This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 4845, located over 65 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo (The Virgin). The galaxy's orientation clearly reveals the galaxy's striking ...
Astronomy
Jan 11, 2016
0
110
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to be launched in October 2018, is expected to yield important scientific breakthroughs in our quest to understand the universe and our origins. JWST, often touted as a successor ...
Space Exploration
Dec 28, 2015
4
122
The Stephan's Quintet of galaxies was discovered by astronomer Édouard Stephan in 1877. At the time, however, he reported the discovery of 'new nebulae', as the concept of other galaxies beyond our Milky Way was only formalised ...
Astronomy
Dec 21, 2015
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89
In April 2015, after traveling for about half the age of the universe, a flood of powerful gamma rays from a distant galaxy slammed into Earth's atmosphere. That torrent generated a cascade of light - a shower that fell onto ...
Astronomy
Dec 15, 2015
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2953
Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. It existed about 400 million years after the big bang, 13.8 billion years ...
Astronomy
Dec 3, 2015
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1180
It sounds obvious. That's what night is. The sun has set and when you look up at the sky, it's black. Except where there's a star, of course. The stars are bright and shiny.
Astronomy
Dec 2, 2015
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46
In July 2015, researchers announced the discovery of a black hole, shown in the above illustration, that grew much more quickly than its host galaxy.
Space Exploration
Nov 30, 2015
3
42
Can you make out the dot at the bottom of this question mark? What if you stand a few metres away? The finest detail the average human eye can distinguish is about the size of a full stop seen at a distance of a metre. This ...
Astronomy
Nov 20, 2015
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2155
Just counting the number of galaxies in a patch of sky provides a way to test astronomers' theories of galaxy formation and evolution. However, such a simple task becomes increasingly hard as astronomers attempt to count ...
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2015
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79
Astronomers at Yale and Harvard have found a galaxy with a heartbeat—and they've taken its pulse.
Astronomy
Nov 16, 2015
2
163
