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Astronomy news
Is an 'off-year' Leonid outburst in the cards for November?
It's still one of the coolest things I ever saw. I was in the U.S. Air Force in the 90s, and November 1998 saw me deployed to the dark skies of Kuwait. That trip provided an unexpected treat, as the Leonid meteors hit dramatic ...
Astronomy
32 minutes ago
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Team proposes new solar composition ratios that could reconcile longstanding questions
A Southwest Research Institute-led team combined compositional data of primitive bodies like Kuiper Belt objects, asteroids and comets with new solar data sets to develop a revised solar composition that potentially reconciles ...
Astronomy
4 hours ago
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How did supermassive black holes get so big, so early? They might have had a head start
Supermassive black holes (SMBHs) can have billions of solar masses, and observational evidence suggests that all large galaxies have one at their centers. However, the JWST has revealed a foundational cosmic mystery.
Astronomy
5 hours ago
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New research challenges dark matter theory in galaxy formation
The standard model for how galaxies formed in the early universe predicted that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would see dim signals from small, primitive galaxies. But data are not confirming the popular hypothesis ...
Astronomy
7 hours ago
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Astronomers investigate long-term variability of blazar AO 0235+164
Astronomers have performed a comprehensive multiwavelength study of an extremely variable blazar known as AO 0235+164. Results of the new study, published Nov. 3 on the preprint server arXiv, shed more light on the long-term ...
Swirling polar vortices likely exist on the sun, new research finds
Like the Earth, the sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). But unlike on Earth, the formation and ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Jupiter-mass binary objects hidden in Orion Nebula: Study explores new theory on their formation
Deep within the Orion Nebula, researchers are one step closer to understanding how Jupiter-mass binary objects (JuMBOs) form—a longstanding mystery in astrophysics
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Theory vs. data: Team tests Einstein's predictions by calculating the distortion of time and space
Why is the expansion of our universe accelerating? Twenty-five years after its discovery, this phenomenon remains one of the greatest scientific mysteries. Solving it involves testing the fundamental laws of physics, including ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Astronomers observe an unlucky star's repeated tidal disruptions
When a star moves around a supermassive black hole (SMBH) in a close elliptical orbit, it gets partially tidally disrupted every time it reaches the pericenter, emitting a series of luminous flares, known as a partial tidal ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Monitoring Webb's mirrors for optimal optics
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched to space. Its mirror is composed of 18 individual segments that have been aligned so accurately, that they effectively work as a single ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Star's disappearance in Andromeda marks the birth of a black hole
Massive stars about eight times more massive than the sun explode as supernovae at the end of their lives. The explosions, which leave behind a black hole or a neutron star, are so energetic they can outshine their host galaxies ...
Astronomy
Nov 11, 2024
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Quasi-periodic eruptions from eRO-QPE2 are remarkably stable, study finds
An international team of astronomers has inspected long-term evolution of quasi-periodic eruptions (QPEs) from a QPE source designated eRO-QPE2. The study found that QPEs from this source are remarkably stable over the investigated ...
Hubble captures barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1672, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This galaxy is a multi-talented light show, showing off an impressive ...
Astronomy
Nov 10, 2024
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How to build a home radio telescope to detect clouds of hydrogen in the Milky Way
If I ask you to picture a radio telescope, you probably imagine a large dish pointing to the sky, or even an array of dish antennas such as the Very Large Array. What you likely don't imagine is something that resembles a ...
Astronomy
Nov 8, 2024
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A space walking robot could build a giant telescope in space
The Hubble Space Telescope was carried to space inside the space shuttle Discovery and then released into low-Earth orbit. The James Webb Space Telescope was squeezed inside the nose cone of an Ariane 5 rocket and then launched. ...
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2024
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Astrophysicists use echoes of light to illuminate black holes
A team of astrophysicists, led by scholars from the Institute for Advanced Study, has developed an innovative technique to search for black hole light echoes. Their novel method, which will make it easier for the mass and ...
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2024
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Astronomers discover a new repeating fast radio burst
Using the CHIME telescope, an international team of astronomers has detected a new repeating fast radio burst (FRBs) source in the outskirts of a quiescent galaxy. The finding of a new FRB, which experienced 22 repeating ...
Image: Exceptionally rare triple ring galaxy
The Hubble Classification, also known as the Hubble Sequence, is a widely recognized method for systematically categorizing galaxy morphology. Galaxies are classified into elliptical, lenticular, and spiral (or barred spiral) ...
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2024
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Mighty radio bursts linked to massive galaxies: New clues about how magnetars form
Since their discovery in 2007, fast radio bursts—extremely energetic pulses of radio-frequency light—have lit up the sky repeatedly, leading astronomers on a chase to uncover their origins. Currently, confirmed fast radio ...
Astronomy
Nov 6, 2024
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New report details what happened to the Arecibo Observatory
In 1963, the Arecibo Observatory became operational on the island of Puerto Rico. Measuring 305 meters (~1000 ft) in diameter, Arecibo's spherical reflector dish was the largest radio telescope in the world at the time—a ...
Astronomy
Nov 6, 2024
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