Astronomy

Astronomy

Hubble views bar in galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth.

Astronomy

Black Hole Bonanza: 10,000 objects near our galaxy’s center

Astronomers have found the first evidence of a suspected population of black holes near the Milky Way's center, each hole with 10 times the mass of the sun.

Astronomy

Stars in the dust

The dusty disks surrounding three nearby stars show that they played host to massive collisions between asteroid-like objects as recently as 100 years ago.

Astronomy

Zooming in on a great void

New X-ray observations provide the most detailed view yet of the environment near a supermassive black hole.

Astronomy

The Hole Story

New evidence suggests that supermassive black holes have an impact on the evolution of galaxies that goes far beyond their gravitational grasp.

Astronomy

Ultimate Retro: Modern echoes of the early universe

Two teams of astronomers have for the first time detected the surviving notes of a cosmic symphony created just after the Big Bang, when the universe was a foggy soup of matter and radiation.

Astronomy

Ring robber

Images taken by the Cassini spacecraft provide graphic evidence of Saturn's moon Prometheus stealing particles from the planet's narrow F ring.

Astronomy

A dwarf with a disk

The Hubble Space Telescope has examined in unprecedented detail a ring of debris around a star that could be the nearest and youngest known home for planets outside the solar system.

Astronomy

Young and Near: Baby galaxies roam our backyard

An ultraviolet-detecting satellite has found that youthful versions of massive galaxies like the Milky Way may be only a cosmic stone's throw away.

Astronomy

People, Not Robots: Panel favors shuttle mission to Hubble

Sharply challenging NASA on the issue of safety in space, a National Academy of Sciences panel has recommended that the agency send astronauts to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope rather than send a robotic device.

Astronomy

Disks of Dust: Planet-stuff surrounds other sunlike stars

Two orbiting observatories for the first time are homing in on planetary debris circling sunlike stars.

Astronomy

Gamma view of a big blast

Astronomers have for the first time used extremely high-energy gamma rays to image a celestial body.