As astronomers push our views of the Universe further back in time, their telescopes keep uncovering surprises. That’s the case with a supermassive black hole in CEERS 1019, a distant very early galaxy.
Continue reading “JWST Sees the Most Distant Active Supermassive Black Hole”JWST Sees the Beginning of the Cosmic Web
The Cosmic Web is the large-scale structure of the Universe. If you could watch our cosmos unfold from the Big Bang to today, you’d see these filaments (and the voids between them) form throughout time. Now, astronomers using JWST have found ten galaxies that make up a very early version of this structure a mere 830 million years after the Universe began.
Continue reading “JWST Sees the Beginning of the Cosmic Web”IceCube Makes a Neutrino Map of the Milky Way
We’ve seen the Milky Way with ultraviolet eyes, through x-ray vision, gamma-ray views, radio emissions, microwaves, and visible light. Now, consider a neutrino point of view. Thanks to the IceCube Collaboration, we get to see our home galaxy through the lens of this mysterious particle. It’s an eerie sight that also tells us our galaxy isn’t quite like the others. It’s a neutrino desert.
Continue reading “IceCube Makes a Neutrino Map of the Milky Way”860 Million-Year-Old Quasar Had Already Amassed 1.4 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun
It wasn’t long after the Big Bang that early galaxies began changing the Universe. Less than a billion years later, they had already put on a lot of weight. In particular, their central supermassive black holes were behemoths. New images from JWST show two massive galaxies as they appeared less than a billion years after the universe began.
Continue reading “860 Million-Year-Old Quasar Had Already Amassed 1.4 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun”That New Car Smell… But for Planets
Remember how a new car smells? It’s a chemical signature of all the materials used to make the car’s interior. What if you could use chemical signatures to learn about newborn planets?
Continue reading “That New Car Smell… But for Planets”Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST
The search for life is an incredibly evocative driver of cosmic exploration. It captures our imagination to think that there might be living things out there somewhere else. That’s one reason why we point our eyes—and telescopes—to the stars.
Continue reading “Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST”A Nearby Supernova Almost Destroyed the Solar System Before it Could Form
Way back in time, about 4.6 billion years ago, our Sun and planets were busily forming nestled inside a cloud of gas and dust. Not far away, a supernova exploded, threatening to tear everything apart. Luckily, a filament of molecular gas protected the infant Solar System from imminent destruction.
Continue reading “A Nearby Supernova Almost Destroyed the Solar System Before it Could Form”Supervillains Take Note. Here’s a New Way to Destroy a Star
If you’re an evil genius supervillain looking to freak out your enemy with a big messy space kablooie, here’s a novel way to do it. Smack a couple of ancient star remnants together right in front of your nemesis. The result will give you a gratifyingly huge, bright explosion plus a bonus gamma-ray burst visible across the Universe. And, it’ll scare everybody into doing your evil bidding.
Continue reading “Supervillains Take Note. Here’s a New Way to Destroy a Star”Mind-Blowing Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions
It’s a strange, eerie-looking place. Carbon dioxide gas appears… and disappears in cycles and bursts throughout the year. It’s how our planet would look if we could detect carbon dioxide (CO2) with our eyes. Scientists at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office made computer animations of its presence in our atmosphere. Those videos show an almost-alien view of Earth under the influence of this gas.
The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.
We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr A*. It’s not loud and bright like an active galactic nucleus. It appears to be active for brief periods before going to sleep. Two hundred years ago, it “woke up” for about a year and a half and had a bite to eat.
Continue reading “The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.”