Project News

Warm Gas Pours 'Cold Water' on Galaxy's Star-Making

Herschel • December 5th, 2014

One galaxy devoured remnants of another galaxy, quenching the formation of new stars.

Slow-Growing Galaxies Offer Window to Early Universe

Herschel • October 15th, 2014

What makes one rose bush blossom with flowers, while another remains barren? Astronomers ask a similar question of galaxies, wondering how some flourish with star formation and...

NASA Telescopes Uncover Early Construction of Giant Galaxy

Herschel • August 27th, 2014

Astronomers have for the first time caught a glimpse of the earliest stages of massive galaxy construction. The building site, dubbed "Sparky," is a dense galactic core blazing...

NEOWISE Spots a Comet That Looked Like an Asteroid

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • July 23rd, 2014

Comet C/2013 UQ4 (Catalina) has been observed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft just one day after passing through its closest...

Young Sun’s Violent History Solves Meteorite Mystery

Herschel • July 1st, 2014

Astronomers using ESA’s Herschel space observatory to probe the turbulent beginnings of a Sun-like star have found evidence of mighty stellar winds that could solve a puzzling...

New Molecules Around Old Stars

Herschel • June 17th, 2014

Astronomers have discovered that a molecule vital for creating water exists in the burning embers of dying Sun-like stars. When low- to middleweight stars like our Sun approach...

Herschel Sees Budding Stars and a Giant, Strange Ring

Herschel • June 12th, 2014

The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a weird ring of dusty material while obtaining one of the sharpest scans to date of a huge cloud of gas and dust, called NGC 7538....

Herschel Uncovers a Dearth of Oxygen near a New Star

Herschel • June 9th, 2014

A cosmic mystery regarding oxygen has deepened, thanks to new findings from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions....

NASA's WISE Findings Poke Hole in Black Hole 'Doughnut' Theory

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • May 22nd, 2014

A survey of more than 170,000 supermassive black holes, using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), has astronomers reexamining a decades-old theory about the...

Well-behaved, Young Galaxy Surprises Astronomers

Herschel • April 29th, 2014

Scientists have discovered a young galaxy acting in unexpectedly mature ways.