English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
Esperanto
French
German
Greek
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
UrduAstronomers have spotted a giant ‘blinking’ star towards the centre of the Milky Way, more than 25,000 light years away. An international team of astronomers observed the star, VVV-WIT-08, decreasing in brightness by a factor of 30, so that it…
Tag: Astronomy
Star’s death will play a mean pinball with rhythmic planets
Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies, according to a study led by the University of Warwick that peers into its future
A study shows the unexpected effect of black holes beyond their own galaxies
At the heart of almost every sufficiently massive galaxy there is a black hole whose gravitational field, although very intense, affects only a small region around the centre of the galaxy.
CHIME telescope detects more than 500 mysterious fast radio bursts in its first year of operation
Observations quadruple the number of known radio bursts and reveal two types: One-offs and repeaters
NASA’s Roman Space Telescope selects 24 flight-quality heat-vision ‘eyes’
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team recently flight-certified all 24 of the detectors the mission needs. When Roman launches in the mid-2020s, these devices will convert starlight into electrical signals, which will then be decoded into 300-megapixel images of…
Astronomers discover a ‘changing-look’ blazar
A University of Oklahoma doctoral student, graduate and undergraduate research assistants, and an associate professor in the Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy in the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences are lead authors on a…
Cosmic cartographers map nearby Universe revealing the diversity of star-forming galaxies
Study reveals that the makeup and life cycle of star-forming clouds is dependent on location
An unprecedented survey of the ‘nurseries’ where stars are born
Study of nearby galaxies gives new insights into star formation
Organic molecules reveal clues about dying stars and outskirts of Milky Way
Researchers from the University of Arizona will present findings from radio-astronomical observations of organic molecules at the 238th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, or AAS, during a press conference titled “Molecules in Strange Places” at the 238th AAS Meeting…
Qorvo provides key enabling tech for identifying, mapping threats from near-earth objects
Qorvo® (Nasdaq: QRVO), a leading provider of innovative radio frequency (RF) solutions that connect the world, today announced its Spatium® solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) technology will play a key role in a new planetary radar experiment using the Green Bank…
GMRT measures the atomic hydrogen gas mass in galaxies 9 billion years ago
A team of astronomers from the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA-TIFR) in Pune, and the Raman Research Institute (RRI), in Bangalore, has used the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) to measure the atomic hydrogen gas content of galaxies 9…
The origin of the first structures formed in galaxies like the Milky Way identified
An international team of scientists led from the Centre for Astrobiology (CAB, CSIC-INTA), with participation from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has used the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) to study a representative sample of galaxies, both disc and…
Stream of stars extends thousands of light-years across the Milky Way
It’s hard to see more than a handful of stars from Princeton University, because the lights from New York City, Princeton and Philadelphia prevent our sky from ever getting pitch black, but stargazers who get into more rural areas can…
Jets from massive protostars might be very different from lower-mass systems
VLA reveals new details of protostellar jet
High energy telescopes dissect the afterglow of a gamma ray burst
Astronomers have measured very-high-energy gamma rays coming from the aftermath of a gamma ray burst – an enormously energetic explosion of a star in another galaxy. The results shine light on these immensely powerful but little-understood cosmic events, and challenge…
Which way does the solar wind blow?
Using supercomputers, researchers develop new software for improved space weather prediction
Astronomers discover a massive star cluster, of intermediate age, in the constellation Scutum
An international team of astrophysicists led by the Stellar Astrophysics Group of the University of Alicante (UA), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the University of Valparaíso (Chile) has discovered a massive cluster of stars of intermediate age…
Largest aerospace society names Sandia researcher ‘Engineer of the Year’
‘Jack-of-all-trades’ improves future spacefaring calculations
A new dimension in the quest to understand dark matter
UC Riverside dark matter research program targets assumptions about particle physics
Victoria M Kaspi and Chryssa Kouveliotou receive the 2021 Shaw Prize in Astronomy
The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2021 is shared equally by Victoria M. Kaspi, Professor of Physics and Director of McGill Space Institute, McGill University, Canada and Chryssa Kouveliotou, Professor and Chair, Department of Physics at George Washington University, USA for…
Turbulence in interstellar gas clouds reveals multi-fractal structures
In interstellar dust clouds, turbulence must first dissipate before a star can form through gravity. A German-French research team has now discovered that the kinetic energy of the turbulence comes to rest in a space that is very small on…
Quark-gluon plasma flows like water, according to new study
What does quark-gluon plasma – the hot soup of elementary particles formed a few microseconds after the Big Bang – have in common with tap water? Scientists say it’s the way it flows. A new study, published today in the…
Scientists find new insights into the elusive continuous waves from spinning neutron stars
Five years on from the first discovery of gravitational waves, an international team of scientists, including from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), are continuing the hunt for new discoveries and insights into the Universe. Using…
UMass Amherst astronomer reveals never-before-seen detail of the center of our galaxy
New image made using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory hints at previously unknown interstellar energy source at the Milky Way center
Dark energy survey releases most precise look at the universe’s evolution
First three years of survey data uses observations of 226 million galaxies over 1/8 of the sky
Hubble inspects a contorted spiral galaxy
This striking image showcases the unusually contorted appearance of NGC 2276, an appearance caused by two different astrophysical interactions — one with the superheated gas pervading galaxy clusters, and one with a nearby galactic neighbour. The interaction of NGC 2276…
Magnetized threads weave spectacular galactic tapestry
Threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields are weaving a tapestry of energy at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. A new image of this new cosmic masterpiece was made using a giant mosaic of data from NASA’s Chandra…
Similar states of activity identified in supermassive and stellar mass black holes
The researchers Juan A. Fernández-Ontiveros, of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Rome and Teo Muñoz-Darias, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), have written an article in which they describe the different states of activity of a large sample of supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies.
