The universe's very first stars had an important job. They formed from the primordial elements created by the Big Bang, so they contained no metals. It was up to them to synthesize the first metals and spread them out into ...
Astronomy
Dec 20, 2023
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Astronomers have observed, for the first time in three dimensions, that gas from spiral galaxies is blown upward and downward at high velocity, far out of the galaxy. The observations confirm the prevailing theory of galaxy ...
Astronomy
Dec 6, 2023
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Stars are gravitationally fastened to their galaxies and move in concert with their surroundings. But sometimes, something breaks the bond. If a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, for example, the black hole ...
Planetary Sciences
Nov 27, 2023
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Astrophysicists working with the JWST have found a surprising amount of metal in a galaxy only 350 million years after the Big Bang. How does that fit in with our understanding of the universe?
Astronomy
Nov 22, 2023
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Since it became operational almost two years ago, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has produced countless breathtaking images of the universe and enabled fresh insights into how it evolved.
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2023
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The swirling arms of a spiral galaxy are among the most recognized features in the cosmos: long sweeping bands spun off from a central core, each brimming with dust, gas, and dazzling pockets of newly formed stars. Yet this ...
Astronomy
Oct 25, 2023
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Bright blue spiral arms twist around the bright-white center of this starry galaxy. This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 6951, an intermediate spiral galaxy 78 million light-years away in the Cepheus constellation.
Astronomy
Oct 5, 2023
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Astronomers have made a thorough forensic study of a star that was torn apart when it ventured too close to a giant black hole and then had its insides tossed out into space.
Astronomy
Aug 22, 2023
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Nearly every galaxy in the universe contains a supermassive black hole. Even galaxies that are billions of light years away. This means supermassive black holes form early in the development of a galaxy. They are possibly ...
Astronomy
Aug 10, 2023
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49
The universe is humming with gravitational radiation—a very low-frequency rumble that rhythmically stretches and compresses spacetime and the matter embedded in it.
Astronomy
Aug 9, 2023
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