NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
3 Dec 2021, 13:00 UTC
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy Mrk (Markarian) 1337, which is roughly 120 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 snapped Mrk 1337 at a wide range of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths, producing this richly detailed image. Mrk 1337 is a weakly barred spiral galaxy, which as the name suggests means that the spiral arms radiate from a central bar of gas and stars. Bars occur in roughly half of spiral galaxies, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Hubble Gazes at a Dazzling Spiral Galaxy
3 Dec 2021, 13:00 UTC
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy Mrk (Markarian) 1337, which is roughly 120 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 snapped Mrk 1337 at a wide range of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared wavelengths, producing this richly detailed image. Mrk 1337 is a weakly barred spiral galaxy, which as the name suggests means that the spiral arms radiate from a central bar of gas and stars. Bars occur in roughly half of spiral galaxies, including our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
ESA Space Science
2 Dec 2021, 10:00 UTC
By performing a series of real and 'fake' flybys, ESA’s Mars Express has revealed how Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, interacts with the solar wind of charged particles thrown out by the Sun – and spotted an elusive process that has only been seen at Phobos once before.
ESA’s Mars Express unravels mystery of martian moon using 'fake' flybys
2 Dec 2021, 10:00 UTC
By performing a series of real and 'fake' flybys, ESA’s Mars Express has revealed how Mars’ largest moon, Phobos, interacts with the solar wind of charged particles thrown out by the Sun – and spotted an elusive process that has only been seen at Phobos once before.
McDonald Observatory
1 Dec 2021, 06:12 UTC
Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky Way’s dwarf satellite galaxies, called Leo I. Almost as massive as the black hole in our own galaxy, the finding could redefine our understanding of how all galaxies — the building blocks of the universe — evolve. The work is published in a recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Texas Astronomers Discover Strangely Massive Black Hole in Milky Way Satellite Galaxy
1 Dec 2021, 06:12 UTC
Astronomers at The University of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky Way’s dwarf satellite galaxies, called Leo I. Almost as massive as the black hole in our own galaxy, the finding could redefine our understanding of how all galaxies — the building blocks of the universe — evolve. The work is published in a recent issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
Universities Space Research Association
29 Nov 2021, 18:10 UTC
NGC 7479, also known as Caldwell 44, is a barred spiral galaxy, with a bar-shaped center filled with stars (as is characteristic of a majority of spiral galaxies), and S- shaped arms. However, looking at features of NGC 7479 that are hidden from the naked eye reveals another pair of arms bending in an opposite direction to the visible galaxy. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observed ionized carbon emissions to help confirm these counter-arms. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
SOFIA Confirms a Spiral Galaxy's Invisible, Opposing Arms
29 Nov 2021, 18:10 UTC
NGC 7479, also known as Caldwell 44, is a barred spiral galaxy, with a bar-shaped center filled with stars (as is characteristic of a majority of spiral galaxies), and S- shaped arms. However, looking at features of NGC 7479 that are hidden from the naked eye reveals another pair of arms bending in an opposite direction to the visible galaxy. The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observed ionized carbon emissions to help confirm these counter-arms. The results were published in The Astrophysical Journal.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
29 Nov 2021, 14:00 UTC
NGC 6891 is a bright, asymmetrical planetary nebula in the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. This Hubble image reveals a wealth of structure, including a spherical outer halo that is expanding faster than the inner nebula, and at least two ellipsoidal shells that are orientated differently. The image also reveals filaments and knots in the nebula’s interior, surrounding the central white dwarf star. From their motions, astronomers estimate that one of the shells is 4,800 years old while the outer halo is some 28,000 years old, indicating a series of outbursts from the dying star at different times.
Hubble’s View of Planetary Nebula Reveals Complex Structure
29 Nov 2021, 14:00 UTC
NGC 6891 is a bright, asymmetrical planetary nebula in the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. This Hubble image reveals a wealth of structure, including a spherical outer halo that is expanding faster than the inner nebula, and at least two ellipsoidal shells that are orientated differently. The image also reveals filaments and knots in the nebula’s interior, surrounding the central white dwarf star. From their motions, astronomers estimate that one of the shells is 4,800 years old while the outer halo is some 28,000 years old, indicating a series of outbursts from the dying star at different times.
MIT Kavli Institute
23 Nov 2021, 10:00 UTC
The hunt for planets beyond our solar system has turned up more than 4,000 far-flung worlds, orbiting stars thousands of light years from Earth. These extrasolar planets are a veritable menagerie, from rocky super-Earths and miniature Neptunes to colossal gas giants.
