Astronomers Discover the Last of Universe’s Missing Ordinary Matter
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have helped to find the last reservoir of ordinary matter hiding in the universe. Ordinary matter, or “baryons,”…
Astrophysics
Astronomers Directly Image a Black Hole Ripping Apart a Star
For the first time, astronomers have directly imaged the formation and expansion of a fast-moving jet of material ejected when the powerful gravity of a…
Mysterious Features in Active Galactic Nuclei Due to Dust Clouds
Mysterious features seen in light emitted from active galactic nuclei may be due to partial obscuration by dust clouds, according to new study. Many large…
Research Shows Gamma-Ray Bursts Follow Binary Neutron Star Mergers
Researchers at Oregon State University have confirmed that last fall’s union of two neutron stars did in fact cause a short gamma-ray burst. The findings,…
Scientists Reveal the True Power of the Solar Wind
Electrically charged particles from the sun strike moons and planets with great force. The consequences of these impacts can now be explained by scientists from…
New GAIA Data Reveal Relics of Merger Events in the Milky Way
University of Groningen astronomers have discovered relics of merger events in the Milky Way halo. Five small groups of stars appear to represent mergers with…
Scientists Discover Spinning Nanodiamonds Around Stars
For decades, astronomers have puzzled over the exact source of a peculiar type of faint microwave light emanating from a number of regions across the…
Gemini Reveals Outflowing Gas from Supermassive Black Hole Nuclei
Supermassive black holes at the nuclei of most galaxies, including our Milky Way, develop gradually as material accretes onto the seed black hole. The physical…
Starburst Galaxies Contain Much Higher Proportions of Massive Stars
Astronomers using ALMA and the VLT have discovered that both starburst galaxies in the early Universe and a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy contain…
New Model Proposes That Dark Matter Carries an Electric Charge
Astronomers have proposed a new model for the invisible material that makes up most of the matter in the Universe. They have studied whether a…
What It Looks Like When A Massive Black Hole Devours A Star
Dr. Jane Lixin Dai, theoretical astrophysicist and assistant professor and Prof. Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, both from the DARK Cosmology Center at the Niels Bohr Institute, University…
Chandra Reveals X-Ray Binary Stars at the Galactic Center
The center of our Milky Way galaxy is about twenty-five thousand light years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. At the core…
ETH Astronomers Identify Six ‘Dark Galaxy’ Candidates
Based on new observational data, an international team led by ETH astronomers identified at least six candidates for ‘dark galaxies’ — galaxies that have a…
New Research Shows Life Could Be Common Throughout the Multiverse
A Multiverse – where our Universe is only one of many – might not be as inhospitable to life as previously thought, according to new…
Scientists Discover Gigantic Solar Rossby Waves on the Sun
A team of scientists led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the University of Göttingen has discovered gigantic swirls on the…
Astronomers Predict What Will Happen When Our Sun Dies
Scientists agree the sun will die in approximately 10 billion years, but they weren’t sure what would happen next…until now. A team of international astronomers,…
Mars’ Growth Stunted by Planetary Instability, Could Have Become Habitable
A University of Oklahoma astrophysics team explains why the growth of Mars was stunted by an orbital instability among the outer solar system’s giant planets…
Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory About The Big Bang
Professor Stephen Hawking’s final theory on the origin of the universe, which he worked on in collaboration with Professor Thomas Hertog from KU Leuven, has…