News (Page 668)

‘Missing’ galactic mergers come to light with new technique Galaxy mergers—in which two galaxies join together over billions of years in sometimes-dramatic bursts of light—aren’t always easy for astronomers to spot. Now, scientists from the University of Colorado Boulder have developed a new technique for finding these cosmic couplings in surveys of the night sky. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Young planets orbiting red dwarfs may lack ingredients for life Rocky planets orbiting red dwarf stars may be bone dry and lifeless, according to a new study using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Water and organic compounds, essential for life as we know it, may get blown away before they can reach the surface of young planets. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

TESS rounds up its first planets, snares far-flung supernovae NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has found three confirmed exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, in its first three months of observations. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Nature’s magnifying glass reveals unexpected intermediate mass exoplanets Astronomers have found a new exoplanet that could alter the standing theory of planet formation. With a mass that’s between that of Neptune and Saturn, and its location beyond the “snow line” of its host star, an alien world of this scale was supposed to be rare. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Computer simulation sheds new light on colliding stars Unprecedented detail of the aftermath of a collision between two neutron stars depicted in a 3-D computer model created by a University of Alberta astrophysicist provides a better understanding of how some of the universe’s fundamental elements form in cosmic collisions. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Nearly a third of all galaxy clusters may have been previously unnoticed In 1933, Fritz Zwicky, famous American astronomer of Swiss origin, arrived at the astonishing conclusion that even though galaxies are the signposts of galaxy clusters, their contribution to the total cluster mass is minuscule in comparison to a dominant dark matter component. Current estimates of a cluster total mass indicates that the contributions are roughly: phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

TESS discovers its third new planet, with longest orbit yet NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, has discovered a third small planet outside our solar system, scientists announced this week at the annual American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of a close neighbour of the Milky Way—the Triangulum Galaxy, a spiral galaxy located at a distance of only three million light-years. This panoramic survey of the third-largest galaxy in our Local Group of galaxies provides a mesmerising view of the 40 billion stars that make up one of the most distant objects visible to the naked eye. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Multi-wavelength view of a supernova remnant New Year’s Eve may be past, but we are not done with fireworks just yet. This image, which includes data from ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, shows the remnants of an explosion – not of the colourful type ignited during celebrations, but of the stellar kind. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Three new open clusters discovered in the Milky Way Using data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, Brazilian astronomers have detected three new open clusters in the Milky Way. The clusters, designated UFMG 1, UFMG 2 and UFMG 3, were found in the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. The discovery is reported in a paper published December 27 on the arXiv.org pre-print server. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Chandra detection of a circumnuclear torus Most galaxies host supermassive black holes at their nuclei, each with millions or billions of solar-masses of material. There is thought to be a torus of dust and gas around the black holes, and an accreting disk that becomes very hot as material falls onto it, in turn heating the torus and circumnuclear gas and dust. Such an active galactic nucleus (AGN) radiates across the spectrum while the dust often blocks the innermost regions from view. Powerful bipolar jets of charged particles are often ejected as well. Radiation from the torus can be seen directly at infrared wavelengths and,Read More →

Tiny satellites could be ‘guide stars’ for huge next-generation telescopes There are more than 3,900 confirmed planets beyond our solar system. Most of them have been detected because of their “transits”—instances when a planet crosses its star, momentarily blocking its light. These dips in starlight can tell astronomers a bit about a planet’s size and its distance from its star. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Hen 3-160 is a symbiotic binary with Mira variable star, study suggests A new study conducted by a team of astronomers from Poland and South Africa provides more insights into the nature of Hen 3-160, a symbiotic binary system in the southern Milky Way. The research, presented in a paper published December 22 on arXiv.org, proposes that this object is a symbiotic binary containing a Mira variable star. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →