https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. A team of astrophysicists, led by scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study, has developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and the spin of black holes to be measured, represents a major step forward, since it operates independently of many of the other ways in which scientists have probed these parameters in the past. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astrophysicists-echoes-illuminate-black-holes.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Nov 2024 12:59:04 EST news650206742 Using the CHIME telescope, an international team of astronomers has detected a new repeating fast radio burst (FRBs) source in the outskirts of a quiescent galaxy. The finding of a new FRB, which experienced 22 repeating bursts, was reported in a research paper published October 30 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astronomers-fast-radio.html Astronomy Thu, 07 Nov 2024 11:30:01 EST news650200879 Since their discovery in 2007, fast radio bursts—extremely energetic pulses of radio-frequency light—have lit up the sky repeatedly, leading astronomers on a chase to uncover their origins. Currently, confirmed fast radio bursts, or FRBs, number in the hundreds, and scientists have assembled mounting evidence for what triggers them: highly magnetized neutron stars known as magnetars (neutron stars are a type of dead star). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-mighty-radio-linked-massive-galaxies.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Nov 2024 13:10:39 EST news650121031 Tiny grains from a distant asteroid are revealing clues to the magnetic forces that shaped the far reaches of the solar system more than 4.6 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-asteroid-grains-outer-solar.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:14:04 EST news650117641 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international team of astronomers have observed a giant spiral galaxy designated ADF22.A1. Results of the observational campaign, published October 29 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide more insights into its inner structure. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-astronomers-jwst-alma-explore-giant.html Astronomy Wed, 06 Nov 2024 10:09:42 EST news650110179 Using the Gemini-South telescope, astronomers have performed high-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy of stars in a Galactic globular cluster known as Gran 5. They found that this cluster harbors two stellar populations with different metallicities. The finding was reported in a paper published October 28 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-globular-cluster-gran-hosts-stellar.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:00:02 EST news650019248 A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics marks a significant milestone in our understanding of the formation and dynamical evolution of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters (spherical and very compact stellar agglomerates typically populated by 1–2 million stars). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-3d-view-formation-evolution-globular.html Astronomy Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:56:55 EST news650019410 Supermassive black holes exist at the center of most galaxies, and modern telescopes continue to observe them at surprisingly early times in the universe's evolution. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-black-hole-early-universe-consuming.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Nov 2024 11:00:01 EST news649935139 Using the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST), Chinese astronomers have identified nearly 300 candidate supergiant stars in the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. The finding was reported in a research paper published October 25 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-hundreds-supergiant-stars-nearby-galaxies.html Astronomy Mon, 04 Nov 2024 09:31:58 EST news649935113 Black holes continue to captivate scientists: they are purely gravitational objects, remarkably simple, yet capable of hiding mysteries that challenge our understanding of natural laws. Most observations thus far have focused on their external characteristics and surrounding environment, leaving their internal nature largely unexplored. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-black-hole-kerr-solution-assumptions.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:11:03 EDT news649689061 In the 1997 movie "Contact," adapted from Carl Sagan's 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star Vega. She emerges inside a snowstorm of debris encircling the star—but no obvious planets are visible. https://phys.org/news/2024-11-hubble-webb-probe-smooth-disk.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Fri, 01 Nov 2024 12:48:03 EDT news649684081 On a mountain in northern Chile, scientists are carefully assembling the intricate components of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the most advanced astronomical facilities in history. Equipped with an innovative telescope and the world's largest digital camera, the observatory will soon begin the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). https://phys.org/news/2024-11-scientists-ambitious-sky-survey-insight.html Astronomy Fri, 01 Nov 2024 10:23:50 EDT news649675424 How did everything begin? It's a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed in on an answer: the Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-big-quest-unravel-mystery-birth.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 13:12:05 EDT news649599121 A team of computer scientists, astronomers and historians in Berlin has used machine-learning applications to learn more about the evolutionary history of European astronomical thought in the 15th and 16th centuries. In their study published in the journal Science Advances, the group trained machine-learning applications to make sense of hand-written texts, graphs, charts and other data from textbooks of the era. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-machine-analysis-tracks-evolution-16th.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:56:19 EDT news649587368 Astronomers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have inspected a Galactic open cluster known as NGC 2506 as part of the WIYN Open Cluster Study. Results of the study, published October 14 in The Astronomical Journal, shed more light on the properties of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-properties-cluster-ngc.html Astronomy Thu, 31 Oct 2024 09:25:07 EDT news649585502 On an airplane, motions of the air on both small and large scales contribute to turbulence, which may result in a bumpy flight. Turbulence on a much larger scale is important to how stars form in giant molecular clouds that permeate the Milky Way. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astrophysics-explores-turbulence-molecular-clouds.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 16:42:40 EDT news649525355 The temperature of elementary particles has been observed in the radioactive glow following the collision of two neutron stars and the birth of a black hole. This has, for the first time, made it possible to measure the microscopic, physical properties in these cosmic events. