What Was The Universe Like Before The Big Bang?
A team of scientists has proposed a powerful new test for inflation, the theory that the universe dramatically expanded in size in a fleeting fraction…
Astrophysics
‘Galactic Chimneys’ Funnel Matter Away From Milky Way’s Center
The center of our galaxy is a frenzy of activity. A behemoth black hole — 4 million times as massive as the sun — blasts…
New Results Help Refine Current Models of AGN Activity
All massive galaxies are believed to host supermassive black holes (SMBH) at their centers that grow by accreting mass from their environment. The current picture…
Scientists Discover 83 Quasars Powered by Supermassive Black Holes
Astronomers from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University have discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the distant universe, from a time when the…
Surprising Discovery Revealed After Sifting Through Solar System Dust
Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the…
Astronomers Discover Closest High-Mass Stellar Objects Ever Measured
Astronomers have discovered a binary star system with the closest high-mass young stellar objects ever measured, providing a valuable “laboratory” to test theories on high…
SOFIA Explores Supergalactic Wind, Provides Clues to Evolution of Galaxies
The Cigar Galaxy (M82) is famous for its extraordinary speed in making new stars, with stars being born 10 times faster than in the Milky…
Astronomers Detect Hidden Black Hole Lurking at Galactic Center
Astronomers have detected a stealthy black hole from its effects on an interstellar gas cloud. This intermediate mass black hole is one of over 100…
Stellar Flyby Helped Shape Our Solar System 3 Million Years Ago
Some of the peculiar aspects of our solar system — an enveloping cloud of comets, dwarf planets in weird orbits and, if it truly exists,…
New Idea Helps Explain Why Galaxies Have The Shapes They Do
Dark matter may scatter against each other only when they hit the right energy, say researchers in Japan, Germany, and Austria in a new study….
ESA’s Gaia Satellite Discovers Billion-Year-Old River of Stars
Astronomy & Astrophysics published the work of researchers from the University of Vienna, who have found a river of stars, a stellar stream in astronomical…
Merging Neutron Stars Provide Insight Into Fundamental Properties of Matter
The option to measure the gravitational waves of two merging neutron stars has offered the chance to answer some of the fundamental questions about the…
ALMA Discovers Ordinary Table Salt in Disk Surrounding Massive Star
New ALMA observations show there is ordinary table salt in a not-so-ordinary location: 1,500 light-years from Earth in the disk surrounding a massive young star….
Scientists Show Sun’s Magnetic Waves Behave Differently Than Believed
New research undertaken at Northumbria University shows that the Sun’s magnetic waves behave differently than currently believed. Their findings have been reported in the latest…
Astronomers Reveal a Warped and Twisted Milky Way
Our Milky Way galaxy’s disk of stars is anything but stable and flat. Instead, it becomes increasingly ‘warped’ and twisted far away from the Milky…
Scientists Chart Environment Surrounding a Stellar-Mass Black Hole
Scientists have charted the environment surrounding a stellar-mass black hole that is 10 times the mass of the Sun using NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition…
New Results Show Dark Energy May Vary Over Time
A new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA’s XMM-Newton suggests that dark energy may have varied over cosmic time. This artist’s…
New Research Solves Key Mystery in the Birth of Massive Black Holes
When the universe was still a baby – less than 1 billion years old – some of its stars turned into monster black holes. A…