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Two dwarf-galaxies have left the wilderness to join a galactic party
Drawn by gravity, a dwarf galaxy pair is leaving the void for a more crowded region of the universe.
Universe at your fingertips – 3D prints of Hubble photos let the blind ‘see’
Captioned above is one of Hubble‘s most famous and beautiful space photos. The photo features NGC 609 – a magnificent star cluster, which Hubble captured complete with colored gas, dust and a slew of stars of various brightness. Pictures like these remind people of the tremendous gift they have – sight. How can one share and hope to convey a
Hubble goes farther than ever before: images reveal deepest view of the Universe yet
This year Hubble will embark on one its most ambitious projects yet, as it’s scheduled to glimpse farther away into the Universe than ever before. Six new “deep field” images are slated, and recently astronomers at Hubble have delivered the first to the public. The image reveals extremely faint, tiny galaxies that may be more than 12 billion light-years away,
Rapidly rotating asteroid blazes with six tails trailing
This oddball cosmic body, called P/2013 P5, has puzzled astronomers for a while. By mass and orbit, it can only be classed as an asteroid, but the fact that it trails gas or dust would make it a comet. In fact, this weird rock has six tails, which would maybe make it a supercomet! Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for
NASA’s great observatories combine to probe deeper in the Universe
Each of NASA’s Great Observatories – Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra – have been designed to peer through the Universe in a characteristic manner. The telescopes have provided along the years massive amount of astronomical data and have helped scientists make important discoveries. What if you combine each of the telescopes’ strong points to assemble one massive probe capable of seeing
The stars of the densest galaxy discovered thus far are 25 times closer than in Milky Way
Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, followed by observations done with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ground-based optical telescopes, astronomers have identified what’s considered to be the densest galaxy found so far in the nearby part of the Universe. Classed as an “ultra-compact dwarf galaxy” and dubbed as M60-UCD1, the density of stars in the galaxy is about 15,000 greater than that found in Earth’s neighborhood
“Ring Nebula” imaged in stunning never before seen 3-D detail
The “Ring Nebula” is a very popular target for amateur astronomers around the world since its bright glow and highly characteristic shape make it easily identifiable, even to those who have yet to learn even the most basic tricks of the trade. This fantastic cosmic cloud tells the story of a dying star and for years astronomers have been peering
Extremely rare double Einstein ring imaged by Hubble
Hubble just never ceases to surprise. The latest astronomical find discovered using the ever resourceful space telescope is a never before encountered double ring pattern known as an Einstein ring. This very rare pattern is the result of a peculiar optical alignment in which three galaxies are perfectly aligned with each other, like beads on a string. The occurrence isn’t
Farthest supernova discovered by Hubble helps unravel Universe secrets
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have come across the farthest supernova of its type found thus far – a type Ia supernova which exploded some 10 billion years ago. The discovery isn’t just about setting milestones, however. Supernovae act as beacons that help astronomers measure the expansion of the Universe, and this latest finding will help deepen our understanding, especially concerning
“Eye of Sauron” star hosts rogue planet
Back in 2008, Hubble released a stunning image of a very bright star called Fomalhaut which spanned a huge disk of matter around it. The whole picture bared an uncanny resemblance to the eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings movies. Also at the time, scientists caught the glimpse of a tiny speck of light deep in the debris disk
Amazing high energy, relativistic plasma jets coming out of the Hercules A Galaxy
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… at about 2 billion light years away from Earth lies radio-galaxy Hercules A, also known as 3C 348. At a first glance it looks just like another massive galaxy out there – at least when looking in the visible spectrum. In the radio wavelengths however, the story is completely different.
Hubble stares into the dawn of the Universe – sets another record for oldest galaxy
Using the evergreen Hubble telescope, astronomers from NASA have been able to uncover a previously unseen population of ancient galaxies, observed as they appeared only 350 million to 600 million years after the big bang, when the Universe was still in its infancy. The galaxies are located in a patch of the sky called the Ultra Deep Field (UDF). They
Farthest known object in the Universe is 13.3 billion years old
NASA scientists have announced they have discovered the farthest object discovered so far in the Universe, a 13.3 billion old galaxy or a mere 420 million years after the Big Bang. That’s not to say that its 13.3 billion light years away from Earth, since the Universe has expanded greatly since then and the actual distance might be much greater
Hubble takes brilliant picture of young star population in elderly company
The great pics from Hubble just never end! This time, the brave telescope offered an impressive view of the center of globular cluster NGC 6362. The image of this spherical collection of stars takes a deeper look at the core of the globular cluster, which contains a high concentration of stars with different colors. Seeing what appears to be young
Oldest spiral galaxy is a freak of cosmos
In a remarkable discovery, astronomers have found the oldest spiral galaxy to our knowledge – a three-armed spiral galaxy dating back nearly 11 billion years. It precedes any other previous record holder by about 2 billion years, basically sweeping away the competition. The spiral galaxy is so amazing that it caught astronomers completely by surprise, and even they couldn’t believe what
Oldest galaxy discovered so far in the Universe is 12.91 billion years old
Using the Subaru and Keck optical/infrared telescopes on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea, a 4,200 metre-high summit which houses the world’s largest observatory for optical, infrared and submillimeter astronomy, a team of Japanese astronomers claim in a recently published paper that they’ve discovered the earliest galaxy found thus far in the known Universe – it is 12.91 billion years old or 12.91 billion light
Two military spy telescopes, just as big and powerful as Hubble, donated to NASA
Now this is something that doesn’t happen everyday, especially from behalf of one of the most paranoid and money-gobbling organizations in the world, an US intelligence agency. According to a recent press release from NRO, the secretive government agency that flies spy satellites, two such functional and high-capable spy satellites were handed over to NASA as gifts. Both are at least
Hubble captures Dorado galaxy [PHOTO]
Located some 62 million-light years away, the Dorado constellation is home to a galaxy cluster, called the Dorado Group, comprised of around 70 galaxies. A pretty massive figure by all accounts, considering the Local Group, which also include the Milky Way, contains a mere 30 galaxies under its belt. Recently, Hubble captured a splendid photo of NGC 1483, a barred
Astronomers use massive objects in space as huge telescopes, find brightest galaxy via gravity lens
Whenever a massive object, with an equally massive gravitational pull, like black holes or galaxy clusters, falls between an observer, say a telescope, and a distant target in the background to be observed, than a gravitational lens is formed. Light emitted from the distant object gets twisted by the massive object, and ends up distorted at the telescope – this
