News (Page 477)

New evidence shows that the key assumption made in the discovery of dark energy is in error The most direct and strongest evidence for the accelerating universe with dark energy is provided by the distance measurements using type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) for the galaxies at high redshift. This result is based on the assumption that the corrected luminosity of SN Ia through the empirical standardization would not evolve with redshift. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Hubble surveys gigantic galaxy Galaxies are like snowflakes. Though the universe contains innumerable galaxies flung across time and space, no two ever look alike. One of the most photogenic is the huge spiral galaxy UGC 2885, located 232 million light-years away in the northern constellation, Perseus. It’s a whopper even by galactic standards. The galaxy is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars, about 1 trillion. This galaxy has lived a quiescent life by not colliding with other large galaxies. It has gradually bulked up on intergalactic hydrogen to make new stars at a slow and steadyRead More →

Planetary nebula WR 72 has hydrogen-poor knots, study finds Using the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), astronomers have conducted spectroscopic and imaging observations of the planetary nebula WR 72. They discovered hydrogen-poor knots in the central part of the nebula, which could be helpful in improving knowledge about the nature of this object. The finding is detailed in a paper published December 23 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Alien life is out there, but our theories are probably steering us away from it If we discovered evidence of alien life, would we even realize it? Life on other planets could be so different from what we’re used to that we might not recognize any biological signatures that it produces. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Study unveils the nature of young stars near the cometary globule CG 30 Using the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES), astronomers from Georgia State University (GSU) in Atlanta have investigated the nature of young stars near the cometary globule CG 30. The new study, presented December 20 on arXiv.org, provides important information about the properties of 21 young stars in this area. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

GMRT discovers a gigantic ring of hydrogen gas around a distant galaxy A team of astronomers at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) in Pune, India have discovered a mysterious ring of hydrogen gas around a distant galaxy, using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The ring is much bigger than the galaxy it surrounds and has a diameter of about 380,000 light-years (about 4 times that of our Milky Way). phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

New device in New Mexico turns back clock on astronomy A newly forged steel instrument that can pinpoint the path of stars and planets across the night sky using the naked eye is a throwback to the years just before the advent of telescopes, returning stargazers in the hills of northern New Mexico to the essentials of astronomy in the past. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Blazar variability Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies that are accreting material. These AGN emit jets of charged particles that move at speeds close to that of light, transporting huge amounts of energy away from the central black hole region and radiating across the electromagnetic spectrum. Blazars are extreme examples of AGN in which the collimated jets are coincidentally aligned towards us. Blazar jets have two peak emission wavelengths, one that spans the range from the radio to the X-ray, the result of charged particle acceleration, and one at extremely short wavelength, high energy gamma ray bands usuallyRead More →

Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy’s halo Using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array radio telescope, a team of astronomers has captured for the first time an image of large-scale, coherent, magnetic fields in the halo of a faraway spiral galaxy, confirming theoretical modeling of how galaxies generate magnetic fields and potentially increasing knowledge of how galaxies form and evolve. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Hubble views a galaxy with an active center This swirling mass of celestial gas, dust and stars is a moderately luminous spiral galaxy named ESO 021-G004, located just under 130 million light-years away. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

New study investigates properties of the Melotte 105 cluster A new study recently conducted by astronomers has investigated the Melotte 105 open cluster with the aim on uncovering its fundamental properties. The research, presented in a paper published December 18 on arXiv.org, provides more accurate measurements of the cluster’s distance, age and metallicity. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Deep eclipses detected in the cataclysmic variable J0130 Russian astronomer Valery Kozhevnikov has conducted photometric observations of the cataclysmic variable (CV) IPHAS J013031.89+622132.3 (J0130 for short), finding that the object exhibits deep eclipses. The discovery, presented in a paper published December 17 on arXiv.org, could provide more clues on the nature of this CV. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Calculating the time it will take spacecraft to find their way to other star systems A pair of researchers, one with the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the other with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CIT, has found a way to estimate how long it will take already launched space vehicles to arrive at other star systems. The pair, Coryn Bailer-Jones and Davide Farnocchia have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →