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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Dark Heart of the Nearest Radio Galaxy

    July 21, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Distance scales uncovered in the Centaurus A jet. The top left image shows how the jet disperses into gas clouds that emit radio waves. The top right panel displays a color composite image, with a 40⨉ zoom compared to the first panel to match the size of the galaxy itself. The next panel below shows a 165 000⨉ zoom image of the inner radio jet.The bottom panel depicts the new highest resolution image of the jet launching region obtained with the EHT at millimeter wavelengths with a 60 000 000⨉ zoom in telescope resolution. One light year is equal to the distance that light travels within one year: about nine trillion kilometers. Credit: Radboud University; CSIRO/ATNF/I. Feain et al., R. Morganti et al., N. Junkes et al.; ESO/WFI; MPIfR/ESO/APEX/A. Weiß et al.; NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Kraft et al...
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    Millimeter-tall ‘Mountains’ on Neutron Stars

    July 20, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s depiction of a neutron star.

    Credit: ESO / L. Calçada

    New models of neutron stars show that their tallest mountains may be only fractions of millimetres high, due to the huge gravity on the ultradense objects. The research is presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021.

    Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in the Universe: they weigh about as much as the Sun, yet measure only around 10km across, similar in size to a large city.

    Because of their compactness, neutron stars have an enormous gravitational pull around a billion times stronger than the Earth. This squashes every feature on the surface to miniscule dimensions, and means that the stellar remnant is an almost perfect sphere.

    Whilst they are billions of times smaller than on Earth, these def...

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    LCO Discovers Activity on Largest Comet Ever Found

    July 19, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), as seen in a synthetic color composite image made with the Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescope at Sutherland, South Africa, on 22 June 2021. The diffuse cloud is the comet’s coma. Credit: LOOK/LCO
    Comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein), as seen in a synthetic color composite image made with the Las Cumbres Observatory 1-meter telescope at Sutherland, South Africa, on 22 June 2021. The diffuse cloud is the comet’s coma. Credit: LOOK/LCO

    A newly discovered visitor to the outer edges of our Solar System has been shown to be the largest known comet ever, thanks to the rapid response telescopes of Las Cumbres Observatory. The object, which is named Comet C/2014 UN271 Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its two discoverers, was first announced on Saturday, June 19th, 2021...

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    Galactic Fireworks: New ESO images reveal stunning features of Nearby Galaxies

    July 17, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks. The images, obtained with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), show different components of the galaxies in distinct colours, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the locations of young stars and the gas they warm up around them. By combining these new observations with data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, the team is helping shed new light on what triggers gas to form stars.

    A team of astronomers has released new observations of nearby galaxies that resemble colourful cosmic fireworks...

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