Category Astronomy/Space

Astronomers are now in a better position to interpret observations of supernova remnants thanks to computer simulations of these cataclysmic events by RIKEN astrophysicists.

When certain types of stars die, they go out in a blaze of glory—an incredibly powerful explosion known as a supernova. One of the most common forms of supernova, typeIa, starts with a dense white dwarf star that has burned up its hydrogen fuel...

The very first moments of the Universe can be reconstructed mathematically even though they cannot be observed directly. Physicists from the Universities of Göttingen and Auckland (New Zealand) have greatly improved the ability of complex computer simulations to describe this early epoch...

Scientists estimate that dark matter and dark energy together are some 95% of the gravitational material in the universe while the remaining 5% is baryonic matter, which is the “normal” matter composing stars, planets and living beings. However, for decades, almost one-half of this matter has not been found. Now, using a new technique, a team including researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has shown that this “missing” baryonic matter fills the space between galaxies as hot, low-density gas...

Work gives clues about how powerful jets are driven. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has produced a new image showing details of the magnetic fields in the region closest to the supermassive black hole at the core of the galaxy M87. The new work is providing astronomers with important clues about how powerful jets of material can be produced in that region.

A worldwide team of astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope, a collection of eight telescopes, including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, measured a signature of magnetic fields — called polarization — around the black...