DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Elon Musk's SpaceX was the satellite villain of the skies. It's taking a 'money hit' to try and fix the problem.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Read previewNEW ORLEANS — When SpaceX launched its first Starlink satellites, astronomers all over the world freaked out and the company quickly became a villain of the skies. Nonetheless, Starlink satellites — now more than 5,000 strong — are streaking across astronomers' views of the cosmos, ruining their data. SpaceX leads the way for changeA satellite trail streaks in front of galaxies in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The visors were a regular feature for many Starlink satellites until SpaceX added laser communications. AdvertisementChris Hofer, international team lead for Amazon's Project Kuiper internet satellites, told the astronomers in New Orleans that SpaceX's Starlink tinkering has been helpful.

Persons: —, James Lowenthal, Lowenthal, SpaceX isn't, Jonathan McDowell, McDowell, that's, Patricia Cooper, Elon Musk, Slaven Vlasic, They're, Chris Hofer, Hofer, Kristina Barkume, Barkume Organizations: Service, SpaceX, New York Times, Business, Times, Hubble, Telescope, NASA, ESA, American Astronomical Society, International Astronomical Union, CPS, Planet Labs, Amazon Locations: New Orleans

☆ Webb telescope spies millions of stars in stunning spiral galaxies
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has captured scintillating portraits of 19 spiral galaxies — and the millions of stars that call them home — in unprecedented detail never seen before by astronomers. Astronomers believe that about 60% of all galaxies are spiral galaxies — and our solar system resides in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy. Webb’s observations can help astronomers better understand star formation and the evolution of spiral galaxies like our own. The James Webb Space Telescope captured images of 19 spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light. The images will be used to help astronomers determine the distribution of gas and dust in spiral galaxies, as well as how galaxies both nurture and cease the formation of stars.

Persons: James Webb, Janice Lee, Thomas Williams, ”, Webb’s, cocooned, Erik Rosolowsky, Webb, Rosolowsky, ” Webb, Adam Leroy, Eva Schinnerer, Max Planck, Leroy, ” Leroy Organizations: CNN, Telescope, James Webb Space, NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Hubble, Telescope Science, University of Alberta, Ohio State University, Max, Max Planck Institute, Astronomy Locations: Oxford, Chile, Baltimore, Edmonton, Columbus, Heidelberg, Germany

☆ Fact Check: The moon is not a reflection of Earth
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The moon is not a reflection of Earth, despite a viral TikTok clip circulating online. A clip (archived) circulating online opens with a visual of the moon and text printed across the upper-third that reads, “This Proves My Video ‘Moon is a Reflection of Earth.’”A voice over can then be heard claiming that the moon is a “translucent plasma luminary” which is why you can see the moon during the day. The individual moves the light source and with it, the two light points move, opposite each other, around the resin. The video does not prove that the sun and moon are reflections of another light source, or that the moon is a reflection of Earth. The moon is not a reflection of Earth.

Persons: ” Mike Boylan, Read Organizations: University of Texas, Reuters, European Space Agency, National Aeronautical and Space Agency, NASA, Reconnaissance, Thomson Locations: Austin

☆ Puzzlingly massive planet found orbiting a small star
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The planet, about the mass of Neptune and more than 13 times as massive as Earth, was detected orbiting an ultracool M-dwarf star called LHS 3154 — which is nine times less massive than our sun. This graphic compares the sizes of our sun and Earth with the smaller, cooler LHS 3154 star and its orbiting planet, LHS 3154b. For example, small M dwarf stars are the most common throughout the Milky Way galaxy, and they typically have small, rocky planets orbiting them, rather than gas giant planets. “The planet-forming disk around the low-mass star LHS 3154 is not expected to have enough solid mass to make this planet,” Mahadevan said. A team of scientists led by Mahadevan built the HPF, which was designed to detect planets orbiting within the habitable zone of small, cool stars.

