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☆ First close-up image of a star beyond our galaxy may reveal impending supernova
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-21 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The star, known as WOH G64, is 160,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small neighboring galaxy that orbits the Milky Way. Van Loon has observed WOH G64 since the 1990s and studied it as a student at the European Southern Observatory. The Hubble Space Telescope soon revealed it had indeed been a red supergiant in the past, perhaps 20,000 years before the explosion. “If this is what we are seeing (WOH G64) doing, then a spectacle awaits us soon,” van Loon said. It’s nowhere near as bright or variable as WOH G64, van Loon said, and only experienced a brief hiccup compared with what WOH G64 is undergoing.

Persons: ”, Keiichi Ohnaka, Jacco van, UK’s Keele University . Van Loon, van Loon, Gerd Weigelt, Max Planck, It’s, Edward Guinan, Guinan, “, ” van Loon, Ohnaka Organizations: CNN —, Southern, Astrophysics, “, Andrés Bello National University, Keele Observatory, UK’s Keele University . Van, European Southern Observatory, Max, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Villanova University in, Hubble Locations: Atacama, Chile, Jacco van Loon, Bonn, Germany, Villanova University in Pennsylvania

☆ See giant gas bubbles move on the surface of a nearby star
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-11 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Astronomers have observed the detailed motions of giant gas bubbles on the surface of a nearby star for the first time, which rise and fall like the inside of a lava lamp. The images show the surface of the star R. Doradus, a red giant star 180 light-years away in the Dorado constellation. The telescope enabled them to collect high-resolution images of the star’s surface over the course of a month. Convection bubbles can be seen moving on the surface of R. Doradus, as seen by the ALMA telescope in Chile. While convection bubbles have been spotted before on the surface of stars, the new observations tracked the motion of bubbles in a way that wasn’t possible earlier.

Persons: ”, Wouter Vlemmings, Vlemmings, ‘, ” Vlemmings, Theo Khouri, Chalmers, ALMA, Behzad Bojnordi, Claudia Paladini, Paladini, ” Paladini Organizations: CNN —, Chalmers University of Technology, NASA, Chalmers, Energy, European Southern Observatory, Sun Locations: Sweden, ALMA, Chile

☆ Astronomers watch a supermassive black hole awaken in real time
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —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 notice of an otherwise unremarkable galaxy named SDSS1335+0728, 300 million light-years away in the Virgo constellation. “If so, this would be the first time that we see the activation of a massive black hole in real time.”Sleeping celestial giantsSupermassive black holes are classified as having masses more than 100,000 times that of our sun. “In the case of SDSS1335+0728, we were able to observe the awakening of the massive black hole, (which) suddenly started to feast on gas available in its surroundings, becoming very bright.”Previous research has pointed to inactive galaxies that appeared to become active after several years, which is usually triggered by black hole activity, but the process of a black hole awakening has never been directly observed before, until now, Hernández García said. The same scenario may play out with Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, but astronomers aren’t sure how likely it is to occur, Ricci said.

Persons: ”, Paula Sánchez Sáez, Neil Gehrels Swift, Chandra, Sánchez Sáez, Lorena Hernández García, Claudio Ricci, “, Hernández García, Ricci Organizations: CNN —, Palomar, Astrophysics, European Southern Observatory, Survey, Micron, Sky Survey, Sloan, European Southern, Southern Astrophysical Research, Keck, Millennium Institute of Astrophysics, University of Valparaíso, Diego Portales University Locations: California, Germany, European, Chile, Hawaii, —

☆ ‘Sleeping giant’ massive black hole found in the Milky Way galaxy
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-16 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Astronomers have spotted the most massive known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy after detecting an unusual wobble in space. The wobbling movement of an old giant star in the Aquila constellation revealed that it was in an orbital dance with a dormant black hole, and it’s the third such dormant black hole spotted by Gaia. So Gaia BH3 is the most massive black hole in our galaxy that formed from the death of a massive star. Stellar black holes observed across the Milky Way galaxy are about 10 times as massive as the sun on average. True to expectations, the researchers found that the star orbiting Gaia BH3 was metal-poor, which means that the star that formed Gaia BH3 was likely the same.

