Tag: Hubble
-
30 years after its first repair mission, Hubble continues to observe the cosmos
30 years ago, on the very early morning of Dec. 2, 1993, the Space Shuttle Endeavour and the STS-61 crew launched on a high-stakes mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. 30 years after the successful flight, which enabled Hubble to finally fulfill its promise to revolutionize our view of the Universe, the veteran observatory…
-
Using Hubble, researchers accidentally discover ejected black hole forcing star creation
Throughout the universe, supermassive black holes can typically be found at the center of massive galaxies that stretch tens of light years across. However, using Hubble, a team of researchers has discovered a supermassive black hole that appears to have been ejected from its galaxy. The black hole, which is around 20 million times more…
-
As megaconstellations grow, scientists become concerned with their impacts on astronomy
Since their initial launch in 2019, SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites have become infamous for photobombing observations from ground-based telescopes. While Starlink — along with other satellite “megaconstellations” — has been a primary concern for ground-based telescope observations, a new issue has begun to pop up; the satellites are now occasionally obstructing images from one of…
-
Study highlights concerns over satellite interference with Hubble observations
A raw Hubble image shows a satellite streak. (NASA / ESA / STScI / Kruk et al. / Nature) An analysis of more than 100,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope, conducted with the aid of artificial intelligence and hundreds of human volunteers, confirms that satellites including SpaceX’s Starlink spacecraft are increasingly interfering with astronomical…
-
Using Hubble, researchers measure the mass of a single white dwarf for the first time
Of the trillions of stars scattered throughout the universe, one of the most common are the white dwarfs, which are the dormant, burned out, and leftover cores of low/medium mass stars. For decades, scientists have only measured the masses of white dwarfs within binary star systems. While these measurements provide insight into the true masses…
-
With Hubble and Spitzer, researchers discover water-filled exoplanets
Using data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and retired Spitzer Space Telescope, a group of researchers has discovered two exoplanets that may be largely comprised of water. Located around a red dwarf star 218 light-years away, the two planets are low in density. Furthermore, the researchers, led by Caroline Piaulet of the Trottier Institute for…
-
Researchers discover galactic shield of gas surrounding the Magellanic Cloud galaxies
The largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way — the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — have been undergoing a treacherous interaction for billions of years. As the galactic pair are pulled toward the Milky Way, they are constantly orbiting each other and unraveling themselves, creating massive trails of gaseous debris. Yet, the galaxies have…
-
Hubble and VLT discover spiraling structure of young stars, hints at star formation in early universe
In a recently released study, data from the joint NASA/European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Observatory’s (ESO) ground-based Very Large Telescope (VLT) has been used to discover young stars spiraling into the center of a star cluster within the Small Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.…
-
Researchers use Hubble to observe dead star destroying planetary system
A team of researchers using archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope, a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as other NASA observatories have observed a white dwarf consuming and destroying a planetary system — the first time an observation of such kind has been made. The white dwarf, a…
-
New research directly observes atmospheric loss on mini-Neptune exoplanets, provides insight into exoplanet evolution
In two studies recently released by a group of astronomers researching exoplanets, the first direct observations of atmospheric loss on mini-Neptune exoplanets were confirmed. What’s more, the data from the studies points to the atmospheric loss potentially causing the mini-Neptunes to transform into super-Earth exoplanets — a stunning discovery in exoplanet research. “Most astronomers suspected…