Giant exoplanet hunters: Look for debris disks

There's no map showing all the billions of exoplanets hiding in our galaxy—they're so distant and faint compared to their stars, it's hard to find them. Now, astronomers hunting for new worlds have established a possible ...

Image: Hubble sees newborn stars in arms of a spiral galaxy

Like firecrackers lighting up the sky on New Year's Eve, the majestic spiral arms of NGC 5559 are alight with new stars being born. NGC 5559 is a spiral galaxy, with spiral arms filled with gas and dust sweeping out around ...

Yoda bat officially recognised as new species

An unusual breed of fruit bat—previously nicknamed 'Yoda' due to its resemblance to the Star Wars Jedi Master—has now officially been registered as a new species and renamed the happy (Hamamas) tube-nosed fruit bat.

Hunting molecules with the Murchison Widefield Array

Astronomers have used an Australian radio telescope to observe molecular signatures from stars, gas and dust in our galaxy, which could lead to the detection of complex molecules that are precursors to life.

CHESS mission will check out the space between stars

Deep in space between distant stars, space is not empty. Instead, there drifts vast clouds of neutral atoms and molecules, as well as charged plasma particles called the interstellar medium—that may, over millions of years, ...

VST captures three-in-one

Two of the sky's more famous residents share the stage with a lesser-known neighbour in this enormous new three gigapixel image from ESO's VLT Survey Telescope (VST). On the right lies Sharpless 2-54, the iconic Eagle Nebula ...

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