Persons: ”, Suvrath Mahadevan, Verne M, ” Mahadevan, Mahadevan, “, Megan Delamer, ” Delamer Organizations: CNN —, LHS, Penn, Penn State, McDonald Observatory Locations: Texas

☆ Six exoplanets spotted in a cosmic waltz around nearby star
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-29 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

And the planets, labeled b through g, revolve around the star in a celestial dance known as orbital resonance. For every six orbits completed by planet b, the closest planet to the star, the outermost planet g completes one. As planet c makes three revolutions around the star, planet d does two, and when planet e completes four orbits, planet f does three. Detecting a mysteryResearchers first took notice of the star system in 2020 when NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, detected dips in the brightness of HD110067. “It shows us the pristine configuration of a planetary system that has survived untouched.”The discovery is the second time Cheops has helped reveal a planetary system with orbital resonance.

Persons: TESS, Rafael Luque, Cheops, ”, Luque, “ Cheops, ” Luque, Maximilian Günther, they’re, James Webb, Webb, Jo Ann Egger Organizations: CNN —, ESA, University of Chicago’s, “, James Webb Space, Telescope, University of Bern Locations: Switzerland

☆ ‘Travelling Telescope’ inspires children to look to the sky
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-22 | by ( Arya Jyothi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“Instead, I was inspired too.”In 2006, Murabana joined a teacher training program called Global Hands-On Universe, where she led a space education project. Here, she realized she wanted children in Africa to be as exposed to opportunities as children in the US were. Daniel Chu Owen and Susan Murabana, co-founders of Travelling Telescope. Daniel Chu Owen, Travelling Telescope“There’s a satisfaction you get from going to a school, talking to the children, and seeing their reaction and their anticipation,” said Murabana. Daniel Chu Owen, Travelling TelescopeBut there is also a more personal motivation for Murabana’s work — combatting the perception that astronomy is a Western science.

Persons: Susan Murabana’s, “, ”, Murabana, —, Daniel Chu Owen, Susan Murabana, ‘, Owen Organizations: CNN, Cosmos Education, James Cook University, University of California, Kenyan, Travelling Telescope, Kenya Space Agency, International, European Space Agency, Travelling Locations: Kenya, Australia, Africa, Malindi, Western, Ghana, Mali

☆ Webb telescope reveals new details in Milky Way’s heart
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The James Webb Space Telescope has looked into the heart of the Milky Way galaxy, unveiling new features and mysteries within the chaotic region that could help astronomers unravel more details about the early universe. Astronomers used Webb to glimpse Sagittarius C, or Sgr C, an active region of star formation located about 300 light-years from the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. A light-year, equivalent to 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers), is how far a beam of light travels in one year. Astronomers are still trying to determine what has created the vast amount of energized gas, which surpasses what would normally be released by young massive stars. “Webb has provided us with a ton of data on this extreme environment, and we are just starting to dig into it.”

Persons: James Webb, Webb, ”, Samuel Crowe, “ There’s, ” Crowe, “ Webb, ” Young, Jonathan Tan, Rubén Fedriani Organizations: CNN, NASA, University of Virginia, Instituto Locations: Andalucía, Spain

☆ SpaceX Starship’s second test flight ends in loss of megarocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-18 | by ( Michael Ryan | Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. And after months of rebuilding following an explosive initial launch in April, SpaceX made a second attempt at launching its deep-space rocket system Starship, but not all went according to plan. Defying gravitySpaceX's megarocket Starship launched for a second test flight from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on Saturday. The Wonder Theory team is taking some time off for Thanksgiving. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt.

Persons: CNN —, Jasmin Moghbeli, Eric Gay, “, ”, Marina Ascunce, Mertens, Anna Y.Q, Ho, James Webb, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, NASA, SpaceX, US Department of Agriculture, Caltech, Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Telescope, CNN Space, Science Locations: Starbase, Boca Chica , Texas, of Mexico, Americas, Africa, South Africa, Iceland, Grindavík, Japan’s Iwo Jima

☆ ‘Tasmanian devil’ is a stellar corpse showing energetic signs of life
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-16 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —Space is full of extreme phenomena, but the “Tasmanian devil” may be one of the weirdest and rarest cosmic events ever observed. Astronomers dubbed the celestial object the “Tasmanian devil,” and they observed it exploding repeatedly following its initial detection in September 2022. But the Tasmanian devil is revealing more questions than answers with its unexpected behavior. While LFBOTs are unusual events, the Tasmanian devil is even stranger, causing astronomers to question the processes behind the repetitive explosions. We’d never seen that, period, in astronomy.”To better understand the quick luminosity changes occurring in the Tasmanian devil, Ho and her colleagues reached out to other researchers to compare observations from multiple telescopes.

