Evanston, IL-(ENEWSPF)- Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have discovered signs of star formation perilously close to the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, according to a new Northwestern University paper. If confirmed, this would be the first time that star formation was[Read More…]

Source: Hubblesite.org Baltimore, MD-(ENEWSPF)- A team of astronomers at The Johns Hopkins University has used data gathered by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to spot a supernova that exploded more than 10 billion years ago, breaking the previous record by roughly 350 million years. Nicknamed in a nod to Woodrow Wilson,[Read More…]

WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–April 4, 2013.  NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found the farthest supernova so far of the type used to measure cosmic distances. Supernova UDS10Wil, nicknamed SN Wilson after American President Woodrow Wilson, exploded more than 10 billion years ago. SN Wilson belongs to a special class called Type Ia supernovae.[Read More…]

A montage of the six Green Pea galaxies that University of Michigan astronomy researchers studied. Image credit: Anne Jaskot ANN ARBOR–(ENEWSPF)–April 4, 2013.  The rare Green Pea galaxies discovered by the general public in 2007 could help confirm astronomers’ understanding of reionization, a pivotal stage in the evolution of the[Read More…]

EU–(ENEWSPF)–2 April 2013.  Astronomers have watched as a black hole woke up from a decades-long slumber to feed on a low-mass object – either a brown dwarf or a giant planet – that strayed too close. A similar feeding event, albeit on a gas cloud, will soon happen at the[Read More…]

W3 EU–(ENEWSPF)–28 March 2013.  In this new view of a vast star-forming cloud called W3, ESA’s Herschel space observatory tells the story of how massive stars are born. W3 is a giant molecular cloud containing an enormous stellar nursery, some 6200 light-years away in the Perseus Arm, one of our[Read More…]

Noctis Labyrinthus mosaic EU–(ENEWSPF)–26 March 2013.  ESA’s Mars Express has spent nearly ten years imaging the Red Planet, and there are plenty of hidden treasures buried in the mission’s rich picture archive. HRSCview is a web interface to the archive that offers a chance to browse and explore any region[Read More…]

Cosmic microwave background seen by Planck EU–(ENEWSPF)–21 March 2013.  Acquired by ESA’s Planck space telescope, the most detailed map ever created of the cosmic microwave background – the relic radiation from the Big Bang – was released today revealing the existence of features that challenge the foundations of our current[Read More…]

EU–(ENEWSPF)–19 March 2013.  ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every 2.4 hours, smashing the previous record by nearly an hour. The black hole in this compact pairing, known as MAXI J1659-152, is[Read More…]

A composite image of the remains of a young supernova, approximately 26,000 light years away in the constellation Centaurus. Emissions are represented in blue from X-rays, red and cyan from infrared and purple from radio. The remnant, about 150 light years across, is a hot cloud of iron, neon, silicon[Read More…]