The destruction of a star by a black hole, seen by astronomers for the first time.
The destruction of a star by a black hole, seen by astronomers for the first time.
Tag: astronomy
Another breathtaking Hubble image of the Egg Nebula.
Another new breathtaking Hubble image of the Egg Nebula.
The image combines data taken in both optical and infrared wavelengths.
Three new Earthlike exoplanets, orbiting M dwarf stars in the habitable zone, have been identified by astronomers using Kepler data.
Three new Earthlike exoplanets, orbiting M dwarf stars in the habitable zone, have been identified by astronomers using Kepler data.
New data suggests that the giant ancient asteroid barrage during the early solar system may have lasted much longer than previously thought.
Duck! New data suggests that the giant ancient asteroid barrage during the early solar system may have lasted much longer than previously thought.
More problems for Dark Matter
A new study by astronomers has found a vast structure of satellite galaxies and star clusters aligned perpendicular to the Milky Way and extending outward above and below the galaxy’s nucleus by as much as a million light years.
In their effort to understand exactly what surrounds our Galaxy, the scientists used a range of sources from twentieth century photographic plates to images from the robotic telescope of the Sloan Deep Sky Survey. Using all these data they assembled a picture that includes bright ‘classical’ satellite galaxies, more recently detected fainter satellites and the younger globular clusters.
“Once we had completed our analysis, a new picture of our cosmic neighbourhood emerged”, says Pawlowski. The astronomers found that all the different objects are distributed in a plane at right angles to the galactic disk. The newly-discovered structure is huge, extending from as close as 33,000 light years to as far away as one million light years from the centre of the Galaxy.
An animation illustrating this galactic distribution is posted below the fold. You can read the actual preprint paper here.
The problem with this polar alignment with the Milky Way’s core is that the theories for explaining the distribution of dark matter do not predict it.
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Scientists studying Cassini images have spotted the trails of objects as they punch through one of Saturn’s rings.
Scientists studying Cassini images have spotted the trails of objects as they punch through one of Saturn’s rings.
New data from a neutrino telescope in Antarctica had found that cosmic rays don’t come from gamma ray bursts, as had been believed by astronomers.
The uncertainty of science: New data from a neutrino telescope in Antarctica has found that cosmic rays don’t come from gamma ray bursts, as had been believed by astronomers. You can read the paper here. [pdf]
Which means that astronomers at this moment have no idea what produces these high energy cosmic rays.
Dark matter disappears
The uncertainty of science: A new study has found no evidence of dark matter within 13,000 light years of the Sun, something that had not been expected.
According to widely accepted theories, the solar neighborhood was expected to be filled with dark matter, a mysterious invisible substance that can only be detected indirectly by the gravitational force it exerts. But a new study by a team of astronomers in Chile has found that these theories just do not fit the observational facts. This may mean that attempts to directly detect dark matter particles on Earth are unlikely to be successful.
These findings will be as controversial as the now abandoned faster-than-light neutrino results last fall. Here, however, the new data is likely going to be more robust, which will cause the entire astrophysical community some real conniptions.
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The ring and planets of Formalhaut
New observations from the new ground-based submillimeter ALMA telescope in Chile have given astronomers a clearer picture of the ring/disk of debris orbiting the nearby star Formalhaut. Moreover, the data suggests that two planets that are shepherding that ring are smaller than previously thought, no larger than a few times the size of the Earth.
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Astronomers have identified two of the oldest known stars, about 12 billion years old, both only a hundred light years away.
Astronomers have identified two of the oldest known stars, about 12 billion years old, both only a hundred light years away.
What is intriguing about this discovery is that these two white dwarfs had to have formed very soon after the Big Bang, long before the Milky Way galaxy existed as we know it today. How they ended up here is an interesting puzzle.
Is that an elephant on Mars?
The Giant Magellan Telescope project has decided it will not participate in a funding competition offered by the National Science Foundation.
The 24.5 meter Giant Magellan Telescope project (GMT) has decided it is not interested in competing for funds offered by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
With just US$1.25 million available to the winner, the NSF competition was less about money and more about prestige. The NSF has been adamant that it has no significant money to support either project until the early part of next decade. But the Thirty Meter Telescope, which will still respond to the NSF’s solicitation, believed that a competition would at least demonstrate the NSF’s intention to eventually support one project — and that the winner would have an easier time attracting international partners.
But the GMT says it can go it alone, at least for now. On 23 March, the group began blasting at its mountaintop site in Chile. And they say they are nearly halfway towards raising the $700 million they need to complete construction.
If the GMT has already raised almost $350 million without NSF support, it makes perfect sense for them to thumb their noses at this piddling funding from the NSF, especially since the bureaucratic cost of getting that money will probably be far more than $1.25 million.