Articles tagged with Observational Astrophysics
A new class of supernova was discovered, predicted by UC Santa Barbara scientists Lars Bildsten and colleagues. The event is fainter than typical supernovae and rises and falls in brightness over a few weeks.
The University of Utah has celebrated the 'first light' of its new research telescope at 9,600 feet elevation on Frisco Peak. The 32-inch reflecting telescope took initial pictures on Oct. 15 and will be used for scientific observations starting next spring.
New research suggests that dirty stars with a high abundance of elements like iron and oxygen are more likely to host planets. The study's findings support the idea that the composition of a star reflects its disk, leading to an increased number of exoplanets around such stars.
Scientists from the University of Gothenburg found that a mysterious flux of electrons and positrons originates from supernova remnants, not dark matter. The study shows that a star 15 times more massive than the sun exploded in the Milky Way, creating a shock-wave that accelerated particles.
Researchers have successfully cooled LIGO mirrors to near absolute zero, enabling the observation of quantum mechanical behavior at massive scales. This breakthrough suggests that interferometric gravitational wave detectors can also become sensitive probes of macroscopic quantum mechanics.
The SPIRE instrument package has successfully made its first observations, targeting two galaxies near the Milky Way. The telescope's high-resolution images will aid in studying the birth and development of galaxies, shedding light on star formation processes.
Researchers will explore dark matter particles and neutrinos at the SNOLAB facility, seeking answers about the universe's building blocks and evolution. The studies aim to make new discoveries, including a rare nuclear decay related to unique neutrino properties.
Astronomers have discovered a rare type of stellar explosion known as SN 2008ha, which is 1000 times more powerful than a nova but 1000 times less powerful than a typical supernova. The explosion was detected by a 14-year-old student from New York and shed new light on the nature of stellar explosions.
The QUIET team will deploy a new gravity-wave probe in June to test the existence of cosmic inflation. The probe aims to detect remnants of the universe's earliest moments, when space expanded faster than light.
The Deep Sky project develops a user-friendly database system and interface to serve high-resolution cosmic reference images to astronomers worldwide. This enables instant access to processed observations for analysis, facilitating research in various scientific disciplines.
Researchers have proven that supernovae are caused by the explosion of two dying red supergiant stars, providing a breakthrough in understanding massive star death and the formation of chemical elements. This discovery sheds light on the origin of the universe's heaviest elements.
UK astronomers using NASA Swift Satellite captured an ultraviolet spectrum of a gamma ray burst just 251 seconds after its onset, marking the earliest ever recorded. This breakthrough allows for calculations of distance and brightness within hundreds of seconds and provides new insights into GRB causes and host galaxies.
Researchers observed the intense heating of HD 80606b as it swung close to its star, providing clues to its atmospheric properties. The data enabled the creation of realistic images of the planet using computer simulations.
Researchers found evidence of cosmic dust forming around a dying star in a nearby galaxy, similar to those that formed soon after the Big Bang. This discovery provides insight into the early stages of the Universe and challenges the long-held theory that supernovae explosions are the primary source of dust.
The team's three-dimensional visualization provides clues about how supernovas form new stars and solar systems. The research also helped identify the chemical elements emerging from the exploded star, shedding light on the process of star formation.
Astronomers have identified gas molecules in the host galaxy of a gamma-ray burst, providing insight into star formation when the universe was about one-sixth its present age. The study found hydrogen and carbon monoxide absorption lines, suggesting a thick molecular cloud similar to those that spawn stars in our galaxy today.
Researchers analyzed the spectrum of a gamma-ray burst afterglow to probe the star-forming environment of a distant galaxy. They detected molecular gas and metals comparable to those of the Sun, providing insights into active stellar nurseries in galaxies 10 billion years old.
Researchers found that all active galactic nuclei have a similar physical structure, independent of the black hole's size. The observation constrains current ideas on how glow around black holes is produced, allowing for further study of these enigmatic objects.
Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory have identified two distinct regions with an excess of cosmic rays, challenging nearly a century-old understanding of galactic magnetic fields. The Milagro observatory recorded over 200 billion cosmic-ray collisions, revealing statistically significant peaks in specific regions of the sky.
The Milagro collaboration has discovered two nearby regions with an unexpected excess of cosmic rays, suggesting the presence of high-energy particle acceleration near Earth. This finding is the second recent study indicating a source of galactic cosmic rays relatively close to our planet.
