If you keep a close eye on the night sky in the weeks and months ahead, you may spot something new. It will shine as bright as Polaris, the North Star, for no longer than a week before fading back into darkness. This ephemeral lighthouse is T Coronae Borealis, often referred to as T CrB. […]
Read MoreTag: Stars and Galaxies
The Doomsday Clock Keeps Ticking
The Bomb and I go way back. In Seattle, where I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, it was common wisdom that in the event of nuclear war, we were No. 2 on the target list because Seattle was the home of Boeing, maker of B-52 bombers and Minuteman missiles. In school we had […]
Read MoreHow Astronomers Are Saving Astronomy From Satellites — For Now
In December 2020, astronomers documented a burst of highly energetic light in one of the most distant galaxies ever observed. But less than a year later, the paper’s claims lay in limbo. Other scientists said it had merely been a passing satellite. “I was a bit sad that the gamma ray burst turned out to […]
Read MoreGalaxies in the Early Universe Were Shaped Like Bananas, Study Suggests
What does a newborn galaxy look like? For the longest time, many astrophysicists and cosmologists have assumed that newborn galaxies would look like the orbs and spidery discs familiar in the modern universe. But according to an analysis of new images from the James Webb Space Telescope, baby galaxies were neither eggs nor discs. They […]
Read MoreHow to Create a Black Hole Out of Thin Air
How many ways are there to leave this universe? Perhaps the best known exit entails the death of a star. In 1939 the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his student Harlan Snyder, of the University of California, Berkeley, predicted that when a sufficiently massive star runs out of thermonuclear fuel, it collapses inward and keeps […]
Read MoreIt’s Christmastime in the Cosmos
For astronomers peering into the depths of the universe, Christmas came a little early this year. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA released an image last month of a Christmas Tree Galaxy Cluster, a winking collection of galaxies 4.3 billion light-years from Earth. And last week, an image of Cassiopeia A, the […]
Read MoreOur universe’s most extreme stars sometimes ‘glitch’ — we may now know why
Scientists may finally understand the dynamics of neutron star “glitches” that occur when these ultradense dead stars suddenly speed up their spins. It would appear that the strange behavior may be caused when tiny vortices of swirling inner material “break the surface” of these intense stellar corpses. The new breakthrough in understanding neutron star behavior […]
Read MoreOver 100 galaxies seen spewing powerful winds that can halt star formation
Powerful winds that can heat and even drive away a galaxy’s gas — like a snow-plow separating fallen snow — have been observed spewing from over a hundred normal galaxies while changing the course of their evolution. So-called galactic winds have been observed before, emanating from quasars, or “starburst” galaxies that are forming huge amounts […]
Read MoreCould a ‘supervoid’ solve an unrelenting debate over the universe’s expansion rate?
A major discrepancy between different measurements of our universe’s expansion rate could be explained if our galaxy, the Milky Way, sits in a two-billion-light-year-wide void. Such is the conclusion of scientists who argue that a modified theory of gravity can replace the standard model of cosmology. However, this hypothesis is strongly disputed by many astronomers. […]
Read MoreHow exotic alien life could thrive in the giant molecular clouds of deep space
An astronomer has outlined a way for methane-producing life to thrive in the molecular clouds of deep space, opening up a new pathway to understanding the potential origins and diversity of life. Space is hostile to life. There’s no abundant air. All of the water is frozen. Everything’s all spread out. And there’s deadly radiation […]
Read MoreJames Webb Space Telescope pierces through dust to find an ancient ghostly galaxy
This image of a galaxy from the early universe is hardly what you’d call dazzling. You are looking at a very blurry, highly dust-obscured resident of the cosmos whose name is only a string of numbers and letters. It even sits at a distance so far from Earth that it slips in and out of […]
Read MoreDo we live in a giant void? It could solve the puzzle of the universe’s expansion
This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Indranil Banik is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics at the University of St. Andrews. One of the biggest mysteries in cosmology is the rate at which the universe is expanding. This can be predicted using the standard […]
Read MoreWhat are radio galaxies?
A radio galaxy is a galaxy that dominates the sky over Earth in radiowaves. These bright radio wave emissions come from billowing lobes of gas that extend far beyond the visible structure of the galaxy, often for millions of light-years. These radio lobes usually occur in pairs and are created when the heart of a […]
Read MoreX-ray telescope catches ‘spider pulsars’ devouring stars like cosmic black widows (image)
NASA’s space-based Chandra X-ray Observatory has watched a “clutter” of spider pulsars devouring their companion stars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri. This data could help scientists better understand how such rapidly spinning neutron stars, named after the arachnids that devour their mates, erode surrounding stars with intense beams of radiation. The five spider pulsars […]
Read MoreVera C. Rubin Observatory will track orphan stars to reveal a cosmic ‘fossil record’
Astronomers plan to study stars roaming the cosmos alone. The forthcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which will see “first light” in 2025, will study the glow from stars that were ripped from their home galaxies, to better understand how the universe has evolved. The investigation of this faint and difficult-to-see “intracluster light” from stars between […]
Read MoreA cosmic ‘fossil record’ could be hidden among orphaned stars
Astronomers plan to study stars roaming the cosmos alone. The forthcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which will see “first light” in 2025, will study the glow from stars that were ripped from their home galaxies, to better understand how the universe has evolved. The investigation of this faint and difficult-to-see “intracluster light” from stars between […]
Read MoreStrange ‘blob’ circling Milky Way’s central black hole is shooting powerful radiation at Earth every 76 minutes
Something near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way has been firing regular blasts of high-energy gamma-rays toward Earth, and scientists may finally know what it is. In new non-peer-reviewed research posted to the preprint server arXiv, a duo of astrophysicists at the National Autonomous University of Mexico conclude that the […]
Read MoreA ‘runaway star’ could save Earth from extinction a billion years from now. Here’s how.
