Researchers at the University of Cologne and Masaryk University in Brno (Czech Republic) have discovered the fastest known star, which travels around a black hole in record time. The star, S4716, orbits Sagittarius A*, the ...
Astronomy
Jul 5, 2022
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The forthcoming launch of the James Webb Space Telescope offers unprecedented new opportunities for astronomers. It's also a timely opportunity to reflect on what previous generations of telescopes have shown us.
Astronomy
Dec 23, 2021
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519
When two galaxies collide, the supermassive black holes at their cores release a devastating gravitational "kick," similar to the recoil from a shotgun. New research led by CU Boulder suggests that this kick may be so powerful ...
Astronomy
Nov 2, 2021
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Once a black hole forms, its intense gravitational field produces a surface beyond which even light cannot escape, and it appears black to outsiders. All the details of the complex mix of matter and energy in its past are ...
Astronomy
Oct 15, 2020
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At present, the formation of galaxies is difficult to understand without the presence of a ubiquitous, but mysterious component, termed dark matter. Astronomers have measure how much dark matter there is around galaxies, ...
Astronomy
Oct 13, 2020
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12620
Observations of magnetic fields in interstellar clouds made of gas and dust indicate that these clouds are strongly magnetized, and that magnetic fields influence the formation of stars within them. A key observation is that ...
Astronomy
Aug 18, 2020
5
140
Looking its best ever is the star cluster NGC 2203, here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Aside from its dazzling good looks, this cluster of stars contains lots of astronomical treats that have helped astronomers ...
Astronomy
Aug 3, 2020
0
15
It is a widely accepted theory today that when the first stars formed in our universe approximately 13 billion years ago, they quickly came together to form globular clusters. These clusters then coalesced to others to form ...
Astronomy
Jul 28, 2020
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252
Almost like snowflakes, the stars of the globular cluster NGC 6441 sparkle peacefully in the night sky, about 13,000 light-years from the Milky Way's galactic center. Like snowflakes, the exact number of stars in such a cluster ...
Astronomy
Jun 5, 2020
0
6
In space, black holes appear in different sizes and masses. The record is now held by a specimen in the Abell 85 cluster of galaxies, where an ultra-massive black hole with 40 billion times the mass of our sun sits in the ...
Astronomy
Dec 3, 2019
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