Secrets Behind Sunquakes May Lurk Beneath the Solar Surface
A secret behind the workings of sunquakes – seismic activity on the Sun during solar flares – might be hidden beneath the solar surface. These…
Astrophysics
Dazzling Array of Complex Shapes Found in Planetary Nebulae Generated by Stellar Winds Interaction With Binary Companions
Interactions with binary companions shape the stellar winds blowing from elderly stars, generating the dazzling array of complex shapes found in the planetary nebulae they…
Astronomers Rewind the Clock to Calculate Age of Supernova Blast From Massive Star Explosion
Astronomers are winding back the clock on the expanding remains of a nearby, exploded star. By using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, they retraced the speedy…
Magnetic “Highway” Fuels Massive Ejection of Gas and Dust Out of the Cigar Galaxy
What’s fueling the massive ejection of gas and dust out of the Cigar galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 82? We know that thousands of stars…
HAWC+ Reveals Magnetic Chaos Hidden Within the Whirlpool Galaxy
Not all appears as it would seem in the Whirlpool galaxy. One of the best-studied spiral galaxies and a delight to amateur astronomers, Messier 51, as…
A Tale of Planetary Resurrection in a Triple-Star System With a Skewed Configuration
Years after its detection, astronomers have learned that a planet called KOI-5Ab orbits in a triple-star system with a skewed configuration. Shortly after NASA’s Kepler…
A Star Dying Soon After the Beginning of the Universe Could Be Disrupting Mobile Phone Reception Today
Rare Star’s Giant Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 204015A Captured Close to Our Home Galaxy Earth gets blasted by mild short gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) most days. But…
Can We Harness Energy From Black Holes? Columbia Research Shows How Energy Could Be Extracted
A new Columbia study indicates energy can be extracted from black holes through reconnection of magnetic field lines. A remarkable prediction of Einstein’s theory of…
Most Distant Quasar Discovered Sheds Light on How Supermassive Black Holes Grow
Fully formed just 670 million years after the Big Bang and powered by the earliest known supermassive black hole, the quasar provides insight into the…
Gravitational Wave Search Finds Tantalizing New Clue: Unexplained Fluctuations in Space-Time
An international team of scientists may be close to detecting faint ripples in space-time that fill the universe. Pairs of black holes billions of times…
The Universe Is Getting Hot, Hot, Hot – Temperature Has Increased 10-Fold Over the Last 10 Billion Years
The universe is getting hotter, a new study has found. The study, published in the Astrophysical Journal, probed the thermal history of the universe over the…
Milky Way’s Dark Side Revealed by Measurements of Pulsar Acceleration
It is well known that the expansion of the universe is accelerating due to a mysterious dark energy. Within galaxies, stars also experience an acceleration,…
“Galaxy-Sized” Observatory Sees Hints of a Unique Signal From Gravitational Waves That Warp the Fabric of Space and Time Itself
Scientists have used a “galaxy-sized” space observatory to find possible hints of a unique signal from gravitational waves, or the powerful ripples that course through…
“This Galaxy Is Witnessing a Truly Extreme Event” – Galaxy Mergers Could Limit Star Formation
Astronomers have looked nine billion years into the past to find evidence that galaxy mergers in the early universe could shut down star formation and…
Cosmic Neon Lights: Strange New Type of Star Revealed in X-ray Light
This image shows a new type of star that has never been seen before in X-ray light. This strange star formed after two white dwarfs…
Striped or Spotted? Planetary Scientists Solve a Brown Dwarf Mystery
Planetary scientists wondered if bands of winds or swirling storms dominated the atmospheres of brown dwarfs. University of Arizona-led research has solved the mystery. A…
Chandra Studies Extraordinary Magnetar: Fastest Spinning and Possibly the Youngest Magnetar Known
Astronomers have recently found the fastest spinning and possibly the youngest magnetar known. This object, known as J1818.0-1607, is located about 21,000 light years away…
Deepening Astronomical Mystery: On the Hunt for a Missing Giant Black Hole
Astronomers are searching for signs of a supermassive black hole in the galaxy cluster Abell 2261. Nearly all large galaxies contain central black holes, and…