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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Hubble finds Bizarre Explosion in Unexpected Place

    October 9, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A very rare, strange burst of extraordinarily bright light in the universe just got even stranger—thanks to the eagle-eye of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The phenomenon, called a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), flashed onto the scene where it wasn't expected to be found, far away from any host galaxy. Only Hubble could pinpoint its location. The Hubble results suggest astronomers know even less about these objects than previously thought by ruling out some possible theories.Read More

    Plot Thickens in Hunt for Ninth Planet

    October 9, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Plot thickens in hunt for ninth planet
    An artist’s impression of a Kuiper Belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 4 billion miles from the sun. Credit: NASA

    Outer reaches of solar system could harbor another planet–or evidence modifying laws of gravity. A pair of theoretical physicists are reporting that the same observations inspiring the hunt for a ninth planet might instead be evidence within the solar system of a modified law of gravity originally developed to understand the rotation of galaxies.

    Researchers Harsh Mathur, a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University, and Katherine Brown, an associate professor of physics at Hamilton College, made the assertion after studying the effect the Milky Way galaxy would have on objects in the outer solar syst...

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    Astronomers watched a Massive Star Disappear. JWST might have some answers

    October 9, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Illustration of how a failed supernova can become a black hole. Credit: NASA/ESA/P. Jeffries (STScI)

    In 2009 a giant star 25 times more massive than the sun simply vanished. OK, it wasn’t quite that simple. It underwent a period of brightening, increasing in luminosity to a million suns, just as if it was ready to explode into a supernova. But then it faded rather than exploding. And when astronomers tried to see the star using the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), Hubble and the Spitzer space telescope, they couldn’t see anything.

    The star, known as N6946-BH1, is now considered a failed supernova. The BH1 in its name is due to the fact that astronomers think the star collapsed to become a black hole rather than triggering a supernova. But that has been conjecture...

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    Large Mound Structures on Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth may have Common Origin

    October 6, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Courtesy of SwRI The large mound structures that dominate one of the lobes of the Kuiper belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin, according to a new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern.

    These ‘Building blocks’ of this Kuiper belt object may point to key details of streaming instability model of planetesimal formation. A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) Planetary Scientist and Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern posits that the large, approximately 5-kilometer-long mounds that dominate the appearance of the larger lobe of the pristine Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth are similar enough to suggest a common origin...

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