Signs of life: New field guide aids astronomers' search
Astronomers have come up with a way to discern life on exoplanets loitering in other cosmic neighborhoods: a spectral field guide.
Dec 6th, 2019
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Parker Solar Probe: 'We're missing something fundamental about the sun'
Our closest-ever look inside the sun's corona has unveiled an unexpectedly chaotic world that includes rogue plasma waves, flipping magnetic fields and distant solar winds under the thrall of the sun's rotation.
Dec 6th, 2019
Read moreCould hibernating astronauts make it easier to reach other planets?
New research suggests that hibernation is a likely option to make deep space exploration a reality.
Dec 5th, 2019
Read moreAstronomers propose a novel method of finding atmospheres on rocky worlds
A team of astronomers proposes a new method of using Webb to determine whether a rocky exoplanet has an atmosphere. The technique, which involves measuring the planet's temperature as it passes behind its star and then comes back into view, is significantly faster than more traditional methods of atmospheric detection like transmission spectroscopy.
Dec 2nd, 2019
Read moreA new theory for how black holes and neutron stars shine bright
Astrophysicists suggest radiation that lights the densest objects in our universe is powered by the interplay of turbulence and reconnection of super-strong magnetic fields.
Nov 27th, 2019
Read moreScientists inch closer than ever to signal from cosmic dawn
Researchers using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope have taken a new and significant step toward detecting a signal from the period in cosmic history when the first stars lit up the universe.
Nov 26th, 2019
Read moreGiant magnetic ropes in the outskirts of a spiral galaxy
Astronomers have investigated polarized radio emission from the galaxy NGC 4631 at the VLA radio telescope. They detected for the first time a regular magnetic field over scales of several thousands of light years in the halo of NGC 4631.
Nov 26th, 2019
Read morePlanets around a black hole? Calculations show possibility of bizarre worlds
Theoreticians in two different fields defied the common knowledge that planets orbit stars like the Sun. They proposed the possibility of thousands of planets around a supermassive black hole.
Nov 25th, 2019
Read moreThe simultaneous merging of giant galaxies
Research team discovers three supermassive black holes at the core of one galaxy.
Nov 21st, 2019
Read moreExtremely energetic particles coupled with the violent death of a star for the first time
Scientists have determined the emission of extremely energetic light particles during the death of a very heavy star for the first time.
Nov 21st, 2019
Read moreSugar delivered to Earth from space
First evidence of bio-essential sugars in meteorites.
Nov 21st, 2019
Read moreAstronomers discover highest-energy light from a gamma-ray burst
The researchers observed a gamma-ray burst with an afterglow that featured the highest energy photons - a trillion times more energetic than visible light - ever detected in a burst.
Nov 20th, 2019
Read moreExoplanet axis study boosts hopes of complex life, just not next door
Astrophysicists modeled a theoretical twin of Earth into other star systems called binary systems because they have two stars. They concluded that 87% of exo-Earths one might find in binary systems should have axis tilts similarly steady to Earth's, an important ingredient for climate stability that favors the evolution of complex life.
Nov 19th, 2019
Read moreHow to observe a 'black hole symphony' using gravitational wave astronomy
New research by astrophysicists presents a compelling roadmap for capturing intermediate-mass black hole activity.
Nov 18th, 2019
Read moreThe measurements of the expansion of the universe don't add up
Physicists use two types of measurements to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, but their results do not coincide, which may make it necessary to touch up the cosmological model.
Nov 18th, 2019
Read moreSpin doctors: Astrophysicists find when galaxies rotate, size matters
The direction in which a galaxy spins depends on its mass, researchers have found.
Nov 15th, 2019
Read moreNearly extreme black holes which attempt to 'regrow hair' become bald again
Black holes 'have no hair': no attributes that can be used to tell them apart. Extreme black holes can have an additional property, permanent hair that is made of a massless scalar field. Nearly extreme black holes have hair that is a transient phenomenon: nearly extreme black holes that attempt to regrow hair will lose it and become bald again.
Nov 15th, 2019
Read more'Are we alone?' Study refines which exoplanets are potentially habitable
First study to combine 3D climate modeling with chemistry explores M dwarf planets.
Nov 14th, 2019
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