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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Study hints at the Existence of the Closest Black Holes to Earth in the Hyades Star Cluster

    September 11, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of the Hyades star cluster. Image: Jose Mtanous

    Black holes are one of the most mysterious and fascinating phenomena in the Universe. A paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society hints at the existence of several black holes in the Hyades cluster – the closest open cluster to our solar system – which would make them the closest black holes to Earth ever detected...

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    New Cosmological Constraints on the Nature of Dark Matter

    September 10, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Dark matter fluctuations in the lens system MG J0414+0534. The whitish blue color represents the gravitationally lensed images observed by ALMA. The calculated distribution of dark matter is shown in orange; brighter regions indicate higher concentrations of dark matter and dark orange regions indicate lower concentrations. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. T. Inoue et al.）

    New research has revealed the distribution of dark matter in never before seen detail, down to a scale of 30,000 light-years. The observed distribution fluctuations provide better constraints on the nature of dark matter.

    Mysterious dark matter accounts for most of the matter in the Universe. Dark matter is invisible and makes itself know only through its gravitational effects...

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    Hot Jupiter Blows its Top

    September 7, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The planet HAT-P-32b is losing so much of its atmospheric helium that the trailing gas tails are among the largest structures yet known any planet outside our solar system. Simulation ‘slice’ through the orbital plane approximating the HAT-P-32 A + b system. Credit: Zhang et al., Sci. Adv. 9, eadf8736 (2023).

    A planet about 950 light years from Earth could be the Looney Tunes’ Yosemite Sam equivalent of planets, blowing its atmospheric ‘top’ in spectacular fashion.

    The planet called HAT-P-32b is losing so much of its atmospheric helium that the trailing gas tails are among the largest structures yet known of an exoplanet, a planet outside our solar system, according to observations by astronomers.

    Three-dimensional (3D) simulations on the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas ...

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    Furthest Ever Detection of a Galaxy’s Magnetic Field

    September 6, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Located centrally on a dark background is an electric blue donut-shaped blob, showing the orientation of the magnetic field of the distant galaxy. The bright donut is not complete, and there are only two main features. The lines of the magnetic field give it an almost furry texture. The right-hand side of the donut forms a bright, curved banana-like shape. Instead, on the left-hand side, there is another bright region, circular in shape.
    Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

    Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

    Lots of...

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