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Displayed in all their exquisite detail, six spectacular galaxies are pictured more clearly that they ever have before. All of them are beautiful examples of spiral galaxies and were captured in images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The pictures were taken in infrared light, using the impressive power of the HAWK-I camera, and will help astronomers understand how the remarkable spiral patterns in galaxies form and evolve.-incredible-new-detail.html#ixzz13uAfNijg

Astronomers have detected a pair of supermassive black holes that are closer together than any previously discovered. The two giants are dancing around each other with only about 24-light-years between them and are expected to collide in the very distant future. "That's more than 100 times closer than any pair found before," said astronomer Cristina Rodriguez from the University of New Mexico and Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela. Rodriguez was part of the team made the discovery using the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), a continent wide system of 10 linked radio-telescopes. The finding was announced today....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - NASA scientists used an infrared telescope to see past stardust and spot hidden galaxies more than 11 billion light-years from the Earth, according to a journal article published Tuesday. Scientists used the Spitzer Space Telescope to find the galaxies, the most luminous in the universe. The galaxies shine with light equivalent to 10 trillion suns but were too far away and too drenched in cosmic dust to be seen - until now. "We are seeing galaxies that are essentially invisible," said Professor Dan Weedman of Cornell University, in Ithaca, N.Y. Weedman co-authored an article detailing the...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 14 Giant Emission Nebula NGC 3603 in Infrared Credit: 2MASS Project, UMass, IPAC/Caltech, NSF, NASA Explanation: NGC 3603 is the largest region of glowing gas in our Milky Way galaxy. Spanning over 20 light years across, the giant emission nebula (HII region) is home to a massive star cluster, thick dust pillars, and a star about to explode. NGC 3603 was captured above in infrared light...