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NuSTAR finds clumpy doughnut around black hole
NuSTAR recently looked inside one of the densest doughnuts known around a supermassive black hole. This black hole lies at the centre of a well-studied spiral galaxy called NGC 1068, located 47 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Cetus. The observations revealed a clumpy doughnut.
December 17, 2015 Read more
Space probes: sterile launch into outer space
Components used on a space mission must be cleaned meticulously. Fraunhofer researchers designed a cleanroom for the European Space Agency in which the most infinitesimal contaminants can be removed.
December 17, 2015 Read more
NASA's Fermi satellite kicks off a blazar-detecting bonanza (w/video)
A long time ago in a galaxy half the universe away, a flood of high-energy gamma rays began its journey to Earth. Observations provide a surprising look into the environment near a supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center and offer a glimpse into the state of the cosmos 7 billion years ago.
December 16, 2015 Read more
Water vapor on dwarf planet Ceres
The Occator crater on the surface is active - data from NASA's Dawn mission indicate frozen water sublimating from its center.
December 9, 2015 Read more
Alternative stellar lifestyle: Common, curious, solved at last
Half of all stars are in binaries - pairs of stars that orbit each other. Half of binary stars orbit so close that gravitational interaction significantly affects their evolution and demise. Today, scientists confirmed one of the possible explanations for a common group of exceptions: the blue stragglers.
December 8, 2015 Read more
Scientists explain origin of heavy elements in the Universe
Rare mergers of binary neutron stars proposed as the source of radioactive plutonium-244 in nature.
December 8, 2015 Read more
Space telescopes see magnified image of the faintest galaxy from the early universe
Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. It existed about 400 million years after the big bang, 13.8 billion years ago.
December 3, 2015 Read more
What kinds of stars form rocky planets?
As astronomers continue to find more and more planets around stars beyond our own Sun, they are trying to discover patterns and features that indicate what types of planets are likely to form around different kinds of stars. This will hopefully inform and make more efficient the ongoing planet hunting process, and also help us better understand our own Solar System's formation.
December 3, 2015 Read more
Earth-sized telescope finds clue to black hole growth
For the first time, astronomers have detected evidence of magnetic fields near Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, taking the study of black hole growth from theoretical expectation to empirical fact.
December 3, 2015 Read more
Twin civilisations? How life on an exoplanet could spread to its neighbor (w/video)
Imagine two nearby exoplanets orbiting the same sun, each with its own indigenous civilisation. They're going through history either as companionable neighbours or deadly rivals. This is a familiar situation in science fiction, but could it ever happen?
December 2, 2015 Read more
Fermi-type acceleration of interstellar ions driven by high-energy lepton plasma flows
Stochastic acceleration and shock acceleration are well recognized as key mechanisms for cosmic ray generation since first proposed by Fermi. So far, these two mechanisms have been investigated widely by analytical models and numerical simulations, but often modeled separately. Researchers have found that the two mechanisms can occur naturally in sequential two stages when a lepton flow propagates in a background interstellar plasma.
December 2, 2015 Read more
Exiled exoplanet likely kicked out of star's neighborhood
A planet discovered last year sitting at an unusually large distance from its star - 16 times farther than Pluto is from the sun - may have been kicked out of its birthplace close to the star in a process similar to what may have happened early in our own solar system's history.
December 1, 2015 Read more
Unveiling the turbulent times of a dying star (w/video)
New work sheds light on an explosive chain reaction that creates jets and, over time, helps create the structure of the universe as we know it.
November 30, 2015 Read more
Scientists get first glimpse of black hole eating star, ejecting high-speed flare
An international team of astrophysicists has for the first time witnessed a star being swallowed by a black hole and ejecting a flare of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.
November 26, 2015 Read more
Aging star's weight loss secret revealed
VY Canis Majoris is a stellar goliath, a red hypergiant, one of the largest known stars in the Milky Way. It is 30-40 times the mass of the Sun and 300 000 times more luminous. In its current state, the star would encompass the orbit of Jupiter, having expanded tremendously as it enters the final stages of its life.
November 25, 2015 Read more
The hottest white dwarf in the Galaxy
Astronomers have identified the hottest white dwarf ever discovered in our Galaxy. With a temperature of 250,000 degrees Celsius, this dying star at the outskirts of the Milky Way has already even entered its cooling phase.
November 24, 2015 Read more
New detector perfect for asteroid mining, planetary research
A team of scientists has proposed a new type of gamma-ray spectroscope that has ideal properties for planetary exploration and asteroid mining.
November 20, 2015 Read more
How a star turns inside out
Simulations of a supernova suggest that density variations inside a star help propel heavy elements from its core.
November 20, 2015 Read more