Neutron stars are among the densest objects in the universe. The material inside them is so tightly compressed that scientists don’t yet know what shape it takes. The core of a neutron star may be a thick soup of quarks, or it may contain exotic particles that could not survive anywhere else in the universe. … Read more
This artist’s rendering shows a night-time view of the Extremely Large Telescope in operation on Cerro Armazones in northern Chile. The telescope is shown using lasers to create artificial stars high in the atmosphere. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada Last segment of world’s largest telescope mirror successfully cast The Extremely Large Telescope in Chile, due for completion … Read more
New research suggests a geological explanation for the fact that there is conclusive evidence of advanced … [+] No alien civilizations have been found. getty Are we alone, and if so, why? So far, the search for extraterrestrial life has yielded nothing but silence, and a team of Earth scientists now think they know why. … Read more
Astronomers have discovered two new satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The findings could help us better understand dark matter: the mysterious stuff that makes up about 85% of the matter in the universe, but remains essentially invisible to us. The discoveries also bring scientists one step closer to solving a persistent problem with the … Read more
Astronomers have discovered two new satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The findings could help us better understand dark matter: the mysterious stuff that makes up about 85% of the matter in the universe, but remains essentially invisible to us. The discoveries also bring scientists one step closer to solving a persistent problem with the … Read more
In the coming days or weeks, the star T Coronae Borealis or Blaze Star is expected to be visible in the night sky. The appearance of a stellar explosion will be brief and bright, but it’s a sight enthusiasts won’t want to miss. As a binary system, T Coronae Borealis or T CrB is not … Read more
This image is a mosaic of visible light and infrared views of the same frame from the Pillars of Creation visualization. The three-dimensional model of the pillars created for the visualization sequence is displayed alternately in the Hubble Space Telescope version (visible light) and the Webb Space Telescope version (infrared light). Credits: Greg Bacon (STScI), … Read more
Artist’s impression of a microlensing event caused by a black hole observed from Earth towards the Large Magellanic Cloud. The light from a background star in the GMC is diffracted by a putative primordial black hole (lens) in the Milky Way’s halo and magnified when observed from Earth. Microlensing produces very characteristic variations in the … Read more
Astronomers are witnessing a never-before-seen spectacle in the cosmos: the awakening of a supermassive black hole at the center of a distant galaxy. In late 2019, a team of astronomers took note of an otherwise unremarkable galaxy called SDSS1335+0728, located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. A sudden spike in the galaxy’s brightness … Read more
The night sky might be about to get a brand new star in a few weeks. T Coronae Borealis, also known as the “Blaze Star” or T CrB, is a binary star system located approximately 3,000 light-years from Earth. It could explode in spectacular fashion any day now. Normally too dim to see with the … Read more