SALT LAKE CITY — In a galaxy that spans many light-years and is more than 13 billion years old, it stands to reason that major astronomical discoveries are rare, to say the least. Omega Centauri, a global cluster of millions of stars, is nestled in the Milky Way. The stars are so close to the … Read more
The detection efficiency for a double-line DWD where the two stars have similar flux contributions. Credit: arXiv (2024). DOI number: 10.48550/arxiv.2407.02594 An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of 34 rare double-lined white dwarf binary systems using the Intermediate-dispersion Spectrograph and Imaging System (ISIS) on the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). The finding was detailed … Read more
Source: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain According to a study by the University of Michigan, up to 60% of objects near Earth could be dark comets. These are mysterious asteroids that orbit the sun in our solar system and probably contain or once contained ice. These asteroids could have been one of the routes for delivering water … Read more
The Omega Centauri star cluster contains millions of stars. The motion of some of the stars suggests that there is a medium-sized black hole at its center. NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA hide caption switch caption NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence for the existence of an elusive type of black hole, about 8,000 times … Read more
Chinese astronomers have discovered that the warp in the Milky Way’s spiral disk is moving backwards under the influence of the enormous mass of dark matter that forms an invisible halo around our galaxy. About a third of all spiral galaxies have a distinct curvature in their disc-shaped structure, like a vinyl record that has … Read more
Astronomer David Kipping, of Cool Worlds fame, has called on other astronomers to use their telescope time to observe a particularly unusual star that appears to have a very strange or “seemingly impossible” chemical composition. In recent years, we have seen some stars behaving really strangely. The classic example is KIC 8462852, better known as … Read more
Wherever the JWST looks in space, matter and energy interact in spectacular displays. The Webb reveals more details of these interactions than any other telescope because it can peer through the dense gas and dust that shrouds many objects. In a new image, the JWST sees a young protostar that is only 100,000 years old. … Read more
The exposure-corrected image of SPT J2031. Credit: Diwanji et al., 2024. Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray spacecraft, astronomers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville have observed a merging cluster of galaxies known as SPT-CLJ 2031-4037. They discovered a rarely seen strong shock front in this cluster of galaxies. The finding was reported in a research … Read more
Today, astronomers and space enthusiasts around the world collectively marvel at our erratic presence in the universe, especially as we drift through the cosmos among large asteroids like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. June 30 is Asteroid Day, an annual holiday that reflects on the possibility of a planet-destroying … Read more
The position of a newly found dwarf galaxy (Virgo III) in the constellation Virgo (left) and its members (right; the stars circled in white). The member stars are concentrated within the dotted line in the right panel. Credit: NAOJ/Tohoku University For years, astronomers have worried about how to explain why the Milky Way has fewer … Read more