New X-ray source in nearby galaxy Centaurus A spawns mystery Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers studying a nearby galaxy have spied a rare type of star system -- one that contains a black hole that suddenly began glowing brightly with X-rays.
Though this type of star system is supposed to be rare, it's the second such system discovered in that galaxy, called Centaurus A.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 264 [+].
Black Hole Rips Apart Screaming Star Posted: 4 months ago by AutumnLotus
In a distant galaxy, a star orbiting a massive central black hole strays too close to the insatiable giant and is torn apart. But before it can be devoured, the star lets out one last scream in a flare of light that slowly echoes across the galaxy. Astronomers on Earth pick up this faint call and use it to map the nucleus of the galaxy from which it emanated.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 286 [+].
Jet Power and Black Hole Assortment Revealed in New Chandra Image Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
A dramatic new Chandra image of the nearby galaxy Centaurus A provides one of the best views to date of the effects of an active supermassive black hole. Opposing jets of high-energy particles can be seen extending to the outer reaches of the galaxy, and numerous smaller black holes in binary star systems are also visible.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 215 [+].
An Oxygen Factory in a Nearby Galaxy Posted: 6 months ago by AutumnLotus
This Chandra X-ray Observatory image shows the debris of a massive star explosion in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy about 160,000 light years from Earth. The supernova remnant (SNR) shown here, N132D, is the brightest in the Magellanic clouds, and belongs to a rare class of oxygen-rich remnants. Most of the oxygen that we breathe on Earth is thought to have come from explosions similar to this one.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 182 [+].
Galaxy portrait reveals a blaze of newborn stars Posted: 6 months ago by AutumnLotus
Newborn stars shine like celestial sparklers in a new portrait of the nearby Triangulum Galaxy – the most detailed ultraviolet image of a galaxy ever taken. Astronomers will use the image, taken by NASA's Swift telescope, to create an "age map" of the galaxy's components to understand how galaxies evolve over time.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 272 [+].
New View of Distant Galaxy Reveals Furious Star Formation Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
A furious rate of star formation discovered in a distant galaxy shows that galaxies in the early universe developed either much faster or in a different way from what astronomers have thought. The galaxy is forming the equivalent of 4,000 Suns a year. This is a thousand times more violent than our own Milky Way galaxy.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 200 [+].
Huge Black Hole Catapulted Through Space Posted: 4 months ago by AutumnLotus
A colossal black hole has been spotted exiting its home galaxy, kicked out after a huge cosmic merger took place.
The event, seen for the first time, was announced today.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 461 [+].
Flies In A Spider's Web: Galaxy Caught In The Making Posted: 2 years ago by 2manyusernames
The Hubble Space Telescope has found a large galaxy 10.6 billion light-years away from Earth that is stuffing itself with smaller galaxies caught like flies in a web of gravity. The galaxy is so far away that astronomers are seeing it as it looked in the early formative years of the Universe, only 2 billion years after the Big Bang.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 29 [+].
Why Is The Hercules Dwarf Galaxy So Flat? Posted: 11 months ago by AutumnLotus
Through some of the very first scientific observations with the brand-new Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona, astronomers has found that a recently discovered tiny companion galaxy to our Milky Way, named the Hercules Dwarf Galaxy, has truly exceptional properties: while basically all of its known peers in the realm of these tiny dwarf galaxies are rather round, this galaxy at a distance of 430,000 Light Years appears highly flattened, either the shape of a disk or of a cigar.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 148 [+].
Astronomers puzzled by cosmic black hole Posted: 1 year ago by 2manyusernames
Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this new discovery dwarfs them all.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 253 [+].
'Olympian Galaxy' Near Andromeda Gives Clues To How Galaxies Form Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
A newly discovered dwarf galaxy in the Local Group has been found to have formed in a region of space far from our own and is falling into our system for the first time in its history.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 91 [+].
Galaxy blasts neighbor with deadly jet Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
For the first time astronomers have witnessed a super massive black hole blasting its galactic neighbor with a deadly beam of energy. The "death star galaxy," as NASA astronomers called it, could obliterate the atmospheres of planets but also trigger the birth of stars in its wake of its destructive beam. See animation & hi-res pictures here.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 190 [+].
Milky Way's black hole probed closer than ever before Posted: 8 months ago by AutumnLotus
We are close to seeing the true blackness of a black hole. Astronomers have detected radio emission coming from within 30 million kilometres of the dark object, thought to be a colossal black hole, that lies at the centre of the galaxy. Includes video.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 231 [+].
Monster Black Hole Busts Theory Posted: 11 months ago by AutumnLotus
A stellar black hole much more massive than theory predicts is possible has astronomers puzzled. The newly weighed black hole is 16 solar masses. It orbits a companion star in the spiral galaxy Messier 33, located 2.7 million light-years from Earth. Together they make up the system known as M33 X-7.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 224 [+].
US astronomers spot massive, record-setting stellar-mass black hole Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
US astronomers have discovered the biggest black hole orbiting a star 1.8 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia, with a record-setting mass of 24 to 33 times that of our Sun. The massive newcomer beats the previous stellar-mass black hole discovered October 17 in the M33 galaxy that has 16 times the mass of our Sun.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 161 [+].
Study confirms supermassive black holes produce powerful galaxy-shaping winds Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
Supermassive black holes can produce powerful winds that shape a galaxy and determine their own growth. The RIT team has, for the first time, observed the vertical launch of rotating winds from glowing disks of gas, known as accretion disks, surrounding supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 223 [+].
Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe Posted: 2 months ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 375 [+].
Galaxy sports vast comet-like tail Posted: 11 months ago by AutumnLotus
Orphaned stars are being born in a vast tail of material stretching behind a faraway galaxy. The finding is evidence that orphaned stars — those not orbiting the center of a galaxy in normal fashion — are much more common than thought.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 193 [+].
Exploding star in NGC 2397 Posted: 5 months ago by AutumnLotus
The latest image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a sharp view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2397. This image also shows a rare Hubble view of the early stages of a supernova - SN 2006bc, discovered in March 2006.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 299 [+].
Rogue Stars: The Miscreants of Our Galaxy Posted: 7 months ago by AutumnLotus
A young star speeding away from the Milky Way is in fact an alien visitor, astronomers have confirmed. The wayward object is one of several rogues that are giving astronomers a glimpse into the volatile nature of our galaxy and others.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 283 [+].
Satellites unveil new type of active galaxy Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
An international team of astronomers using NASA's Swift satellite and the Japanese/U.S. Suzaku X-ray observatory has discovered a new class of active galactic nuclei (AGN).
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 66 [+].