Astronomy

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered that the cosmic landscape at the center of a group of galaxies has been profoundly reorganized due to multiple eruptions of a supermassive black hole over 50 million years old.

Thanks to new observations from the modern ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array) telescope in Chile, we can observe an image of a distant galaxy (when the universe was only 15% of its current age, about 2.4 billion years after the Big Bang) seen through a gravitational lens in extraordinary detail.

The recently deceased American actor, director and writer Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015), known internationally for his role as Spock in the galactic saga created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek, already has his own corner in our cosmos. The International Astronomical Union has given the name "4864 Nimoy" to an asteroid discovered by the Belgian astronomer Henri Debehogne in 1988 in honor of the actor.

NASA's Cassini probe, which has been exploring Saturn and its satellites since July 2004, when it entered the orbit of the ringed planet, has obtained some of the most detailed images ever taken of Hyperion, one of its moons.

A team of scientists from MIT and the University of Aarhus (Denmark) have identified a total of 74 planets that orbit their stars making circular orbits, just like the Earth and the rest of the planets in our solar system. These stars are hundreds of light years from Earth. The finding has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Impressive timelapse that travels from the Canary Islands to Italy seen at night from space.

What type of planet would be the most suitable for locating extraterrestrial life? According to the latest study carried out by researchers at McMaster University (Canada), the best places to find life would be massive moons larger even than the planet Mars.

Using data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer or WISE telescope (40cms in diameter), whose mission is to study infrared radiation, scientists have discovered a remote galaxy that shines as brightly as 300 trillion suns combined. It is undoubtedly the most luminous galaxy in the universe and belongs to a new class of objects recently discovered and cataloged as very luminous infrared galaxies or ELIRGs. The finding has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.