Persons: supernovas, —, ”, Anna Y.Q, Ho, “, Jeff Cooke, ” Ho, We’d, Anna Ho, Jason Koski, ” Cooke, they’ve, Vik Dhillon Organizations: CNN, Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Australia’s Swinburne University of Technology, ARC Centre, Cornell University Altogether, Telescope, ”, University of Sheffield Locations: California, United Kingdom

☆ Comets that bounce around the universe could be delivering the ingredients for life to alien planets
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

They could also have delivered similar building blocks of life to other planets. Scientists at Cambridge University propose that comets may "bounce" around the universe, carrying the essential ingredients to create life on alien worlds. They specifically looked at systems carrying rocky planets around low-mass stars — stars that are smaller than our sun. AdvertisementStill, Bonsor said the research suggests a low-mass planetary system is less likely to carry life than a system with a brighter star. "We're all super excited in the community about the fact that we can find habitable zone planets around low-mass stars.

Persons: —, Richard Anslow, it's, Amy Bonsor, Bonsor, she's Organizations: Service, Cambridge University, Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Royal Society

☆ The Euclid space telescope's first images show distant, hidden, and irregular galaxies that could help solve 2 of astronomy's grandest mysteries
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Maiya Focht | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Euclid space telescope returned its first photos and they're stunning. Scientists said they hope to use data from Euclid to better understand dark matter and dark energy. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Euclid space telescope, which launched in July, has a very important task ahead of it: produce the largest 3D map of the universe to help solve two of astronomy's grandest mysteries: What is dark energy? The other 95% is made of dark matter and dark energy. Astronomers can only observe the effect dark matter and dark energy have on regular matter.

Persons: —, Carole Mundell Organizations: Service, NASA, ESA, Science

☆ Most distant black hole discovered by Chandra, Webb telescopes
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Two powerful NASA telescopes have detected the oldest and most distant black hole ever found. “We needed Webb to find this remarkably distant galaxy and Chandra to find its supermassive black hole,” said lead study author Akos Bogdan, in a statement. Potential black hole theoryTypically, black holes located at the centers of galaxies only have about 0.1% the mass of the stars within their host galaxy. The unusual black hole could be an “Outsize Black Hole” that formed when a huge cloud of gas collapsed, as theorized in 2017 by Priyamvada Natarajan, a coauthor on both studies and the Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton professor of astronomy and professor of physics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. “We think that this is the first detection of an ‘Outsize Black Hole’ and the best evidence yet obtained that some black holes form from massive clouds of gas,” Natarajan said.

Persons: Chandra, James Webb, Webb, ”, Akos Bogdan, “, ” Bogdan, Abell, they’ve, Andy Goulding, Priyamvada Natarajan, Joseph S, Sophia S, ” Natarajan Organizations: CNN, NASA, Telescope, Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Chandra, telltale, Princeton University, Yale University Locations: Cambridge , Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Haven , Connecticut

☆ Webb telescope spots never-before-seen jet stream in Jupiter’s atmosphere
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The astronomers spied a high-speed jet stream in Jupiter’s lower stratosphere, an atmospheric layer about 25 miles (40 kilometers) above the clouds. “What we have always seen as blurred hazes in Jupiter’s atmosphere now appear as crisp features that we can track along with the planet’s fast rotation,” he said. Jet stream revelationsResearchers compared winds detected by Webb at high altitudes with those within the lower layers picked up by Hubble and tracked changes in wind speed. Both space observatories were necessary to detect the jet stream, as Webb spotted small cloud features and Hubble provided a look at the equatorial atmosphere, including storms not related to the jet. Future observations of Jupiter using the Webb telescope may uncover more insights into the jet stream, such as whether its speed and altitude shift over time, as well as other surprises.

