Astronomy | SpaceRef

Astronomy TOP STORY

Planet Found in a Quadruple Star System

One Planet, Four Stars

Researchers wanting to know more about the influences of multiple stars on exoplanets have come up with a new case study: a planet in a four-star system.

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Astronomy TOP STORIES

Chandra Observatory Finds Cosmic Showers Halt Galaxy Growth

Abell 2597

Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found that the growth of galaxies containing supermassive black holes can be slowed down by a phenomenon referred to as cosmic precipitation.

Galactic 'Rain' Could Be Key To Star Formation

A handful of new stars are born each year in the Milky Way, while many more blink on across the universe. But astronomers have observed that galaxies should be churning out millions more stars, based on the amount of interstellar gas available.

Why Isn't The Universe As Bright As It Should Be?

Far From Home: Wayward Cluster is Both Tiny and Distant

Like the lost little puppy that wanders too far from home, astronomers have found an unusually small and distant group of stars that seems oddly out of place.

ESOcast 72 - Looking Deeply into the Universe in 3D

The MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope has given astronomers the best ever three-dimensional view of the deep Universe.

An Old-looking Galaxy in a Young Universe

A team of astronomers, led by Darach Watson, from the University of Copenhagen used the Very Large Telescope's X-shooter instrument along with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to observe one of the youngest and most remote galaxies ever found.

Astronomers Find Dust in the Early Universe

Dust plays an extremely important role in the universe - both in the formation of planets and new stars.

Young Star V1331 Cyg

With its helical appearance resembling a snail's shell, this reflection nebula seems to spiral out from a luminous central star in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image.

Hubble Images a Dusty Galaxy, Home to an Exploding Star

The galaxy pictured here is NGC 4424, located in the constellation of Virgo. It is not visible with the naked eye but has been captured here with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Pockets of Calm Protect Molecules Around Supermassive Black Hole

Researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered regions where certain organic molecules somehow endure the intense radiation near the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy NGC 1068, also known to amateur stargazers as M77.

MUSE Goes Beyond Hubble in the Hubble Deep Field South

The MUSE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope has given astronomers the best ever three-dimensional view of the deep Universe.

Monster Black Hole Discovered at Cosmic Dawn

Scientists have discovered the brightest quasar in the early universe, powered by the most massive black hole yet known at that time.

A Solution to the Puzzle of the Origin of Matter in the Universe

Most of the laws of nature treat particles and antiparticles equally, but stars and planets are made of particles, or matter, and not antiparticles, or antimatter. That asymmetry, which favors matter to a very small degree, has puzzled scientists for many years.

Video: The original Hubble - Edwin Hubble

The Hubble Space Telescope is named after one of the preeminent astronomers of the last century, Edwin Hubble. Among his notable discoveries is the universe we live in is not only an enormous one, but it is also expanding.

Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds

NASA's NuSTAR and ESA's XMM-Newton telescope are showing that fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.

Hubble Gets Best View of Circumstellar Debris Disk Distorted by Planet

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to take the most detailed picture to date of a large, edge-on, gas-and-dust disk encircling the 20-million-year-old star Beta Pictoris.

A New View of the Solar System: Astrophysical jets Driven by the Sun

The magnetic field of the Sun plays a crucial role in shaping the heliosphere -- the domain of the Sun -- by accelerating the solar wind into a pair of jets