Glimpses of a giant alien planet may help to answer questions about its origins and those of our own Solar System. A team of astronomers, including Quinn Konopacky of the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, have made the most detailed examination yet of the atmosphere of a Jupiter-like planet [continue reading]
For only the second time in history, a team of scientists including Michele Fumagalli from the Carnegie Institution for Science in the United States have discovered an extremely rare triple quasar system. Their work is published in the Oxford University Press journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. An infrared image of the [continue reading]
New theoretical modeling by Carnegie’s Alan Boss provides clues to how the gas giant planets in our Solar System—Jupiter and Saturn—might have formed and evolved. His work was published recently by The Astrophysical Journal. Jupiter, the largest planet — a gas giant — in our Solar System. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/U.S. Geological Survey New stars are [continue reading]
Sighting may help improve understanding of the early Universe Scientists in Australia believe they’ve identified a quasar in the process of lighting up, for the very first time. This discovery could help scientists answer lingering questions about how these exceptionally bright celestial bodies form, and how they helped the ancient Universe shape today’s galaxies. [continue reading]
University of Virginia scientists associated with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III, or SDSS-III, have announced the discovery of hundreds of stars rapidly moving together in long, looping orbits around the center of our Milky Way galaxy. An artist’s impression of what the Milky Way might look like viewed from above. The small blue [continue reading]
There are currently 851 confirmed exoplanets. Of these, 289 were detected because their orbits (as seen from Earth) take them across the face of their host star, dimming the star’s light in what is known as a transit event. The Kepler satellite has provided the largest set of transiting exoplanets and, if the list [continue reading]