https://phys.org/space-news/astronomy en-us The latest science news on astronomy, space, and astrophysics. ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra spacecraft have detected three young neutron stars that are unusually cold for their age. By comparing their properties to different neutron star models, scientists conclude that the oddballs' low temperatures disqualify around 75% of known models. This is a big step towards uncovering the one neutron star "equation of state" that rules them all, with important implications for the fundamental laws of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-young-cool-lessons-neutron-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:52:03 EDT news638106721 For the first time, a phenomenon astronomers have long hoped to image directly has been captured by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope's Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). In this stunning image of the Serpens Nebula, the discovery lies in the northern area of this young, nearby star-forming region. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-webb-image-alignment-bipolar-jets.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:17:29 EDT news638104643 Supermassive black holes pose unanswered questions for astronomers around the world, not the least of which is "How do they grow so big?" Now, an international team of astronomers, including researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has discovered a powerful rotating, magnetic wind that they believe is helping a galaxy's central supermassive black hole to grow. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-supermassive-black-hole-baby-star.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:48:02 EDT news638099278 Photographing faint objects close to bright stars is incredibly difficult. Yet, by combining data from ESA's Gaia space telescope with ESO's GRAVITY instrument on the ground, scientists managed just that. They took the first pictures of so far unseen dim companions of eight luminous stars. The technique unlocks the tantalizing possibility to capture images of planets orbiting close to their host stars. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-hidden-companions-bright-stars.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:15:04 EDT news638097302 Using the Magellan Telescopes in Chile, astronomers have performed photometric observations of a giant elliptical galaxy known as NGC 4696. The observations reveal that the galaxy has a complex globular cluster system. The finding was detailed in a paper published June 12 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-galaxy-ngc-hosts-complex-globular.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 09:30:55 EDT news638094651 A French-Chinese telescope satellite will blast off this weekend on a mission to hunt down gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-french-chinese-probe-universe-biggest.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Jun 2024 08:04:16 EDT news638089445 Earth's protective atmosphere has sheltered life for billions of years, creating a haven where evolution produced complex lifeforms like us. The ozone layer plays a critical role in shielding the biosphere from deadly UV radiation. It blocks 99% of the sun's powerful UV output. Earth's magnetosphere also shelters us. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-earth-atmosphere-defense-nearby-supernovae.html Astronomy Planetary Sciences Wed, 19 Jun 2024 12:29:53 EDT news638018990 A new study published in Physical Review Letters explores the possibility that a strongly supercooled, first-order phase transition in the early universe could explain gravitational wave signals observed by pulsar timing arrays (PTAs). https://phys.org/news/2024-06-supercooled-phase-transitions-gravitational.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2024 09:30:02 EDT news638006608 Astronomers from India and Thailand have observed a young nearby open cluster known as Berkeley 59. Results of the observational campaign, published June 12 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver essential information regarding low-mass stellar and substellar content of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-explore-stellar-content-nearby-young.html Astronomy Wed, 19 Jun 2024 08:47:16 EDT news638005631 When stars collapse, they can leave behind incredibly dense but relatively small and cold remnants called neutron stars. If two stars collapse in close proximity, the leftover binary neutron stars spiral in and eventually collide, and the interface where the two stars begin merging becomes incredibly hot. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-simulations-reveal-hot-neutrinos-neutron.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Jun 2024 12:45:57 EDT news637933554 Astronomers have performed a comprehensive chemical study of a Galactic globular cluster known as Terzan 6. Results of the study, presented in a research paper published June 11 on the pre-print server arXiv, could advance our knowledge about the properties and nature of this cluster. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-chemical-composition-globular-cluster-terzan.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:27:22 EDT news637921637 In late 2019, the previously unremarkable galaxy SDSS1335+0728 suddenly started shining brighter than ever before. To understand why, astronomers have used data from several space and ground-based observatories, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), to track how the galaxy's brightness has varied. In a study out today, they conclude that they are witnessing changes never seen before in a galaxy—likely the result of the sudden awakening of the massive black hole at its core. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-massive-black-hole-awaken.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Jun 2024 09:00:01 EDT news637858101 Astronomers believe that at the heart of most, if not all, galaxies sits a titanic black hole with a mass that is millions or even billions of times that of our sun. These supermassive black holes cannot be directly created through the collapse of a massive star, as is the case with stellar mass black holes with masses tens of times that of the sun, as no star is large enough to birth such a huge object. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-black-holes-mergers-ancestors.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2024 14:01:45 EDT news637851703 A recent study has investigated teleparallel gravity and its potential to resolve tension surrounding the expansion of the universe in a way that general relativity can't. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-einstein-theory-gravity-recipe-relieve.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2024 14:01:40 EDT news637851698 A team of scientists used the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to parse the composition of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. With the telescope's MIRI (Mid-Infared Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), the team gathered data that are helping to clarify the Crab Nebula's history. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-crab-nebula-james-webb.