astrophysics
Planck “Star” to Arise From Black Holes?
A new paper has been posted on the arxiv (a repository of research preprints) introducing the idea of a Planck star…
Enduring Quests and Daring Visions: NASA Lays Out a Roadmap for Astrophysics
Three decades ago we were unaware that exoplanets circled other stars. We had just started talking about dark matter but…
Dark Matter Makes a Comeback
[/caption] Recent reports of dark matter's demise may be greatly exaggerated, according to a new paper from researchers at the…
Finding Out What Dark Matter Is – And Isn’t
Astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope have been looking for evidence of suspected types of dark matter particles within…
Journal Club – Black Holes Made All The Difference
[/caption] According to Wikipedia, a journal club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles…
Chandra Spots a Black Hole’s High-Speed Hurricane
[/caption] Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have reported record-breaking wind speeds coming from a stellar-mass black hole. The "wind", a high-speed…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Strange Stars
[/caption] Atoms are made of protons, neutrons and electrons. If you cram them together and heat them up you get…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Brown Dwarfs Are Magnetic Too
[/caption] I feel a certain empathy for brown dwarfs. The first confirmed finding of one was only fifteen years ago…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Stellar Quakes and Glitches
The upper crust of a neutron star is thought to be composed of crystallized iron, may have centimeter high mountains…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Making Sense Of The Neutron Zoo
The spectacular gravity of neutron stars offers great opportunities for thought experiments. For example, if you dropped an object from…