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UrduAstronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a galaxy in the distant regions of the Universe which appears duplicated at least 12 times on the night sky. This unique sight, created by strong gravitational lensing, helps astronomers get…
Tag: ASTROPHYSICS
MSU leads new NSF-funded international nuclear astrophysics research network
EAST LANSING, Mich. – The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $2 million grant to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics – Center for the Evolution of the Elements (JINA-CEE), led by Michigan State University (MSU), to create a new…
NASA’s NICER catches record-setting X-ray burst
NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station detected a sudden spike of X-rays at about 10:04 p.m. EDT on Aug. 20. The burst was caused by a massive thermonuclear flash on the surface of…
SwRI demonstrates balloon-based solar observatory
Low-cost option breaks down barriers to solar research
UCLouvain researcher makes the heart of Mars speak
For 20 years, Véronique Dehant, a space scientist at University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has been working on understanding the Earth’s core. In a few months, she will be able to complete her research by…
UCLouvain researcher makes the heart of Mars speak
For 20 years, Véronique Dehant, a space scientist at University of Louvain (UCLouvain) and the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has been working on understanding the Earth’s core. In a few months, she will be able to complete her research by…
NASA’s TESS presents panorama of southern sky
The glow of the Milky Way — our galaxy seen edgewise — arcs across a sea of stars in a new mosaic of the southern sky produced from a year of observations by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Constructed…
DESI’s 5000 eyes open as Kitt Peak Telescope prepares to map space and time
Installation of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument nears completion
Studying Ice to Understand Astrophysical Bodies
Understanding the formation and evolution of ice in astrophysical environments can provide information about the physical conditions encountered in space and the chemical similarities and differences between planetary and stellar systems. At the AVS 66th International Symposium and Exhibition, Edith Fayolle, an astrochemist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will talk about how scientists are trying to understand properties of ice on astrophysical bodies, such as its formation, composition and sublimation — the process by which ice transitions directly into gas, without being in its liquid phase in between.
First identification of a heavy element born from neutron star collision
Newly created strontium, an element used in fireworks, detected in space for the first time following observations with ESO telescope
World’s fastest supercomputer processes huge data rates in preparation for mega-telescope project
Scientists have processed 400 gigabytes of data a second as they tested data pipelines for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. Researchers from ICRAR in Perth, Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US and Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China used…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope clears critical sunshield deployment testing
The sunshield for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has passed a test critical to preparing the observatory for its 2021 launch. Technicians and engineers fully deployed and tensioned each of the sunshield’s five layers, successfully putting the sunshield into the…
Stormy cluster weather could unleash black hole power and explain lack of cosmic cooling
“Weather” in clusters of galaxies may explain a longstanding puzzle, according to a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge. The scientists used sophisticated simulations to show how powerful jets from supermassive black holes are disrupted by the motion…
Hubble observes 1st confirmed interstellar comet
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers their best look yet at an interstellar visitor — comet 2I/Borisov — whose speed and trajectory indicate it has come from beyond our solar system. This Hubble image, taken on Oct. 12, 2019,…
Cascades of gas around young star indicate early stages of planet formation
Astronomers see gestating baby planets, reveal the source of their formative atmospheres
Gas ‘waterfalls’ reveal infant planets around young star
The birthplaces of planets are disks made out of gas and dust. Astronomers study these so-called protoplanetary disks to understand the processes of planet formation. Beautiful images of disks made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) how distinct gaps…
Chains of atoms move at lightning speed inside metals
Superioniclike diffusion in an elemental crystal: Bcc titanium
Heron survey fishes out detail in ghostly galaxy outskirts
Astronomers have completed the largest survey to date of the faint outskirts of nearby galaxies, successfully testing a low-cost system for exploring these local stellar systems. R. Michael Rich of the University of California, Los Angeles led an international team…
Astronomers use giant galaxy cluster as X-ray magnifying lens
New lens technique spots tiny dwarf galaxy in the first, super-energetic stages of star formation
Radiation detector with the lowest noise in the world boosts quantum work
The nanoscale radiation detector is a hundred times faster than its predecessors, and can function without interruption
The American Physical Society announces Historic Sites for 2019
The Historic Sites initiative recognizes landmarks significant to physics history across the United States.
Luciano Rezzolla awarded prestigious honorary professorship
The Goethe University physics professor to be Andrews Professor of Astronomy at Dublin Trinity College
NRL launches space weather instrument on NASA satellite
WASHINGTON — A U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) instrument aboard NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite will deliver unprecedented information to help scientists investigate how both terrestrial and solar weather impact the ionosphere, the ionized region of Earth’s upper atmosphere.…
New research sheds light on the ages of lunar ice deposits
The discovery of ice deposits in craters scattered across the Moon’s south pole has helped to renew interest in exploring the lunar surface, but no one is sure exactly when or how that ice got there. A new study suggests…
Lithuanian researchers developed new technology for precision grinding
By experimenting with tungsten carbide a team of researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, created an innovative technology allowing to shape the extremely strong and yet easily breakable material into a desirable form.
