Astronomers have found a number of terrifying planets ranging from GJ 436b to Tres 4b and from CoRot-7b to Ogle 2005. Humanity has identified a total of 3,730 confirmed exoplanets to date with nearly as many potential candidates in different parts of the universe. Astronomers have observed a huge variety among these heavenly bodies on…
Astronomers used the Kepler Space Telescope to find an exoplanet (having a mass of about 13 Jupiters) that is orbiting a more evolved binary system, called KIC 10544976. The Kepler Space Telescope of NASA made it possible for humanity to observe the exoplanets around young binary systems. This outstanding achievement was accomplished, for the…
Astronomers have taken the first image of a black hole, in the core of Messier 87 (M-87) galaxy, by using a virtual telescope of the size of the Earth. Scientists collected the data from a network of 8 radio telescopes (Event Horizon Telescope) around the world to create a picture which shows the violent neighborhood…
Humanity has taken a massive step in its quest to unravel the secrets of the inner structure of the moon. Despite all the technological advancements in the field of astronomy, scientists have failed to extract much information about the inner structure of the natural satellite of our planet. Ananya Mallik, a URI Assistant Professor of…
Astronomy has progressed rapidly following the surge of technological advancements. As a result, several astronomical developments are being made on a regular basis. In these circumstances, it is almost impossible to determine the top events in the astronomical world. However, we have tried to list some of the top astronomical events of 2018 (in our…
The TESS Mission of NASA has given some valuable insights to the planet-hunting astronomers by discovering TOI 197.01, a Saturn-sized planet. It is a common observation that stellar astronomers who study starquakes in stars often end up in providing some useful information about the properties of newly-discovered planets. This time around, they managed to characterize…
Scientists used the LAMP instrument of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) of NASA to observe the movement of water molecules on the Moon. Moon was considered an extremely arid object, up until the last decade or so, with hardly any signs of water on its surface. Technological advancements allowed the researchers to trace sparse populations…
Researchers used a new computer modeling technique to simulate asteroids that helped them improve their understanding of rock fracture. According to a new study at the John Hopkins University, incoming asteroids are much stronger than scientists previously thought. This study will help scientists to come up with improved asteroid mining methods as they will…
The data from the Hubble Space Telescope of NASA and the Gaia Satellite of the European Space Agency led to the most accurate measurements of the mass of the Milky Way. According to previous research, which was conducted several decades back, the mass of our galaxy ranges somewhere between 500 billion and 3 trillion solar…
Modern-day innovations in the technology of cameras and telescopes add even more worth to the field of astronomy. Astronomy involves a lot of low light shots. In such instances, the phrase ‘low light’ refers to the scene when the sun is down, and thousands of glittery stars cover the night sky. A tip that may…
The search for Earth-like planets will get a massive boost with the addition of Astrocomb in the planet-hunting telescope. The researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a customized frequency comb that is much more precise than the preceding technology. Astrocomb uses a spectrograph at the Hobby-Eberly Telescope to make…
The Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project observed rings of debris and dust around an Earth-sized white dwarf star, called J0207. LSPM J0207+3331, which is usually known as the J0207, is the oldest and coldest white dwarf star known to humanity. Recently, research led by NASA showed multiple rings of dust around this white dwarf and…
The Gaia Satellite of the European Space Agency helped the researchers to observe a billion-year-old river of stars. Many people might have read the novel, ‘River of Stars’ by Guy Gavriel Kay. However, what would be your reaction if we tell you that astronomers have discovered an actual river of stars by using the data…
Astronomers are going to use a new spectrograph, called Habitable Zone Planet Finder (HPF), to study infrared signals from nearby stars that will allow them to detect planets with liquid water on them. The Penn-State led HPF is designed with precision in mind. It is capable of providing the most precise measurements of infrared signals…
Researchers from the University of Texas joined forces with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of NASA to get some incredible insights about the volcanic activity of Ceres. According to the latest research published in the journal ‘Geophysical Research Letters’, white spots of salt were found on the surface of Ceres. Scientists showed that certain variations…
