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Phil Plait Bad Astronomy Vlt Bcenb Exoplanet

Astronomers get a photo of a record-breaking exoplanet around massive binary stars!

Host stars for b Cen b are the most massive planet-bearing ones known.

By Phil Plait 2 years ago

Extremely distant hydrogen gas (blue) forms filaments that galaxies were born from in the very early Universe. The gas is displayed over the Hubble image of the Ultra Deep Field. Credit: Roland Bacon, David Mary, ESO and NASA

The best image ever taken of the cosmic web reveals the birthplace of galaxies

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

Observations of the trinary star GW Ori (right) show it’s surrounded by a complex system of gas and dust, depicted in artwork (left) showing tilted rings and warped disks. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada, Exeter/Kraus et al.

A triple-star gravitational dance creates ridiculously complex sculptures

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

Nebula Hero

ESO telescope nets this fluttering cosmic butterfly image in never-seen detail

By Jeff Spry 4 years ago

Vlt Abaurigae Spiral

A spectacular image of a kinky spiral points toward a baby planet forming

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

In this piece of art, an active galaxy called a quasar blasts out energy and matter in two jets which blow matter away from it. However, it’s also surrounded by a huge halo of gas (blue) that can fall toward the center.

The care and feeding of baby supermassive black holes

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

The central region of the Milky Way surveyed in GALACTICNUCLEUS, an infrared study of over 3 million stars. Credit: ESO/Nogueras-Lara et al.

A billion years ago the Milky Way had a huge burst of star birth

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

An actual image of the protoplanet Hygiea, taken using the SPHERE camera on the Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO/P. Vernazza et al./MISTRAL algorithm (ONERA/CNRS)

New observations show the asteroid Hygiea is round!

By Phil Plait 5 years ago

Artwork depicting the circumplanetary dust ring around PDS 70c, and a possible moon forming there. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

ALMA reveals a dusty ring around a young exoplanet that may be forming moons

By Phil Plait 5 years ago

The astonishing dust spiral around 2XMM J160050.7-514245, aka Apep — a star that may become a powerful gamma-ray burst. Credit: ESO/Callingham et al.

Is this cosmic sprinkler surrounding galaxy’s next gamma-ray burst?

By Phil Plait 5 years ago