Pressure runs high at edge of solar system
Out at the boundary of our solar system, pressure runs high. This pressure, the force plasma, magnetic fields and particles like ions, cosmic rays and electrons exert on one another when they flow and collide, was recently measured by scientists…
Lyncean Technologies awarded €49M to provide world’s most advanced gamma-ray source
Lyncean Technologies, a pioneer in compact accelerator-based light sources for use in science and industry, on October 4th signed a contract with the “Horia Hulubei” National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), Romania, to build…
Artemis, meet ARTEMIS: Pursuing Sun science at the moon
By 2024, NASA will land astronauts, including the first woman and next man, on the Moon as part of the Artemis lunar exploration program. This won’t be the first time NASA takes the name Artemis to the Moon though. Two…
Scientists observe year-long plateaus in decline of type Ia supernova light curves
This is a surprising finding as astronomers had expected that the light curve would not only continue decreasing but even experience a sharp drop, rather than flattening into a plateau. The discovery is a huge step forward for astronomers as…
Not long ago, the center of the Milky Way exploded
Researchers find evidence of a cataclysmic flare that punched so far out of the galaxy its impact was felt 200,000 light years away
Three gravitational-wave detectors sign agreement to begin joint observation
Collaboration will enable pinpointing origin of gravitational-wave events
A cosmic pretzel
Twin baby stars grow amongst a twisting network of gas and dust
A dusty lab in the sky
Joe Nuth loves dust. Among astronomers, that puts him in a minority. “The traditional astronomers — the people looking at galaxies and stars — they hate dust,” said Nuth, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt,…
NASA selects Illinois professor for satellite mission concept study
Lara Waldrop, assistant professor electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been selected by NASA to lead a multi-institution team to conduct a concept study for a satellite mission. Her mission, titled “Global Lyman-alpha Imagers…
The American Institute of Physics Announces 2019 Science Communication Award Winners
The winners of the 2019 AIP Science Communication Awards are announced for their topical works on robotics inspired by animals, the nature of the universe, climate change, the awe and excitement of space, and the mystery of black holes. The winners are David L. Hu, Marcia Bartusiak, Nathaniel Rich, Raman Prinja, and Rushmore DeNooyer.
A filament fit for space — silk is proven to thrive in outer space temperatures
Their initial discovery had seemed like a contradiction because most other polymer fibres embrittle in the cold. But after many years of working on the problem, the group of researchers have discovered that silk’s cryogenic toughness is based on its…
This is how a ‘fuzzy’ universe may have looked
Scientists simulate early galaxy formation in a universe of dark matter that is ultralight, or “fuzzy,” rather than cold or warm.
Massive filaments fuel the growth of galaxies and supermassive black holes
An international group of scientists led by the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research have used observations from the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile and the Suprime-Cam at the Subaru telescope to…
New ‘fuzzy’ dark matter research disrupts conventional thinking
‘Fuzzy’ dark matter theory simulated fully for the first time
Quantum vacuum: Less than zero energy
Is it possible to borrow energy from an empty space? And if yes, do we have to give it back? Energy values smaller than zero are allowed – at least within certain limits.
The violent history of the big galaxy next door
Astronomers have pieced together the cannibalistic past of our neighbouring large galaxy Andromeda, which has now set its sights on the Milky Way as its next main course. The galactic detective work found that Andromeda has eaten several smaller galaxies,…
Two ancient migration events in the Andromeda Galaxy: Dynamical footprints uncovered by galactic archaeologists in galaxy next door
Gemini Observatory with NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory
Department of Energy Announces $21.4 Million for Quantum Information Science Research
The following news release was issued on Aug. 26, 2019 by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). It announces funding that DOE has awarded for research in quantum information science related to particle physics and fusion energy sciences. Scientists at DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory are principal investigators on two of the 21 funded projects.
NSF’s national optical-infrared astronomy research laboratory launched
Major NSF astronomy initiative starts Oct. 1, 2019
Record breaking observations find most remote protocluster of galaxies
An international team of astronomers with participation by researchers from DAWN, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen has discovered a protocluster of galaxies 13.0 billion light years away using the Subaru, Keck, and Gemini Telescopes in Hawaii. A protocluster is…
Telescope seeking new planets launches via football field-sized balloon
Instrument designed and built by UMass Lowell targets Earth-like objects in space hidden by stars’ glare
Growing old together: A sharper look at black holes and their host galaxies
New Haven, Conn. – Some relationships are written in the stars. That’s definitely the case for supermassive black holes and their host galaxies, according to a new study from Yale University. The “special relationship” between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and…
Life’s building blocks may have formed in interstellar clouds
An experiment shows that one of the basic units of life — nucleobases — could have originated within giant gas clouds interspersed between the stars. Essential building blocks of DNA — compounds called nucleobases — have been detected for the…
Oldest galaxy protocluster forms ‘queen’s court’
Using the Subaru, Keck, and Gemini Telescopes, an international team of astronomers has discovered a collection of 12 galaxies which existed about 13.0 billion years ago. This is the earliest protocluster ever found. One of the 12 galaxies is a…
Giant exoplanet around tiny star challenges understanding of how planets form
International team of researchers with participation from Göttingen discovers rare gas giant