First light for the PEPSI polarimeters

Thanks to a cleverly designed "two-in-one" instrument attached to the world's most powerful telescope, astronomers can extract more clues about the properties of distant stars or exoplanets than previously possible.

Image: Hubble catches galaxies swarmed by star clusters

In the center of a rich cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation of Coma Berenices, lies a galaxy surrounded by a swarm of star clusters. NGC 4874 is a giant elliptical galaxy, about ten times larger ...

Size matters in the detection of exoplanet atmospheres

A group analysis of 30 exoplanets orbiting distant stars suggests that size, not mass, is a key factor in whether a planet's atmosphere can be detected. The largest population-study of exoplanets to date successfully detected ...

Explosive birth of stars swells galactic cores

Astronomers found that active star formation upswells galaxies, like yeast helps bread rise. Using three powerful telescopes on the ground and in orbit, they observed galaxies from 11 billion years ago and found explosive ...

New confirmation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity

Albert Einstein predicted that whenever light from a distant star passes by a closer object, gravity acts as a kind of magnifying lens, brightening and bending the distant starlight. Yet, in a 1936 article in the journal ...

Understanding star-forming galaxies

The more stars a typical spiral galaxy contains, the faster it makes new ones. Astronomers call this relatively tight correlation the "galaxy main sequence." The main sequence might be due simply to the fact that galaxies ...

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