For all its vast emptiness, the universe is humming with activity in the form of gravitational waves. Produced by extreme astrophysical phenomena, these reverberations ripple forth and shake the fabric of space-time, like ...
Astronomy
Sep 2, 2020
1
4214
Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Earth (only 4.28 light-years away) is getting a lot of attention these days. It hosts a planet, Proxima Cen b, whose mass is about 1.3 Earth-mass (though it could be larger, depending ...
Astronomy
Apr 3, 2017
4
389
Analyzing the data collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Maxim Pshirkov of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute discovered a new source confirming that binary systems with strong colliding stellar winds comprise ...
Astronomy
Feb 18, 2016
1
35
Approximately two million years ago a star exploded in a supernova close to our solar system: Its traces can still be found today in the form of an iron isotope found on the ocean floor. Now scientists at the Technical University ...
Space Exploration
Apr 14, 2016
6
118
Sometimes astronomers come across objects in the sky that we can't easily explain. In our new research, published in Science, we report such a discovery, which is likely to spark discussion and speculation.
Astronomy
Jan 20, 2024
0
68
Our Milky Way galaxy has probably collided or otherwise interacted with other galaxies during its lifetime; such interactions are common cosmic occurrences. Astronomers can deduce the history of mass accretion onto the Milky ...
Astronomy
May 20, 2019
2
259
If you still have your solar viewing glasses from the eclipse, now is a good time to slap them on and look up at the sun. You'll see two big dark areas visible on our star. These massive sunspots are regions of intense and ...
Space Exploration
Sep 8, 2017
14
281
The star forming molecular clump W43-MM1 is very massive and dense, containing about 2100 solar masses of material in a region only one-third of a light year across (for comparison, the nearest star to the Sun is a bit over ...
Astronomy
Jul 29, 2016
82
1052
In a striking example of multi-mission astronomy, measurements from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the ESA Gaia mission have been combined to improve the estimate of the mass of our home galaxy the Milky Way: 1.5 ...
Astronomy
Mar 7, 2019
5
741
How do you weigh a galaxy? It's an astronomical challenge, particularly if it's the galaxy you call home. It turns out there are several ways to get a handle on the mass of the Milky Way, and a recent study posted on the ...
Astronomy
Jun 2, 2023
0
179
