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astronomy

The red supergiant Betelgeuse is the ninth brightest star in the night sky

Space

The star Betelgeuse has stopped dimming – but it's still acting weird

After a weird event dubbed the Great Dimming in 2019, the plasma that makes up Betelgeuse is sloshing around inside the star, erasing pulsations that have been measured for centuries

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NASA image release November 9, 2010 Using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, scientists have recently discovered a gigantic, mysterious structure in our galaxy. This never-before-seen feature looks like a pair of bubbles extending above and below our galaxy's center. But these enormous gamma-ray emitting lobes aren't immediately visible in the Fermi all-sky map. However, by processing the data, a group of scientists was able to bring these unexpected structures into sharp relief. Each lobe is 25,000 light-years tall and the whole structure may be only a few million years old. Within the bubbles, extremely energetic electrons are interacting with lower-energy light to create gamma rays, but right now, no one knows the source of these electrons. Are the bubbles remnants of a massive burst of star formation? Leftovers from an eruption by the supermassive black hole at our galaxy's center? Or or did these forces work in tandem to produce them? 51¶¯Âþs aren't sure yet, but the more they learn about this amazing structure, the better we'll understand the Milky Way. To learn more go to: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/new-structure.html NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA???s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA???s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency???s mission. Follow us on Twitter Join us on Facebook Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Space

Gamma ray bursts could help unravel how fast the universe is expanding

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A radio telescope array

Space

Astronomers devise new way to observe traces of the first stars

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Red galaxy

Space

Red smudge seen by JWST could unlock chemistry of the early universe

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James Webb Space Telescope pictures: Your questions answered

Space

James Webb Space Telescope pictures: Your questions answered

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This side-by-side comparison shows observations of the Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared light, at left, and mid-infrared light, at right, from NASA???s Webb Telescope. This scene was created by a white dwarf star ??? the remains of a star like our Sun after it shed its outer layers and stopped burning fuel though nuclear fusion. Those outer layers now form the ejected shells all along this view. In the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) image, the white dwarf appears to the lower left of the bright, central star, partially hidden by a diffraction spike. The same star appears ??? but brighter, larger, and redder ??? in the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image. This white dwarf star is cloaked in thick layers of dust, which make it appear larger. The brighter star in both images hasn???t yet shed its layers. It closely orbits the dimmer white dwarf, helping to distribute what it???s ejected. Over thousands of years and before it became a white dwarf, the star periodically ejected mass ??? the visible shells of material. As if on repeat, it contracted, heated up ??? and then, unable to push out more material, pulsated. Stellar material was sent in all directions ??? like a rotating sprinkler ??? and provided the ingredients for this asymmetrical landscape. Today, the white dwarf is heating up the gas in the inner regions ??? which appear blue at left and red at right. Both stars are lighting up the outer regions, shown in orange and blue, respectively. The images look very different because NIRCam and MIRI collect different wavelengths of light. NIRCam observes near-infrared light, which is closer to the visible wavelengths our eyes detect. MIRI goes farther into the infrared, picking up mid-infrared wavelengths. The second star more clearly appears in the MIRI image, because this instrument can see the gleaming dust around it, bringing it more clearly into view. The stars ??? and their layers of light ??? steal more attention in the NIRCam image, while dust pl

Space

James Webb Space Telescope releases dazzling first science images

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7 big questions the James Webb Space Telescope is about to answer

Space

7 big questions the James Webb Space Telescope is about to answer

Features

FEATURE - Clouds of Hydrogen Gas ? Simon Tang Clouds of hydrogen gas give way as the magnetic field lines of the sun snap and clash together. This display of nature creates astonishing features, known as prominences, on the limb of the Sun. Taken with QHYCCD QHY5III-174M camera, 5040mm f/33.6, 1000 x 12-millisecond frame exposures Location: Los Angeles, California, United States

Space

Stunning solar prominences shine in photography competition

Regulars

2H2KWEE Orbits of planets in the Solar System

Space

How to catch a glimpse of a five-planet alignment this June

Regulars

First image of black hole. Wormhole in deep space. Messier 87. Elements of this image furnished by NASA; Shutterstock ID 1366204970; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

Space

Astronomers question if the first picture of a black hole is accurate

The Event Horizon Telescope’s first image of a black hole showed a distinctive ring feature, but a reanalysis of their data has raised concerns over whether that ring of light is real

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Space

Watch out for comet SW3, which might cause a meteor shower in late May

Regulars

Space

What's next for Event Horizon Telescope after its black hole pictures?

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Space

Small explosions called micronovae discovered on dead stars

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Space

Why I'm choosing dark matter over dark energy - for now at least

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