Category Astronomy/Space

Astronomers have identified a potential clue to how the universe became reionized after the Big Bang. The researchers identified a black hole, a million times as bright as our sun, that may have been similar to the sources that powered the universe’s reionization.

About 400,000 years after the universe was created began a period called “The Epoch of Reionization.”

During this time, the once hotter universe began to cool and matter clumped together, forming the first stars and galaxies. As these stars and galaxies emerged, their energy heated the surrounding environment, reionizing some of the remaining hydrogen in the universe.

The universe’s reionization is well known, but determining how it happened has been tricky...

Eccentric exoplanet discovered Led by the University of Bern, an international research team has discovered a sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf star...

‘For the first time, we watched a red supergiant star explode,’ researcher says. For the first time ever, astronomers have imaged in real time the dramatic end to a red supergiant’s life – watching the massive star’s rapid self-destruction and final death throes before collapsing into a type II supernova.

Led by researchers at Northwestern University and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the team observed the red supergiant during its last 130 days leading up to its deadly detonation.

The discovery defies previous ideas of how red supergiant stars evolve right before exploding. Earlier observations showed that red supergiants were relatively quiescent before their deaths — with no evidence of violent eruptions or luminous emissions...