News (Page 468)

What if mysterious ‘cotton candy’ planets actually sport rings? Some of the extremely low-density, “cotton candy like” exoplanets called super-puffs may actually have rings, according to new research published in The Astronomical Journal by Carnegie’s Anthony Piro and Caltech’s Shreyas Vissapragada phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Two stars merged to form massive white dwarf A massive white dwarf star with a bizarre carbon-rich atmosphere could be two white dwarfs merged together according to an international team led by University of Warwick astronomers, and only narrowly avoided destruction. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

OSIRIS-REx students catch unexpected glimpse of black hole University students and researchers working on a NASA mission orbiting a near-Earth asteroid have made an unexpected detection of a phenomenon 30 thousand light years away. Last fall, the student-built Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) onboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft detected a newly flaring black hole in the constellation Columba while making observations off the limb of asteroid Bennu. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Hubble spots a spiral with a past This image of an archetypal spiral galaxy was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Physicists model the supernovae that result from pulsating supergiants like Betelgeuse Betelgeuse has been the center of significant media attention lately. The red supergiant is nearing the end of its life, and when a star over 10 times the mass of the Sun dies, it goes out in spectacular fashion. With its brightness recently dipping to the lowest point in the last hundred years, many space enthusiasts are excited that Betelgeuse may soon go supernova, exploding in a dazzling display that could be visible even in daylight. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Examining ice giants with NASA’s Webb telescope Far-flung Uranus and Neptune—the ice giants of our solar system—are as mysterious as they are distant. Soon after its launch in 2021, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will change that by unlocking secrets of the atmospheres of both planets. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Plasma jet deceleration could be caused by the interaction with the stars Manel Perucho, professor of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Valencia has proposed an explanation for the origin of the deceleration of plasma jets (loss of speed along the matter and energy channels emanating from the central regions of an active galaxy), a subject that has been debated in recent decades. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Massive protostar keeps growing despite ionization heating by ultraviolet light A gigantic embryonic star is still getting bigger, even though it propels vast plumes of hot gas away from itself, RIKEN astronomers have found. The discovery could help to solve an enduring mystery about how massive stars grow so large. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomy student discovers 17 new planets, including Earth-sized world University of British Columbia astronomy student Michelle Kunimoto has discovered 17 new planets, including a potentially habitable, Earth-sized world, by combing through data gathered by NASA’s Kepler mission. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers detect biggest explosion in the history of the Universe Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the Universe since the Big Bang. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Distant star and planet get new Cree language names from national contest A giant planet 344 light-years from Earth and the star it orbits have new names in the Cree language, thanks to a national contest. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

How astronomers are piecing together the mysterious origins of superluminous supernovae When a massive star reaches the end of its life, it can explode as a supernova. But there’s a unique type of supernova that’s much brighter that we’re just starting to understand—and which may prove useful in measuring the universe. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →