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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Scientists Map Gusty Winds in a far-off Neutron Star System

    April 12, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In black space, the accretion disk is represented as a flat swirling disk with blue, pink red colors, and in the middle of it is tiny, glowing white sphere, the neutron star. Behind the accretion disk is a large teal sphere, the sun-like star. A teal noodle flows from the star to the accretion disk, representing the material drawn away from the star.
    Caption: MIT astronomers mapped the “disk winds” associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a sun-like star, represented as the teal sphere. The findings may offer clues to how supermassive black holes shape entire galaxies.
    Credits:Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares, MIT. Based on an image of Hercules X-1 by D. Klochkov, European Space Agency

    The 2D map of this ‘disk wind’ may reveal clues to galaxy formation.

    Astronomers have mapped the ‘disk winds’ associated with the accretion disk around Hercules X-1, a system in which a neutron star is drawing material away from a sun-like star. The findings may offer clues to how supermassive black holes shape entire galaxies.

    An accretion disk is a colossal whirlpool o...

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    Physicists Discover that Gravity can Create Light

    April 11, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Physicists discover that gravity can create light
    A star is being consumed by a distant supermassive black hole. Astronomers call this a tidal disruption event (TDE). As the black hole rips apart the star, two jets of material moving with almost the speed of light are launched in opposite directions. One of the jets was aimed directly at Earth. Credit: Carl Knox (OzGrav, ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, Swinburne University of Technology)

    Researchers have discovered that in the exotic conditions of the early universe, waves of gravity may have shaken space-time so hard that they spontaneously created radiation.

    The physical concept of resonance surrounds us in everyday life. When you’re sitting on a swing and want to go higher, you naturally start pumping your legs back and forth...

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    Hubble unexpectedly finds Double Quasar in Distant Universe

    April 8, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist concept: Two merging galaxies have a light blue glow overlaid by brownish-gold clouds set against a black, deep-space field. Two quasars are closely spaced, white objects at the merger's center: one above and to the right of the other.
    This artist’s concept shows the brilliant glare of two quasars residing in the cores of two galaxies that are in the chaotic process of merging. The gravitational tug-of-war between the two galaxies ignites a firestorm of star birth. Quasars are brilliant beacons of intense light from the centers of distant galaxies. They are powered by supermassive black holes voraciously feeding on infalling matter. This feeding frenzy unleashes a torrent of radiation that can outshine the collective light of billions of stars in the host galaxy. In a few tens of millions of years, the black holes and their galaxies will merge, and so will the quasar pair, forming an even more massive black hole.
    Credits: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

    The early universe was a rambunctious place where galaxies ofte...

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    Do Earth-like Exoplanets have Magnetic Fields? Far-off Radio Signal is Promising Sign

    April 5, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Exoplanet and dwarf star
    An artist’s conceptual rendering of interactions between a prospective exoplanet and its star. Plasma emitted from the star is deflected by the exoplanet’s magnetic field then interacts with the star’s magnetic field, resulting in an aurora on the star and the emission of radio waves.
    Credit: National Science Foundation/Alice Kitterman

    Earth’s magnetic field does more than keep everyone’s compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth’s sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun...

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