Researchers have captured the first-ever images of three giant planets orbiting the star HR 8799. The planets, each about ten times the mass of Jupiter, have complex atmospheres with dusty clouds that trap and re-radiate heat.
A team of astronomers has discovered three planets in orbit around the young star HR 8799, using advanced computer processing techniques to separate them from the star's light. The planets are found to possess complex atmospheres with dusty clouds partially trapping and re-radiating escaping heat.
Gemini Observatory's groundbreaking discovery reveals two planets orbiting a young, massive star called HR 8799. The system consists of three planets, including the 'first family' member, which are still glowing from heat released as they contracted, and are about seven and ten times the mass of Jupiter.
Astronomers used gravitational lensing and adaptive optics to observe a young star-forming galaxy, finding clear signs of orderly rotation and evidence for a spiral disk with a central nucleus. The study demonstrates the power of future telescopes like the Thirty Meter Telescope.
A team of astronomers has discovered a potential 'wild cousin' of the infamous exploding star supernova 1987A in a nearby galaxy. The newly found supernova, SN1996cr, exhibits similar characteristics to '87A and is an impressive 1,000 times brighter.
A gamma-ray burst was detected as the brightest optical and infrared event ever recorded, visible to the naked eye from Earth despite its vast distance of 7.5 billion light years. The explosion occurred in a massive star 7.5 billion years ago and sent a pencil-beam of intense light on a direct collision course for Earth.
Researchers used VLBI technique to combine signals from multiple telescopes and detected structure 30 million miles away from the galactic center. The observations provide unprecedented view of the region near the black hole event horizon.
A team of astronomers has obtained the closest views ever of a super-massive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The new observations revealed the highest density yet for the concentration of matter at the galaxy's center, supporting the existence of black holes.
Astronomers study massive galaxies in clusters to understand their growth. The team observed four galaxy groups and found that three of them have a bright companion galaxy, indicating merging systems.
A Dutch school teacher, Hanny van Arkel, discovered a mysterious gaseous object with a hole in the center while classifying galaxy images on the Galaxy Zoo project. Scientists are now investigating this phenomenon, known as 'Hanny's Voorwerp,' which they believe could be a new class of astronomical object, possibly a quasar.
Researchers have identified four celestial events in Homer's Odyssey that match astronomical patterns, suggesting a total solar eclipse occurred on April 16, 1178 BCE. This could help date the fall of Troy and shed new light on Odysseus' journey.
J. Richard Bond is honored for his theoretical framework to interpret the observed inhomogeneities in the Big Bang's fossil radiation and understand galaxy evolution. His research has helped us transition from a nearly featureless early Universe to the structured world of galaxies, stars, and planets.
NASA's GLAST mission was launched successfully aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The observatory is now on-orbit, with all systems operating as planned.
Astronomers captured X-ray outburst from supernova SN 2008D, shedding light on early processes. The explosion was likely from a massive star with retained helium layer, providing valuable information for understanding stellar deaths.
Astronomers have caught a supernova explosion in the act, providing valuable insights into the process. The observation, made possible by NASA's Swift satellite, has helped scientists form a detailed picture of star explosions and shed light on long-standing puzzles.
Scientists have discovered a timing mechanism in neutron stars that allows them to predict when incredibly powerful X-ray bursts will occur, releasing energy equivalent to 100 hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously.
Astronomers find nine young, compact galaxies with masses of 200 billion times the Sun's, each only 5,000 light-years across. These ultra-dense galaxies formed 11 billion years ago and are thought to be building blocks for today's largest galaxies.
Researchers found two star systems with yellow supergiant eclipsing binary characteristics, which may be the progenitors of rare supernovae. The discovery was made using the Large Binocular Telescope and suggests that these systems could explain the unusual nature of certain supernovae.
NASA awards CU-Boulder $1 million to lead the study of a space observatory that will find Earth-like planets and detect biomarkers like methane, oxygen, and water. The project plans to launch a 4-meter telescope into an orbit roughly 1 million miles from Earth, with a giant starshade to block starlight.
Researchers have discovered a neutron star that undergoes a dramatic transformation from a pulsar to a magnetar, providing insight into the evolutionary connection between these two types of ultradense objects. The discovery was made using data from NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer and Chandra X-ray Observatory satellites.
