Astronomy | SpaceRef

Astronomy TOP STORY

NASA Webb's NIRISS Ready To See Cosmos In Over 2,000 Infrared Colors

Mars Imaged by Hubble

One of the James Webb Space Telescope's four primary scientific instruments, known as the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph instrument (NIRISS) has concluded its postlaunch preparations and is now ready for science.

Full Story

Astronomy TOP STORIES

Mirrors Aligned: Webb Telescope's First Full-Color Images Due in July

JWST Mirrors Aligned

After completing two additional mirror alignment steps in March 2022, the team confirmed the James Webb Space Telescope's optical performance will be able to meet or exceed the science goals the observatory was built to achieve.

Wandering Star Disrupts A Stellar Nursery

From a zoomed out, distant view, star-forming cloud L483 appears normal.

Webb Space Telescope To Uncover Riches Of The Early Universe

For decades, telescopes have helped us capture light from galaxies that formed as far back as 400 million years after the big bang - incredibly early in the context of the universe's 13.8-billion-year history.

Globular Cluster Terzan 9

This star-studded image shows the globular cluster Terzan 9 in the constellation Sagittarius, toward the center of the Milky Way.

The Veil Nebula As Seen By Hubble

This Picture of the Week revisits the Veil Nebula, a popular subject for Hubble images!

Hubble Peers Through Giant Elliptical's Layers

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the central region of the gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 474.

Dead Star Caught Ripping Up A Planetary System

A star's death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is siphoning off debris from both the system's inner and outer reaches.

New Images Using Data From Retired Telescopes Reveal Hidden Features

The stunning perspectives show four of our galactic neighbors in a different light.

Watching The Death Of A Rare Giant Star

A University of Arizona-led team of astronomers has created a detailed, three-dimensional image of a dying hypergiant star.

Dusty Disks Imaged from NSF's NOIRLab

This mosaic of dusty, swirling disks shows a sample of images captured from the International Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF's NOIRLab, as part of an unprecedented survey of 44 young massive stars.

Astronomers Map Violent Star Formation In A Nebula Outside Our Galaxy

"These fragments may be the remains of once-larger clouds that have been shredded by the enormous energy being released by young and massive stars, a process dubbed feedback," says Tony Wong, who led the research on 30 Doradus presented today at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting and published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope To Help Untangle Galaxy Growth, Dark Matter Makeup

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will study wispy streams of stars that extend far beyond the apparent edges of many galaxies.

Dark Matter Detector Observes Rarest Event Ever Recorded

How do you observe a process that takes more than one trillion times longer than the age of the universe?

Scientists On The Hunt For Planetary Formation Fossils Reveal Unexpected Eccentricities In Nearby Debris Disk

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have imaged the debris disk of the nearby star HD 53143 at millimeter wavelengths for the first time, and it looks nothing like they expected.

Gaia Sees Strange Stars In The Most Detailed Milky Way Survey To Date

Today, ESA's Gaia mission releases its new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy.

Simulations Reveal Hydrodynamics Of Planetary Engulfment By An Expanding Star

When our sun exhausts the hydrogen fuel in its core some 5 billion years from now, it will expand to become a red giant, engulfing the inner planets.

Tracing The Remnants Of Andromeda's Violent History

A detailed analysis of the composition and motion of more than 500 stars revealed conclusive evidence of ancient a collision between Andromeda and a neighboring galaxy.