How star formation is 'quenched' in galaxies
Galaxies die quickly. That is the conclusion of a new study that examines the mechanism that switches galaxies from an active star-forming phase to one of quiescence.
Oct 28th, 2020
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Galaxies die quickly. That is the conclusion of a new study that examines the mechanism that switches galaxies from an active star-forming phase to one of quiescence.
Oct 28th, 2020
Read moreMassive galaxies were already much more mature in the early universe than previously expected. This was shown by an international team of astronomers who studied 118 distant galaxies.
Oct 27th, 2020
Read moreResearchers aim to develop new materials that can protect objects from extreme radiation and temperature variations in space - an important step toward enabling long-distance space exploration.
Oct 26th, 2020
Read moreAstronomers have crunched data from NASA's TESS and Spitzer space telescopes to portray for the first time the atmosphere of a highly unusual kind of exoplanet dubbed a 'hot Neptune'.
Oct 23rd, 2020
Read moreComputational astrophysics study modeled for the first time faint supernovae of metal-free first stars, yielding carbon-enhanced abundance patterns for star formation.
Oct 22nd, 2020
Read moreScientists have developed a new type of sensor to measure and correct the distortion of starlight caused by viewing through the Earth's atmosphere, which should make it easier to study the possibility of life on distant planets.
Oct 21st, 2020
Read moreNearly 3 billion years ago, a dwarf galaxy plunged into the center of the Milky Way and was ripped apart by the gravitational forces of the collision. Astrophysicists announced today that the merger produced a series of telltale shell-like formations of stars in the vicinity of the Virgo constellation, the first such 'shell structures' to be found in the Milky Way.
Oct 20th, 2020
Read moreIn the search to discover the origins of our solar system, an international team of researchers has compared the composition of the sun to the composition of the most ancient materials that formed in our solar system: refractory inclusions in unmetamorphosed meteorites.
Oct 20th, 2020
Read moreLight from distant galaxies reveals important information about the nature of the universe and allows scientists to develop high-precision models of the history, evolution and structure of the cosmos.
Oct 20th, 2020
Read moreAstronomers have determined our galaxy is surrounded by a clumpy halo of hot gases that is continually being supplied with material ejected by birthing or dying stars. This heated halo, called the circumgalactic medium, was the incubator for the Milky Way's formation some 10 billion years ago and could be where basic matter unaccounted for since the birth of the universe may reside.
Oct 19th, 2020
Read moreSome supermassive black holes launch powerful beams of material, or jets, away from them, while others do not. Astronomers may now have identified why.
Oct 19th, 2020
Read moreStar clusters have been part of the Imaginarium of human civilization for millennia. The brightest star clusters to Earth, like the Pleiades, are readily visible to the naked eye. Astronomers have now revealed the existence of massive stellar halos, termed coronae, surrounding local star clusters.
Oct 15th, 2020
Read moreScientists propose a novel method for finding dark matter, the cosmos's mystery material that has eluded detection for decades. The proposed experiment, in which a billion millimeter-sized pendulums would act as dark matter sensors, would be the first to hunt for dark matter solely through its gravitational interaction with visible matter.
Oct 14th, 2020
Read moreTwo new studies find that the Webb will be able to reveal galaxies currently masked by powerful lights called quasars.
Oct 14th, 2020
Read moreNew research is helping to explain one of the big questions that has perplexed astrophysicists for the past 30 years - what causes the changing brightness of distant stars called magnetars.
Oct 13th, 2020
Read moreUsing telescopes from around the world, astronomers have spotted a rare blast of light from a star being ripped apart by a supermassive black hole. The phenomenon, known as a tidal disruption event, is the closest such flare recorded to date at just over 215 million light-years from Earth, and has been studied in unprecedented detail.
Oct 12th, 2020
Read moreNew, most complete start-to-finish view of neutron star merger rewrites the way scientists understand these events.
Oct 12th, 2020
Read moreAn international team of researchers studied the atmosphere of the ultra-hot exoplanet WASP-121b. In it, they found a number of gaseous metals. The results are a next step in the search for potentially habitable worlds.
Oct 8th, 2020
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