Universe Today

December 20, 2024December 20, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Star Devouring Black Hole Spotted by Astronomers

Recreation of a burst, identified as CSS161010, in which a small black hole swallows a star. Credits: Gabriel Pérez (IAC)

A team of astronomers have detected a surprisingly fast and bright burst of energy from a galaxy 500 million light years away. The burst of radiation peaked in brightness just after 4 day and then faded quickly. The team identified the burst, which was using the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey with supporting observations from the Gran Telescopio Canarias, as the result of a small black hole consuming a star. The discovery provides an exciting insight into stellar evolution and a rare cosmic phenomenon.

December 19, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

What Makes Brown Dwarfs So Weird?

This artist concept portrays the brown dwarf W1935. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

Meet the brown dwarf: bigger than a planet, and smaller than a star. A category of its own, it’s one of the strangest objects in the universe.

December 19, 2024December 19, 2024 by Evan Gough

Archaeology On Mars: Preserving Artifacts of Our Expansion Into the Solar System

There's something wistful about this image, one of the InSIGHT missions final ones before it succumbed to Mars' dust storms. One anthropologist points out that this is now a historical artifact worthy of preservation, as are other spacecraft and equipment on Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In 1971, the Soviet Mars 3 lander became the first spacecraft to land on Mars, though it only lasted a couple of minutes before failing. More than 50 years later, it’s still there at Terra Sirenum. The HiRISE camera NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have imaged some of its hardware, inadvertently taking part in what could be an effort to document our Martian artifacts.

Is it time to start cataloguing and even preserving these artifacts so we can preserve our history?

Some anthropologists think so.

December 19, 2024December 19, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Building the Black Hole Family Tree

Illustration of how black hole mergers might reveal their ancestors. Credit: Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías, IGFAE

In 2019, astronomers observed an unusual gravitational chirp. Known as GW190521, it was the last scream of gravitational waves as a black hole of 66 solar masses merged with a black hole of 85 solar masses to become a 142 solar mass black hole. The data were consistent with all the other black hole mergers we’ve observed. There was just one problem: an 85 solar mass black hole shouldn’t exist.

December 19, 2024December 19, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Need to Accurately Measure Time in Space? Use a COMPASSO

Telling time in space is difficult, but it is absolutely critical for applications ranging from testing relativity to navigating down the road. Atomic clocks, such as those used on the Global Navigation Satellite System network, are accurate, but only up to a point. Moving to even more precise navigation tools would require even more accurate clocks. There are several solutions at various stages of technical development, and one from Germany’s DLR, COMPASSO, plans to prove quantum optical clocks in space as a potential successor.

December 19, 2024December 19, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

A Binary Star Found Surprisingly Close to the Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole

The newly discovered binary star D9, which is orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Credit: ESO/F. Peißker et al., S. Guisard

Binary stars are common throughout the galaxy. Roughly half the stars in the Milky Way are part of a binary or multiple system, so we would expect to find them almost everywhere. However, one place we wouldn’t expect to find a binary is at the center of the galaxy, close to the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*. And yet, that is precisely where astronomers have recently found one.

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Matt Williams

New Research Suggests Io Doesn’t Have a Shallow Ocean of Magma

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft captured this image of a volcanic eruption on Io in 1997. Image Credit:NASA, NASA-JPL, DLR

Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System, with roughly 400 active volcanoes regularly ejecting magma into space. This activity arises from Io’s eccentric orbit around Jupiter, which produces incredibly powerful tidal interactions in the interior. In addition to powering Io’s volcanism, this tidal energy is believed to support a global subsurface magma ocean. However, the extent and depth of this ocean remains the subject of debate, with some supporting the idea of a shallow magma ocean while others believe Io has a more rigid, mostly solid interior.

In a recent NASA-supported study, an international team of researchers combined data from multiple missions to measure Io’s tidal deformation. According to their findings, Io does not possess a magma ocean and likely has a mostly solid mantle. Their findings further suggest that tidal forces do not necessarily lead to global magma oceans on moons or planetary bodies. This could have implications for the study of exoplanets that experience tidal heating, including Super-Earths and exomoons similar to Io that orbit massive gas giants.

December 18, 2024December 17, 2024 by Paul M. Sutter

The Mysterious Case of the Resurrected Star

The star HD 65907 is not what it appears to be. It’s a star that looks young, but on closer inspection is actually much, much older. What’s going on? Research suggests that it is a resurrected star.

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

The JWST Looked Over the Hubble’s Shoulder and Confirmed that the Universe is Expanding Faster

These 36 galaxies all contain Type 1a supernovae and Cepheid variables. They serve as standard distance markers used to measure how fast the Universe is expanding. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Adam G. Riess (STScI, JHU)

It’s axiomatic that the Universe is expanding. However, the rate of expansion hasn’t remained the same. It appears that the Universe is expanding more quickly now than it did in the past.

Astronomers have struggled to understand this and have wondered if the apparent acceleration is due to instrument errors. The JWST has put that question to rest.

December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Astronaut Don Pettit is Serious, He Rigged up Astrophotography Gear on the ISS

A view of the Magellanic Clouds as seen from the International Space Station. Credit: Don Pettit

Astrophotography is a challenging art. Beyond the usual skill set of understanding things such as light exposure, color balance, and the quirks of your kit, there is the fact that stars are faint and they move.