Composite gri image of SN 2023fyq in NGC 4388 obtained with the Las Cumbres Observatory on August 11, 2023. The position of SN 2023fyq is indicated by white tick markers. Credit: Dong et al., 2024. An international team of astronomers have performed photometric and spectroscopic observations of a Type Ibn supernova, known as SN 2023fyq….
Category: Astronomy
NASA images help explain eating habits of massive black hole
This close-up view of the center of the Andromeda galaxy, taken by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, is annotated with blue dotted lines to highlight the path of two dust streams flowing toward the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center (indicated by a purple dot). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In images from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space…
Improving timing precision of millisecond pulsars using polarization
Summary of white-noise components for 12 pulsars. The main panel shows the three contributions: radiometer noise as black squares, jitter noise as blue circles, and scintillation noise as red triangles. All the noise contributions are scaled to 1 hr integration. Credit: The Astrophysical Journal (2024). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad217b Pulsar timing enables the most stringent tests of…
Webb presents best evidence to date for rocky exoplanet atmosphere
This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like. Also called Janssen, 55 Cancri e is a so-called super-Earth, a rocky planet significantly larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, which orbits its star at a distance of only 1.4 million miles (0.015 astronomical units), completing one full orbit in less…
Hubble views a galaxy with a voracious black hole
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 4951, located roughly 50 million light-years away from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Thilker (The Johns Hopkins University); Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Bright, starry spiral arms surround an active galactic center in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the…
Astronomers observe elusive stellar light surrounding ancient quasars
A James Webb Telescope image shows the J0148 quasar circled in red. Two insets show, on top, the central black hole, and on bottom, the stellar emission from the host galaxy. Credit: Courtesy of Minghao Yue, Anna-Christina Eilers; NASA MIT astronomers have observed the elusive starlight surrounding some of the earliest quasars in the universe….
Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail
The image is more than half-filled by a small section of the Horsehead Nebula, from the bottom up. The clouds are seen up close, showing thick, whitish streaks and dark voids, as well as textured, fuzzy-looking patterns of dust and gas. The nebula stops at a spiky edge that follows a slight curve. Above it…
Orion's erupting star system reveals its secrets
Artist’s impression of the large-scale view of FU~Ori. The image shows the outflows produced by the interaction between strong stellar winds powered by the outburst and the remnant envelope from which the star formed. The stellar wind drives a strong shock into the envelope, and the CO gas swept up by the shock is what…
Neutron stars could be capturing primordial black holes
This magnetar is a highly magnetized neutron star. This artist’s illustration shows an outburst from a magnetar. Neutron stars that spin rapidly and give out radiation are called pulsars, and specific pulsars are rare in the core of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers…
X-ray satellite XMM-Newton sees 'space clover' in a new light
This multiwavelength image of the Cloverleaf ORC (odd radio circle) combines visible light observations from the DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) Legacy Survey in white and yellow, X-rays from XMM-Newton in blue, and radio from ASKAP (the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) in red. Credit: X. Zhang and M. Kluge (MPE), B. Koribalski (CSIRO) Astronomers…