Giant Cosmic Cotton Ball: A Dark Matter Deficient Galaxy
The galaxy NGC 1052-DF2 resides in a field of galaxies about sixty-five million light-years away. Its low mass, only about two hundred million solar-masses, makes…
Astrophysics
Wandering Supermassive Black Holes Whizzing Through the Universe
Every massive galaxy is believed to host a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center. Its mass is correlated with the mass of the inner…
Cracking a Mystery of Massive Black Holes and Quasars
A discovery that provides new insight into how galaxies evolve. At the center of galaxies, like our own Milky Way, lie massive black holes surrounded…
A “Living Catalog” of Solar Stream Interactions
When a fast solar wind stream erupts from a coronal hole (a cooler region in the Sun’s atmosphere) and overtakes a slower moving solar wind…
Puzzling Periodicity of a Fast Radio Burst Probed by Two of the Biggest Radio Telescopes in the World
By connecting two of the biggest radio telescopes in the world, astronomers have discovered that a simple binary wind cannot cause the puzzling periodicity of…
‘Double’ Galaxy Mystifies Hubble Astronomers – “We Were Really Stumped”
Galaxy Cluster’s Gravity Produces Mirror Images of Distant Galaxy Behind It Gazing into the universe is like looking into a funhouse mirror. That’s because gravity…
The Strange Afterglow of a Gamma-Ray Burst – Unusual Features Challenge Models
Using the H.E.S.S. observatory, researchers at GRB 190829A observe unusual features that challenge models. Researchers from the H.E.S.S. Collaboration succeeded to derive the intrinsic spectrum…
Hubble Captures a Dangerous Dance Over 100 Million Light-Years From Earth
This Picture of the Week features two interacting galaxies that are so intertwined, they have a collective name — Arp 91. This delicate galactic dance…
Scientists Recreate Cosmic Reactions To Unlock Astronomical Mysteries of Exploding Stars
Experiments will give scientists a closer look at how exploding stars create world’s heaviest elements. How do the chemical elements, the building blocks of our…
NASA Confirms Roman Space Telescope Mission’s Flight Design in Milestone Review
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has successfully passed its critical design review, signaling that all design and developmental engineering work is now complete. “After…
Scientists Uncover the Mystery of Early Massive Galaxies That Strangely Ran Out of Fuel
New study reveals that early galaxies have no fuel, and something is stopping them from refilling the tank. Early massive galaxies—those that formed in the…
Part of the Universe’s Missing Matter Found Thanks to Very Large Telescope
Galaxies exchange matter with their external environment thanks to galactic winds. The MUSE instrument from the Very Large Telescope has, for the very first time,…
Stellar Winds, Magnetic Activity, and Evaporating Exoplanet Atmospheres
Most stars including the Sun generate magnetic activity that drives a fast-moving, ionized wind and also produces X-ray and ultraviolet emission (often referred to as…
Touching the Stars: Astronomers Can Now Hold Stellar Nurseries in Their Hands
Researchers can now hold stellar nurseries in their hands thanks to 3D printing, revealing features often obscured in traditional renderings and animations. Astronomers can’t touch…
Bayesian Inference for Gravitational Waves From Binary Neutron Star Mergers in 3G Observatories
In the 2030’s, gravitational-wave detectors will be thousands of times more sensitive than Advanced LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA. The network of “third generation” (3G) observatories…
Probing Mysterious “Afterglow” X-Ray Remnants From Extreme Cosmic Bursts of Light
Short gamma-ray bursts are extremely bright bursts of high-energy light that last for a couple of seconds. In many of these bursts, there is a…
Running on Empty: Astronomers Solve 12-Billion-Year-Old Mystery of Stalled Galaxies
Unprecedent measurements confirm galaxies idle when they run out of cold gas. New research, published in Nature and led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has just answered…
Interplay Between Magnetic Force and Gravity in Massive Star Formation
The magnetic field is part of one of the four fundamental forces in nature. It plays a vital role in everyday life, from producing electricity…