News (Page 754)

Galaxy blazes with new stars born from close encounter The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a new look at the spectacular irregular galaxy NGC 4485, which has been warped and wound by its larger galactic neighbour. The gravity of the second galaxy has disrupted the ordered collection of stars, gas and dust, giving rise to an erratic region of newborn, hot, blue stars and chaotic clumps and streams of dust and gas. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Hubble astronomers assemble wide view of the evolving universe Astronomers have put together the largest and most comprehensive “history book” of galaxies into one single image, using 16 years’ worth of observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Elliptical galaxies shed new light on dark matter In the 1930s, it was first noticed that the dynamics of astrophysical objects (galaxies, galaxy clusters and the universe itself) required an invisible and unknown form of mass, known now as dark matter. Strong mass discrepancies in spiral galaxies measured in the 1970s gave new weight to the concept of dark matter and motivated physicists to propose a number of dark matter particle candidates. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Maunakea observatories shed new light on obscured infant solar system Astronomers using the combined power of two Hawaii telescopes have taken groundbreaking, sharp new images of a distant planetary system that likely resembles a baby version of our solar system. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Study finds open cluster NGC 2682 at least two times larger than previously thought Based on new data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers have provided more insights into properties of the nearby open cluster NGC 2682, revealing that its size is at least two times greater than previously believed. The findings are detailed in a paper published May 6 on the arXiv pre-print repository. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

First-ever constructed image of a terrestrial gamma-ray flash Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes occur above some thunderstorms and propagate out into space. These high-energy discharges of photons were only discovered less than 25 years ago when a NASA spacecraft designed to observe cosmic gamma-ray bursts from outer space detected flashes that seemed to come from Earth itself. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

ASTRI-Horn is first Cherenkov telescope in dual-mirror configuration to detect the Crab Nebula at TeV energies Exactly 30 years after the first historical observation of Crab nebula at TeV energies, which opened the era of TeV astronomy with the Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Technique (IACT), another advancement in IACT technology has been achieved. The ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov Telescope, based on the innovative Schwarzschild-Couder dual-mirror configuration and equipped with an innovative camera, has detected the Crab Nebula at TeV energies for the first time, proving the viability of this technology. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Small, hardy planets most likely to survive death of their stars Small, hardy planets packed with dense elements have the best chance of avoiding being crushed and swallowed up when their host star dies, new research from the University of Warwick has found. The new research is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations detected in the X-ray binary EXO 0748−676 By analyzing data from NASA’s Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) satellite, astronomers have detected millihertz quasi-periodic oscillations from a low-mass neutron star X-ray binary designated EXO 0748−676. The finding is detailed in a paper published May 6 on the arXiv pre-print server. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Study unveils detailed properties of the eclipsing binary KOI-3890 By combining transit photometry, radial velocity observations, and asteroseismology, astronomers have gathered important information about the properties of a highly eccentric, eclipsing binary system known as KOI-3890. The new findings are presented in a paper published April 30 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

The building blocks for astronomically literate citizens What does it mean for a citizen to be literate in astronomy? Astronomers who participate in outreach to the general public experience various degrees of astronomical knowledge among people. But so far, there had not been a systematic evaluation and definition of what astronomical literacy actually means. Astronomers including Pedro Russo from the Leiden Observatory therefore published the first global document that proposes a definition for astronomy literacy. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →