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False-colour JWST image of a small fraction of the GOODS South field, with JADES-GS-z7-01-QU highlighted

Astronomers spot oldest ‘dead’ galaxy yet observed

06 Mar 2024

A galaxy that suddenly stopped forming new stars more than 13 billion years ago has been observed by astronomers.

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Gaia view of Omega Centauri

Latest Gaia data release reveals rare lenses, cluster cores and unforeseen science

10 Oct 2023

The European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has released a goldmine of knowledge about our galaxy and beyond. Among other findings, the star surveyor...

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ALMA image of the protoplanetary disc around HL Tauri

Astronomers use ‘little hurricanes’ to weigh and date planets around young stars

06 Jan 2023

Little ‘hurricanes’ that form in the discs of gas and dust around young stars can be used to study certain aspects of planet formation, even for...

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Artist's impression of planet formation

Study of ‘polluted’ white dwarfs finds that stars and planets grow together

14 Nov 2022

A team of astronomers have found that planet formation in our young Solar System started much earlier than previously thought, with the building...

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Dust plumes observed being ‘pushed’ into interstellar space by intense starlight

12 Oct 2022

Astronomers have observed directly for the first time how intense light from stars can ‘push’ matter. Researchers from the universities of Cambridge...

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Largest chemical map of the Milky Way unveiled

13 Jun 2022

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia mission has released a new treasure trove of data about our home galaxy, including stellar DNA, asymmetric...

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Messier 101 (The Pinwheel Galaxy)

Supermassive black holes put a brake on stellar births

21 Mar 2022

Black holes with masses equivalent to millions of suns do put a brake on the birth of new stars, say astronomers. Using machine learning and three...

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The formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies in a virtual universe similar to our own

Astronomers pinpoint when cosmic dawn occurred

24 Jun 2021

Cosmic dawn, when stars formed for the first time, occurred 250 million to 350 million years after the beginning of the universe, according to a new...

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The colour of the sky from Gaia’s Early Data Release 3

Gaia: scientists take a step closer to revealing origins of our galaxy

03 Dec 2020

An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, announced the most detailed ever catalogue of the stars in a huge swathe of...

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Artist's impression of No Lup system

Fast-moving gas flowing away from young star’s asteroid belt may be caused by icy comet vaporisation

30 Nov 2020

A unique stage of planetary system evolution has been imaged by astronomers, showing fast-moving carbon monoxide gas flowing away from a star system...

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Artist's impression of gas giant exoplanet

Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets

11 Dec 2019

The most extensive survey of atmospheric chemical compositions of exoplanets to date has revealed trends that challenge current theories of planet...

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Giant planets around young star raise questions about how planets form

15 Oct 2018

Researchers have identified a young star with four Jupiter and Saturn-sized planets in orbit around it, the first time that so many massive planets...

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