Located half a billion light-years from Earth, ESO 306-17, is a large, bright elliptical galaxy in the southern sky of a type known as a fossil group. Astronomers use this term to emphasise the isolated nature of these galaxies. However, are they like fossils — the last remnants of a once active community — or [...]

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. has selected 17 new candidates for the 2010 Hubble Fellowship Program. The fellows may pursue their research at any host university or research center of their choosing in the United States and will begin their programs in the fall of 2010. Each fellowship provides support to [...]

Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Kenneth D. Bowersox, Frank L. Culbertson, Jr., and Kathryn C. Thorntonwill join an elite group of American space heroes as they are inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® during a public ceremony at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Saturday, June 5, 2010. They will be welcomed to the ranks [...]

Imagine finding a living dinosaur in your backyard. Astronomers have found the astronomical equivalent of prehistoric life in our intergalactic backyard: a group of small, ancient galaxies that has waited 10 billion years to come together. These “late bloomers” are on their way to building a large elliptical galaxy. Such encounters between dwarf galaxies are [...]

Scientists from the University of Leicester have led an international study to capture space images that are unique to science. Researchers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) recently took advantage of the rare opportunity to record Saturn when its rings are edge-on, resulting in a unique movie featuring both of the giant planet’s poles. [...]