Articles tagged with Stars
Scientists have discovered a relic star from the early universe, which has a remarkably similar chemical composition to the Milky Way's oldest stars. The discovery supports the theory that our galaxy underwent a 'cannibal' phase by swallowing smaller galaxies and other galactic building blocks.
A study led by Queen's University astronomer Terry Bridges reveals that up to a quarter of the Milky Way's star clusters are foreign, originating from other galaxies. The research suggests six additional dwarf galaxies may exist within the galaxy beyond the two previously confirmed.
The University of California, Berkeley team's paper published in Science won the 2009 Newcomb Cleveland Prize for outstanding contributions to the field. The award recognizes the first visible-light picture of an extrasolar planet and its potential to change our view of how planets originate.
Astronomers have found that typical galaxies still hold sufficient quantities of gas and dust for star formation, but their efficiency has slowed down over cosmic time. This means that present-day galaxies form fewer stars due to a decrease in gas and dust supplies rather than a change in their ability to make stars.
Dr Andrew Benson and Dr Nick Devereux's research reveals the evolutionary history of the universe, explaining galaxy shapes and numbers. Their 'Lambda Cold Dark Matter' model suggests that dark matter haloes drive galaxy evolution, with elliptical galaxies resulting from multiple mergers.
Astronomers found that only 10 percent of stars host planetary systems similar to our own, with several gas giant planets in the outer part of the system. The discovery was made using gravitational microlensing and is based on 10 years' worth of data from the MicroFUN survey.
Astronomers have unveiled an extraordinary cosmic relic, Terzan 5, which formed in at least two different epochs, providing insights into the origin of the galactic bulge. The discovery suggests that Terzan 5 might be the surviving remnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy contributing to the Milky Way's formation.
Scientists at Durham University discovered rapid star formation in 'stellar nurseries' of infant galaxies, creating new stars at a rate 100 times faster than expected. This finding provides insight into the birth of our own galaxy and how it formed its first stars.
Researchers will study turbulent transport and organization in fusion and astrophysical plasmas to design better, smaller and cheaper fusion systems. Understanding the link between flow self-organization and large-scale flow dissipation may also improve ITER's fusion power production.
Astronomers, including Queen's University physicist Larry Widrow, have discovered a nearby cosmic encounter between the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies, which collided about two to three billion years ago. The collision caused millions of stars to be ripped from the Triangulum disk, forming a faint stream visible in the PAndAS data.
A team of international researchers has challenged the long-held idea that the ratio of massive stars to lighter ones in star-forming regions remains consistent. They found that this ratio, known as the initial mass function, varies significantly between different galaxies, with some forming more low-mass stars than expected.
Recent simulations by astrophysicists reveal that the first black holes in the universe grew slowly and were deprived of gas, contradicting popular theories. The simulations suggest that these early black holes may have played a more complex role in the formation of supermassive black holes observed today.
Astronomers have discovered a mechanism for the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies, which are thought to be composed mostly of dark matter. The 'cosmic dance' of gravitational interactions between galaxies may trigger the removal of stars from smaller dwarf galaxies, transforming them into the observed dwarfs.
Researchers found that turbulence created by material ejected from supermassive black holes' disks prevents cooling gas from forming stars. The discovery explains a long-standing mystery in galaxy cluster physics.
Researchers created a detailed computer simulation of early star formation, revealing the existence of twin stars. The simulations showed that these stars provide seeds for next-generation star formation, helping scientists understand how galaxies formed.
The study found that intense heat from early stars and black holes evaporated gas from small clumps of dark matter, rendering them barren. This natural explanation for galaxy formation supports the view that cold dark matter is the best candidate for the mysterious material believed to make up most of the universe.
A Kansas State University professor is studying new theories about the origin and future of life in the universe. He suggests that artificial black holes could play a part in the evolution of life and potentially spread it throughout the galaxy.
Most 'dark' gamma-ray bursts are found to be similar to normal bursts with an afterglow, but with nearly all visible light obscured by patchy dust. This suggests that gamma-ray bursts may help track star formation and death in distant galaxies.
