Cosmic Rays Help Supernovae Explosions Pack a Dramatically More Massive Punch
The final stage of cataclysmic explosions of dying massive stars, called supernovae, could pack an up to six times bigger punch on the surrounding interstellar…
Royal Astronomical Society
Artificial Intelligence Helps Resolve Long-Running Astrophysics Debate on Supermassive Black Holes
Black holes with masses equivalent to millions of suns do put a brake on the birth of new stars, say astronomers. Using machine learning and…
Martian Meteorite Hunters: Paving the Way for Future Rovers To Search for Meteorites on Mars
A team at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London is paving the way for future rovers to search for meteorites on Mars. The scientists are…
Planetary Shields Will Buckle Under Furious Stellar Winds From Their Dying Stars – Nearly Impossible for Life To Survive
Any life identified on planets orbiting white dwarf stars almost certainly evolved after the star’s death, says a new study led by the University of…
SuperBIT: A Low-Cost Telescope To Rival Hubble – Carried by a Balloon the Size of a Football Stadium
Durham, Toronto and Princeton Universities have teamed up with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to build a new kind of astronomical telescope. SuperBIT flies…
Lucky Encounter: Solar Orbiter Spacecraft Flies Through the Tail of a Disintegrated Comet
A serendipitous flythrough of the tail of a disintegrated comet has offered scientists a unique opportunity to study these remarkable structures, in new research presented…
A Bug’s Life: Mountains on Neutron Stars May Be Only Fractions of Millimeters Tall
New models of neutron stars show that their tallest mountains may be only fractions of millimeters high, due to the huge gravity on the ultra-dense…
Mysterious Population of Rogue Planets Spotted Near the Center of Our Galaxy
Tantalizing evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of “rogue” (or “free-floating”) planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any…
Habitable Planets With Earth-Like Biospheres May Be Much Rarer Than Thought
A new analysis of known exoplanets has revealed that Earth-like conditions on potentially habitable planets may be much rarer than previously thought. The work focuses…
Mysterious Hydrogen-Free Supernova Sheds Light on Massive Stars’ Violent Death Throes
A curiously yellow pre-supernova star has caused astrophysicists to re-evaluate what’s possible at the deaths of our Universe’s most massive stars. The team describes the…
New Research Finds That Supermassive Black Holes Could Form From Dark Matter
A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather…
Stunning “Honeycomb Heart” Revealed in Iconic Supernova Explosion Remnant
A unique “heart-shape,” with wisps of gas filaments showing an intricate honeycomb-like arrangement, has been discovered at the center of the iconic supernova remnant, the…
Giant Radio Galaxies: Cosmic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Two giant radio galaxies have been discovered with South Africa’s powerful MeerKAT telescope. These galaxies are thought to be amongst the largest single objects in…
Astronomers Discover New Way to “See” Elusive Dark Matter Halos
A small team of astronomers have found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies, with a new technique 10…
Why Scientists Believe There May Be Extra-Terrestrial Life Floating in the Atmosphere of Venus
An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, today announced the discovery of a rare molecule – phosphine – in…
Volcanism Under the Heart of Northern Europe: New Evidence From Thousands of GPS Antennas
Scientists have discovered new evidence for active volcanism next door to some of the most densely populated areas of Europe. The study ‘crowd-sourced’ GPS monitoring…
Galactic Bar Paradox – A Mysterious and Long-Standing Cosmic Conundrum – Resolved in Cosmic Dance
New light has been shed on a mysterious and long-standing conundrum at the very heart of our galaxy. The new work offers a potential solution…
Near a Galaxy Not So Far Away… An Ultra-Bright X-Ray Source Awakens
A new ultra-bright source of X-rays has awakened in between our galactic neighbors the Magellanic Clouds, after a 26-year slumber. This is the second-closest such…