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astrophysicists-electrons-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 14:30:41 EDT news649517437 By analyzing the data from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey (DECaLS), astronomers have discovered a new tidal tail likely associated with the galaxy NGC 3785. The newly detected tidal tail is extremely extended and faint. The finding was reported in a research paper published October 24 on the preprint server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-faint-tidal-tail.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Oct 2024 08:30:01 EDT news649440384 Astrophysical explosions are, to give a few examples, driven by the collapse of the iron core of a massive star (known as a core-collapse supernova), the consumption of spaghettified stellar remains by a massive black hole (known as a tidal disruption event), and runaway nuclear fusion on the surface of a white dwarf (known as a type 1A supernova). Such explosions occur frequently, but most often in distant galaxies, and only recently have astronomers been able to peer far enough into space to detect them in significant numbers—and many more are on the way. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-powerful-space-explosions.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 16:18:02 EDT news649437473 Our solar system dwells in a low-density environment called the Local Hot Bubble (LHB), filled by a tenuous, million-degree hot gas emitting dominantly in soft X-rays. A team led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) used the eROSITA All-Sky Survey data and found a large-scale temperature gradient in this bubble, possibly linked with past supernova explosions that expanded and reheated the bubble. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-erosita-survey-unveils-asymmetries-temperature.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:58:04 EDT news649421882 A new study by DTU Space researchers has revealed a neutron star that rotates around its axis at an extremely high speed. It spins 716 times per second, making it one of the fastest-spinning objects ever observed. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-astronomers-fastest-stars-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 11:48:24 EDT news649421299 A team of space researchers with the IAU Center for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Skies from Satellite Constellation Interference, working with a colleague from Belgian Working Group Satellites, has found that the satellites making up China's "Thousand Sails" project exceed brightness limits that have been proposed by astronomical groups wanting to prevent satellites from blocking the view to space. The paper describing their findings is posted to the arXiv preprint server. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-satellites-china-thousand-exceeding-brightness.html Astronomy Space Exploration Tue, 29 Oct 2024 10:20:01 EDT news649415379 Astronomers have employed the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to perform comprehensive multiwavelength observations of a large and massive spiral galaxy known as UGC 2885. Results of the observational campaign, published October 21 on the pre-print server arXiv, provide more insights into the properties of this galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-explore-properties-giant-spiral-galaxy.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Oct 2024 09:39:31 EDT news649413565 Newborn stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust within which planets are born, known as protoplanetary disks. In the Orion Nebula, the brightest and most massive stars emit intense ultraviolet radiation that illuminates protoplanetary disks, allowing them to be photographed in unusual detail. The striking images of these UV-illuminated protoplanetary disks, called proplyds, were one of the first major discoveries by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope decades ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-nasa-telescopes-brown-dwarf-protoplanetary.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Mon, 28 Oct 2024 15:48:12 EDT news649349289 Research led by the University of Michigan has pored over more than two decades' worth of data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory to show there's new knotty science to discover around black holes. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-black-hole-jet-high-energy.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Oct 2024 14:16:08 EDT news649343761 Almost 14 billion years ago, at the very beginning of the Big Bang, a mysterious energy drove an exponential expansion of the infant universe and produced all known matter, according to the prevailing inflationary universe theory. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-links-black-holes-dark-energy.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Oct 2024 13:37:53 EDT news649341468 A research team led by Assistant Professor Makoto Miyoshi of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has independently re-analyzed observation data of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy obtained and published by the international joint observation project Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). They found that the structure is slightly elongated in the east-west direction. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-analysis-milky-central-supermassive-black.html Astronomy Fri, 25 Oct 2024 12:40:19 EDT news649078811 Dark photons are hypothetical particles that resemble light particles (i.e., photons), but interact weakly with normal matter, which would make them impossible or very difficult to detect using conventional experimental methods. These particles are dark matter candidates, meaning that they could contribute to the invisible and elusive form of matter accounting for approximately 85% of the universe's mass. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-results-dark-photon-leptonic-decays.html Astronomy Fri, 25 Oct 2024 09:52:45 EDT news649068760 We live in a golden age for learning about the universe. Our most powerful telescopes have revealed that the cosmos is surprisingly simple on the largest visible scales. Likewise, our most powerful "microscope," the Large Hadron Collider, has found no deviations from known physics on the tiniest scales. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-early-cosmos-balloon-size-mirror.html Astronomy Thu, 24 Oct 2024 13:14:01 EDT news648994436 On 4 August 1972, a burst of solar plasma rocked Earth's magnetic field after hurtling through space for about 14.6 hours—the fastest sun-to-Earth plasma journey ever recorded. The resulting space storm, one of several that occurred from 2 to 11 August, triggered widespread disturbances to electrical and communication grids and likely caused accidental detonations of U.S. undersea naval mines in North Vietnam. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-blasts-insights-space-storms.html Astronomy Thu, 24 Oct 2024 12:40:01 EDT news648991907