Researchers at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have created an 'astro-comb' to help detect lighter planets around distant stars. The technique sharpens spectroscopy, enabling more accurate pinpointing of planet locations and opening possibilities for detecting more Earth-like planets.
The CU-Boulder instrument, part of NASA's Hubble Servicing mission, will probe the universe's evolution from its perch on the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists aim to reconstruct the physical conditions and evolution of the early universe by gathering information from ultraviolet light.
The study confirms individual galaxies are source of Far Infrared Background, a decade-old question answered. BLAST's submillimeter survey uncovers dust-enshrouded galaxies with properties deciphered through multi-wavelength data.
Scientists reveal that half of the Universe's starlight originates from young, star-forming galaxies billions of light-years away. The discovery was made using a two-tonne telescope carried by a balloon, and analyzes data from the Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope (BLAST) project.
NRL researchers join a team to develop a telescope on the Moon for studying an era of the young Universe, during the first 500 million years after the Big Bang. The project aims to detect signals from hydrogen atoms in the Dark Ages, providing insights into the formation and evolution of the modern Universe.
Researchers at Durham University's Institute for Computational Cosmology created simulations to predict galaxy formation and dark matter effects. The work aims to improve understanding of dark matter, a mysterious substance making up 80% of the Universe's mass.
A laboratory experiment has successfully modeled stellar jets, revealing that magnetic forces shape these objects in a non-linear way. The findings suggest that the jets are fired out like bullets or buckshot, rather than breaking into pieces as previously thought.
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has published a new book on emerging science of novel propulsion concepts like space drives and warp drives. Researchers Marc Millis and Eric Davis cover NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project, enabling human voyages to other star systems.
A team of Yale University astronomers discovered that galaxies stop forming stars before their central supermassive black holes reach their most powerful stage. The study found no bright AGN at the centers of star-forming galaxies, suggesting that the shutting-down process occurs earlier in the AGN's lifetime.
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.
A Cornell-led team has observed dust forming around a dying star in a nearby galaxy, providing insights into the early universe and the evolution of galaxies. The discovery sheds new light on how cosmic dust was created in the universe's early stages.
Two independent groups successfully detected the thermal emissions of exoplanets OGLE-TR-56b and TrES-3b using ground-based telescopes. The detections are significant because they will continue to study hot Jupiters beyond the capabilities of the soon-to-be-retired Spitzer telescope.
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 identified two protostars located just a few light-years from the Milky Way's central black hole, defying expectations that gravitational tides would prevent star formation. The discovery suggests molecular gas at the galactic center is denser than previously thought, allowing it to form new stars.
The Hubble Space Telescope is set to undergo its fifth and final service mission, which will provide the telescope with a future as bright as its past despite being nearly 18 years into troubled beginnings. The repairs will upgrade instruments, replace gyroscopes and heat shields, and add new capabilities for deeper observations.
Astrophysicists used new computer visualization technology to understand that gravity plays a more significant role than previously thought in deep space's star-forming molecular clouds. The research, led by Alyssa Goodman, reveals hierarchical structure and density variations within these clouds.
The University of Virginia is conducting a new project, APOGEE, as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III to study the chemical and dynamical fingerprints of Milky Way red giant stars. The team aims to understand the assembly of the Milky Way galaxy and its evolution.
Astronomers have discovered carbon dioxide on a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another star, HD 189733b. The detection is significant as it could be a sign of biological activity, and further studies will focus on characterizing the planet's atmosphere to determine its habitability.
The Extended Submillimeter Array (eSMA) enables the study of the formation of new stars and planets using submillimetre light. Post-doc Sandrine Bottinelli used the telescope to determine the ratio of atomic to molecular carbon in an extremely distant galaxy.
A team of scientists used a natural cosmic lens to capture an image of a distant galaxy in the early Universe. The image shows a massive reservoir of gas and a supermassive black hole feeding a burst of star formation, indicating that the galaxy has collided with another.
Researchers have discovered two distant galaxies with massive black holes at their centers, challenging previous assumptions about the formation of these cosmic objects. The study reveals that these colossal black holes were present even 12 billion years ago, when the universe was just 1.7 billion years old.