The discovery of the double planet system provides crucial evidence for the presence of multiple planet systems similar to our own solar system. The findings suggest that if OGLE-2006-BLG-109L is typical, it is possible that other systems have Jupiter- and Saturn-sized planets.
A new system of planets has been discovered with striking similarities to our Solar System, revealing giant planets that favour family groups over lone objects. The discovery uses a world-wide net of telescopes and challenges the single-life theory of gas-giant planets.
An international team of astronomers has discovered two planets resembling smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn in a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away. The newly-discovered planets appear to be gaseous planets with masses similar to those of the giant planets in our own solar system.
The team used four telescopes to capture the length and breadth of Mercury's tail, which can extend up to 1.5 million miles from the planet. This new record sets a new domain for understanding Mercury's influence within the Solar System.
The Keck Nuller has produced the first unified model for a nearby nova called RS Ophiuchi. The team observed the explosion using the nulling mode of the instrument and recorded the spectral signature of silicate dust at distances starting around 20 times the Earth-Sun distance, indicating that the dust pre-dates the explosion.
Astronomers at Rutgers and Penn State universities discovered galaxies in the distant universe that are ancestors of spiral galaxies like our Milky Way. The newly discovered galaxies are small and have fewer stars, but were fertile breeding grounds for new stars that ionized hydrogen atoms and emitted Lyman alpha light.
A team of astronomers discovered a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) in the middle of nowhere, thousands of light-years from the nearest galaxy. The GRB's afterglow was bright and fast-fading, but there was no dense gas or dust to absorb its light.
A team of astronomers, led by Dr. Edo Berger, have observed a surprisingly active magnetic field on the ultracool low-mass star TVLM513-46546, challenging the theory that cooler stars are simple and quiet. The star's complex magnetic field environment may indicate unusual activity beneath its surface or possibly even an unseen companion.
A team of researchers proposes a new mechanism to explain the brightest ever recorded supernova, SN 2006gy. The model suggests that an extremely massive star undergoes repeated explosions, resulting in a display up to 100 times more luminous than usual.
Researchers have found a significant correlation between high-energy cosmic rays and the cores of nearby galaxies, which emit prodigious quantities of energy. The Auger collaboration has traced the source of these cosmic rays to Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), likely powered by supermassive black holes.
The Pierre Auger Observatory has found that active galactic nuclei, powered by super-massive black holes, are the most likely source of the highest-energy cosmic rays. The sources of these particles are not distributed uniformly across the sky, but rather linked to nearby galaxies with active nuclei.
Astronomers have discovered a massive black hole with a mass 24 to 33 times that of our Sun, exceeding expectations. The discovery was made using two NASA satellites and suggests that stellar-mass black holes can be much larger than previously thought.
Astronomers have found an exceptionally massive black hole in orbit around a huge companion star in the nearby galaxy M33, with a mass of 15.7 times that of the Sun. The discovery raises questions about how such a big black hole could have formed.
After eight years of operations, NASA's FUSE space telescope will be shut down on October 18, leaving behind a legacy of over 1,200 published papers and groundbreaking science discoveries, including insights into molecular hydrogen in Mars' atmosphere and a first-ever observation of molecular nitrogen outside our solar system.
The Giant Magellan Telescope will be constructed at Cerro Las Campanas, Chile, providing unparalleled seeing quality and access to the southern skies. The telescope will help answer scientific questions on planetary systems, star formation, galaxies, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy.
Researchers have observed the properties of neutron stars, including their sizes and masses, using a new technique that exploits Einstein's general theory of relativity. The study provides insights into the extreme conditions within these ultradense objects.
Astronomers have identified Calvera, a bright X-ray source in Ursa Minor, as a promising candidate for an isolated neutron star, potentially the closest known. The team used NASA's Swift satellite and other telescopes to pinpoint its position and confirm its characteristics.
TrES-4 is the largest known exoplanet, about 70% bigger than Jupiter but less massive, making it a planet of extremely low density. It orbits its host star in three and a half days and is very hot due to its close proximity.
The Gruber Cosmology Prize has been awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and their teams for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe, dominated by mysterious dark energy. The breakthrough was made possible through innovative techniques using distant Type Ia supernovae as standard candles.
Florida Tech associate professor Eric Perlman has received $490,400 in funding from NASA's Long-term Space Astrophysics grant program to study jets and their impact on cosmic rays. His work will access the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory to further understanding of jet dynamics and emissions.