About a billion years from now, the sun will have become much bigger, brighter and hotter, likely leaving Earth uninhabitable. However, a chance encounter with a passing star could save our planet by tossing it into a cooler orbit or helping it break free of the solar system entirely, a new theoretical study suggests. (Still, […]
Read MoreA mysterious river of gas flowing into the Milky Way has stars inside after all
A river of hydrogen gas flows outward from the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two dwarf galaxies located in the outskirts of the Milky Way. The contents of this river, called the Magellanic Stream, has puzzled astronomers for decades. But now, for the first time, a team of researchers has been able to locate stars […]
Read More300 gamma-ray-blasting neutron stars found in massive haul — and some are ‘spider pulsars’
The Fermi gamma-ray space telescope has discovered around 300 rapidly spinning neutron stars. Each of the newfound objects sweep two beams of radiation across the universe like a cosmic lighthouse. These neutron stars are known to spin hundreds of times per second and are specifically called millisecond pulsars; prior to the launch of Fermi in […]
Read MoreOur neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy shines overhead this week. Here’s how to see it
“In 1976, Janet and I signed up for an ‘astronomy cruise’ to Bermuda. We were on deck one night where Fred Hess, a planetarium expert, pointed out the star patterns visible to the naked eye. Janet used her binoculars to look at the objects described, and the high point came when we saw the Andromeda […]
Read MoreScientists just found a planet-forming disk beyond our Milky Way for the 1st time — yes, they’re thrilled
Astronomers have discovered the first example of a swirling disk of material feeding a young star located in a galaxy outside the Milky Way. The disk is near-identical to those found around infant stars in the Milky Way and suggests that stars and planets form in other galaxies just as they do in our own. […]
Read MoreA Star With Six Planets That Orbit Perfectly in Sync
Astronomers have discovered six planets orbiting a bright star in perfect resonance. The star system, 100 light-years from Earth, was described on Wednesday in a paper published in the journal Nature. The discovery of the system could give astronomers a unique opportunity to trace the evolution of these worlds to when they first formed, and […]
Read MoreJames Webb Space Telescope spies a newborn star in its cosmic crib (image)
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have observed the luminous cloud of material that surrounds a newborn star, cocooning it in a crib of gas and dust. These so-called Herbig-Haro objects are created when stellar winds and jets of gas billow from newborn stars, causing shockwaves that slam into the gas and dust […]
Read MoreHubble Space Telescope spies multiple galaxy clusters masquerading as one (image)
The Hubble Space Telescope has scored a double whammy, as it captured two independent galaxy clusters grouped together in the same view. The massive galaxy cluster conglomerate, originally labeled Abell 3192 as it was believed to only be one cluster, is located in the constellation Eridanus. The foreground cluster observed is located about 2.3 billion […]
Read MoreMysterious blasts of radiation might stem from our universe’s most extreme stars
New research has revealed that different types of neutron stars, born when massive stars die, behave in a similar way. This might sound like a minor result, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s a finding that further supports the idea that these extreme dead stars — so dense a tablespoon of one equals […]
Read MoreScientists chart the stories of young stars — from being born to moving out
Scientists are building a better account of the lives of adolescent stars, starting from their births in collapsing clouds of cosmic gas and dust to the time they “fly the nest” and drift away from other young stars in their original clusters. Studying these stellar timelines will help scientists better determine the ages of stars […]
Read MoreDazzling remains of star explosion revealed in new ESO image
A mesmerizing new view of the Vela constellation captures the beautiful aftermath of a massive stellar explosion. When a star reaches the end of its life, it explodes in a brilliant, fiery explosion, also known as a supernova. The ejected material expanding from such an explosion and the resulting, glowing interstellar material left behind have […]
Read MoreOur universe’s smallest galaxies hold the largest star factories. Here’s why
Some of the biggest, most intense regions of star formation are found in the smallest of galaxies, and scientists believe this is because stars reaching the ends of their lives in the so-called dwarf galaxies are more likely to turn into black holes than explode in supernovas. The contrast is large enough, the team says, […]
Read MoreThe moon, Saturn and Jupiter provide a Thanksgiving skywatching feast
If your household is like most American families, then on Thursday (Nov. 23) you likely will be sitting down with family and friends for a traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner during the mid-to-late afternoon hours. Then, as darkness falls, some of you will probably migrate into the living room to catch some football or other […]
Read MoreThe Milky Way’s stunning spiral structure appears to be an anomaly. But why?
If you were to spring from Earth so high you could glance down at the entire Milky Way, our home galaxy would look like a spinning pinwheel. In it, some 100 billion stars are sprinkled across some 100,000 light-years, accompanied by unfathomable amounts of gas and dust. Together, these galactic components swirl around in a […]
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