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ESA's Gaia provides many new and improved insights into our galaxy and beyond with the release of five new data products. Among other findings, the mission reveals half a million new and faint stars in a massive cluster.
Oct 10th, 2023
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The citizen science project GALAXY CRUISE has yielded its first scientific paper. The results show unambiguously that the star formation rate is enhanced in colliding galaxies.
Oct 10th, 2023
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The central question in the ongoing hunt for dark matter is: what is it made of? One possible answer is that dark matter consists of particles known as axions. A team of astrophysicists has now shown that if dark matter consists of axions, it may reveal itself in the form of a subtle additional glow coming from pulsating stars.
Oct 6th, 2023
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Scientists succeeded in capturing the conditions on the eve of planet formation, as the disk was smooth with no signature of planets. They also found that the dust had grown significantly in the outer part of the disk and that the dust concentration was higher than normal in the inner part of the disk.
Oct 6th, 2023
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A pair of theoretical physicists are reporting that the same observations inspiring the hunt for a ninth planet might instead be evidence within the solar system of a modified law of gravity originally developed to understand the rotation of galaxies.
Oct 5th, 2023
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Scientists have detected the highest energy gamma rays ever from a dead star called a pulsar. The energy of these gamma rays clocked in at 20 tera-electronvolts, or about ten trillion times the energy of visible light. This observation is hard to reconcile with the theory of the production of such pulsed gamma rays.
Oct 5th, 2023
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Intense flashes of light, not mass, resolve the puzzle of impossible brightness.
Oct 3rd, 2023
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The supermassive black hole at the heart of galaxy M87, made famous by the first picture of a black hole shadow, has yielded another first: the jet shooting out from the black hole has been confirmed to wobble, providing direct proof that the black hole is spinning.
Sep 27th, 2023
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A newly discovered nearby supernova whose star ejected up to a full solar mass of material in the year prior to its explosion is challenging the standard theory of stellar evolution. The new observations are giving astronomers insight into what happens in the final year prior to a star's death and explosion.
Sep 27th, 2023
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Astronomers have found a striking link between the amount of dust surrounding a supermassive black hole and the strength of the radio emission produced in extremely bright galaxies.
Sep 25th, 2023
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Astronomers have made important progress in understanding the intriguing TRAPPIST-1 exoplanetary system, which was first discovered in 2016 amid speculation it could someday provide a place for humans to live.
Sep 25th, 2023
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Astronomers have identified carbon dioxide in a specific region on the icy surface of Europa. Analysis indicates that this carbon likely originated in the subsurface ocean and was not delivered by meteorites or other external sources.
Sep 22nd, 2023
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Early galaxies followed a formation 'rulebook', according to researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope, but this cosmic rulebook appears to have been dramatically rewritten during the universe's infancy.
Sep 22nd, 2023
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The first use of a novel method of analyzing Mars' gravitational force supports the idea that the planet once had an extensive northern ocean.
Sep 20th, 2023
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A new study is changing the way astrophysicists understand the eating habits of supermassive black holes. While previous researchers have hypothesized that black holes eat slowly, new simulations indicate that black holes scarf food much faster than conventional understanding suggests.
Sep 20th, 2023
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Moon's permanently shadowed regions are younger than previously estimated.
Sep 18th, 2023
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New research shows that the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy can have a direct impact on the chemical distribution of the host galaxy. This provides another piece of the puzzle for understanding how galaxies evolve.
Sep 15th, 2023
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A persistent difference called the 'Hubble Tension' is seen between the value of the constant measured with a wide range of independent distance indicators and its value predicted from the big bang afterglow.
Sep 14th, 2023
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