Heaviest neutron star to date is a ‘black widow’ eating its mate
A spinning neutron star periodically swings its radio (green) and gamma-ray (magenta) beams past Earth in this artist’s concept of a black widow pulsar. The neutron star/pulsar heats…
Hawaiʻi telescopes help uncover origins of castaway gamma-ray bursts
This image captured by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawaiʻi reveals the previously unrecognized galactic home of the gamma-ray burst identified as GRB 151229A. Astronomers calculate…
Chinese astronomers detect over 100 new open clusters
Distribution of the OC population in Galactic coordinates. The black points represent the reported OCs found in this study, and the red squares represent the OCs newly identified…
New measurements of galaxy rotation lean toward modified gravity as an explanation for dark matter
Credit: ESA Although dark matter is a central part of the standard cosmological model, it’s not without its issues. There continue to be nagging mysteries about the stuff,…
South Korea’s lunar orbiter sends photos of Earth, Moon
South Korea’s first-ever lunar orbiter Danuri has sent black-and-white images of Earth and the lunar surface, including this photo taken on December 31, 2022. South Korea’s first-ever lunar…
Serpent in the sky captured with ESO telescope
This image of the spectacular Sh2-54 nebula was taken in infrared light using ESO’s VISTA telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. The clouds of dust and gas that…
Are black holes time machines? Yes, but there’s a catch
Credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center / Jeremy Schnittman Black holes form natural time machines that allow travel to both the past and the future. But don’t…
Astronomers use ‘little hurricanes’ to weigh and date planets around young stars
ALMA image of the protoplanetary disc around HL Tauri. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) Little ‘hurricanes’ that form in the disks of gas and dust around young stars can be used…
James Webb telescope reveals Milky Way–like galaxies in young universe
The power of JWST to map galaxies at high resolution and at longer infrared wavelengths than Hubble allows it look through dust and unveil the underlying structure and…
SDSS J222551.65+001637.7AB is a white dwarf–brown dwarf binary system, observations find
GNIRS H-band acquisition image of SDSS J222551.65+001637.7AB showing the resolved white dwarf and brown dwarf components of the binary. Credit: French et al, 2022 Using the Gemini North…
Record-breaking detection of radio signal from atomic hydrogen in extremely distant galaxy
Illustration showing detection of the lensed 21 cm atomic hydrogen emission signal from a distant galaxy. Credit: Swadha Pardesi Astronomers from McGill University in Canada and the Indian…
Study finds active galactic nuclei are even more powerful than thought
An artist’s impression of what the dust around an active galactic nucleus might look like seen from a light year away. Credit: Peter Z. Harrington Powered by supermassive…