Related topics: astronomers · stars · universe · dark energy · neutron stars

PTF1J2224+17 is a polar, new study confirms

German astronomers have conducted photometric observations of a cataclysmic variable (CV) star known as PTF1J2224+17. Results of the observational campaign confirm that this object is a polar, as suggested by previous studies. ...

Zooming in on the origins of fast radio bursts

Astronomers have peered into the home galaxies of fast radio bursts, ruling out supermassive black holes as a cause and bringing us a step closer to understanding the origins of these mysterious signals from outer space.

DY Centauri: Stellar evolution while you watch

In 1930, Dorrit Hoffleit reported that star number #4749 in the Harvard List of variables had faded four times between 1897 and 1929, and identified it as an R Coronae Borealis (RCB) variable. RCB stars are luminous low-mass ...

Image: Hubble views a galaxy burning bright

In the depths of the night sky lies a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 3583, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This is a barred spiral galaxy with two arms that twist out into the universe. This galaxy is ...

Astronomers could spot life signs orbiting long-dead stars

The next generation of powerful Earth- and space-based telescopes will be able to hunt distant solar systems for evidence of life on Earth-like exoplanets—particularly those that chaperone burned-out stars known as white ...

Researchers identify periods in asynchronous polars

A polar is a highly magnetic type of cataclysmic variables containing an accreting white dwarf and a low-mass donor star. Due to the magnetism, the white dwarf would synchronously spin, however, there are still several asynchronous ...

Star survives close call with a black hole

Astronomers may have discovered a new kind of survival story: a star that had a brush with a giant black hole and lived to tell the tale through exclamations of X-rays.

page 16 from 40