Spin Doctors: Vast Cosmic Filaments and Galaxy Rotation [Video]
Sky survey provides clues to how galaxies change over time. The direction in which a galaxy spins depends on its mass, researchers have found. A…
Astrophysics
Gravitational Wave Detector Breakthrough Dampens Quantum Noise for Precise Measurements
Squeeze leads to stellar-mass black hole collision precision. Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have found a way to better detect all collisions of…
Groundbreaking New Images Peel Away Layers of a Stellar Mystery
An international team of scientists, including three researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has shed new light on one of the central mysteries…
‘Time Machine’ With 5,000 Robotic Eyes to Explore Dark Energy
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument begins final testing, setting the stage for a 5-year survey that will analyze the light of 35 million galaxies. A…
Solar Spicules Launched by Magnetic Reconnection on Sun’s Surface
New observations of solar spicules, ubiquitous jet-like plasma features that punctuate the Sun’s atmosphere, suggest they are generated by the energy released as the two…
Black Hole Mergers: Cooking With Gas and a 112,000 MPH Kick
New study proposes light signature for detecting black hole mergers. Gravitational wave detectors are finding black hole mergers in the universe at the rate of…
‘Are We Alone?’ 3D Climate Modeling Helps in Search for Life on Exoplanets
First study to combine 3D climate modeling with chemistry explores M dwarf planets. Study is the first to include 3D chemistry to understand how a…
Mysterious Buckyballs Found Throughout Interstellar Space Puzzled Scientists, Until Now
Researchers discovered a mechanism creating complex carbon molecules in a simulated planetary nebula environment. Scientists have long been puzzled by the existence of so-called “buckyballs”…
Star Ejected by Supermassive Black Hole at Heart of Milky Way at Over 3.5 Million MPH [Video]
Runaway Star Ejected From the Galactic Heart of Darkness Astronomers have spotted an ultrafast star, traveling at a blistering 6 million km/h (~3.7 million m/h),…
Mysterious Giant “Bubbles” Discovered at Center of Milky Way [Video]
International team detected radio bubbles with South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope. A gigantic, balloon-like structure has been hiding in plain sight, right in the center of…
Alternative Earths – Secrets of Sustaining Life
Three billion years ago, Earth was a very different place. The sun that shone on its oceans and continents was not as bright as it…
Discovery of Ancient Cosmic Gas Cloud Reveals the Universe’s First Stars Formed Quickly
The discovery of a 13 billion-year-old cosmic cloud of gas enabled a team of Carnegie astronomers to perform the earliest-ever measurement of how the universe…
State-of-the-Art Technology Used to Further Refine How Quickly the Universe Is Expanding
Clemson team collaborates to quantify one of the most fundamental laws of the cosmos. Wielding state-of-the-art technologies and techniques, a team of Clemson University astrophysicists…
Massive, Spinning Black Holes Could Be the Result of ‘Pac-Man-Like’ Mergers
Scientists have reported detecting gravitational waves from 10 black hole mergers to date, but they are still trying to explain the origins of those mergers….
Sunburst Arc Doppelgangers Captured in Distant Region of the Universe
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have observed a galaxy in the distant regions of the Universe which appears duplicated at least 12 times…
Record-Setting X-Ray Burst From Massive Thermonuclear Blast Detected From Space Station
NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station detected a sudden spike of X-rays at about 10:04 p.m. EDT on…
Cosmic Order Emerging From Chaos: Galactic Fountains and Carousels Unveiled
Scientists from Germany and the United States have unveiled the results of a newly-completed, state of the art simulation of the evolution of galaxies. TNG50…
Map to the Stars – Astronomers Trace Most Common Molecule in the Universe
Molecular hydrogen (H2) makes up 99% of the cold dense gas in galaxies. So mapping where stars are born basically means measuring H2, which lacks…