News

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has uncovered evidence that a single star in a foreground galaxy may have magnified X-rays coming from a rare quadruple quasar. About 11 billion light years from Earth, the Cloverleaf quasar is a single object that appears as four images. The Marshall Center manages the Chandra program.

This odd atmospheric phenomenon, primarily only visible in the skies over North America, has delighted and fascinated observers since the first recorded sighting in 1776...

What would our Milky Way galaxy look like if we could travel outside it and snap a picture?

The first pictures taken by the Cassini spacecraft after it began orbiting Saturn show breathtaking detail of Saturn's rings...

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures this iridescent tapestry of star birth in a neighboring galaxy in this panoramic view of glowing gas, dark dust clouds, and young, hot stars.

Amateur Astronomers Group to Build Observatory

Astronomers studying gas clouds in the famous Whirlpool Galaxy have found important clues supporting a theory that seeks to explain how the spectacular spiral arms of galaxies can persist for billions of years.

From the News Archives: On a sultry August night in 1877, U. S. Naval Observatory astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, using the Observatory's 26-inch "Great Equatorial" refracting telescope (by Alvin Clark), then the largest of its kind in the world.

The Cassini spacecraft has beamed back a new, more detailed image of smog-enshrouded Titan. This view represents an improvement in resolution of nearly three times over the previous Cassini image release of Titan.

Astronomers using a global combination of radio telescopes to study a stellar explosion some 30 million light-years from Earth have likely discovered either the youngest black hole or the youngest neutron star known in the Universe. Their discovery also marks the first time that a black hole or neutron star has been found associated with a supernova that has been seen to explode since the invention of the telescope nearly 400 years ago.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed new evidence that extremely hot gas exists in a large region at the Milky Way's center. The discovery came to light as a team of astronomers used Chandra's unique resolving power to study a region about 100 light years across.

Discoveries Point to Probable Pathways for Chemical Evolution in Space...

Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously believed. The comet's rigid surface, dotted with towering pinnacles, plunging craters, steep cliffs, and dozens of jets spewing violently, has surprised scientists...

Astromart member, David Kiefner, sent us a brief article to mark this Father's Day...

Astronomers using a combination of data sets from the Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak, including the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey (see image), have found a galaxy that formed when the Universe was just six percent of its present age, suggesting the "dark ages" of the early universe ended in a patchy, gradual process...