Persons: James Webb, Webb, ”, Ricardo Hueso, Cassini, Imke de Pater, Hubble, Michael Wong, “, Leigh Fletcher, — it’ll Organizations: CNN, James Webb Space, University of, Hubble, University of California, University of Leicester Locations: Basque, Bilbao, Spain, Berkeley, United Kingdom

☆ JuMBO discovery: New Webb image reveals mysterious planet-like objects in the Orion Nebula
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-05 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —New images from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed surprising pairs of planet-like objects in the Orion Nebula that have never been detected before. The Orion Nebula, a glowing cloud of dust and gas, is one of the brightest nebulae in the night sky and identifiable as the sword in the Orion constellation. But no existing theories explain how the JuMBOs formed, or why they’re present in the Orion Nebula, McCaughrean said. This Webb image shows the full survey of the inner Orion Nebula and Trapezium Cluster, captured in long wavelengths of light. Meanwhile, other research focused on different star-forming regions could reveal whether JuMBOs are elsewhere beyond the Orion Nebula.

Persons: James Webb, Samuel G, Pearson, Mark J, McCaughrean, Brown, ”, Webb, “ They’re, ” McCaughrean, ” Pearson, “, JWST, ’ ” Pearson, “ It’s Organizations: CNN, Orion, European Space Agency, Space Research, Technology, Orion Nebula, NASA, ESA, CSA Locations: Netherlands, Orion

The bodies appear ancient and share characteristics with humans: two eyes, a mouth, two arms, two legs. Maussan claims they were found around 2017 in Peru, near the pre-Columbian Nazca Lines. They have the same physical appearance, they are the same," Maussan said of Victoria and the two bodies he presented in Mexico. How the bodies arrived in Mexico is a question he says he cannot answer. Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, Director of the Health Sciences Research Institute of the Secretary of the Navy, participated in the congressional hearing, bolstering Maussan's claims.

Persons: Jaime Maussan, Raquel Cunha, Maussan, Elsa Tomasto, David Spergel, Rodolfo Salas, Gismondi, Leslie Urteaga, I'm, Clara, Mauricio, Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, Julieta Fierro, Fierro, Cassandra Garrison, Marco Aquino, Stephen Eisenhammer, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Nazca Lines, Princeton, NASA, Peruvian, Peruvian Culture, Health Sciences Research, Navy, University's, of Astronomy, UNAM, Thomson Locations: Mexico City, Mexico, MEXICO, Mexican, Santa Fe, Peru, Peruvian, Victoria, UNAM, Lima

☆ Exclusive-A Close Encounter With the 'Alien Bodies' in Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Sept. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +6 min

Maussan claims they were found around 2017 in Peru, near the pre-Columbian Nazca Lines. They have the same physical appearance, they are the same," Maussan said of Victoria and the two bodies he presented in Mexico. How the bodies arrived in Mexico is a question he says he cannot answer. Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, Director of the Health Sciences Research Institute of the Secretary of the Navy, participated in the congressional hearing, bolstering Maussan's claims. (Reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City; additional reporting by Marco Aquino in Lima; editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Rosalba O'Brien)

Persons: Cassandra Garrison, Jaime Maussan, Maussan, Elsa Tomasto, David Spergel, Rodolfo Salas, Gismondi, Leslie Urteaga, I'm, Clara, Mauricio, Jose de Jesus Zalce Benitez, Julieta Fierro, Fierro, Marco Aquino, Stephen Eisenhammer, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Cassandra Garrison MEXICO CITY, Reuters, Nazca Lines, Princeton, NASA, Peruvian, Peruvian Culture, Health Sciences Research, Navy, University's, of Astronomy, UNAM Locations: Cassandra Garrison MEXICO, Mexican, Mexico City, Santa Fe, Peru, Peruvian, Victoria, Mexico, UNAM, Lima

☆ Neptune’s disappearing clouds linked to solar cycle
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The findings are “extremely exciting and unexpected, especially since Neptune’s previous period of low cloud activity was not nearly as dramatic and prolonged,” Chavez added. The findings also contradict the idea of the clouds being affected by Neptune’s four seasons, which each last about 40 years. Additionally, Neptune storms rising from the deep atmosphere do influence the planet’s cloud cover — but aren’t related to clouds formed in the upper atmosphere. That variable could interfere with studies looking at correlations between photochemically produced clouds and the solar cycle. More research could also suggest how long the near absence of clouds on Neptune might last.

