Astrophysics News

May 1, 2024

Top Headlines

Webb Captures Top of Iconic Horsehead Nebula in Unprecedented Detail

Apr. 30, 2024 — NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show the top of the 'horse's mane' or edge of ...

NASA's Webb Maps Weather on Planet 280 Light-Years Away

Apr. 30, 2024 — Researchers have successfully used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to map the weather on the hot gas-giant exoplanet WASP-43 ...

Gemini South Reveals Origin of Unexpected Differences in Giant Binary Stars

Apr. 29, 2024 — Astronomers have confirmed that differences in binary stars' composition can originate from chemical variations in the cloud of stellar material from which they formed. The results help explain why stars born from the same molecular cloud can ...

Researchers Advance Detection of Gravitational Waves to Study Collisions of Neutron Stars and Black Holes

Apr. 26, 2024 — Researchers co-led a study that will improve the detection of gravitational waves--ripples in space and ...

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Toward Unification of Turbulence Framework -- Weak-to-Strong Transition Discovered in Turbulence

Apr. 23, 2024 — Astrophysicists have made a significant step toward solving the last puzzle in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence theory by observing the weak to strong ...

Eruption of Mega-Magnetic Star Lights Up Nearby Galaxy

Apr. 24, 2024 — While ESA's satellite INTEGRAL was observing the sky, it spotted a burst of gamma-rays -- high-energy photons -- coming from the nearby galaxy M82. Only a few hours later, ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray ...

Giant Galactic Explosion Exposes Galaxy Pollution in Action

Apr. 22, 2024 — Astronomers have produced the first high-resolution map of a massive explosion in a nearby galaxy, providing important clues on how the space between galaxies is polluted with chemical ...

AI and Physics Combine to Reveal the 3D Structure of a Flare Erupting Around a Black Hole

Apr. 22, 2024 — Based on radio telescope data and models of black hole physics, a team has used neural networks to reconstruct a 3D image that shows how explosive ...

Physicists Solve Puzzle About Ancient Galaxy Found by Webb Telescope

Apr. 12, 2024 — Physicists solve a puzzle linked to JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy that formed when the universe was just a quarter of its current ...

No Gamma Rays Seen Coming from Nearby Supernova

Apr. 16, 2024 — A nearby supernova in 2023 offered astrophysicists an excellent opportunity to test ideas about how these types of explosions boost particles, called cosmic rays, to near light-speed. But ...

Most Massive Stellar Black Hole in Our Galaxy Found

Apr. 16, 2024 — Astronomers have identified the most massive stellar black hole yet discovered in the Milky Way galaxy. This black hole was spotted in data from the European Space Agency's Gaia mission because it ...

Physicists Solve Puzzle About Ancient Galaxy Found by Webb Telescope

Apr. 15, 2024 — Physicists solve a puzzle linked to JWST-ER1g, a massive ancient galaxy that formed when the universe was just a quarter of its current ...

Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst of All Time Came from the Collapse of a Massive Star

Apr. 12, 2024 — In 2022, astronomers discovered the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) of all time. Now, astronomers confirm that a 'normal' supernova, the telltale ...

Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time

Apr. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the ...

Exoplanets True to Size

Apr. 12, 2024 — A star's magnetic field must be considered in order to correctly determine the characteristics of exoplanets from observations by space telescopes such as Kepler, James Webb, or PLATO. ...

Beautiful Nebula, Violent History: Clash of Stars Solves Stellar Mystery

Apr. 11, 2024 — When astronomers looked at a stellar pair at the heart of a stunning cloud of gas and dust, they were in for a surprise. Star pairs are typically very similar, like twins, but in HD 148937, one star ...

Twinkle Twinkle Baby Star, 'Sneezes' Tell Us How You Are

Apr. 11, 2024 — Researchers have found that baby stars discharge plumes of gas, dust, and magnetic flux from their protostellar disk. The protostellar disk that surrounds developing stars are constantly penetrated ...

Telescope Detects Unprecedented Behavior from Nearby Magnetar

Apr. 8, 2024 — Captured by cutting-edge radio telescope technology, a chance reactivation of a magnetar -- the Universe's most powerful magnets -- has revealed an unexpectedly complex ...

Inexplicable Flying Fox Found in Hydra Galaxy Cluster

Apr. 8, 2024 — High sensitivity radio observations have discovered a cloud of magnetized plasma in the Hydra galaxy cluster. The odd location and shape of this plasma defy all conventional explanations. Dubbed the ...

Chemical Reactions Can Scramble Quantum Information as Well as Black Holes

Apr. 5, 2024 — A team of researchers has shown that molecules can be as formidable at scrambling quantum information as black holes by combining mathematical tools from black hole physics and chemical physics and ...

Neutron Stars Are Key to Understanding Elusive Dark Matter

Apr. 5, 2024 — Scientists may be one step closer to unlocking one of the great mysteries of the universe after calculating that neutron stars might hold a key to helping us understand elusive dark ...

Stellar Collisions Produce Strange, Zombie-Like Survivors

Apr. 4, 2024 — Densely packed, fast-moving stars at the Milky Way's center can collide with each other. New research uses simulations to explore the outcomes of these collisions. Some collisions are more like ...

First Results from DESI Make the Most Precise Measurement of Our Expanding Universe

Apr. 4, 2024 — Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy, the mysterious cause of its accelerating ...

NASA's Webb Probes an Extreme Starburst Galaxy

Apr. 3, 2024 — A team of astronomers has used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to survey the starburst galaxy Messier 82 (M82). Located 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, this galaxy ...

First Results from BREAD Experiment Demonstrate a New Approach to Searching for Dark Matter

Apr. 2, 2024 — One of the great mysteries of modern science is dark matter. We know dark matter exists thanks to its effects on other objects in the cosmos, but we have never been able to directly see it. And it s ...

Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets

Mar. 28, 2024 — New research has discovered a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite that was formed by a star other than our ...

ALMA Finds New Molecular Signposts in Starburst Galaxy

Mar. 28, 2024 — The ALMA radio telescope has detected more than 100 molecular species, including many indicative of different star formation and evolution processes, in a galaxy where stars are forming much more ...

Astronomers Conduct First Search for Forming Planets With New Space Telescope

Mar. 27, 2024 — Planets form in disks of dust and gas called protoplanetary disks that whirl around a central protostar during its final ...

Persistent Hiccups in a Far-Off Galaxy Draw Astronomers to New Black Hole Behavior

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have found that a previously quiet black hole, which sits at the center of a galaxy about 800 million light years away, has suddenly erupted, giving off plumes of gas every 8.5 days ...

Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way's Central Black Hole

Mar. 27, 2024 — A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). ...

'Cosmic Cannibals' Expel Jets Into Space at 40 Percent the Speed of Light

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have measured the speed of fast-moving jets in space, crucial to star formation and the distribution of elements needed for life. The jets of matter, expelled by stars deemed 'cosmic ...

Sleeping Supermassive Black Holes Awakened Briefly by Shredded Stars

Mar. 26, 2024 — Astronomers have concluded that an obscure class of galaxies known as Compact Symmetric Objects, or CSOs, are not young as previously thought but rather lead relatively short ...

Tiniest 'Starquake' Ever Detected

Mar. 26, 2024 — An orange dwarf star has yielded the tiniest 'starquakes' ever recorded, measured by an international team of ...

Scientists on the Hunt for Evidence of Quantum Gravity's Existence at the South Pole

Mar. 26, 2024 — An Antarctic large-scale experiment is striving to find out if gravity also exists at the quantum level. An extraordinary particle able to travel undisturbed through space seems to hold the ...