Items tagged with astronomy
A group of volunteers with Galaxy Zoo have been scouring data, using machine learning and an AI assistant, named Zoobot, to locate an unprecedented number of ring galaxies. The cyborg approach has been able to identify 40,000 ring galaxies so far, which is six times more than previously known.
The universe is...
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Comet C/2017 K2 will be at its closest orbital point to Earth later today, and you can watch the cosmic flyby live. The comet was first spotted by astronomers in 2017 and should be visible via a small telescope throughout the summer.
When Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) was first located, it was 1.49 billion miles (2.4...
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a white dwarf star that is cannibalizing debris from the system's inner and outer reaches. It is the first time researchers have found a white dwarf star that is feeding off both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets.
Astronomers used archival data...
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NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory captured images of a speeding pulsar in the midst of an exploded star. The pulsar is estimated to be traveling at a speed of well over 1 million miles per hour (MPH).
The stellar speedster captured by Chandra is one of the fastest objects of its kind ever seen, according to a...
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The world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy simulations was recently used to simulate the formation of a cluster of baby stars. Astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) developed the new code in order to accurately simulate how clusters of baby stars form and evolve...
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope continues to deliver, by providing the first direct evidence of a lone black hole in interstellar space. Up until now, all black hole masses have been "inferred statistically", through interactions in binary systems, or in the cores of galaxies.
As the James Webb Space Telescope nears...
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope continues to capture images ahead of the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The 3D-Dash program is a high resolution survey that will allow researchers to locate rare objects and targets for JWST once it becomes fully operational.
Hubble began its journey collecting...
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While Neptune and Uranus are similar in many ways, new observations have revealed why Uranus might be the paler of the two. The new research suggests the reason for the difference in color lies in a haze that exists on both planets and is thicker on Uranus.
Neptune and Uranus are similar in mass, size, and...
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NASA partook in an international exercise to test the operational readiness of limiting, or preventing, global destruction from an incoming asteroid. The exercise included 100 participants from 18 countries, including NASA scientists and the space agency's NEOWISE mission.
While there are not any known asteroid...
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Skywatchers are in for a treat this month, as five planets will align in the early morning sky. In addition to the five planets, the Moon will be joining the party at the end of the month.
April provided amateur astronomers with the opportunity to see four planets aligned in the early morning sky without the need...
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Researchers led by a team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have detected a wealth of previously unnoticed supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The new information could lend valuable insight into the origin story of our very own Milky Way galaxy.
The Milky Way galaxy is believed to have...
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a tempestuous gravitational dance between two companion galaxies. NGC 3226 and NGC 3227, together known as Arp 94, are located somewhere between 50 and 60 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Leo.
Hubble continues to send back stunning images ahead of the...
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A pair of meteor showers should provide sky watchers plenty to be excited about in the month of May. Eta Aquariids will open up the show of fireballs, with tau Herculids closing out the show at the end of the month.
Meteors entering the Earth's atmosphere are not uncommon, with most being particles that are no larger...
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New data suggests that post-starburst galaxies hold onto and compress large amounts of highly-concentrated, turbulent gas, but not to form stars as expected. The new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) shows that these galaxies do not scatter all of their star-forming fuel, as previously...
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NASA believes it has solved a 60-year-old mystery pertaining to a process known as magnetic reconnection. Scientists with the space agency's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, or MMS, have developed a theory they believe explains how the most explosive type of magnetic reconnection occurs.
To put this in...
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Venus and Jupiter are on what looks like a collision source in the night sky, in a rare otherworldly event. The two planets have been inching closer to one another every day this month.
If you looked up at the sky this morning, you may have noticed what appeared to be two bright stars close to one another. Chances...
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If you have ever wanted to find your very own piece of a meteorite, now may be your chance. Astronomers are predicting that a bright fireballe that lit up the sky in Ontario may have littered the area with meteorite fragments when it smashed into Earth's atmosphere.
On April 17th, a fireball lit up the sky in...
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A quartet of planets is about to align with the Moon and you won't need a telescope to view the heavenly event. Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn will all be visible to the naked eye.
It isn't often that the alignment of so many planets is viewable without the aid of a telescope or pair of binoculars. It tends to...
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The mystery behind a radiant spinning whirlpool in the night sky in Hawaii on April 17th has been solved. The "night spiral" was actually created by a SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage rocket, and not a UFO.
Footage of an eerie spinning spiral was captured by the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera on Maun Kea in Hawaii on...
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Astronomers have confirmed that some "red giant" stars in a binary system are being diminished by their voracious neighbors in a new research paper. The team of researchers from the University of Sydney says the finding is critical in understanding the life of stars in the Milky Way.
"Red giant" stars are plentiful...
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed the largest icy comet nucleus ever detected by astronomers. The comet's nucleus is larger than the state of Rhode Island, to put its size into perspective.
The gargantuan comet, C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) has a nucleus that is approximately 50 times larger...
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In two new studies, Hubble astronomers have identified freakish weather conditions on two Jupiter-sized exoplanets. On one planet it is raining vaporized rock, while on another its upper atmosphere is getting hotter rather than cooler.
When temperatures here on Earth begin reaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit and above...
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