Persons: ”, Imke de Pater, Neptune brightened, Erandi Chavez, ” Chavez, Neptune, Patrick Irwin, wasn’t, Irwin, Carlos Alvarez, ” Irwin, “ Organizations: CNN —, University of California, NASA, Hubble, Keck, Lick, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, JPL, Caltech, University of Oxford, Keck Observatory Locations: Berkeley, Hawaii, California

☆ Uncovering a lost Maya city in the jungle
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Once upon a planetShown here are the remains of a building with a staircase that once stood within the ancient city of Ocomtún on the Yucatán Peninsula. Ivan Šprajc/ZRC SAZUA lost Maya city abandoned more than 1,000 years ago has been found in the jungles of Campeche on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Other worldsThis illustration shows what the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look like in orbit. These cold, faint worlds are incredibly difficult to detect — but not for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Across the universeThe James Webb Space Telescope captured a high-resolution image of Herbig-Haro 46/47, an actively forming pair of stars.

Persons: Indiana Jones, Ivan Šprajc, Juan Carlos Fernandez, Diaz, Fernandez, Nancy Grace, NASA’s, James Webb, Webb, — Carl Sagan’s, Ludwig van Beethoven, —, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, “ Raiders, SAZU, University of Houston, Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Hubble, Telescope, NASA, James Webb Space, DePasquale, ESA, Medical University of Vienna, CNN Space, Science Locations: Ocomtún, Campeche, Mexico’s Yucatán, Vietnam, Southeast Asia

☆ NASA’s new telescope could spot thousands of exoplanets and hundreds of Earth-size rogue planets
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —When NASA’s next-generation space observatory launches in a few years, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will expand the search for exoplanets as well as rogue planets, or worlds that travel through space without orbiting stars. Understanding these rogue planets could shed more light on the formation, evolution and disruption of planetary systems. This illustration shows what the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look like in orbit. But rogue planets are likely much smaller. Telescopes like Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope have enabled astronomers to observe large, glowing gas giant exoplanets called hot Jupiters.

Persons: NASA’s, Nancy Grace, Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's, —, ”, David Bennett, Microlensing, Takahiro Sumi, “, Naoki Koshimoto, ” Sumi, Hubble, Vanessa Bailey, Roman’s, James Webb, Bailey, coronagraph, “ It’s, ” Bailey Organizations: CNN, Hubble, NASA's Goddard Space, Mount John University Observatory, Goddard Space Flight, Osaka University, Engineers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory Locations: New, Greenbelt , Maryland, Pasadena , California, Webb

☆ Carl Sagan’s personal master recording of Voyager’s iconic Golden Record goes up for auction
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The master recordings of the Voyager Golden Record still have their original boxes. Courtesy Sotheby'sNow, a copy of the master recording for NASA’s Voyager Golden Record — the one kept by the late astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife, producer Ann Druyan — will be for sale at Sotheby’s New York on Thursday. Both Voyager spacecraft carry a copy of the Golden Record. Each record cover was etched with symbols depicting how to locate the sun and instructions on how to play the record. Engineers can be seen securing the cover over the Voyager 1 Golden Record in 1977.

Persons: Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan —, Chuck Berry’s, Johnny B, Goode, Sagan, Frank Drake, Linda Salzman, “, ”, Suzanne Dodd, Dodd, ” Dodd, they’ve Organizations: CNN, NASA’s, Sotheby’s, Columbia Recording, United Nations, Cornell University, NASA, Voyager, JPL, Caltech, Engineers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Neptune, Hulton, “ Locations: York, Senegalese, Peruvian, Indian, Pasadena , California

☆ Europe's Euclid space telescope set for launch to explore 'dark universe'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The mission focuses on two foundational components of the dark universe. One is dark matter, the invisible but theoretically influential cosmic scaffolding thought to give shape and texture to the cosmos. Scientists estimate dark energy and dark matter together make up 95% of the cosmos, while ordinary matter that we can see accounts for just 5%. EUROPEAN-LED MISSION[1/2]An artist's concept shows the Euclid space telescope, built by the European Space Agency (ESA) that is set to be launched by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, in operation, in this undated handout image. "Measuring the shapes and positions of galaxies allows us to infer the properties of dark matter and dark energy," Rhodes said on Friday.