ZTF, based at the Palomar Observatory, found a variety of amazing phenomena in the night sky, including 50 near-Earth asteroids and 1,100 new supernovae. Have you ever wondered about the secrets of the night sky? Do you want to know what lies in the empty space around stars? The Zwicky Transient Facility in San Diego…
Through a combination of theoretical models and Infrared observations, Researchers found a specific group of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars that shrouded in a high fraction of iron dust. This latest research, published in the journal ‘The Astrophysical Journal Letters’, compared the Infrared observations of the Spitzer Space Telescope with the theoretical models of…
The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) of NASA allowed the researchers to study a new stellar-mass black hole called J1820. NICER found this massive black hole (10 times the mass of the Sun) by detecting the X-rays emitting from it as it consumed material from a companion star. The name given to this newly-discovered…
The sample returned by Apollo 14, 48 years ago, contains the oldest Earth Rock discovered till date. Where would you look for the oldest Earth rock? Probably in the ocean or somewhere underground. As it turns out, the oldest Earth rock was found on the Moon! Yes, you heard it right. An international group of…
The brightest quasar in the history of the universe was observed at a distance of 12.8 billion light-years. Scientists are now studying light that has been around since the beginning of time. An observation from Gemini Observatory found a distant quasar with the brightest radio emission ever detected. Astronomers were able to see the light…
In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The first image from the clip is taken by the Voyager 1 Space Probe on February 14, 1990, at a distance of 6,054,587,000 Kilometers (3,762,146,000 miles). The rest of the clip is part…
An international team of researchers detected the light from around the first massive black holes in the universe to challenge the long-accepted theory about massive black hole formation. Despite being confident about their existence, scientists have been unable to discover the source of these ancient black holes (quasars). In order to find a solution for…
According to a recent study conducted at the University of Michigan, Messier 94 has only 2 satellite galaxies. Astronomers have long known that the Milky Way has around 10 smaller, satellite galaxies around it. Each of these galaxies has at least a million stars and this number can increase up to a billion in case…
SN 2015cp, a supernova at a distance of 545 million light-years, was triggered by a companion star which marked the death of its partner in the binary system. Supernovae are quite common because all the stars of the universe eventually run out of fuel and die with a massive explosion. Having said that, there…
Astronomers have finally found a double star system that has flipped its surrounding disc beyond the orbital plane of its stars. According to the latest research published in the journal ‘Nature Astronomy’, an international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) to locate a double star system that has flipped its planet-forming…
A telescope in Canada detects repeating bursts of Radio waves (emanating beyond our galaxy) for the first time since 2007. Astronomers identified mysterious repeating energy bursts from deep space in the summer of 2018. Researchers analyzed the collected data and published their report on the 9th January 2019. According to that, the source of these…
Chang’e 4 Mission touched down the mysterious side of the moon. China is the latest addition to the list of countries which have visited the natural satellite of our planet. The Chang’e 4 Mission achieved this feat on 3rd January 2019. What made this event more special is that the spacecraft landed on the far…
Scientists recorded a big flare in a small package on an M-type star. Astronomers have witnessed a huge stellar flare on a baby star. They say that this flare is about 10,000 times bigger than the largest solar flare recorded in history. Some say that the flare is so powerful that it may create new…
New Horizons came within 3,500 kilometers of 2014 MU69 on New Year Day. The New Horizons Spacecraft of NASA had a closer look at the Ultima Thule on 1st January 2019. This was a historic moment for humanity as it is now the most distant object ever explored by us. The official name of this…
The dense rings of dust offer more time to young planetesimals to grow and become fully-fledged planets. The first large-scale, high-resolution survey Protoplanetary Disks by making use of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) yielded around 4,000 exoplanets. Some popular ones among them are massive rocky worlds, hot Jupiters, and icy dwarf planets. The Disk…