Astronomy
- Particle Physics
High-energy neutrinos may come from black holes ripping apart stars
Where extremely energetic neutrinos originate from is a mystery. A new study supports the idea that “tidal disruption events” are one source.
- Astronomy
We finally have an image of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way
Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope reveal the turbulent region around our home galaxy’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, in new detail.
- Astronomy
The sun’s searing radiation led to the shuffling of the solar system’s planets
As the young sun’s radiation evaporated gas from its surrounding disk, it triggered a jumbling of the giant planets’ orbits, simulations suggest.
- Physics
Gravitational waves gave a new black hole a high-speed ‘kick’
Ripples in spacetime revealed that two black holes united into one, which then sped off at around 5 million kilometers per hour.
- Astronomy
‘Goldilocks’ stars may pose challenges for any nearby habitable planets
Orange dwarfs emit far-ultraviolet light long after birth, stressing the atmospheres of potentially life-bearing worlds.
- Astronomy
Crumbling planets might trigger repeating fast radio bursts
Mysterious blasts of cosmic radio waves might be due to planets sweeping extremely close to their host neutron stars.
- Astronomy
A newly discovered planet renews debate about how some giant worlds form
An implosion of gas may have given birth to this young exoplanet, which orbits too far from its star to have been built up bit by bit, researchers say.
- Astronomy
A star nicknamed ‘Earendel’ may be the most distant yet seen
Analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images revealed a star whose light originates from about 12.9 billion light-years away, researchers say.
- Space
Binary stars keep masquerading as black holes
The drive to find black holes in ever-larger astronomy datasets is leading some researchers astray.
- Astronomy
When the Magellanic Clouds cozy up to each other, stars are born
The Magellanic Clouds, the two closest star-making galaxies to the Milky Way, owe much of their stellar creativity to each other.
- Astronomy
Here’s the best timeline yet for the Milky Way’s big events
A new study puts more precise dates on when the Milky Way formed its thick disk and collided with a neighboring galaxy.
- Physics
Levitating plastic beads mimic the physics of spinning asteroids
"Tabletop asteroids," buoyed by sound waves, hint at why some loosely bound space rocks have odd shapes and can’t spin too quickly.