Persons: Euclid, Elon Musk, James Webb, Jason Rhodes, Rhodes, Yannick Mellier, Steve Gorman, William Mallard Organizations: SpaceX, European Space Agency, ESA, Cape Canaveral Space Force, Space Agency, REUTERS, NASA, Euclid, Russian Soyuz, Elon, James Webb Space, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Euclid Consortium, Institut d'Astrophysique de, Thomson Locations: Florida, Cape, U.S, Canada, Japan, Russian, California, Ukraine, Los Angeles, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris

☆ Astronomers ‘hear’ the celestial choir of gravitational waves for the first time
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Astronomers have been able to “hear” the celestial hum of powerful gravitational waves, created by collisions between black holes, echoing across the universe for the first time. Gravitational waves, initially predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, are ripples in space-time that were first detected in 2015. Einstein theorized that gravitational waves would stretch and compress space as they moved across the universe, affecting how radio waves travel. More than 190 scientists set out to discover the frequencies of gravitational waves as part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves collaboration, also known as NANOGrav. Searching for a celestial choirThe newly detected gravitational waves are the most powerful ever measured.

Persons: Albert Einstein, Einstein, ”, Chiara Mingarelli, We’ve, Simonnet, Scott Ransom, “, ” Ransom, Luke Kelley, ” Kelley, it’s, ” Mingarelli, “ It’s, Stephen Taylor Organizations: CNN —, American Nanohertz, Green Bank, Yale University, National Radio Astronomy, University of California, Vanderbilt University Locations: Arecibo, Puerto Rico, West Virginia, New Mexico, Berkeley, Europe, India, China, Australia

☆ Ancient galaxy reveals a surprising way to annihilate a star
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

The explosion lasted just over a minute — considered long, like any gamma-ray burst, or GRB, that lasts more than two seconds. These violent, destructive bursts can leave behind dense remnants like neutron stars or result in the creation of black holes. Why ancient galaxies could hide star deathsDuring their search for the origin of the gamma-ray burst, astronomers used the Gemini South telescope located in Chile to observe the afterglow of the cosmic explosion. Compared with younger, more typical galaxies, ancient galaxies can have up to a million or more stars densely packed into their cores. But they had no evidence for any long gamma-ray bursts originating from ancient galaxies — until now.

Persons: NASA’s Neil Gehrels, ”, Wen, fai Fong, Andrew Levan, Albert Einstein, Jillian Rastinejad, Fong Organizations: CNN, fai, Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Radboud University, telltale, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration, Research, Astrophysics, Northwestern Locations: Nijmegen , Netherlands, Chile, Northwestern

☆ Webb telescope detects organic molecules in distant galaxy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Astronomers have detected the most distant known organic molecules in the universe using the James Webb Space Telescope. It’s the first time Webb has detected complex molecules in the distant universe. The complex molecules were found in a galaxy known as SPT0418-47, located more than 12 billion light-years away. The galaxy observed by the Webb telescope shows an Einstein ring caused by a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing, which occurs when two galaxies are almost perfectly aligned from our perspective on Earth. Investigating the early universeAstronomers spotted the signature of the organic molecules during a careful analysis of Webb’s data.

Persons: James Webb, Webb, it’s, Doyle, J, Einstein, ”, Joaquin Vieira, Albert Einstein’s, Justin Spilker, Spilker, George P, Cynthia Woods Mitchell, ” Spilker, Kedar Phadke, we’ve Organizations: CNN —, James Webb Space Telescope, National Science, Hubble, University of Illinois, M University, Texas, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics Locations: Chile, University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign, Texas

☆ Structures newly discovered in the Milky Way
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( Kristen Rogers | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —An international team of astrophysicists has discovered hundreds of mysterious structures in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Sagittarius A* “is the closest supermassive black hole to us, but it’s relatively quiet and therefore somewhat difficult to really study,” Hamden added. The vertical filaments surround the nucleus of the Milky Way, but the horizontal ones appear to spread out to one side toward the black hole. The vertical filaments, on the other hand, are magnetic and hold cosmic ray electrons moving nearly as fast as the speed of light. “One way to confirm that the (filament) structure is created by something like a jet is to find both sides of it.”This would add “to the complex, active picture of our own Milky Way,” she said.

Persons: astrophysicists, Farhad Yusef, Yusef, Zadeh, “, ”, who’s, Erika Hamden, ” Yusef, Hamden Organizations: CNN, Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration, Research, Astrophysics, University of Arizona, South African Locations: Hamden

Search resuls for: "of Astronomy"

25 mentions found