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2024 12:19:32 EDT news637845567 In a discovery that challenges the conventional understanding of cosmology, scientists at Case Western Reserve University have unearthed new evidence that could reshape our perception of the cosmos. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-mond-dark-rotation-galaxies-stay.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:14:45 EDT news637838082 Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) have discovered a new supernova. Designated SN 2023adsy, the newfound stellar explosion is the most distant Type Ia supernova so far detected. The finding was detailed in a research paper published June 7 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-ia-supernova.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Jun 2024 08:54:15 EDT news637833250 Observational astronomy shows that newly discovered young stellar objects (YSOs) in the immediate vicinity of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* located in the center of our galaxy behave differently than expected. They describe similar orbits to already known young evolved stars and are arranged in a particular pattern around the supermassive black hole. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-high-baby-stars-circle-supermassive.html Astronomy Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:01:04 EDT news637581661 "Classical Cepheids" are a type of pulsating star that rhythmically brighten and dim over time. These pulsations help astronomers measure vast distances across space, which makes Cepheids crucial "standard candles" that help us understand the size and scale of our universe. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-high-precision-cepheids.html Astronomy Fri, 14 Jun 2024 03:00:01 EDT news637507501 Most of the universe is invisible to the human eye. The building blocks of stars are only revealed in wavelengths that are outside of the visible spectrum. Astronomers recently used two very different, and very powerful, telescopes to discover twin disks—and twin parallel jets—erupting from young stars in a multiple star system. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-astronomers-parallel-disks-jets-erupting.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2024 14:05:25 EDT news637419922 Several international research groups have already confirmed the theory that there are two black holes at the center of the distant galaxy OJ 287, first suggested by astronomers at the University of Turku, Finland. A new study shows that satellite observations conducted in 2021 revealed the smaller black hole of the pair for the first time. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-planet-hunter-satellite-smaller.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2024 11:02:03 EDT news637408921 Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have observed the halo of a nearby giant elliptical galaxy known as Centaurus A. Results of the observational campaign, published June 1 on the pre-print server arXiv, yield important insights into star formation history of the investigated halo. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-explore-halo-centaurus.html Astronomy Wed, 12 Jun 2024 10:12:27 EDT news637405943 Clouds of gas in a distant galaxy are being pushed faster and faster—at more than 10,000 miles per second—out among neighboring stars by blasts of radiation from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. It's a discovery that helps illuminate the way active black holes can continuously shape their galaxies by spurring on or snuffing out the development of new stars. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-black-holes-galaxies.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 17:28:03 EDT news637345681 By combining forefront X-ray observations with state-of-the-art supercomputer simulations of the buildup of galaxies over cosmic history, researchers have provided the best modeling to date of the growth of the supermassive black holes found in the centers of galaxies. Using this hybrid approach, a research team led by Penn State astronomers has derived a complete picture of black-hole growth over 12 billion years, from the universe's infancy at around 1.8 billion years old to now at 13.8 billion years old. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-combined-ray-surveys-supercomputer-simulations.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:07:14 EDT news637340831 University of Missouri scientists are peering into the past and uncovering new clues about the early universe. Since light takes a long time to travel through space, they are now able to see how galaxies looked billions of years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-scientists-milky-galaxies-early-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:03:18 EDT news637340593 What scientists previously thought about where Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) come from is just the tip of the iceberg, according to new research led by astronomers at the University of Toronto. The mysteries of the millisecond-long cosmic explosions are unfolding with a new way of analyzing data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). https://phys.org/news/2024-06-fast-radio-focus-polarized.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 10:00:01 EDT news637313401 Crater 2, located approximately 380,000 light years from Earth, is one of the largest satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. Extremely cold and with slow-moving stars, Crater 2 has low surface brightness. How this galaxy originated remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-satellite-galaxy-milky-physicists-explanation.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:33:03 EDT news637317181 Chinese astronomers report the discovery of a new high-velocity star about 4,200 light years away. The newfound star, designated J0731+3717, turned out to be ejected from the globular cluster Messier 15 by an intermediate-mass black hole. The finding was presented in a paper published June 3 on the pre-print server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-chinese-astronomers-high-velocity-star.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 09:03:21 EDT news637315397 Astronomers have used new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the retired SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy) as well as archival data from other missions to revisit one of the strangest binary star systems in our galaxy—40 years after it burst onto the scene as a bright and long-lived nova. A nova is a star that suddenly increases its brightness tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity, usually in a few months or years. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-hubble-space-telescope-star-erupted.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 04:29:02 EDT news637298938 SRON astronomers have for the first time mapped the outflows from one of the closest quasars to Earth. Quasars are bright cores of galaxies powered by the supermassive black hole in their center. The team has probed gas outflows in I Zwicky 1, a close-by quasar, to map its system of clouds being blown away at tens to thousands of kilometers per second. Their findings are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-outflows-nearby-quasar-zwicky.html Astronomy Tue, 11 Jun 2024 03:00:01 EDT news636980438