Persons: ”, Gaia BH3, —, munch, Aquila, Gaia, Pasquale Panuzzo, BH3, hadn’t, Elisabetta Caffau, “, Carole Mundell Organizations: CNN —, Southern, Astrophysics, “, France’s National, for Scientific Research, ESO, Space Locations: Atacama, Paris, France’s

☆ White dwarf star has metal scar after gobbling planetary fragment
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Astronomers have spotted an unusual sign that a dead star feasted on a fragment of a planet orbiting it: a metal scar on the star’s surface. The observation revealed a metallic feature on the star’s surface that the researchers determined was related to a change detected in the star’s magnetic field. The strength of the metal detection also synced with changes observed in the star’s magnetic field, which led the team to determine that the metal scar was located on one of the star’s magnetic poles. The star’s magnetic field pulled the metals toward the star, which led to the presence of the scar, the finding has suggested. But WD 0816-310 presents an entirely different scenario orchestrated by the star’s magnetic field.

Persons: ”, Dr, Stefano Bagnulo, Jay Farihi, John Landstreet, Landstreet Organizations: CNN —, Southern, Planetarium, University College London, Western University, NASA Locations: Chile, Armagh, Northern Ireland, Swiss, Canada

☆ How antimatter engines could fly humans to other stars in just a few years
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-22 | by ( Adam Barnes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

AdvertisementInterstellar travel is only something humanity has achieved in science fiction — like Star Trek's USS Enterprise, which used antimatter engines to travel across star systems. "Annihilation of antimatter and matter converts mass directly into energy," Weed, cofounder and CEO of Positron Dynamics, a company working to develop an antimatter propulsion system, told Business Insider. Space travel at record speedProxima's star system, shown here, could be reached in just five years with antimatter-powered technology. For example, let's take a trip to our nearest star system, Proxima, about 4.2 light years away. And since the '80s, there's been talk of thermal antimatter engines, which would use antimatter to heat liquid, gas, or plasma to provide thrust.

Persons: Elon Musk, Ryan Weed, Weed, Brice, Maximilien, Gerald Jackson, Forbes, It's, Jackson, he's, Eugen Sänger, there's, Paul M, Sutter, Steve Howe, Howe Organizations: Enterprise, Dynamics, Southern, NASA, CERN, Fermilab, Hbar Technologies, Space, Alpha Locations: Switzerland, Austrian

☆ Universe’s brightest known object and fastest-growing black hole revealed
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Astronomers have spotted the brightest known object in the universe, and it’s a quasar powered by the fastest-growing black hole on record, according to a new study. The black hole powering the quasar devours the equivalent of one sun per day and has a mass about 17 billion times that of our sun, the researchers found. A black hole is massive power sourceThe intense gravitational influence of black holes draws matter toward these celestial objects in such an energetic way that the process creates light. The blinding radiation is due to the black hole’s accretion disk, or the ring around the black hole where material gathers before being consumed. The team followed up with observations from the powerful Very Large Telescope in Chile’s Atacama Desert to confirm details about the black hole, including its hefty mass.

Persons: ”, Christian Wolf, ” Wolf, Samuel Lai, Wolf, Southern Observatory’s Schmidt, Christopher Onken Organizations: CNN —, Southern, National University’s College of Science, National University’s Research, of Astronomy, Astrophysics, Hubble, Southern Observatory’s, Sky Survey, Sky, Dark Energy Survey, Energy Survey, ESO Locations: Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Atacama

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar with a black hole at its heart growing so fast that it swallows the equivalent of a sun a day. The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than our sun. The black hole powering this distant quasar is more than 17 billion times more immense than our sun, an Australian-led team reported Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. The rotating disk around the quasar's black hole — the luminous swirling gas and other matter from gobbled-up stars — is like a cosmic hurricane. Further analysis shows the mass of the black hole to be 17 to 19 billion times that of our sun, according to the team.

