Paul M. Sutter, Author at Universe Today

August 12, 2020August 9, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Seeing baby stars at every stage of their formation

Observations of the Taurus Molecular Cloud obtained by the Herschel Space Observatory. Image credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Tokuda et al., ESA/Herschel

Stars form from the collapse of dense clouds of gas and dust, which makes it very hard for astronomers to watch the process unfold. Recently the ALMA telescope has revealed a treasure trove of embryonic stars in the Taurus Molecular Cloud, illuminating how baby stars are born.

August 10, 2020August 9, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

A magnetar has been discovered throwing off bizarre blasts of radiation. Is this where fast radio bursts come from?

Artist's impression of a magnetar throwing off a seriously impressive blast. Image credit: ESA

Magnetars are the ultimate aggressive star: intense magnetic fields, massive outbursts, the works. We’ve known that magnetars are capable of producing some of the most powerful blasts in the cosmos, but new observations reveal a different kind of radiation: radio waves. This could potentially solve the long-standing puzzle of the origins of the mysterious Fast Radio Bursts.

August 9, 2020August 8, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

An exoplanet has been found for the first time using radio telescopes

Artist's illustration of the recently-discovered TVLM 513–46546. Image credit: Luis A. Curiel Ramirez

Astronomers have found an extrasolar planet around a main sequence star. Which isn’t a big deal. With a radio telescope. Which is.

August 9, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Neutron stars of different masses can make a real mess when they collide

An artistic rendering of two neutron stars merging. Credit: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State/A. Simonnet

When neutron stars collide, they go out with a tremendous bang, fueling an explosion up to a thousand times more powerful than a supernova. But sometimes they go out with a whimper, and a recent suite of simulations is showing why: they turn into a black hole.

August 8, 2020August 14, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Newly forming star has spiral arms like a tiny galaxy

Planets form by accreting material from a protoplanetary disk. New research suggests it can happen quickly, and that Earth may have formed in only a few million years. Credit: NASA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

Protoplanetary disks – where young stars are forming their families of planets – usually form concentric rings of gaps. But astronomers have recently spotted a surprising situation: an adolescent star surrounded by galaxy-like spiral arms.

August 8, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Mira-type variable stars are constantly throwing the key chemicals for life out into space

This image is from the SPHERE/ZIMPOL observations of R Aquarii, and shows the binary star itself, with the white dwarf feeding on material from the Mira variable, as well as the jets of material spewing from the stellar couple. Image Credit: ESO/Schmid et al.

We know that the carbon in your bones was formed long ago in the heart of a star. But how did that carbon actually make its way to your bones? It’s a bit of a complicated puzzle, and recent observations with the SOFIA observatory show how Mira stars do the trick.

July 31, 2020July 30, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Supermassive black holes can cloak themselves in a cocoon of dust, making them invisible even when they should be bright quasars

Artist's impression of a shroud of dust cloaking a supermassive black hole, alongside the X-ray view of where black holes should be. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State/B.Luo et al; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

Quasars are the most powerful sources of light in the universe, but sometimes they’re hard to find. A team of astronomers used the Chandra X-ray Space Telescope to find some diamonds in the rough.

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

There’s a flash of ultraviolet just as a white dwarf is exploding as a supernova

Artist's impression of a supernova. Supernovae bombarded Earth with radiation that has implications for the development of life on Earth. Image Credit: NASA

Astronomers recently spotted a rare type of supernova explosion that was accompanied by a massive flare of ultraviolet radiation. Untangling the mystery of the UV flash could help unravel the mysterious nature of these supernova explosions, and even help us understand the age of the universe.

July 22, 2020July 21, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

A ring of high-energy particles surrounding a black hole suddenly disappeared

If we could see the blazar 3C 354.3 up close it would look something like this. A bright accretion disk surrounds a black hole. Twin jets of radiation beam from the center. Credit: Cosmovision

In March 2018 astronomers watched a massive black hole surge in brightness. Then over the following year, its ring of light dimmed to near-invisibility before regaining its former strength. The potential culprit? The black hole swallowing an entire star.

July 21, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

A Neptune-class exoplanet has been found with its atmosphere stripped away

Voyager 2 captured this image of Neptune in 1982, when it was over 7 million km (4.4 million miles) away from the planet. The Great Dark Spot in the middle of the image was the first storm ever seen on Neptune. Image: By NASA (JPL image) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

What happens when a giant planet gets stripped of its atmosphere? It leaves behind a giant core, rich in iron and other metals. A team using NASA’s TESS mission recently found such a remnant core, orbiting a star just 730 light-years away.