A galaxy cluster gets sloshed

(PhysOrg.com) -- Like wine in a glass, vast clouds of hot gas are sloshing back and forth in Abell 2052, a galaxy cluster located about 480 million light years from Earth. X-ray data (blue) from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory ...

New planet discovered in Trinary star system

Until recently, astronomers were highly skeptical of whether or not planets should be possible in multiple star systems. It was expected that the constantly varying gravitational force would eventually tug the planet out ...

James Webb space telescope ISIM on 'spin cycle'

Prior to taking a new telescope into space, engineers must put the spacecraft and its instruments through a "spin cycle" test for durability to ensure they'll still work after experiencing the forces of a rocket launch. Finding ...

Milky way sidelined in galactic tug of war

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Magellanic Stream is an arc of hydrogen gas spanning more than 100 degrees of the sky as it trails behind the Milky Way's neighbor galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. Our home galaxy, the ...

Equivalence principle in space test

Since Galileo Galilei and Newton, the assumption is valid that inert and heavy mass are equivalent. This is, however, questioned by new physical theories such as the String theory. Now, the equivalence principle is put to ...

Missing planets attest to destructive power of stars' tides

During the last two decades, astronomers have found hundreds of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. New research indicates they might have found even more except for one thing - some planets have fallen into ...

Finding the age of a contact binary 'moon'

There are millions of asteroids floating around the solar system. With so many of them, it should be no surprise that some are weirdly configured. A recent example of one of these weird configurations was discovered when ...

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