Persons: —, Christian Wolf, ”, Priyamvada Natarajan Organizations: —, Australian National University, Southern Observatory, ” Yale, Associated Press Health, Science Department, Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science, Educational Media Group, AP Locations: CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Australian, gobbled, Australia

☆ ‘Old smoker’ stars revealed at the heart of the Milky Way
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —A decade-long survey of the night sky has revealed a mysterious new type of star astronomers are referring to as an “old smoker.”These previously hidden stellar objects are aging, giant stars located near the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. This illustration shows an eruption occurring in the swirling disk of matter around a newborn star. They help the newborn star in the middle to grow, but make it harder for planets to form. Infrared images show a red giant star, located 30,000 light years away near the center of the Milky Way. Understanding how the old smokers release elements into space could change the way astronomers think about the way such elements are distributed across the universe.

Persons: Philip Lucas, Lucas, ”, Zhen Guo, Fondecyt, Guo, ” Guo, ” Lucas, Dante Minniti Organizations: CNN, Royal Astronomical Society, Astronomers, Survey, Cerro Paranal Observatory, Southern, University of Hertfordshire, University of Valparaiso, University of Hertfordshire Red, NASA, Andrés Bello University Locations: Chilean Andes, Cerro, Chile

☆ If you thought the planet Neptune was a deep blue color, turns out you're wrong
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-05 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Neptune, long believed to be dark blue, is actually very pale like Uranus, scientists say. Related storiesFor decades, famous images from NASA's Voyager 2 mission have circulated showing Neptune in a deep azure tone. Side-by-side comparison of the Voyager 2 images of Neptune and Uranus as reprocessed by scientists at the University of Oxford. Voyager 2's images of Uranus, from 1986, however, were published in a form closer to "true" color, he added. Neptune is just a touch bluer, which the researchers attribute to a thinner haze layer on the planet.

Persons: —, Patrick Irwin, Neptune, Irwin Organizations: NASA's, Service, University of Oxford, Oxford, NASA, JPL, Caltech, Handout, Reuters, Guardian, Hubble, Southern

☆ Planet-forming disk detected around star in another galaxy for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —For the first time, astronomers have glimpsed a young star outside the Milky Way galaxy that’s ringed by a dense disk where planets may form. The massive star, called HH 1177, and its rotating disk were spotted in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy that’s about 160,000 light-years away. The gas and dust accumulate in a flat disk around the star, known as an accretion disk, as a result of strong gravitational forces. The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, or MUSE instrument, on the telescope captured a jet of material releasing from the young star. To discern whether a disk was present around the star, the team needed to measure how quickly dense gas moved around the star.

Persons: ”, Anna McLeod, ” McLeod, McLeod, Jonathan Henshaw, aren’t, “ Organizations: CNN, Durham University, Southern, ESO, Liverpool John Moores University Locations: ALMA, United Kingdom, Chile

☆ In a first, a newborn star's spinning disk is seen in another galaxy
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Newborn stars with these circumstellar disks had been observed by astronomers only in our Milky Way galaxy - until now. Observing these disks in other galaxies is very important because it tells us about how stars form in environments different from that of the Milky Way," McLeod added. The Large Magellanic Cloud is considered a satellite galaxy of the sprawling Milky Way, as is another galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud. The Large Magellanic Cloud has less dust than the Milky Way and a smaller content of what astronomers call metallic elements - those other than hydrogen and helium. McLeod expressed hope for detecting other circumstellar disks in the Large Magellanic Cloud and perhaps the further Small Magellanic Cloud.

Persons: Anna McLeod, McLeod, Jonathan Henshaw, Liverpool, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: European Southern Observatory, Durham University, Liverpool John Moores University, Thomson Locations: WASHINGTON, England, Atacama

☆ Astronomers detect mysterious 8 billion-year-old energetic burst
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A fast radio burst, or FRB, is a pulse of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation. It lasts a small fraction of a second but outshines most other sources of radio waves in the universe. Radio waves have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. "The radio waves in FRBs are similar to those used in microwave ovens. Fast radio bursts were discovered in 2007.

Persons: Ryan Shannon, Stuart Ryder, Shannon, Will Dunham, Daniel Wallis Organizations: ESO, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Australian SKA Pathfinder, European Southern, Swinburne University of Technology, Macquarie University, Thomson Locations: Handout, Western Australia, European, Chile, Australia

☆ Mysterious fast radio burst traveled 8 billion years to reach Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The fast radio burst is one of the most distant and energetic ever observed. Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves with unknown origins. Many FRBs release super bright radio waves lasting only a few milliseconds at most before disappearing, which makes fast radio bursts difficult to observe. “J-P showed that the (farther) away a fast radio burst is, the more diffuse gas it reveals between the galaxies. Astronomers said they hope that future radio telescopes, currently under construction in South Africa and Australia, will enable the detection of thousands more fast radio bursts at greater distances.

