking can be generated in a controlled manner and how the occurrence of defects can then be observed.
Aug 12th, 2013
Read morePerseid meteors to light up summer skies
The evening of 12 August and morning of 13 August see the annual maximum of the Perseids meteor shower. This year prospects for watching this natural firework display are particularly good.
Aug 9th, 2013
Read morePoised for discovery: Gemini's much-anticipated infrared instrument goes on-sky
Gemini Observatory's latest instrument, a powerful infrared camera and spectrograph at Gemini South, reveals its potential in a series of striking on-sky commissioning images released today.
Aug 9th, 2013
Read moreHubble finds source of Magellanic stream
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have solved a 40-year mystery on the origin of the Magellanic Stream, a long ribbon of gas stretching nearly halfway around our Milky Way galaxy.
Aug 8th, 2013
Read moreIs Europa habitable? Defining scientific goals of a mission to explore Jupiter's moon
Europa, the ice-covered moon of the planet Jupiter, may be able to support life. NASA has commissioned a team of expert scientists to consider the science goals for a landed spacecraft mission to the surface of Europa, and to investigate the composition and geology of its icy shell and the potential for life within its interior ocean.
Aug 7th, 2013
Read moreQuasar observed in 6 separate light reflections
Quasars are active black holes -- primarily from the early universe. Using a special method where you observe light that has been bent by gravity on its way through the universe, a group of physics students from the Niels Bohr Institute have observed a quasar whose light has been deflected and reflected in six separate images. This is the first time a quasar has been observed with so many light reflections.
Aug 7th, 2013
Read moreFirst hundred thousand years of our Universe
A new analysis of cosmic microwave background radiation data by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has taken the furthest look back through time yet - 100 years to 300,000 years after the Big Bang - and provided tantalizing new hints of clues as to what might have happened.
Aug 7th, 2013
Read moreThe odd couple - two very different gas clouds in the galaxy next door
ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured an intriguing star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud - one of the Milky Way's satellite galaxies. This sharp image reveals two distinctive glowing clouds of gas: Red-hued NGC 2014, and its blue neighbour NGC 2020. While they are very different, they were both sculpted by powerful stellar winds from extremely hot newborn stars that also radiate into the gas, causing it to glow brightly.
Aug 7th, 2013
Read moreThe sun's magnetic field is about to flip (w/video)
Something big is about to happen on the sun. According to measurements from NASA-supported observatories, the sun's vast magnetic field is about to flip.
Aug 6th, 2013
Read moreExplosion illuminates invisible galaxy in the dark ages
More than 12 billion years ago a star exploded, glowing so brightly that it outshone its entire galaxy by a million times. This brilliant flash traveled across space for 12.7 billion years to a planet that hadn't even existed at the time of the explosion -- our Earth. By analyzing this light, astronomers learned about a galaxy that was otherwise too small, faint and far away for even the Hubble Space Telescope to see.
Aug 6th, 2013
Read moreNew and remarkable details of the sun now available from NJIT's Big Bear Observatory
Researchers at NJIT's Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear, Calif., have obtained new and remarkably detailed photos of the sun with the New Solar Telescope. The photographs reveal never-before-seen details of solar magnetism revealed in photospheric and chromospheric features.
Aug 6th, 2013
Read moreAstronomers image lowest-mass exoplanet around a sun-like star
Using infrared data from the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, an international team of astronomers has imaged a giant planet around the bright star GJ 504. Several times the mass of Jupiter and similar in size, the new world, dubbed GJ 504b, is the lowest-mass planet ever detected around a star like the sun using direct imaging techniques.
Aug 5th, 2013
Read moreNew research aids ability to predict solar storms, protect Earth
Three new solar modeling developments at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are bringing scientists closer to being able to predict the occurrence and timing of coronal mass ejections from the sun.
Aug 5th, 2013
Read moreHubble finds 'smoking gun' after gamma-ray burst
Probing the location of a recent short-duration gamma-ray burst in near-infrared light, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope found the fading fireball produced in the aftermath of the blast. The afterglow reveals for the first time a new kind of stellar blast called a kilonova.
Aug 3rd, 2013
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