Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are. Astronomers are hopeful that the powerful infrared capability of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will resolve a puzzle as fundamental as stargazing itself -- what IS that dim light...
A team of more than 200 researchers, including Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Assistant Professor Jason Wright and led by Louisiana State University's Tabetha Boyajian, is one step closer to solving the mystery behind the "most mysterious...
Young galaxies blaze with bright new stars forming at a rapid rate, but star formation eventually shuts down as a galaxy evolves. A new study, published January 1, 2018, in Nature, shows that the mass of the black hole...
The image shows nearby emission line galaxies NCG 4038 - 4039. The pink parts in this image are showing the light from the gas heated by newly formed stars.
Credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage (STScl/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.
New research has...
Galaxies are distributed along a cosmic web in the universe. "Mpc/h" is a unit of galactic distance (1 Mpc/h is more than 3.2 million light-years).
Credit: Volker Springel, Virgo Consortium
How do galaxies like our Milky Way form, and just how...
Jupiter and Saturn.
Credit: NASA/GSFC
New theoretical modeling by Carnegie's Alan Boss provides clues to how the gas giant planets in our solar system -- Jupiter and Saturn -- might have formed and evolved.
His work was published recently...
The colors represent the relative amounts of short-lived radioactive isotopes, such as iron-60, injected into a newly formed protoplanetary disk (seen face on with the protostar being the light purple blob in the middle) by a supernova shock wave.
Credit:...
Illustration of rotating-infalling gas toward a protostar. The abundance of sulfermonooxcyde is enhanced at the outer edge (colored blue) of a protoplenatry disk.
Credit: Image courtesy of National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
A new star is formed by gravitational contraction of...
Solar sibling HD 162826 is not visible to the unaided eye, but can be seen with low-power binoculars near the bright star Vega in the night sky.
Credit: Ivan Ramirez/Tim Jones/McDonald Observatory
A team of researchers led by University of Texas...
Thermal dust emission from the protoplanetary disk surrounding the young star Elias 2-27 clearly shows a spiral structure.
Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); L. Pérez (MPIfR)
Astronomers have found distinct spiral arms in the disk of gas and dust surrounding...
Image of HD 115600 showing a bright debris ring viewed nearly edge-on and located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Right: A model of the HD 115600 debris ring on the same scale.
Credit: T. Currie
An international team...
