https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. It's not hard to find out what NASA's Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have observed in the past. Barely a week goes by without news of a cosmic discovery made possible using images, spectra, and other data captured by NASA's prolific astronomical observatories. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-hubble-webb-nasa-tool.html Astronomy Space Exploration Wed, 06 Mar 2024 16:34:16 EST news628965253 Using some of the largest telescopes in the world, including the Subaru Telescope, a team of astronomers discovered three new natural satellites orbiting the outermost planets in our solar system—one around Uranus and two around Neptune. One of the new moons, initially detected by the Subaru Telescope, is the faintest moon ever discovered by ground-based telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-subaru-telescope-faintest-moon-icy.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:52:58 EST news628959176 Neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics signals, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter, according to research from Washington University in St. Louis. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-physics-debris-colliding-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:24:12 EST news628957449 Scientists have revealed why some white dwarfs mysteriously stop cooling—changing ideas on just how old stars really are and what happens to them when they die. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astrophysicists-unveil-phenomenon-textbook-definition.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 14:23:46 EST news628957423 Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole (SMBH). Using the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) system, on February 22, 2023, the team detected a sudden surge in brightness followed by a rapid dimming in the galaxy NGC 3799, located about 160 million light-years from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-star-ripped-black-hole-rare.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:38:02 EST news628947481 A galaxy that suddenly stopped forming new stars more than 13 billion years ago has been observed by astronomers. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astronomers-oldest-dead-galaxy.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 11:00:01 EST news628942866 Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), astronomers have investigated the stellar population of the globular cluster NGC 1835. They detected a remarkably extended horizontal branch in this system. The discovery, reported February 28 on the preprint server arXiv, marks the first time when such a feature is found in a globular cluster beyond our Milky Way galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-horizontal-globular-cluster-ngc.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Mar 2024 10:02:17 EST news628941734 Looking deep into space and time, two teams using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have studied the exceptionally luminous galaxy GN-z11, which existed when our 13.8 billion-year-old universe was only about 430 million years old. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-webb-secrets-primeval-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Mar 2024 12:33:30 EST news628864407 When they are active, supermassive black holes play a crucial role in the way galaxies evolve. Until now, growth was thought to be triggered by the violent collision of two galaxies followed by their merger; however, new research led by the University of Bath suggests galaxy mergers alone are not enough to fuel a black hole—a reservoir of cold gas at the center the host galaxy is needed too. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-black-holes-stars-machine-mystery.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:18:04 EST news628859881 In a series of studies, a team of astronomers has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The stunning images, captured using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile, represent one of the largest ever surveys of planet-forming disks. The research brings together observations of more than 80 young stars that might have planets forming around them, providing astronomers with a wealth of data and unique insights into how planets arise in different regions of our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-groundbreaking-survey-reveals-secrets-planet.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 05 Mar 2024 08:00:01 EST news628834856 April 17, 2021, was a day like any other day on the sun, until a brilliant flash erupted and an enormous cloud of solar material billowed away from our star. Such outbursts from the sun are not unusual, but this one was unusually widespread, hurling high-speed protons and electrons at velocities nearing the speed of light and striking several spacecraft across the inner solar system. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-multiple-spacecraft-story-giant-solar.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 16:47:03 EST news628793221 When it was first discovered in 2004, Apophis was identified as one of the most dangerous asteroids in that there was a risk that it could impact Earth. But that impact assessment changed over the years after astronomers tracked Apophis, also known as asteroid 99942, and its orbit became better determined, and it became clear that it was on course to miss our planet. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-chance-infamous-apophis-collides-asteroid.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 13:27:57 EST news628781274 New research suggests there's less oxygen on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa than thought—and that could affect what if any life might be lurking in the moon's underground ocean. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-jupiter-moon-europa-oxygen-damper.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 11:06:22 EST news628772767 In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal, researchers from the Yunnan Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences depicted a complete physical image of the anomalous heating in the upper atmosphere of the sun (the solar corona and the solar chromosphere). https://phys.org/news/2024-03-reveal-anomalous-sun-upper-atmosphere.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:57:04 EST news628768622 Astronomers have performed multi-wavelength photometric observations of a nearby planetary-mass object known as SIMP J013656.5+093347. Results of the observational campaign, presented February 22 on the pre-print server arXiv, suggest that the object hosts patchy cloud layers in its atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-evidence-patchy-cloud-layers-atmosphere.