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.
Researchers at Durham University and Caltech used gravitational lensing to study a young star-forming galaxy in the distant Universe, revealing its internal velocity structure and spiral disk. The findings provide insight into how the galaxy evolved into a present-day system like our Milky Way.
Astronomers have discovered evidence that high-speed collisions between large elliptical galaxies can prevent new stars from forming. The study found that gravitational interactions can heat up gas, making it difficult for stars to cool and form.
Astronomers have discovered that the number of newly formed stars is higher than initially calculated, with heavy stars forming in clusters near the center of galaxies. The study found that these clusters are more common in the core regions of galaxies, leading to a different ratio of heavy to light stars.
Researchers have directly measured a nascent galaxy's magnetic field, finding it is at least 10 times stronger than the average value in the Milky Way. This unexpected result presents a challenge to the leading theory of magnetic field generation and suggests that magnetic fields may play a key role in the evolution of galaxies.
A $70 million CU-Boulder instrument will be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in mid-October to study the 'fossil record' of gases in the early universe. The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph will gather information from ultraviolet light, allowing scientists to reconstruct the physical condition and evolution of the early universe.
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.
Researchers used a supercomputer to simulate the halo of dark matter surrounding the Milky Way, finding dense clumps and streams in the inner region. The study may help scientists understand what dark matter is and could detect evidence of its particles through gamma-ray signals.
A team of Caltech astronomers reveals that spiral galaxies have more bars than previously thought, with most forming in smaller, low-mass galaxies. The study suggests that bars play a crucial role in galaxy evolution, fueling new star formation and feeding massive black holes.
A newly developed nano-sized electronic device is sensitive to faint traces of far-infrared light, which can provide insights into the earliest stages of star and galaxy formation. The device is potentially 100 times more sensitive than existing bolometers and can detect as little as a single photon of far infrared light.
Case Western Reserve University astronomers have upgraded their telescope to detect intracluster light, a type of starlight formed during galaxy collisions. The new camera system allows them to measure the color of these stars, which can indicate the age of the Virgo cluster.
Scientists have developed a record-breaking ultrafast laser that can aid in the search for Earthlike planets. The new laser offers high speed, short pulses, and high average power, making it ideal for boosting the sensitivity of astronomical tools.
Researchers investigated B-meson decays to understand the origin of matter's dominance over antimatter in the universe. The study reveals a significant discrepancy between theoretical models and observations, suggesting the presence of a new principle of physics.
The Naval Research Laboratory will design a lunar telescope, the Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer (DALI), to study the last unexplored epoch in the Universe's history. The telescope aims to detect signals from hydrogen atoms in the Dark Ages, which can provide insights into the first stars, galaxies, and modern Universe.
The Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham achieved its first binocular light using twin side-by-side 8.4-meter primary mirrors, showcasing the telescope's power and clarity. The images reveal details of the spiral galaxy NGC 2770, including newly formed hot stars and older, cooler stars.
Researchers used astronomy technology to develop a system that provides more precise images of single molecules tagged with nanoprobes, allowing for detailed information about molecular binding and gene sequences. The technology enables high-speed detection and identification of individual molecules at nanometer resolution.
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) will provide astronomers with unprecedented views of the origins of stars, galaxies, and planets. ALMA's high-resolution capabilities will enable scientists to unravel longstanding mysteries in astronomy.
Researchers have discovered a multi-planet system with two large planets similar to Jupiter and Saturn, suggesting that planetary systems like our own may be common in the Milky Way galaxy. This is the first discovery of its kind, using a new gravitational microlensing technique.
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.
Researchers found blue clusters of stars, nicknamed 'blue blobs', in a structure called Arp's Loop between M81 and M82 galaxies. The stars are less than 200 million years old and contain the equivalent of five Orion Nebulae.
An international team of scientists has identified a tiny galaxy, about half the size and one-tenth the weight of the smallest distant galaxies typically observed. The galaxy is 100 times lighter than our own Milky Way and is 100 times closer to us than the nearest known structure, the Virgo cluster.