The figure shows the variation of the meridional flow as slices of time and depth for eight latitudes from mid-latitudes (top) to the equator (bottom) averaged over both hemispheres. The mean value has been subtracted to highlight the variation with time. The band of faster-than-average (poleward) meridional flow (yellow-red) is the most noticeable feature moving […]
This visualization of a spectacular spiral galaxy, called the Whirlpool Galaxy, appears in the “Deep Field” film. Based on a 90-megapixel image from the Hubble Space Telescope, the visualization sequence sweeps viewers past the swirling structure of dark dust lanes, yellowish older stars, bluish younger stars, and vibrant red star-forming regions. Credit: NASA, ESA, and […]
The new discovery is only 14% the size of the Sun and is the new record holder for the star with the smallest complement of heavy elements. It has about the same heavy element proportion as Mercury, the smallest planet in our solar system. Credit: Kevin Schlaufman. Astronomers use the Gemini Observatory to investigate a […]
July 2nd 2019 will be a very special day in South America. On that day a total eclipse will travel from west to east across the continent and, in a spectacular stroke of astronomical luck, will pass directly over the National Science Foundation’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile – one of the most famous astronomy sites in the world.
Our solar system has eight major planets, and nearly 200 moons. Though astronomers have to date found nearly 4,000 planets orbiting other stars, no moons have yet been found. That hasn’t been for any lack of looking, it’s just that moons are smaller than planets and therefore harder to detect.
The universe is a big place. The Hubble Space Telescope’s views burrow deep into space and time, but cover an area a fraction the angular size of the full Moon.
A new paper in the journal Nature Astronomy, The delay of shock breakout due to circumstellar material evident in most Type II Supernovae, written by a group of researchers from the Center for Mathematical Modeling (CMM) and the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS) and international institutions, sheds new light on supernova explosions.
Observations from the Gemini South and other telescopes in Chile played a critical role in understanding light echoes from a stellar eruption which occurred almost 200 years ago.
Sometimes you find something you weren’t even looking for. A team of scientists led by Carnegie Science’s Scott S. Sheppard just announced the discovery of twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter, found during a search for very distant Solar System objects.
A camera used at the Gemini North telescope to monitor sky conditions from Hawaii’s Maunakea captured a remarkable time-lapse sequence of the Kīlauea volcanic eruption. The sequence shows the glow from an extensive region of fissures over the course of a single night (May 21-22). During the sequence, multiple fissures expelled lava in the area in and around Leilani Estates in the Puna district of the Big Island of Hawai‘i. The lava also flowed into the ocean during the period of the video.