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:00:01 EST news628764905 About 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the cosmos was a very dark place. The glow of the universe's explosive birth had cooled, and space was filled with dense gas —mostly hydrogen—with no sources of light. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-dark-ages-early-universe-webb.html Astronomy Sat, 02 Mar 2024 11:50:02 EST news628429551 If you explore the night sky it won't be long before you realize there is a lot of dust and gas up there. The interstellar dust between the stars accounts for 1% of the mass of the interstellar medium but reflects 30% of the starlight in infrared wavelengths. The dust plays a key role in the formation of stars and the evolution of the galaxy. A team of astronomers has attempted to map the dust out to a distance of 3,000 light years and have just released the first 3D map of the dust in our galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-astronomers-3d-thousands-years.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Mar 2024 11:36:02 EST news628515361 Astronomers can use supercomputers to simulate the formation of galaxies from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago to the present day. But there are a number of sources of error. An international research team, led by researchers in Lund, has spent a hundred million computer hours over eight years trying to correct these. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-high-resolution-simulations-insights-galaxies.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:54:16 EST news628512854 This densely populated group of stars is the globular cluster NGC 1841, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a satellite galaxy of our Milky Way galaxy that lies about 162,000 light-years away. Satellite galaxies are bound by gravity in orbits around a more massive host galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-hubble-captures-dense-globular-cluster.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Mar 2024 10:28:28 EST news628511306 Using archival data from the Gemini North telescope, a team of astronomers has measured the heaviest pair of supermassive black holes ever found. The merging of two supermassive black holes is a phenomenon that has long been predicted, though never observed. This massive pair gives clues as to why such an event seems so unlikely in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-astronomers-heaviest-black-hole-pair.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:26:03 EST news628442761 Gravitationally speaking, the universe is a noisy place. A hodgepodge of gravitational waves from unknown sources streams unpredictably around space, including possibly from the early universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-strong-gravitational-background.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Feb 2024 10:00:02 EST news628421431 Using NASA's Chandra X-ray spacecraft, astronomers have inspected a potential super-star cluster, designated HSO BMHERICC J72.971176-69.391112, or H72.97−69.39 for short. The new observations resulted in the detection of a diffuse hot gas around this cluster. The finding was reported in a paper published February 21 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-diffuse-hot-gas-potential-super.html Astronomy Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:30:15 EST news628421411 Using the unprecedented capabilities of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has obtained the first spectroscopic observations of the faintest galaxies during the first billion years of the universe. These findings, published in the journal Nature, help answer a longstanding question for astronomers: What sources caused the reionization of the universe? These new results have effectively demonstrated that small dwarf galaxies are the likely producers of prodigious amounts of energetic radiation. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-webb-dwarf-galaxies-reionized-universe.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:52:32 EST news628343546 Peering deep into the infancy of the universe, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) recently confirmed the discovery of the brightest and fastest growing quasar. Quasars are luminous objects in the night sky powered by gas falling into a large black hole at the center of a galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-black-hole-discovery-rethink-galaxies.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Feb 2024 11:20:03 EST news628341601 An international team of astronomers has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to conduct mid-infrared observations of a nearby supernova known as SN 1987A. Results of the observational campaign, published February 21 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the nature of this supernova. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-supernova-sn-1987a-james-webb.html Astronomy Wed, 28 Feb 2024 07:10:01 EST news628326195 A common belief among astronomers is that galaxy groups and clusters differ mainly in the number of galaxies they contain—there are fewer galaxies in groups and more in clusters. Led by Maret Einasto, astronomers at Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu decided to look into that and discovered even more differences between groups and clusters. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-exploring-galaxy-groups-clusters-brightest.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Feb 2024 11:24:03 EST news628255439 The building blocks of new planets could form more easily than previously thought, according to calculations by a team led by a RIKEN astrophysicist. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-growth-planets-easily-previously-thought.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Tue, 27 Feb 2024 10:11:03 EST news628251061 An international team of astronomers has performed spectroscopic observations of a variable star known as V708 Car. Results of the observational campaign, reported in a paper published February 20 on the pre-print server arXiv, indicate that this star has an unusual chemical composition. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-variable-star-v708-car-unusual.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Feb 2024 09:11:13 EST news628247453 Following a hugely successful mission and almost 30 years in orbit, ESA's ERS-2 reentered Earth's atmosphere at approximately 18:17 CET (17:17 UTC) on 21 February 2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-image-ers-buckles-farewell.html Astronomy Space Exploration Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:14:02 EST news628186441 During the close approach of 2008 OS7 with Earth on Feb. 2, the agency's Deep Space Network planetary radar gathered the first detailed images of the stadium-size asteroid. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-nasa-planetary-radar-images-slowly.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:41:03 EST news628180861