Astronomers Measure a Black Hole’s “Point of No Return”
For the first time, international team of astronomers has measured a black hole’s “point of no return,” the closest distance that matter can approach before…
Astrophysics News
Scientists Measure the Radius of a Black Hole at the Center of M87
Using the Event Horizon Telescope, an international team of scientists has for the first time measured the radius of a black hole at the center…
Simulation Shows What Happens in the Last Stages of a Black Hole Merger
A recently published study uses computer simulations to show for the first time what happens in the magnetized gas (plasma) in the last stages of…
Short-Period Binary Stars Tend to Merge Into Single Star
A computer simulation suggests that there are many single stars that were born as two separate suns, which eventually merged into a single star during…
Artificial Intelligence Algorithm Helps Chart the Universe
A newly published study details the artificial intelligence algorithm a team of astronomers developed to help them chart and explain the structure and dynamics of…
Understanding the Evolution of Organic Molecules in Our Solar System
A newly published study from scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory provides the first direct look at the organic chemistry that takes place on icy…
Dark Energy Camera Captures Its First Images
Located on a mountaintop in Chile, the newly-constructed Dark Energy Camera is the most powerful sky-mapping machine ever created and has captured and recorded its…
Probable Distance to Remnant of Kepler’s Supernova
Scientists at CfA have taken an important step in determining the distance of the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, concluding that the remnant distance is probably…
Pr0201b and Pr0211b Orbiting Sun-Like Stars in the Beehive Cluster
For the first time, a team of astronomers have spotted two new “Hot Jupiter” planets, called Pr0201b and Pr0211b, orbiting sun-like stars in the Beehive…
IAU Changes the Astronomical Unit From Equation to Number
Astronomers have redefined one of the most commonly used stellar distances, the astronomical unit (AU). Based on the rough distance from Sol to Earth, AU…
Cloud of Hydrogen and Helium Plunging Toward the Galactic Center
Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believe that the recently discovered cloud of hydrogen and helium plunging toward the galactic center represents the shredded…
99.996 Percent Chance That Dark Energy Exists
After a two-year study, a team of astronomers at the University of Portsmouth and LMU University Munich have concluded that the likelihood of the existence…
Video and Sound Help Turn Astronomical Data Into Art
Alex Parker, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Institute for Theory and Computation, incorporated sound and audio to astronomical images to create…
“Pigtail” Molecular Cloud Located in the Galactic Center
Using the NRO 45m Telescope at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, scientists discovered a “pigtail” molecular cloud, located in the Galactic center, approximately 30,000 light-years away from…
Glycolaldehyde Discovered in the Material around a Newly Developing Star
A newly published study details the discovery of glycolaldehyde, a simple sugar, in the material around a newly developing star that is roughly the size…
Planck Satellite Observations May Help Solve the Mystery of Dark Matter
The Planck Satellite has observed a very unique emission of radio radiation from the center of the Milky Way, moving scientists closer than ever to…
A Superbubble in Star Cluster NGC 1929
Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the Max-Planck-ESO telescope, this composite image shows a superbubble in NGC 1929, which…
Scientists Use Light From an Exploding Star to Study Distant Galaxy
A recently published study details how scientists used light from an exploding star as a probe to study the gas conditions in the space between…
