Astronomy | SpaceRef

Astronomy TOP STORY

Challenging Theories of Galaxy Evolution

Comparing galaxies

Finding such a galaxy early in the history of the universe challenges the current understanding of how massive galaxies form and evolve, say researchers.

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Astronomy TOP STORIES

Star's Birth May Have Triggered Another Star's Birth

Starbirth

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have found new evidence suggesting that a jet of fast-moving material ejected from one young star may have triggered the formation of another, younger protostar.

Watch Engineers Work on the Webb Space Telescope

Now that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has moved to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, a special Webb camera was installed there to continue providing daily video feeds on the telescope's progress.

New Evidence That All Stars Are Born In Pairs

Did our sun have a twin when it was born 4.5 billion years ago? Almost certainly yes -- though not an identical twin.

Scientists Make Waves With Black Hole Research

Scientists at the University of Nottingham have made a significant leap forward in understanding the workings of one of the mysteries of the universe.

A Chaotically Magnetized Cloud Is No Place to Build a Star, or Is It?

For decades, scientists thought that the magnetic field lines coursing around newly forming stars were both powerful and unyielding, working like jail bars to corral star-forming material.

New Insight Into Perseus Cluster's Mini-Halo

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered new details that are helping them decipher the mystery of how giant radio-emitting structures are formed at the center of a cluster of galaxies.

Galaxy Alignments Traced Back 10 Billion Years

A new study led by Michael West of Lowell Observatory and Roberto De Propris of the University of Turku, Finland, reveals that the most massive galaxies in the universe have been aligned with their surroundings for at least ten billion years.

Hubble Observes Two Interacting Brown Dwarfs

This seemingly unspectacular series of dots with varying distances between them actually shows the slow waltz of two brown dwarfs.

ALMA Hears Birth Cry of a Massive Baby Star

Stars form from gas and dust floating in interstellar space. But, astronomers do not yet fully understand how it is possible to form the massive stars seen in space.

NASA BETTII Balloon Mission Ends in Failure

The Balloon Experimental Twin Telescope for Infrared Interferometry (BETTII) payload, an astronomy experiment, launched from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Palestine, Texas, Thursday, June 8, flying through the evening.

Largest Virtual Universe Ever Simulated

Researchers from the University of Zurich have simulated the formation of our entire Universe with a large supercomputer.

Gravitation Lensing Imagery of the Brightest Infrared Galaxies

Boosted by natural magnifying lenses in space, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured unique close-up views of the universe's brightest infrared galaxies, which are as much as 10,000 times more luminous than our Milky Way.

Measuring a White Dwarf's Mass

Astronomers have used the sharp vision of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to repeat a century-old test of Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Watching a Volatile Stellar Relationship

In biology, "symbiosis" refers to two organisms that live close to and interact with one another.

ALMA Returns to Boomerang Nebula

An ancient, red giant star in the throes of a frigid death has produced the coldest known object in the cosmos -- the Boomerang Nebula.

LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves Detected for Third Time

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened.