Articles tagged with Observational Astronomy
Researchers have discovered two rare 'super-puff' planets with densities lower than candy floss, orbiting an F7-type dwarf star. The study provides a unique laboratory for understanding how these planets form and evolve, offering insights into their extremely low densities.
New study by University of Southampton confirms the universe's expansion is still accelerating as previously found, debunking 2025 claims that the cosmos was slowing. The team re-evaluated data using Type Ia supernovae to calculate vast cosmic distances and found no error in their methods.
Researchers have discovered the most distant dormant black hole yet detected, located over 10 billion light years away. The black hole's mass is approximately 6 billion times that of the sun, providing unprecedented insights into black holes in the early universe.
A team of astronomers has produced the most detailed map of the cosmic web, tracing its network of galaxies back to one billion years old. The COSMOS-Web survey, conducted with the largest JWST survey, reveals a more informative large-scale structure than earlier maps.
Researchers found amino acids are consistently more diverse and evenly distributed in biological samples than abiotic ones, while fatty acids show the opposite pattern. This fundamental principle of life may be detectable in data collected by space missions.
Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discovered a galaxy that is not rotating, contradicting current theories about galaxy formation. The team believes this galaxy may have been formed after a single collision between two galaxies, making it a rare and unexpected finding.
Researchers tracked galaxy clusters to test gravity's strength, finding it weakens with distance as predicted by Newton and Einstein. The study confirms the existence of invisible dark matter, closing the door on alternative theories like Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
Astronomers have discovered an ancient immigrant star in the Milky Way that formed in a companion galaxy and migrated billions of years ago. The star, SDSSJ0715-7334, has the lowest metallicity ever observed, suggesting it is one of the oldest stars in the universe.
Astronomers have identified the most pristine star in the known universe, SDSS J0715-7334, with a metal content of less than 0.005%. This ancient immigrant was born about 80,000 light-years from Earth and has been pulled into the Milky Way galaxy over time.
Researchers from Kyushu University used ALMA to observe a baby star producing a giant ring of gas about 1,000 au in size, which helps the star release excess energy. The team found that this ring is slightly warmer than its surroundings and hypothesize it's produced through magnetic field threading.
Researchers from ISTA identify two white dwarfs, Gandalf and Moon-Sized, which share five properties, including X-ray emission, despite being isolated objects. These discoveries suggest the existence of a new class of star remnants with unique magnetic and rotational properties.
Astronomers from the University of Liège have solved a 50-year-old stellar mystery by attributing the X-rays emitted by Gamma Cas to a magnetic white dwarf orbiting the star. The study used high-energy astrophysics instrumentation and revealed that the X-rays are associated with the compact companion, not the massive Be star itself.
A team of astrophysicists offers a new explanation for negative superhumps in cataclysmic variable star systems, proposing an eccentric accretion disk model. This theory explains the prevalence of negative superhumps across a wide range of binary star masses and may also explain positive superhumps in high mass ratio systems.
A team of astronomers has detected rare evidence of two planets colliding, which could provide valuable insights into the formation of our solar system. The unlikely event was observed in a distant star, Gaia20ehk, which was found to have massive amounts of rocks and dust passing in front of it, blocking its light.
Astronomers have captured unprecedented detail of cosmic gas in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone, revealing intricate chemistry and complex star-forming processes. The dataset provides a unique view of the raw material from which stars form, shedding light on galaxy evolution and the birth of massive stars.
Researchers discovered a star in the Andromeda Galaxy that vanished without going supernova, instead collapsing directly into a black hole. The team's analysis revealed the process of stellar collapse and provided evidence for convection's role in shaping a black hole's outer layers.
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) welcomes the cancellation of INNA, a planned industrial complex near Paranal Observatory. The project would have posed a major threat to the darkest skies on Earth and compromised the performance of advanced astronomical facilities.
Researchers have created the first broadband map of Faraday rotation, revealing a complex magnetic field in the Milky Way. The dataset, DRAGONS, captures polarized radio emissions across a wide range of frequencies, allowing astronomers to see magnetic structures invisible before.
Researchers created the highest resolution map of dark matter, showing its interaction with normal matter through gravity. The new data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope confirms previous research and provides new details about dark matter's influence on the Universe.
A team of astronomers using the WEAVE instrument discovered a bar-shaped cloud of iron atoms inside the iconic Ring Nebula. The iron bar is roughly 500 times longer than Pluto's orbit and has a mass comparable to Mars, raising questions about its formation and composition.
Astronomers have created a naturally occurring space weather station around complex periodic variable M dwarf stars to study the environment of planets. This discovery sheds new light on how stars affect their planets' makeup and might provide clues about the habitability of distant worlds.
Researchers identified nine objects with characteristics of stars and galaxies, sparking new questions about the cosmos. These 'platypus galaxies' have narrow emission lines indicative of active star formation, defying expectations.
Researchers have found a galaxy cluster with scorching hot gas just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, five times hotter than predicted, and containing three supermassive black holes that pumped energy into the surroundings. This discovery could upend current models of galaxy cluster formation and evolution.
A team of astronomers has discovered that the winds of giant stars like R Doradus are driven by complex processes, rather than being powered solely by starlight and stardust. The study used advanced computer simulations to model how starlight interacts with dust grains, finding that they are too small to be pushed outward by starlight ...
Scientists have discovered a rare superkilonova event, which may have produced gravitational waves and light, as detected by LIGO and Virgo. The candidate kilonova AT2025ulz showed signs of a supernova before fading and brightening again in red wavelengths.
Astronomers at Northwestern University have directly imaged a Tatooine-like exoplanet orbiting two suns, revealing unique insights into how planets form around multiple stars. The discovery provides an unprecedented look at the complex dynamics of binary systems and offers new opportunities to test theories of planet formation.
Scientists have observed a swirling vortex in spacetime caused by a rapidly rotating black hole, confirming predictions made by Einstein more than a century ago. The team detected rhythmic changes in X-ray and radio signals from the event, showing that the disk and jet were wobbling in unison every 20 days.
Astronomers discovered a never-seen-before blast from a supermassive black hole, whipping up powerful winds at 60,000 km per second. The event was triggered by an X-ray flare and formed in just one day, providing new insights into the magnetism of active galactic nuclei (AGNs).
Michael Blanton will lead the Carnegie Science Observatories as its 12th director, focusing on large-scale astronomical surveys to constrain cosmological history. The new director brings a deep well of knowledge of instrumentation and data collection to oversee research at Pasadena's campus and Las Campanas Observatory.
New research reveals Pleiades star cluster as core of larger structure spanning 1,950 light-years, with similar ages and chemical compositions among its members. The study uses rotation-based approach to identify stars sharing origin story.
Astronomers detect a distant galaxy with temperatures of 90 Kelvin, indicating an extreme star factory that could have produced stars at a rate 180 times faster than the Milky Way. This discovery provides insight into how galaxies formed quickly in the early universe.
A new AI-based approach analyzes XAS data to identify material properties, providing objective insights for rational material design. The method achieved high accuracy and revealed meaningful variations in electronic states.
Astronomers at UCL and the University of Warwick discovered that aging stars are destroying giant planets orbiting closest to them. The researchers analyzed nearly half a million stars and found that planets were less likely to occur around stars that had expanded and cooled enough to be classed as red giants.
Two distant black hole mergers, measured one month apart in 2024, provide insights into the nature and evolution of deep-space collisions. The mergers validate fundamental laws of physics predicted by Einstein and furthers the search for new elementary particles with potential to extract energy from black holes.
A team from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research has assembled a record-breaking radio colour image of the Milky Way. The unprecedented level of detail offers new insights into the galaxy's radio emission and structure.
A brown dwarf companion, J1446B, has been found orbiting a nearby M dwarf star, LSPM J1446+4633. The discovery uses a synergy of ground- and space-based observatories, including Subaru's IRD instrument and the Gaia mission, to determine the dynamical mass and orbital parameters of the brown dwarf with unprecedented accuracy.
A team of astronomers has discovered the first tidal disruption event producing bright radio emission outside the center of a galaxy. The event revealed the fastest-evolving radio emission ever observed from a black-hole-driven stellar disruption, suggesting delayed and complex processes in the aftermath of the disruption.
A new study on Mars crater deposits reveals the planet went through repeated ice ages driven by shifts in its axial tilt, resulting in a gradual drying of the planet. The study provides insights that can be applied to Earth's changing environment and helps identify safe regions for future missions.
The Programmable Liquid-crystal Active Coronagraphic Imager for the DAG telescope (PLACID) will improve detection and direct imaging of exoplanets using liquid crystals. It can adapt to complex mask configurations, enabling direct imaging of circumbinary planets and proto-planetary discs.
Scientists have unveiled a new detector concept that uses optical cavity and atomic clock technologies to detect gravitational waves in the milli-Hertz frequency band. This approach provides an immediate, cost-effective means to explore the mid-band range, which hosts signals from compact binaries of white dwarfs and black hole mergers.
Recent study identifies four extremely distant objects consistent with supermassive dark stars, which could explain the formation of supermassive black holes. The presence of a 'smoking gun signature' absorption feature at 1640 Angstrom in one of the objects suggests their existence.
Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery of a colossal bridge of neutral hydrogen gas linking two dwarf galaxies. The Virgo cluster plays a significant role in this phenomenon.
Astronomers have discovered that the 1998 KY26 asteroid, targeted by Japan's Hayabusa2 mission, is only 11 meters wide and spins twice as fast as previously thought. This smaller size will make a touchdown manoeuvre more challenging for the spacecraft.
The XRISM mission reveals an unexpected difference between winds launching from a disc around a neutron star and those from material circling supermassive black holes. The surprisingly dense wind blowing from the stellar system challenges our understanding of how such winds form and drive change in their surroundings.
A recent study using transits and light curves revealed that TOI-3884 is a highly tilted planetary system with a misaligned stellar spin axis and planet's orbital axis. The star's rotation period was also measured, providing insight into the system's unique geometry.
The European Space Agency's Plato spacecraft has safely arrived at ESTEC in the Netherlands, where engineers will complete its assembly and conduct critical tests before its launch. The telescope is equipped with 26 ultrasensitive cameras designed to capture the dimming effect of exoplanets passing in front of their host stars.
Researchers have recorded a signal from a nearly identical black hole collision, confirming two important predictions about merging black holes. The study provides further evidence that the surface area of a merged black hole is never less than the sum of the initial black holes, supporting Stephen Hawking's theory.
Researchers detected protostellar jets and outflows using ALMA in the Milky Way's outer region, showing that star formation works similarly across diverse cosmic environments. The discovery revealed episodic ejection cycles and unique chemistry in low-metallicity regions.
Astronomers have devised a method to map the spottiness of distant stars using observations from NASA missions, improving understanding of planetary atmospheres and potential habitability. The new model, called StarryStarryProcess, can help discover more about exoplanet properties.
Researchers at Ohio State University suggest a large cloud of dust and gas occluded Earth's view of the star ASASSN-24fw, causing its brightness to dim by 97% before brightening again. The team proposes that this disk is likely made up of carbon or water ice close in size to a large grain of dust.
Researchers at Penn State and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory analyzed human deep space communications to determine the most likely places to detect signals from an extraterrestrial intelligence. They found that transmissions to deep space, including spacecraft near Mars, are more detectable than those intended for low-Earth orbit.
Researchers find shared dusty layer of troilite on M- and K-type asteroids, suggesting they originated from similar large objects. Polarization studies reveal unique composition linking these distinct asteroid types.
Researchers have discovered a massive gas and dust bubble surrounding the red supergiant star DFK 52, which contains as much mass as our own Sun. The bubble is expanding at an incredible rate and was likely formed when the star ejected part of its outer layers in a powerful explosion around 4000 years ago.
Researchers used infrared images to spot bright objects, then applied the 'dropout' technique to confirm their nature. The study could challenge current ideas about galaxy formation in the early universe if confirmed.
Researchers used the Dark Energy Camera to image a 'bridge' of diffuse light spanning roughly a million light years between two galaxies in Abell 3667. The findings suggest that the brightest galaxies in the cluster are actively merging, with one larger galaxy stealing stars from a smaller one.
A new study by Dartmouth astronomers has mapped 355 candidate satellite galaxies around dwarf galaxies, tripling the number previously surveyed. The researchers aim to understand how external conditions influence satellite formation and uncover insights into dark matter's nature.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will feature a 'sunblock' shield made of lightweight yet stiff panels designed to limit heat transfer. The observatory's instruments will benefit from this design, which can detect faint signals from space.
Researchers detected sulfur in both gas and solid phases using data from the XRISM spacecraft, providing unprecedented insight into its presence in the universe. The findings are based on measurements of X-rays from two binary star systems and suggest that sulfur can easily change between these forms.
Using a combination of telescopes, an international team studied the closest FXT associated with a supernova, tracing it to a 'trapped' jet that produced high-energy particles. The findings explain the historically elusive phenomena and mark a significant step in understanding cosmic explosions.