What’s like The Sun and The Earth – only Redder and Heavier?
Astronomers have discovered a super-Earth – planets that are much like our Earth but heavier – near the habitable zone of a red dwarf star, only 37 light-years from us. That's really really close to our planet in astronomical terms! Schematic diagram of the newly discovered Ross 508 planetary system.…
Cat’s Eye Nebula seen in 3D
Versão portuguesa disponível aqui Researchers have created the first computer-generated three-dimensional model of the Cat's Eye Nebula, revealing a pair of symmetric rings encircling the nebula’s outer shell. The rings’ symmetry suggests they were formed by a precessing jet, providing strong evidence for a binary star at the centre of…
Webb takes its first exoplanet image
Versão portuguesa disponível aqui For the first time, astronomers have used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of an exoplanet. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. The image, as seen through four different light filters,…
Explosions help us measure distances in the Universe
How do astronomers measure large distances in the far away corners of the Universe? An international team led by Maria Dainotti – an Assistant Professor at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) – has just found a new way to do it. Conceptual image of this research: using Gamma…
