Space and astronomy news
The JWST has found an exoplanet unlike any other. This unique world has an atmosphere almost entirely composed of water vapour. Astronomers have theorized about these types of planets, but this is the first observational confirmation.
Continue reading “Webb Reveals a Steam World Planet Orbiting a Red Dwarf”
Astronomers have solid evidence for the existence of stellar-mass black holes and supermassive black holes. However, evidence for Intermediate Black Holes (IMBHs) is more elusive. Their existence remains hypothetical.
However, study by study, evidence is accumulating for IMBHs. The latest comes from the globular cluster M15, where a fast-moving star suggests the presence of something massive. Could it be an elusive IMBH?
Continue reading “A Star Was Kicked Out of a Globular Cluster by an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole”
It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have the same metallicity. That fact underpins some avenues of astronomical research, like the search for the Sun’s siblings. But for some binary stars, it’s not always true. Their composition can be different despite forming from the same reservoir of material, and the difference extends to their planetary systems.
New research shows that the differences can be traced back to their earliest stages of formation.
Continue reading “Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.”
When the first stars in the Universe formed, the only material available was primordial hydrogen and helium from the Big Bang. Astronomers call these original stars Population Three stars, and they were extremely massive, luminous, and hot stars. They’re gone now, and in fact, their existence is hypothetical.
But if they did exist, they should’ve left their fingerprints on nearby gas, and astrophysicists are looking for it.
Continue reading “Astronomers Think They’ve Found Examples of the First Stars in the Universe”
Astronomers have found the largest stellar mass black hole in the Milky Way so far. At 33 solar masses, it dwarfs the previous record-holder, Cygnus X-1, which has only 21 solar masses. Most stellar mass black holes have about 10 solar masses, making the new one—Gaia BH3—a true giant.
Continue reading “The Milky Way’s Most Massive Stellar Black Hole is Only 2,000 Light Years Away”
After a journey lasting about two billion years, photons from an extremely energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) struck the sensors on the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope on October 9th, 2022. The GRB lasted seven minutes but was visible for much longer. Even amateur astronomers spotted the powerful burst in visible frequencies.
It was so powerful that it affected Earth’s atmosphere, a remarkable feat for something more than two billion light-years away. It’s the brightest GRB ever observed, and since then, astrophysicists have searched for its source.
Continue reading “The Brightest Gamma Ray Burst Ever Seen Came from a Collapsing Star”
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the Milky Way’s most massive satellite galaxy. Because it’s so easily observed, astronomers have studied it intently. They’re interested in how star formation in the LMC might have been different than in the Milky Way.
A team of researchers zeroed in on the LMC’s most metal-deficient stars to find out how different.
Continue reading “The Large Magellanic Cloud isn’t Very Metal”
That stars can eat planets is axiomatic. If a small enough planet gets too close to a large enough star, the planet loses. Its fate is sealed.
New research examines how many stars eat planets. Their conclusion? One in twelve stars has consumed at least one planet.
Continue reading “One in Twelve Stars Ate a Planet”
Globular clusters (GCs) are spherical groups of stars held together by mutual gravity. Large ones can have millions of stars, and the stars tend to be older and have lower metallicity. The Milky Way contains more than 200 globulars, possibly many more, and most of them are in the galaxy’s halo, the outer reaches of the galaxy.
But they’re not all in the halo, and astronomers are keen to find ones nearest the galactic centre. Now, researchers have found one GC that’s plunging toward the Milky Way’s Centre.
Continue reading “This Globular Cluster is Plunging Toward the Milky Way’s Centre”
The Universe’s very first stars had an important job. They formed from the primordial elements created by the Big Bang, so they contained no metals. It was up to them to synthesize the first metals and spread them out into the nearby Universe.
The JWST has made some progress in finding the Universe’s earliest galaxies. Can it have the same success when searching for the first stars?
Continue reading “Can Webb Find the First Stars in the Universe?”