Category Astronomy/Space

University of Warwick astronomers have discovered an extremely rare, high-mass, compact binary star system only ~150 light years away. These two stars are on a collision course to explode as a type 1a supernova, appearing 10 times brighter than the moon in the night sky.

Type 1a supernovae are a special class of cosmic explosion, famously used as “standard candles” to measure distances between Earth and their host galaxies. They occur when a white dwarf (the dense remnant core of a star) accumulates too much mass, is unable to withstand its own gravity, and explodes.

It has long been theoretically predicted that two orbiting white dwarfs are the cause of most type 1a supernova explosions...

Follow-up research on a 2023 image of the Sagittarius ...

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated that certain lichen species can survive Mars-like conditions, including exposure to ionizing radiation, while maintaining a metabolically active state.

Published in the journal IMA Fungus, a new study highlights the potential for lichens to survive and function on the Martian surface, challenging previous assumptions about the uninhabitable nature of Mars, and offering insights for astrobiology and space exploration.

Lichens are not a single organism, but a symbiotic association between a fungus and algae and/or cyanobacteria known for their extreme tolerance to harsh environments such as the Earth’s deserts and polar regio...

Dark matter is a confounding concept that teeters on the leading edges of cosmology and physics. We don’t know what it is or how exactly it fits into our understanding of the universe. We only know that its unseen mass is a critical part of the cosmos.

Astronomers know dark matter exists. They can tell by the way galaxies rotate, by exploiting gravitational lensing, and by analyzing fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background. But new research suggests that there might be another way to detect its presence.

The research is “Dark Matter (S)pins the Planet,” and it’s available on the arXiv preprint server. Haihao Shi, from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the lead author. The co-authors are all from Chinese research institutions.