Similar states of activity identified in supermassive and stellar mass black holes
The researchers Juan A. Fernández-Ontiveros, of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) in Rome and Teo Muñoz-Darias, of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), have written an article in which they describe the different states of activity of a…
Does the Milky Way move like a spinning top?
An investigation carried out by the astrophysicists of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) ?ofia Chrobáková, a doctoral student at the IAC and the University of La Laguna (ULL), and Martín López Corredoira, questions one of the most interesting…
Study reveals new details on what happened in the first microsecond of Big Bang
Researchers from University of Copenhagen have investigated what happened to a specific kind of plasma – the first matter ever to be present – during the first microsecond of Big Bang.
Candid cosmos: eROSITA cameras set benchmark for astronomical imaging
An overview and performance assessment of the seven cameras of eROSITA, a space x-ray telescope launched in 2019
36 Dwarf Galaxies Had Simultaneous “Baby Boom” of New Stars
Three dozen dwarf galaxies far from each other had a simultaneous “baby boom” of new stars, an unexpected discovery that challenges current theories on how galaxies grow and may enhance our understanding of the universe. Galaxies more than 1 million light-years apart should have completely independent lives in terms of when they give birth to new stars. But galaxies separated by up to 13 million light-years slowed down and then simultaneously accelerated their birth rate of stars, according to a Rutgers-led study published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Plasma jets reveal magnetic fields far, far away
Radio telescope images enable a new way to study magnetic fields in galaxy clusters millions of light years away
36 dwarf galaxies had simultaneous ‘baby boom’ of new stars
Surprising finding challenges current theories on how galaxies grow
Milky Way not unusual, astronomers find
Detailed cross-section of another galaxy reveals surprising similarities to our home
Leicester astronomers look ahead to first light from James Webb Space Telescope
Leicester space scientists will join a group of global experts investigating fundamental questions about our Universe, after being granted time to use the most advanced observatory ever built. A total of 286 scientific targets identified by astronomers and planetary scientists…
Chandra discoveries in 3D available on new platform
A collection of the 3D objects from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is now available on a new platform from the Smithsonian Institution. This will allow greater access to these unique 3D models and prints for institutions like libraries and museums…
ALMA discovers the most ancient galaxy with spiral morphology
Analyzing data obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers found a galaxy with a spiral morphology by only 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang. This is the most ancient galaxy of its kind ever observed. The discovery…
Hubble tracks down fast radio bursts to galaxies’ spiral arms
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have traced the locations of five brief, powerful radio blasts to the spiral arms of five distant galaxies. Called fast radio bursts (FRBs), these extraordinary events generate as much energy in a thousandth of…
An inconstant Hubble constant? U-M research suggests fix to cosmological cornerstone
More than 90 years ago, astronomer Edwin Hubble observed the first hint of the rate at which the universe expands, called the Hubble constant. Almost immediately, astronomers began arguing about the actual value of this constant, and over time, realized…
Nickel atoms detected in the cold gas around interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
Unbound nickel atoms and other heavy elements have been observed in very hot cosmic environments, including the atmospheres of ultra-hot exoplanets and evaporating comets that ventured too close to our Sun or other stars. A new study conducted by JU…
Heavy metal vapors unexpectedly found in comets throughout our Solar System — and beyond
A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the…
NASA’s Webb to study how massive stars’ blasts of radiation influence their environments
In a nearby stellar nursery called the Orion Nebula, young, massive stars are blasting far-ultraviolet light at the cloud of dust and gas from which they were born. This intense flood of radiation is violently disrupting the cloud by breaking…
A revolutionary method to drastically reduce stray light on space telescopes
A team of researchers at the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) of the University of Liège has just developed a method to identify the contributors and origins of stray light on space telescopes. This is a major advance in the…
UCI-led team challenges existence of recently proposed exoplanet at Barnard’s star
In 2018, astronomers announced that they had discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s star, our solar system’s second-closest stellar neighbor, but further analysis by an international group of researchers headed by a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine has cast doubt on the finding.
Dark energy spectroscopic instrument officially starts
A five-year quest to map the Universe and unravel the mysteries of ‘dark energy’ began officially on May 17 at Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. To complete its quest, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) will capture and…
NSF EPSCoR grant will advance understanding of neutrinos and support new faculty
LAWRENCE — Neutrinos are almost intangible subatomic particles that hardly interact with matter in the universe. Billions of neutrinos are shooting through your body as you read this sentence, and you don’t even notice. Explosive deep-space events like gamma-ray bursts,…
New evidence of how and when the Milky Way came together
New research provides the best evidence to date into the timing of how our early Milky Way came together, including the merger with a key satellite galaxy
Astronomy Educators Awarded $2.8M to Inspire Minority Youth to Pursue STEM Careers
Using robotic telescopes and other engaging astronomy activities, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian hope to spark interest in the sciences.