Items tagged with telescope
Researchers from the Curtain node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have tracked down a possible explanation for the rare astrophysical event known as long-period radio transients. Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker, and Csanad Horvath, an undergraduate student at the time...
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A new image of the Sombrero galaxy from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has astronomers taking their hats off in place of a cosmic bullseye. The galaxy, known as Messier 104 (M104), was discovered in 1781 by French astronomer and comet hunter Pierre Mechain, one of Charles Messier’s colleagues.
In Webb’s image of...
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Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (ESO’s VLTI) took the first close-up image of a dying star outside of the Milky Way. The newly imaged star, WH G64, is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, one of the smaller galaxies that orbit the Milky Way.
While the...
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New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory unveiled that a low-mass supermassive black hole, known as LID-568, appears to eating up matter at over 40 times the theoretical limit. The discovery of the supermassive black hole, thought to be within 1.5 billion years after the Big...
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Researchers from Japan’s National Astronomical Observatory (NAOJ) are throwing shade at the now iconic image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way captured by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The image in question, constructed by another group of researchers from data collected by the EHT...
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A supernova event recorded by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in 1181 is at the heart of a first-of-its-kind 3D animated map, unveiling new secrets of a flowering “zombie star.” Supernova Sn 1181 is one of the few to be documented before the invention of telescopes.
The zombie star in question was first discovered...
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A headless Halloween comet looks to round out an October that's chock-full of celestial delights. Comet 2024 S1 (Atlas) is on track to make its close approach to the Sun on October 28, and is currently visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
October has been a great month for stargazers, with the ability to see an...
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The first chunk of the map created by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space mission was revealed at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy. The extremely large mosaic, composed of 208 gigapixels, contains 260 observations made between March 25 and April 8 2024.
The Euclid space telescope...
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October’s full moon will be a “Supermoon,” also known as the Hunter’s Moon, and is the third of four consecutive supermoons this year. Other names for the upcoming Supermoon are the Travel Moon, the Dying Grass Moon, or the Sanguine or Blood Moon.
According to NASA, the name Hunter’s Moon goes as far back as the...
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A group of astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting the closest single star to Earth’s Sun. The earth-like planet has at least half the mass of Venus, and a year lasts only a little over three Earth days.
Whether it be an alien planet orbiting the K-type star Epsilon Indi A, which is around the same age as...
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A comet that has not been seen from Earth in 80,000 years is about to make its grand return. Comet 2023 A3, also known as Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, will be observable with the naked eye in the northern hemisphere during two viewing periods, with the first being this week.
Back in May of this year, the Eta Aquariids meteor...
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Astronomers using NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope just made a wild discovery of a “blowtorch-like” jet from a supermassive black hole, and it seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory.
Currently, an international group of astronomers are awaiting a once-in-a-lifetime event, when a binary system in the...
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NASA’s Webb telescope tells an elliptical and spiral galaxy to say “Cheese!” The image is a composite of images, combining observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) of a pair of galaxies collectively known as Arp 107.
The pair of galaxies, located 465 million...
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Astronomers have detected the largest pair of black hole jets ever seen. The pair spans 23-million light-years, or the equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.
According to NASA, supermassive black holes are millions to tens of billions times the mass of the Sun. A census using the Hubble Space...
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Hubble may be the older sibling to the more advanced James Webb Space Telescope, but it is still being used to help solve the riddles and mysteries of the universe. Now, along with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the iconic space telescope unexpectedly unveiled a duo of supermassive black holes within a pair of...
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While the James Webb Space Telescope has been solving the Universe's riddles in the last couple of years, Hubble continues to prove its value. One recent example was a new image comprising more than 500 images from Hubble spanning two decades of the innermost region of Omega Centauri, providing new evidence for the...
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While the James Webb Space Telescope continues to amaze with its images of deep space, a new study finds it is not “breaking” the Universe in at least one way, with its enlightening discoveries. What do we mean by "breaking?" Scientists and astronomers were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks in Webb’s early images...
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Next week’s full Moon is a rare Supermoon, also referred to as a Blue Moon, Sturgeon Moon, or Dog Moon, among other names. The term “supermoon” was coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979, referring to either a new or full Moon that occurs when the Moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth.
While the...
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An international group of astronomers may have solved an 843-year-old mystery surrounding the origins of a zombie star. The researchers connected ancient records from China and Japan, which spoke about a supernova event near the constellation Cassiopeia in the year 1181, to a zombie star seen today, called guest star...
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Since NASA shared the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope in July 2022, the space observatory has continued to amaze with its ability to capture deep space in exquisite detail, such as the Penguin and the Egg image (seen at top) that celebrated Webb’s second anniversary. From “Cosmic Cliffs,” to an...
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An international team of astronomers employing NASA’s Webb Space Telescope captured an exoplanet 12 light years away, and in a location that may be familiar to fans of science fiction. The alien planet orbits the K-type star Epsilon Indi A, which is around the same age as Earth’s Sun, but is slightly cooler.
The...
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To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA released 25 never-before-seen images from the iconic telescope. However, because of budget cuts, NASA may be forced to bring the space telescope’s life to a premature end.
The Chandra X-ray Observatory launched aboard the space shuttle...
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