News (Page 746)

New ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar discovered Using ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR space telescopes, a team of astronomers from Germany has detected a new ultra-luminous pulsar in the galaxy NGC 300. The finding of this pulsar, which received designation NGC 300 ULX1, is detailed in a paper published November 9 on the arXiv pre-print repository. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Enormous dwarf satellite galaxy of Milky Way discovered Using data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft, astronomers have discovered a new Milky Way satellite in the constellation Antlia. The newly found dwarf galaxy, named Antlia 2, is several times larger when compared to other systems of similar luminosity. The finding is detailed in a paper published November 9 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

New evidence reveals how heavy elements were created after the Big Bang The Big Bang theory and the question of how life on Earth began has fascinated scientists for decades, but now new research from The University of Western Australia suggests the conditions that resulted from the Big Bang are different to what we thought. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

The Cygnus Loop The Cygnus Loop (also known as the Veil Nebula) is a supernova remnant, the detritus of the explosive death of a massive star about ten to twenty thousand years ago. Detailed modeling of its spectacular filamentary shape suggests that the explosion occurred inside an interstellar cavity created by the progenitor star. As is common in astronomy, many of the precise physical properties of the object are rendered uncertain by the uncertainty of its distance. For decades scientists used a value of about 2500 light-years based on analyses of its gas motions by Hubble in 1937 and Minkowski in 1958. Many recent distanceRead More →

Searching for the weakest detectable magnetic fields in white dwarfs Magnetic fields are present in a large variety of stars across the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, during all evolutionary stages from pre-main sequence stars, to main sequence stars and evolved stars, up to the final stages when the star explodes as a supernova. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Globular clusters could offer clues on formation and evolution of inner Milky Way Brazilian astronomer Denilso Camargo has recently discovered five new globular clusters in the Milky Way’s bulge that could offer essential clues on the formation and evolution of our galaxy’s innermost regions. The newly identified clusters, which are old and metal-poor, have also the potential to improve our understanding of the structure as well as kinematics of the galactic bulge. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Astronomers investigate unusually bright single pulses from a millisecond pulsar Astronomers have conducted a study of unusually bright single pulses (BSPs) from the millisecond pulsar PSR B1744−24A. The new research, which determined properties of these pulses, could contribute to understanding the nature of BSPs. The study is presented in a paper published November 5 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Exoplanet mission launch slot announced The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, Cheops, will target 15 October to 14 November 2019 for launch. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

ALMA’s highest frequency receiver produces its first scientific result on massive star formation The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has tuned in another new channel for signals from space. Using its highest frequency receivers yet, researchers obtained 695 radio signatures for various molecules, including simple sugar, in the direction of a massive star forming region. These first scientific results from the ALMA Band 10 receivers developed in Japan ensure a promising future for high frequency observations. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Will we ever see a black hole? In the shadowy regions of black holes two fundamental theories describing our world collide. Can these problems be resolved and do black holes really exist? First, we may have to see one and scientists are trying to do just this. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

From gamma rays to X-rays: New method pinpoints previously unnoticed pulsar emission Based on a new theoretical model, a team of scientists explored the rich data archive of ESA’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s Chandra space observatories to find pulsating X-ray emission from three sources. The discovery, relying on previous gamma-ray observations of the pulsars, provides a novel tool to investigate the mysterious mechanisms of pulsar emission, which will be important to understand these fascinating objects and use them for space navigation in the future. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →