It’s a hat-trick! Astronomers may have spotted the first ever known planet orbiting not one, not two, but three stars.
Continue reading “Rare Planet Found Orbiting Three Stars”Gravitational-Wave Observatories Should be Able to Detect Primordial Black Hole Mergers, if They’re out There
The tumultuous era of the big bang may have been chaotic enough to flood the universe with primordial black holes. Eventually some of those black holes will find each other and merge, sending out ripples of gravitational waves. A comprehensive search for those gravitational wave signatures hasn’t found anything, putting tight constraints on the abundance of these mysterious objects.
Continue reading “Gravitational-Wave Observatories Should be Able to Detect Primordial Black Hole Mergers, if They’re out There”Wind Speeds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are Picking up
The Great Red Spot of Jupiter – the largest storm in the solar system – has been raging for centuries. Over the past 100 years however, the cyclone has been dwindling, but recent observations with Hubble show that the wind speeds may be picking up again. Is this just temporary, or will the storm return to its former glory?
Continue reading “Wind Speeds in Jupiter’s Great Red Spot are Picking up”Next-Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories Could Detect the First Stars When They Exploded as Supernovae
The first stars to appear in the universe are no longer with us – they died long ago. But when they died they released torrents of gravitational waves, which might still be detectable as a faint hum in the background vibrations of the cosmos.
Continue reading “Next-Generation Gravitational Wave Observatories Could Detect the First Stars When They Exploded as Supernovae”Early Massive Galaxies ran out of gas, Shutting Down Their Star Formation
Galaxies that formed within the first few billion years after the Big Bang should have lived long, healthy lives. After all, they were born with rich supplies of cold hydrogen gas, exactly the fuel needed to continue star formation. But new observations have revealed “quenched” galaxies that have shut off star formation. And astronomers have no idea why.
Continue reading “Early Massive Galaxies ran out of gas, Shutting Down Their Star Formation”Are the Burned-Out Remnants of the First Stars all Around us?
The first stars to appear in the universe lived fast and died young. Today, none of them likely remain. But their remnants, the black holes and neutron stars, might still wander around the cosmos. Unfortunately, they’re extremely difficult to detect unless they merge, and according to new research the only way to see them would be to conduct an unprecedented survey of the local volume of the universe.
Continue reading “Are the Burned-Out Remnants of the First Stars all Around us?”It’s Official, William Shatner Will be Flying to Space With Blue Origin
Star Trek meets star reality as William Shatner, the iconic 90-year-old actor, will fly on the next Blue Origins suborbital launch on October 12th.
Continue reading “It’s Official, William Shatner Will be Flying to Space With Blue Origin”Astronomers Have a new way to Measure the Mass of Supermassive Black Holes
Even the most supermassive of the supermassive black holes aren’t very large, making it extremely difficult to measure their sizes. However, astronomers have recently developed a new technique that can estimate the mass of a black hole based on the movement of hot gas around them – even when the black hole itself it smaller than a single pixel.
Continue reading “Astronomers Have a new way to Measure the Mass of Supermassive Black Holes”Astronomers Might use Pulsars to First Detect Merging Supermassive Black Holes
Astronomers have been using gravitational waves to detect merging black holes for years now, but may have to rely on pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars – to observe the mergers of supermassive black holes.
Continue reading “Astronomers Might use Pulsars to First Detect Merging Supermassive Black Holes”The Milky Way Hasn’t Been Evenly Mixed
Gas from the intergalactic medium constantly rains down on galaxies, fueling continued star formation. New research has shown that this gas is not evenly mixed, and stars are not equal across the galaxy. This result means that solar systems are not the same within the Milky Way.
Continue reading “The Milky Way Hasn’t Been Evenly Mixed”