NASA’s NICER delivers best-ever pulsar measurements, first surface map Astrophysicists are redrawing the textbook image of pulsars, the dense, whirling remains of exploded stars, thanks to NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), an X-ray telescope aboard the International Space Station. Using NICER data, scientists have obtained the first precise and dependable measurements of both […]
Short-lived light sources discovered in the sky A project lead by an international team of researchers use publicly available data with images of the sky dating as far back as the 1950s to try to detect and analyse objects that have disappeared over time. In the project “Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of […]
Research group confirm planet-mass objects in extragalactic systems A University of Oklahoma research group is reporting the detection of extragalactic planet-mass objects in a second and third galaxy beyond the Milky Way after the first detection in 2018. With the existing observational resources, it is impossible to directly detect planet-mass objects beyond the Milky Way […]
Wow, Meade Instruments Just Filed for Bankruptcy Protection Meade Instruments, a company familiar to any backyard astronomer who’s drooled over their telescopes, has filed for bankruptcy. The company has fallen on hard times in recent years, as they’ve faced increasing competition. Meade also recently lost a lawsuit, which pushed them over the edge into bankruptcy. […]
This Galaxy Has Been Home to 5 Supernovae in the Last 20 Years A NASA image showcases the beauty of the NGC 5468 galaxy, which has experienced 5 supernovae in the last 20 years (all of which we’ve witnessed). The post This Galaxy Has Been Home to 5 Supernovae in the Last 20 Years appeared […]
We Know We’re Made of Stardust. But Did it Come From Red Giants? We’ve all heard this one: when you drink a glass of water, that water has already been through a bunch of other people’s digestive tracts. Maybe Attila the Hun’s or Vlad the Impaler’s; maybe even a Tyrannosaurus Rex’s. Well, the same thing […]
ALMA spots most distant dusty galaxy hidden in plain sight Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted the light of a massive galaxy seen only 970 million years after the Big Bang. This galaxy, called MAMBO-9, is the most distant dusty star-forming galaxy that has ever been observed without the help of […]
A new way to measure cosmic black holes Supermassive black holes are the largest black holes, with masses that can exceed a billion Suns. Just this spring, the first-ever image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Messier 87 galaxy was taken, and researchers recently spotted the largest supermassive black hole ever […]
Relativistic jet of the blazar S5 0836+710 investigated in detail Using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), astronomers have performed comprehensive multiwavelength observations of the radio emission in the blazar S5 0836+710. The new research, presented in a paper published December 2 on arXiv.org, reveals important insights about the structure the blazar’s relativistic jet. phys.org Go […]
X-ray satellite XMM-Newton celebrates 20 years in space Two decades ago, on Dec. 10, 1999, an Ariane 5 rocket climbed into the morning sky from Kourou, French Guiana. It carried into orbit the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton), the largest scientific spacecraft yet built by ESA (European Space Agency) and a pioneering satellite for studying the […]
Weekly Space Hangout: December 11, 2019 – Charlie Duke and Tom O’Conner from Astrograms Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org) Dave Dickinson (www.astroguyz.com / @astroguyz) Carolyn Collins Petersen (TheSpaceWriter.com / @spacewriter) Moiya McTier (https://www.moiyamctier.com/ / @GoAstroMo) Tonight we are pleased to welcome Tom O’Connor and Charlie Duke, founders of AstroGrams, to the […]
Second stellar population found in Milky Way’s thick disk A new study on the kinematics and chemical composition of a sample of stars in the vicinity of the sun, led by Dr. Daniela Carollo, researcher of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, has revealed that the stars that make up the thick disk of the […]
Water common—yet scarce—in exoplanets The most extensive survey of atmospheric chemical compositions of exoplanets to date has revealed trends that challenge current theories of planet formation and has implications for the search for water in the solar system and beyond. phys.org Go to Source
This is the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field The Milky Way galaxy has its own magnetic field. It’s extremely weak compared to Earth’s; thousands of times weaker, in fact. But astronomers want to know more about it because of what it can tell us about star formation, cosmic rays, and a host of other astrophysical processes. […]
Why Does Enceladus Have Stripes at its South Pole? A study led by the Carnegie Institute of Science has determined why Enceladus’ has its mysterious Tiger Stripes. The post Why Does Enceladus Have Stripes at its South Pole? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to Source
NASA’s TESS Watched an Outburst from Comet 46P/Wirtanen TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, has imaged an outburst from the comet 46P/Wirtanen. It caught the outburst in what NASA is calling the clearest images yet of a comet outburst from start to finish. A comet outburst is a significant but temporary increase in the comet’s […]
December Meteor Squalls: Prospects for the 2019 Geminids and Ursids December means chillier climes for northern hemisphere residents, a time to huddle inside near the campfire, both real and cyber. I’ve always thought this was a shame, however, as the cold crisp nights of winter offer up sharp clear skies. Over the past decade or […]
These Incredible Images of Alien Worlds are Actually Miniatures Have you heard of Adam Makarenko? No? Adam is an artist who makes physical models of exoplanets then creates elaborate photo shoots of them. Adam is our new favorite Instagram feed at Universe Today, and he even took over the UT Instagram feed recently. Adam is […]
Stardust from red giants Some of the Earth’s building material was stardust from red giants, researchers from ETH Zurich have established. They have also explained why the Earth contains more of this stardust than the asteroids or the planet Mars, which are farther from the sun. phys.org Go to Source
New Project Headed by Apollo’s Charlie Duke to Send Messages to Space When astronaut Charlie Duke walked on the Moon in April of 1972 during the Apollo 16 mission, he brought along a very personal memento with a message he wanted to leave behind. “When I walked on the Moon, I took a photo […]
