Pulsating X-rays allow XMM-Newton to unmask a mysterious star

(Phys.org) —XMM-Newton has revealed a unique star. It is a celestial chimera with the body of a normal massive star yet the magnetic field of a dead, stellar dwarf. This makes it a singular object among the billions of ...

Should physicists work to the sound of silence?

In this month's issue of Physics World, Felicity Mellor, a senior lecturer in science communication at Imperial College London, questions whether the requirement of the modern physicist to collaborate and communicate is preventing ...

Why Einstein will never be wrong

One of the benefits of being an astrophysicist is your weekly email from someone who claims to have "proven Einstein wrong". These either contain no mathematical equations and use phrases such as "it is obvious that..", or ...

Scientists find a practical test for string theory

(Phys.org) —Scientists at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, have identified a practical, yet overlooked, test of string theory based on the motions of planets, moons and asteroids, reminiscent of Galileo's famed test ...

Hubble sees a cosmic caterpillar

(Phys.org) —This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust resembles a caterpillar on its way to a feast. But the meat of the story is not only what this cosmic caterpillar eats for lunch, but also what's eating ...

Chandra sees eclipsing planet in X-rays for first time

For the first time since exoplanets, or planets around stars other than the sun, were discovered almost 20 years ago, X-ray observations have detected an exoplanet passing in front of its parent star.

'Population census' of galaxies buried in dust

A research team led by Bunyo Hatsukade, a postdoc researcher, and Kouji Ohta, a professor, both from the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, revealed that approximately 80% of the unidentifiable millimeter wave ...

Eureka! Unique exhibition in Rome honours Archimedes

The great inventor of Antiquity, Archimedes, is the star of an unprecedented exhibition opening in Rome which includes modern applications of some of his best known discoveries.

Black hole wakes up and has a light snack

(Phys.org) —Astronomers have watched as a black hole woke up from a decades-long slumber to feed on a low-mass object – either a brown dwarf or a giant planet – that strayed too close. A similar feeding event, albeit ...

Black hole-star pair orbiting at dizzying speed (w/ video)

(Phys.org) —ESA's XMM-Newton space telescope has helped to identify a star and a black hole that orbit each other at the dizzying rate of once every 2.4 hours, smashing the previous record by nearly an hour.

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