Space and astronomy news
A new study has shown that in order to grow more than one giant planet in the same solar system, the planets must go through a complicated and intricate dance to prevent one from destroying the other.
Continue reading “How Growing Giant Planets Fight for Food”
The large scale structure of the universe is dominated by vast empty regions known as cosmic voids. These voids appear as holes hundreds of millions of light years across in the distribution of galaxies. However, new research shows that many of them may surprisingly still be filled with dark matter.
Continue reading “The Voids Closest to Us May Not be Entirely Empty”
For years cosmologists had thought that a strange feature appearing in the microwave sky, known as the CMB cold spot, was due to the light passing through a giant supervoid. But new research casts that conclusion into doubt.
Continue reading “Perhaps a Supervoid Doesn’t Explain the Mysterious CMB Cold Spot”
The nearest known exoplanet to Earth, the planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, experiences some pretty nasty space weather from its parent star. But previous work on the space weather of Proxima relied on a lot of assumptions. The bad news is that new research has confirmed the grim picture.
Continue reading “Life on Proxima b Is Not Having a Good Time”
We have it relatively easy on the Earth. Our Sun is relatively calm. The space weather environment in the solar system is altogether placid. Things are nice. But new research has shown that we may be the exception rather than the rule, and that many exoplanets face much harsher conditions than we do.
Continue reading “Most Exoplanets Suffer Worse Space Weather Than We Do”
Star clusters tend to host more hot Jupiters than average, but why? A team of astronomers have proposed a new solution, and it involves a lot of swapping of stellar neighbors.
Continue reading “Trading Spaces: How Swapping Stars Create Hot Jupiters”
Gamma-ray bursts come in two main flavors, short and long. While astronomers believe that they understand what causes these two kinds of bursts, there is still significant overlap between them. A team of researchers have proposed a new way to classify gamma-ray bursts using the aid of machine learning algorithms. This new classification scheme will help astronomers better understand these enigmatic explosions.
Continue reading “How Artificial Intelligence Can Find the Source of Gamma-Ray Bursts”
Something huge lurks in the shadows of the Universe. Known as the Great Attractor, it is causing the Milky Way and all the surrounding galaxies to rush towards it. We would normally have a better understanding of this situation, except for the fact that the Great Attractor happens to lie in the direction behind the galactic bulge, which makes it difficult for us to observe. A team of astronomers have performed a new infrared survey of the region behind the bulge, and they have found yet another large galaxy cluster. Their work is helping to paint a more complete portrait of the environment of the Great Attractor.
Continue reading “Chipping Away at the Great Attractor Mystery. Another Galaxy Cluster Found Behind the Milky Way’s Disk”
Creating astronomical images is no easy task, and astronomers with the European Southern Observatory have provided a handy guide to show you how astronomy goes from raw data to an image that you can splash on your desktop.
Continue reading “Check Out the Journey From Raw Data to Beautiful Image”