What came first, galaxies or planets? The answer has always been galaxies, but new research is changing that idea. Could habitable planets really have formed before there were galaxies? In the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, there were no heavy elements. There was only hydrogen, which comprised about 75% of the mass, and helium, … Continue reading "Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies" The post Habitable Worlds Could Have Formed Before the First Galaxies appeared first on Universe Today.

The Andromeda galaxy is our closest galactic neighbour, barring dwarf galaxies that are gravitationally bound to the Milky Way. When conditions are right, we can see it with the naked eye, though it appears as a grey smudge. It’s the furthest object in the Universe that we can see without telescopic help. The Hubble Space … Continue reading "Hubble Takes a 2.5 Gigapixel Image of Andromeda" The post Hubble Takes a 2.5 Gigapixel Image of Andromeda appeared first on Universe Today.

There’s a Universe full of black holes out there, spinning merrily away—some fast, others more slowly. A recent survey of supermassive black holes reveals that their spin rates reveal something about their formation history. If you want to describe a supermassive black hole’s characteristics, there are two important numbers to use. One is its mass … Continue reading "Black Holes are Spinning Faster Than Expected" The post Black Holes are Spinning Faster Than Expected appeared first on Universe Today.

Supernovae are one of the most useful events in all of astronomy. Scientists can directly measure their power, their spin, and their eventual fallout, whether that’s turning into a black hole or a neutron star in some cases or just a much smaller stellar remnant. One of these events happened around 350 years ago (or … Continue reading "Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant" The post Webb Sees Light Echoes in a Supernova Remnant appeared first on Universe Today.

The exoplanet census continues to grow. Currently, 5,819 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,346 star systems, while thousands more await confirmation. The vast majority of these planets were detected in the past twenty years, owing to missions like the Kepler Space Telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), the venerable Hubble, the Convection, Rotation and … Continue reading "NASA is Building a Space Telescope to Observe Exoplanet Atmospheres" The post NASA is Building a Space Telescope to Observe Exoplanet Atmospheres appeared first on Universe Today.

On Thursday, January 16th, at 02:03 AM EST, Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket took off on its maiden flight from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. This was a momentous event for the company, as the two-stage heavy-lift rocket has been in development for many years, features a partially reusable design, and … Continue reading "New Glenn Reaches Orbit, but Doesn't Recover the Booster" The post New Glenn Reaches Orbit, but Doesn't Recover the Booster appeared first on Universe Today.

Six or seven billion years ago, most stars formed in super star clusters. That type of star formation has largely died out now. Astronomers know of two of these SSCs in the modern Milky Way and one in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and all three of them are millions of years old. New JWST … Continue reading "Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster" The post Astronomers are Watching a Newly Forming Super Star Cluster appeared first on Universe Today.

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at the heart of the Milky Way holds a lot of gas. It contains about 60 million solar masses of molecular gas in complexes of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), structures where stars usually form. Because of the presence of Sag. A*, the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole (SMBH), the CMZ … Continue reading "Sticks and Stones: The Molecular Clouds in the Heart of the Milky Way" The post Sticks and Stones: The Molecular Clouds in the Heart of the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today.

DwarfLab’s new Dwarf 3 smartscope packs a powerful punch in a small unit. In the past decade, amateur astronomy has witnessed nothing short of a revolution, as smartscopes have come to the fore. In half a century of skywatching, we’ve used just about every iteration of GoTo system available, starting with the now almost prehistoric … Continue reading "Review: Dwarf Lab’s New Dwarf 3 Smartscope" The post Review: Dwarf Lab’s New Dwarf 3 Smartscope appeared first on Universe Today.

The wildfires raging around Los Angeles have made plenty of headlines lately, though they are slowly starting to get under control. NASA was a part of that effort, tracking the fire’s evolution via the Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer-3 (AVIRIS-3) as they raged through southern California. As they were doing so, they likely realized that these … Continue reading "The Los Angeles Fires Got Extremely Close to NASA’s JPL Facility" The post The Los Angeles Fires Got Extremely Close to NASA’s JPL Facility appeared first on Universe Today.