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Astronomy news
Tidal streams of interstellar objects may flow through the Milky Way like braided rivers
We know that interstellar objects occasionally visit our solar system. So far, we have only discovered two interstellar objects (ISOs), but that's mainly because we can only distinguish them from solar system bodies by their ...
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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Observations suggest sun-like stars emit superflares once per century
There is no question that the sun is a temperamental star, as this year's unusually strong solar storms show. Some of them led to remarkable auroras even at low latitudes. But can our star become even more furious?
Astronomy
17 hours ago
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How to catch a supernova explosion before it happens—and what we can learn from it
Stars are born, live and die in spectacular ways, with their deaths marked by one of the biggest known explosions in the universe. Like a campfire needs wood to keep burning, a star relies on nuclear fusion—primarily using ...
Astronomy
20 hours ago
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Astronomers detect rare cosmic burst as black hole consumes star
An international scientific team, led by a researcher from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) and the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), has managed to detect an exceptionally fast and bright cosmic burst ...
Astronomy
21 hours ago
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ALMA observations explore the nuclear structure of a dusty star-forming galaxy
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have observed a dusty star-forming galaxy known as SPT 0538−50. Results of the observational campaign, presented Dec. 4 on the arXiv pre-print server, ...
Firefly Sparkle: Newly discovered galaxy mirrors Milky Way's early days
For the first time, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has detected and "weighed" a galaxy that not only existed about 600 million years after the Big Bang, but also has a mass that is similar to what our Milky Way ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2024
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Astronomers discover magnetic loops around supermassive black hole
NGC 1068 is a well-known, relatively nearby, bright galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its center. Despite its status as a popular target for astronomers, however, its accretion disk is obscured by thick clouds of dust ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2024
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An interstellar visitor helped shape the orbits of the planets
The orbits of the planets around the sun have been the source for many a scientific debate. Their current orbital properties are well understood but the planetary orbits have evolved and changed since the formation of the ...
Astronomy
Dec 11, 2024
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New technique for spotting Dyson rings unveiled
Dyson spheres and rings have always held a special fascination for me. The concept is simple: build a great big structure either as a sphere or ring to harness the energy from a star. Dyson rings are far more simple and feasible ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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High velocity clouds comprise less of the Milky Way's mass than thought, astronomers find
Sometimes in astronomy, a simple question has a difficult answer. One such question is this: what is the mass of our galaxy?
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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Chandra sees black hole jet stumble into something in the dark
Even matter ejected by black holes can run into objects in the dark. Using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have found an unusual mark from a giant black hole's powerful jet striking an unidentified object in ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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NASA eyes launching SPHEREx sky-mapping mission in early 2025
NASA and SpaceX are targeting late February 2025 for the launch of the agency's next astrophysics observatory, SPHEREx. Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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Cosmic rays' vast energy traced to magnetic turbulence
Ultra-high energy cosmic rays, which emerge in extreme astrophysical environments—like the roiling environments near black holes and neutron stars—have far more energy than the energetic particles that emerge from our ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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Do we really know what becomes a Type Ia supernova?
Lots of things out in the universe can cause a supernova, from the gravitational collapse of a massive star, to the collision of white dwarfs. But most of the supernovae we observe are in other galaxies, too distant for us ...
Astronomy
Dec 10, 2024
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Astronomers explore globular cluster system of ultra-diffuse galaxy VCC 615
Astronomers have employed the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to observe an ultra-diffuse galaxy known as VCC 615. Results of the observational campaign, presented in a paper posted Dec. 2 to the preprint server arXiv, yield ...
Dark Energy Camera spies the outskirts of the swirling Southern Pinwheel galaxy
Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, is one of the most prominent spiral galaxies in the night sky. It's named for its resemblance to the Pinwheel galaxy and spans around 50,000 light-years, making it much ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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More than 10,000 supernovae counted in stellar census
Since 2018 the Zwicky Transient Facility, an international astronomical collaboration based at the Palomar Observatory in California, has scanned the entire sky every two to three nights. As part of this mission, the ZTF's ...
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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Black hole debate settled? Stellar-mass black holes found at heart of Milky Way's largest star cluster
Could a decades-long debate about the mysterious movements of stars in Omega Centauri, the largest star cluster in the Milky Way, finally be resolved?
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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Using Jupiter as a dark matter detector
The nature of dark matter has been a hotly debated topic for decades. If it's a heavy, slow moving particle, then it's just possible that neutrinos may be emitted during interactions with normal matter.
Astronomy
Dec 9, 2024
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Dense molecular gas and dusty torus detected in the Swelling Spiral galaxy
Using the Large Millimeter Telescope (LMT) in Mexico, astronomers have performed spectroscopic observations of the Swelling Spiral galaxy. The observational campaign found that the galaxy harbors dense molecular gas in its ...
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