Persons: FRB 20220610A, ”, Dr, Stuart Ryder, Ryan Shannon, ” Shannon, “, Jean, Pierre Macquart, ” Ryder, you’re Organizations: CNN —, Macquarie University, Southern, Swinburne University of Technology, “ Locations: Western Australia, Australia, Chile, Australian, South Africa

☆ Astronomers solve the puzzle of an unusual pulsing dead star
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The spinning dead star and the companion star that it closely orbits were first discovered in 2007. Once the pulsar began siphoning off material from the companion star, its characteristic pulsing beam disappeared. Instead, the pulsar entered a constant, alternating cycle of operating in what astronomers call “high” mode and “low” mode. They discovered that an exchange of matter between the pulsar and its companion star triggers the unusual behavior of the pulsar. As the pulsar tugs at its companion star, gas releases from the companion and forms a disk around the pulsar before slowly falling toward it.

Persons: ”, Maria Cristina Baglio, Francesco Coti Zelati, Coti Zelati, Sergio Campana Organizations: CNN, Astrophysics, New York University, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Institute of Space Sciences, Astronomers, Southern, Italian National Institute for Astrophysics ’, Observatory Locations: New York University Abu Dhabi, Barcelona, Spain, Chile

☆ Mysterious dark spot detected on Neptune
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-25 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Astronomers have spotted a large and mysterious dark spot within Neptune’s atmosphere, and it has an unexpectedly bright companion. “Since the first discovery of a dark spot, I’ve always wondered what these short-lived and elusive dark features are,” said lead study author Patrick Irwin, professor of planetary physics at the University of Oxford, in a statement. Gas giants and dark spotsGiant gaseous planets in our solar system, including Neptune, are known for the dark spots that appear in their atmospheres, such as Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a centuries-old storm. The Great Dark Spot on Neptune, the nickname given to the largest storm witnessed by Voyager 2, was so large that it could contain Earth. The unusual cloud appeared in the observation as a smaller bright spot next to the larger dark spot, and both are on the same atmospheric level.

Persons: I’ve, ”, Patrick Irwin, Hubble, Neptune, Irwin, Irwin et, Michael Wong, ” Wong, “ Organizations: CNN —, Southern, Hubble, University of Oxford, Gas, NASA, Irwin’s, European Southern Observatory, University of California Locations: Chile, Northern, Berkeley

☆ Rare ‘Trojan’ world may share the same orbit as another planet
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-19 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Astronomers may have found a rare “sibling” that shares the same orbit of a Jupiter-like planet around a young star. Two Jupiter-like planets, known as PDS 70b and PDS 70c, are already known to orbit the star. Evidence for Trojans beyond our solar system — specifically Trojan planets — has been sparse until now. The signal suggested a cloud of debris with a mass of about twice that of our moon, which could be a Trojan planet or a planet in formation. A cloud of debris (circled by a yellow dotted line) may be a newly forming planet in the same orbit as the planet PDS 70b.

Persons: ”, Olga Balsalobre, Lucy, “ Exotrojans, Jorge Lillo, Itziar De Gregorio, Monsalvo, “, Ruza, ALMA Organizations: CNN —, Astrophysics, Madrid’s, Astrobiology, IAU, Southern, Science, NASA Locations: ALMA, Chile

☆ Shiniest exoplanet ever found has reflective metal clouds
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —An ultrahot exoplanet that zips around its host star every 19 hours is the shiniest exoplanet ever discovered. The scorching world, dubbed planet LTT9779b, has reflective metallic clouds made of silicates and metals like titanium. An artist's illustration shows an exoplanet, called LTT9779b, orbiting its much larger host star. The side of the exoplanet that faces its host star likely reaches 3,632 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). And LTT9779b is so piping hot that it shouldn’t have any clouds, even those made of metal or glass.

