NASA’s ACE Mission: Total Solar Eclipses Shine a Light on the Solar Wind
From traversing sand dunes in the Sahara Desert to keeping watch for polar bears in the Arctic, a group of solar scientists known as the…
Astrophysics
An Inconstant Hubble Constant? New 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…
Probing Deeper Into the Origins of Cosmic Rays With Geometric Brownian Motion
Simulation model provides first step in developing algorithms to enhance detection methods. Cosmic rays are high-energy atomic particles continually bombarding Earth’s surface at nearly the…
Scientists Use New Technology to Detect Signatures of Life Remotely
It could be a milestone on the path to detecting life on other planets: Scientists under the leadership of the University of Bern and of…
Astrophysicists Solve a Mysterious Decades-Long Gamma-Ray Burst Puzzle
Astrophysicists from the University of Bath in the UK find the magnetic field in gamma-ray bursts is scrambled after the ejected material crashes into, and…
Cosmic Mystery Deepens: Oddball “See-Through” Galaxy’s Missing Dark Matter
Precise Distance to Galaxy Bolsters Missing Dark Matter Claim What if oceanographers found the “tip” of an iceberg and nothing else? Mysteriously missing was the…
Gamma-Ray Bursts – Bright Cosmic Explosions – Could Reveal Strange Interstellar “Knots”
Gamma-ray bursts are enormous cosmic explosions and are one of the brightest and most energetic events in the Universe. Their brightness changes over time, illuminating…
Dark Matter “Counterweight” Is Slowing the Spin of the Milky Way’s Galactic Bar
The spin of the Milky Way’s galactic bar, which is made up of billions of clustered stars, has slowed by about a quarter since its…
Young Chaotic Star System Reveals Secrets of Planet Formation
New observations of young stellar object Elias 2-27 confirm gravitational instabilities and planet-forming disk mass as key to formation of giant planets. A team of…
Blistering Stars in the Universe: Rare Insights Into How Violent Supernova Explosions Affect Nearby Stars
What happens if a supernova explosion goes off right beside another star? The star swells up, which scientists predict as a frequent occurrence in the…
Astronomers Were Puzzled by “Great Dimming” of Betelgeuse – Now the Mystery Is Solved
Mystery of Betelgeuse’s Dip in Brightness Solved When Betelgeuse, a bright orange star in the constellation of Orion, became visibly darker in late 2019 and…
First-Ever Galaxy Observed in a “Blow-Away” State – Reveals Secrets of the Evolution of the Universe
Small galaxies likely played important role in evolution of the Universe. A new study led by University of Minnesota astrophysicists shows that high-energy light from…
Largest Rotating Structures in the Universe Discovered – Fantastic Cosmic Filaments Where Galaxies Are Relatively Just Specs of Dust
By mapping the motion of galaxies in huge filaments that connect the cosmic web, astronomers at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), in collaboration…
Boundary Between Our Solar System and Interstellar Space Mapped for the First Time
Using data from NASA’s IBEX satellite, scientists created the first-ever 3D map of the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space. For the first…
Astrophysicists Surprised by 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…
The Sun’s Clock: Periodic Solar Activity Fluctuations Can Be Clocked by Planetary Attractive Forces
All cycles fit the picture: New calculations support and expand planetary hypothesis. Not only the very concise 11-year cycle, but also all other periodic solar…
“Surfing” Particles on Alfvén Waves: Physicists Solve a Mystery Surrounding Aurora Borealis
Experiments at UCLA’s Basic Plasma Science Facility confirm interaction of electrons and Alfvén waves. The spectacularly colorful aurora borealis — or northern lights — that…
Cosmic Mass Monsters Clear the Way: Black Holes Help With Star Birth
The cosmic mass monsters clear the way for the formation of new suns in satellite galaxies. Research combining systematic observations with cosmological simulations has found…