Tag: astronomy
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Big surprise from planet-forming disk around small star
Stars form when dense clumps of interstellar gas and dust collapse under their own gravitational force. When a star emerges at the center of such a cloud, the remaining material forms a swirling disk around it that fuels stellar evolution and often gives birth to planets. The disks around newborn Sun-sized stars contain much more…
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Webb telescope again discovers the most distant galaxy ever seen
The James Webb Space Telescope has set a new record for the most distant known galaxy, an extremely bright star system that formed 290 million years after the Big Bang, NASA said Thursday. Since coming online in 2022, the Webb telescope has ushered in a new era of scientific breakthroughs, looking farther into the distant…
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The Sun's magnetic field may originate close to the solar surface
“If the plasma that makes up the sun were completely static, we know that the sun's magnetic field would decay over time, and pretty soon, there would be no sunspots or other solar activity. However, the plasma in the sun is moving, and that motion is able to regenerate and maintain the sun's magnetic field,”…
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'The danger behind the beauty': More solar storms could be headed our way
Betwi said most countries have improved their power grids, which will prevent long power outages like those that occurred in Sweden in 2003 or Canada in 1989. Still, he suggested that people should have an emergency kit in case there is a power outage for a day or two. Fresh water can also help if…
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Astronomers have finally discovered a rocky planet with an atmosphere
Being so close to its star, any atmosphere should be stripped away by stellar radiation and winds. But dissolved gases in the vast lava ocean covering the planet can keep boiling to refill the atmosphere, Hu said. “The planet may not be habitable because it is so hot that it does not contain liquid water,…
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Galaxy's black hole is surrounded by strong magnetic field: Astronomer
Nothing can escape their gravitational pull, not even light, making them impossible to observe directly. But with M87* in 2019 and Sagittarius A* in 2022, the EHT captured the halo of light that arises from the flow of matter and gas that the black holes suck in and expel. “By visualizing polarized light from hot…
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Scientists identify neutron star born from supernova seen in 1987
“After following supernovae and searching for compact objects for more than three decades, it is exciting to finally find the missing evidence for a neutron star,” said lead author Claes Fransson, professor of astrophysics at Stockholm University in Sweden, to JWST. Thank you.” According to the study published in Science Journal. “Neutron stars are extremely…
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Astronomers discover seven planets ‘fried’ by their star in the Milky Way
“All the planets have been ‘roasted’ more intensely than any other planet in our solar system,” said astronomer Jack Lissauer of NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. On the arXiv research site. Scientists have so far identified more than 5,500 exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – and observed hundreds of stars with many…
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Astronomers witness the most distant radio burst ever observed
This is where the fast radio bursts come from. “They have the signatures of all the gases they travel through,” Shannon said. Some FRB wavelengths slow down slightly as they travel through this material, giving scientists a way to measure it. This could help them figure out how much matter is in the cosmic web…
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Supermassive black hole caught in the act of swallowing a Sun-like star
Black holes, celestial bodies known for their gluttony, usually devour so many unlucky stars that they get too close to them in one big gulp, destroying them with their enormous gravitational pull. But it turns out that some people prefer to have breakfast instead of filling their stomach. Researchers say they have watched a supermassive…
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Webb telescope discovers signs of the universe’s biggest stars
Many stars contain elements that require an extreme amount of heat to produce, such as aluminum which would require temperatures of up to 70 million °C. This is well above the temperature that stars are believed to reach in their core, around the 15–20 million Celsius mark, similar to that of the Sun. So researchers…
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Webb telescope spots three debris belts around bright star Fomalhaut
“The secondary gap we see in the system is a strong indication of the presence of an ice giant in the system,” Gaspar said. The observations from Webb, which launched in 2021 and began collecting data last year, were made by its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). “Until now, nearly all resolved images of debris disks were…
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Astronomers surprised by ‘biggest ever’ cosmic explosion
In the new study, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the international team of researchers set out what they believe is the most likely scenario. Their theory is that a giant, single cloud of gas – about 5,000 times the mass of the Sun – is slowly being consumed by a supermassive…
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Star swallows planet in first glimpse of Earth’s possible end
The team of researchers from MIT, Harvard and Caltech established that the swallowed planet was a gas giant with a mass similar to Jupiter, but it was so close to its star that it completed one orbit in only a day. This star, which is very similar to the Sun, began by gnawing at the…
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What would the Artemis Moon Base look like?
For its scientific missions, NASA has tasked industry with developing an unpressurized — that is, open top — rover designed for two people by 2028. Unlike the rovers of the Apollo missions, it would have to operate autonomously even without astronauts on board. This means surviving the cold lunar nights, which can last up to…