NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found a rare class of oddball stars called blue stragglers in the hub of our Milky Way, the first detected within our galaxy’s bulge.
‘Hubble Finds Blue Straggler Stars in the Galactic Bulge. Source: Hubblesite.org
Blue stragglers are so named because they seemingly lag behind in the aging process, appearing younger than the population from … Read the rest of this article
Stars at all stages of development, from dusty little tots to young adults, are on display in a new image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.
This cosmic community is called the North American nebula. In visible light, the region resembles the North American continent, with the most striking resemblance being the Gulf of Mexico. But in Spitzer’s infrared view, the … Read the rest of this article
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NASA’s Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler-10b. Measuring 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system.
The discovery … Read the rest of this article
During a period of universal warming 11 billion years ago, quasars — the brilliant core of active galaxies — produced fierce radiation blasts that stunted the growth of some dwarf galaxies for approximately 500 million years.
This important conclusion comes from a team of astronomers that used the new capabilities of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to probe the invisible, remote … Read the rest of this article
Amateur astronomers using backyard telescopes were the first to detect two small objects that burned up in Jupiter’s atmosphere on June 3 and Aug. 20.
Professional astronomers at NASA and other institutions followed up on the discovery and gathered detailed information on the objects, which produced bright spots on Jupiter. The object that caused the June 3 fireball was estimated … Read the rest of this article
An observing campaign is being carried out on M31_V1, the first variable star discovered in M31 by Edwin Hubble. Dr. John Grunsfeld, Deputy Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, plans to observe M31_V1 with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and needs to plan … Read the rest of this article
Astronomers have announced the discovery of a fifth planet circling 55 Cancri, a star beyond our solar system. The star now holds the record for number of confirmed extrasolar planets orbiting around it in a planetary system.
55 Cancri is located 41 light-years away in the constellation Cancer and has nearly the same mass and age as our sun. It … Read the rest of this article
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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