Einstein Rings
The Hubble Space Telescope snapped these images of eight newly discovered lensed galaxies that each displays what astronomers call Einstein rings. This unique type of gravitational lensing reflects the light of a distant galaxy positioned perfectly in line with the foreground galaxy so that the gravitational warping of the light…
Andromeda's Black Hole Surrounded by Young Stars
The Andromeda Galaxy, about 2.5 million light-years away, contains a black hole with the mass of 140 million Suns that has a strange disk (blue) of young hot stars within 1/2 light-year of it.John Kormendy (University of Texas at Austin) / Ralf Bender (University Observatory, Munich, Germany) It's no secret…
Gamma-Ray Burst Blasts Distance Record
Long-duration GRB shines from a redshift of 6.29.
Spirit Gets High on Mars
Nothing is more satisfying after a climb than a hard-earned view from the top — Spirit has finally reached the summit of Husband Hill.
Seeing the Milky Way Take Shape
Our galaxy has been redrawn to include a galactic bar that is longer and thinner than previously thought.
Proto-Sunshine at Work
Sulfur compounds in ancient meteorites hold clues to our solar system's fiery birth.
GALEX Provides Ultraviolet Goodies
Several ultraviolet events have caught the eye of NASA's space-based UV observatory.
Saturn Lights
Strange aurora patterns viewed on Saturn are unlike anything ever seen in the solar system.
Tycho's Supernova Companion Discovered
This Chandra X-ray Observatory image reveals the gaseous remnant created by a supernova observed by Tycho Brahe in 1572. Red, green, and blue represent low, medium, and high X-ray energies, respectively. The lack of a central point source is one of several pieces of evidence that the remnant was created…
Kepler's Supernova in the Spotlight
Infrared, visual, and X-ray telescopes images come together in this mosaic of Kepler’s Supernova remnant.
Binary Pulsar Spins Up a Storm
A unique pair of pulsars is inspiring new models for neutron-star magnetospheres.
New Class of Low-luminosity GRBs
The ESA spacecraft XMM-Newton captures an X-ray light echo from gamma-ray burst (GRB) 031203. This GRB, which occurred 1.6 billion light-years away, is one of the closest and faintest bursts ever detected. The light echo is an optical illusion caused by gamma-rays from the burst scattering off dust in the…
Does Clarissa Have a Moon?
In spite of recent indications that asteroid 302 Clarissa has a moon circling around it, evidence now suggests that the object may be alone in the cosmos after all. On June 24th, four observers in the northeastern United States watched as the asteroid occulted the star SAO 118999. Astronomers predicted…
Gravity Probe B Puts General Relativity to the Test
Gravity Probe B should measure the warp of space due to the geodetic effect as 6.6144 arcseconds of drift in the gyroscropes' spin direction, and only 0.0409 arcsecond due to the frame-dragging effect.Courtesy NASA/MSFC. It took nearly 90 years of theory, 40 years of engineering, and 10 years of lobbying…
Sundials Unite Mars and Earth
The Planetary Society is getting volunteers worldwide to build sundials that echo the ones NASA has placed on Mars.
Comet Lander Takes Off
After much delay, the Rosetta spacecraft launched this morning. Its mission: to catch a comet.
Europe's Mission to the Moon
The European Space Agency's SMART 1 spacecraft will bein mapping the Moon in January 2005
Astronomy & Observing News
Astro Image in the News:
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Astro Image in the News:
Saturn's Varied Colors
The Hubble Space Telescope looked at Saturn in three different "lights."