Persons: Ricardo Ramírez Reyes, LTT9779b, ”, James Jenkins, Vivien Parmentier, ” Parmentier, “, ” Vivien, Sergio Hoyer Organizations: CNN, European Southern Observatory, Universidad de Chile, Astrophysics, Diego Portales University, Marseille Astrophysics Locations: Chile, Santiago , Chile, Nice, France, Marseille

☆ Webb telescope captures galaxy 20 million light-years away
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope set its sights on a galaxy 20 million light-years away, capturing a dazzling star-forming galaxy in images streaked with the signature of passing asteroids. A bright band in the upper left corner of the images shows the bright, bar-shaped center of the galaxy, according to a NASA news release. The NGC 5068 galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, the same type as our home Milky Way. These new snapshots of NGC 5068 add to a growing repository of data on areas of the observable universe where stars are born. This image shows the NGC 5068 galaxy as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument.

Persons: James Webb, Webb Organizations: CNN, NASA, Hubble, ESA, CSA, Phantom, European Space Agency, Canadian Space Agency Locations: Webb, Chile, MIRI

Its Very Large Telescope is perched at 8,645 feet atop an explosive-flattened mountaintop, where the atmosphere is relatively stable and incredibly dry. is building a new telescope, the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be used for, among other purposes, hunting for exoplanets that might support life. On my way back to the residencia, I stopped and looked up at the billowing arch of the Milky Way. The Atacama, for all its emptiness, is not a void. The desert, in its dryness, keeps the dead and opens the sky.

☆ Scientists capture first direct image of a supermassive black hole, 6.5 billion times the size of the sun, spewing out jets of plasma
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The jets were captured being released from a black hole 6.5 billion times the size of our sun. The image is the first to connect the jets to the edge of the supermassive black hole. The black hole, located at the center of the M87 galaxy 55 million light-years away, is around 6.5 billion times bigger than our sun. Black holes don't only swallow matter, they sometimes shoot it outMost galaxies, including our own, swirl around a supermassive black hole. Material swirling around a black hole needs to lose speed and energy before it can fall inwards.

☆ A Fresh View of an Increasingly Familiar Black Hole
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dennis Overbye | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

By observing its subject at slightly longer radio wavelengths, the team was able to bring into visibility the cooler outer regions of the black hole’s fiery accretion disk, from which the jet seems to emanate. “We know that jets are ejected from the region surrounding black holes,” Dr. Lu said in a statement issued by the European Southern Observatory. “But we still do not fully understand how this actually happens. To study this directly we need to observe the origin of the jet as close as possible to the black hole.”In the meantime, the Event Horizon Telescope team is gathering resources for more observations, with the goal of making a black-hole movie. We will be able to film how the matter falls into a black hole and eventually manages to escape.”

☆ Black hole image captures jet of material launching into space
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

But a black hole can also send powerful jets of material blasting across space and beyond its home galaxy. Previous observations have shown the jet and black hole separately, including the first direct image of a black hole, released in 2019. Astronomers believe that more material is falling toward the black hole in the new image, which is why the ring looks bigger. Studying black holesRecently, astronomers also used machine learning to release a cleaner, sharper version of the original M87 black hole image from 2019. The central region is darker and larger, surrounded by a bright ring as hot gas falls into the black hole.

☆ New image reveals violent events near a supermassive black hole
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] This image shows the jet and shadow of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy together for the first time. The supermassive black hole pictured resides at the center of a relatively nearby galaxy called Messier 87, or M87, about 54 million light-years from Earth. This black hole, with a mass 6.5 billion times that of our sun, was the subject of the first image of such an object ever obtained, released in 2019, with another black hole pictured last year. Seeing the entire scene in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole can be insightful. The EHT project has yielded the images of the two supermassive black holes.

☆ First photo of a black hole resembles 'skinny' doughnut
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —The first photo ever taken of a black hole looks a little sharper now. The central region is darker and larger, surrounded by a bright ring as hot gas falls into the black hole in the new image. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, called EHT, is a global network of telescopes that captured the first photograph of a black hole. Computers using PRIMO analyzed more than 30,000 high-resolution simulated images of black holes to pick out common structural details. But if heated materials in the form of plasma surround the black hole and emit light, the event horizon could be visible.

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