Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the largest and brightest set of rings from X-ray light echoes ever observed. These extraordinary rings, produced by an intense flare from a neutron star, provide astronomers a rare chance to determine how far across the Milky Way galaxy the star is from Earth.
The rings appear as circles around Circinus X-1, … Read the rest of this article
The intricate jumble depicted in this image from ESA’s Herschel space observatory shows the distribution of gas and dust in the Taurus Molecular Cloud, a giant stellar nursery about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, the Bull.
Launched in 2009, Herschel studied the sky at far-infrared wavelengths for almost four years, detecting the glow of cosmic dust in the … Read the rest of this article
Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the immense halo of gas enveloping the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest massive galactic neighbor, is about six times larger and 1,000 times more massive than previously measured. The dark, nearly invisible halo stretches about a million light-years from its host galaxy, halfway to our own Milky Way galaxy. This finding promises … Read the rest of this article
Peering into the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has spotted a mysterious glow of high-energy X-rays that, according to scientists, could be the “howls” of dead stars as they feed on stellar companions.
“We can see a completely new component of the center of our galaxy with NuSTAR’s images,” said Kerstin Perez of … Read the rest of this article
Launched in 1990, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.2 million observations of more than 38,000 celestial objects.
In its 25-year lifetime the telescope has made nearly 137,000 trips around our planet. Hubble has racked up plenty of frequent-flier miles – 3.4 billion.
An average of 829 gigabytes of Hubble data are added to the archive every month.… Read the rest of this article
As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways.
“NASA science activities have provided a wave of amazing findings related to water in recent years … Read the rest of this article
Discovered on 5 September 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, the Veil Nebula was once a star. Now it is a twisted mass of shock waves that appears six times larger than the full Moon in the sky.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows just a small part of the nebula, a region known as the ‘south-eastern knot’. The entire nebula … Read the rest of this article
NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA’s (European Space Agency) 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.
This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they … Read the rest of this article
Astronomers have observed the largest X-ray flare ever detected from the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. This event, detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, raises questions about the behavior of this giant black hole and its surrounding environment.
The supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*, … Read the rest of this article
Most celestial events unfold over thousands of years or more, making it impossible to follow their evolution on human timescales. Supernovas are notable exceptions, the powerful stellar explosions that make stars as bright as an entire galaxy for several days.
Although they are very rare – only a few such explosions take place every century in a typical galaxy – … Read the rest of this article
Recommended Astronomy DVDs, Blu-Rays and 4K UHD Blu-Rays
4-Billion-Year-Old Relic From the Early Solar System Is Headed This Way
Hubble Space Telescope Finds the Most Distant Star Ever Seen
The Lessons Learned From a Simulated Asteroid Strike Over Europe
Teachers: Apply Now to the ESA Teach With Space Online Conference
First Panoramic View of Mars at Perseverance Rover Landing Site
NASA’s Webb Telescope Will Show Us More Stars at Higher Resolution
Animations of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover Landing
NASA Is Providing Spanish-Language Coverage for the Livestream of the December 14 Solar Eclipse
NASA Names Artemis Team of Astronauts Eligible for Early Moon Missions
The Sun Now (Visible light)
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The Sun Now (H-Alpha light)
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Aurora Oval
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Aurora Oval
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