One year on this giant, blistering hot planet is just 16 hours long
23 Nov 2021, 10:00 UTC
The hunt for planets beyond our solar system has turned up more than 4,000 far-flung worlds, orbiting stars thousands of light years from Earth. These extrasolar planets are a veritable menagerie, from rocky super-Earths and miniature Neptunes to colossal gas giants.
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Blogs
Physics World Blog
3 Dec 2021, 18:26 UTC
The observation of black holes with unexpectedly high masses could be partly explained by an effect related to the expansion of the universe, astronomers in the US have proposed. The team, led by Kevin Croker at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, used comparisons between simulated black hole mergers, and gravitational waves detected by the LIGO–Virgo collaboration, to show how ignoring the expansion of the universe may be limiting our understanding of black-hole physics.
‘Cosmological coupling’ is making black holes bigger, study suggests
3 Dec 2021, 18:26 UTC
The observation of black holes with unexpectedly high masses could be partly explained by an effect related to the expansion of the universe, astronomers in the US have proposed. The team, led by Kevin Croker at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, used comparisons between simulated black hole mergers, and gravitational waves detected by the LIGO–Virgo collaboration, to show how ignoring the expansion of the universe may be limiting our understanding of black-hole physics.
The Planetary Society Blog
3 Dec 2021, 15:30 UTC
Not to be outshone by 2021’s new fleet of Mars missions, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sent home this stunning image from Mount Sharp, the mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. The image combines two panoramas taken by Curiosity’s navigation camera, one at 8:30 a.m. and the other at 4:10 p.m. local Mars time, with details from the morning scene in blue, the afternoon scene in orange, and a combination of both in green. The two times of day provided contrasting lighting conditions that brought out a variety of unique landscape details.
Let’s not forget the other Mars explorers
3 Dec 2021, 15:30 UTC
Not to be outshone by 2021’s new fleet of Mars missions, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover sent home this stunning image from Mount Sharp, the mountain the rover has been climbing since 2014. The image combines two panoramas taken by Curiosity’s navigation camera, one at 8:30 a.m. and the other at 4:10 p.m. local Mars time, with details from the morning scene in blue, the afternoon scene in orange, and a combination of both in green. The two times of day provided contrasting lighting conditions that brought out a variety of unique landscape details.
Cosmos Magazine
2 Dec 2021, 02:56 UTC
Over the last few years, gravitational waves have revolutionised physics. Sensitive instruments like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Virgo and KAGRA have spotted these ripples in spacetime emanating out from collisions between black holes and neutron stars billions of light-years away. But can gravitational waves find dark matter? Now, researchers think that gravitational wave detectors may be able to spot a possible source of the elusive material that makes up 85% of the universe. “Gravitational-wave discoveries not only provide information about mysterious compact objects in the universe, like black holes and neutron stars, they also allow us to look for new particles and dark matter,” says astrophysicist Lilli Sun from the Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Sun co-authored a new international study that appears on the preprint server ArXiv. The paper offers a new lead for dark matter: clouds of ultralight subatomic particles called bosons, predicted by theories that reach beyond the standard model of particle physics. “It is almost impossible to detect these ultralight boson particles on Earth,” explains Sun. “The particles, if they exist, have extremely small mass and rarely interact with other matter – which is ...
Could gravitational waves help us find dark matter?
2 Dec 2021, 02:56 UTC
Over the last few years, gravitational waves have revolutionised physics. Sensitive instruments like the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), Virgo and KAGRA have spotted these ripples in spacetime emanating out from collisions between black holes and neutron stars billions of light-years away. But can gravitational waves find dark matter? Now, researchers think that gravitational wave detectors may be able to spot a possible source of the elusive material that makes up 85% of the universe. “Gravitational-wave discoveries not only provide information about mysterious compact objects in the universe, like black holes and neutron stars, they also allow us to look for new particles and dark matter,” says astrophysicist Lilli Sun from the Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Sun co-authored a new international study that appears on the preprint server ArXiv. The paper offers a new lead for dark matter: clouds of ultralight subatomic particles called bosons, predicted by theories that reach beyond the standard model of particle physics. “It is almost impossible to detect these ultralight boson particles on Earth,” explains Sun. “The particles, if they exist, have extremely small mass and rarely interact with other matter – which is ...
The Planetary Society Blog
1 Dec 2021, 16:31 UTC
With over 3,000 votes cast, the results are in for the Best of 2021. Here are the missions, images, and exploration highlights that you chose as your favorites from the past year.
The Best of 2021
1 Dec 2021, 16:31 UTC
With over 3,000 votes cast, the results are in for the Best of 2021. Here are the missions, images, and exploration highlights that you chose as your favorites from the past year.
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