Category Astronomy/Space

Astronomers studying the rare supernova SN 2021yfj discovered material from one of the deepest layers of a dying star, providing a rare look at its hidden interior. The finding confirms key theories about how massive stars forge the elements that help build planets, worlds, and life.

Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an “extremely stripped supernova.”

In a paper published in Nature, Steve Schulze of Northwestern University in the United States and colleagues describe the supernova 2021yfj and a thick shell of gas surrounding it.

Their findings support our existing theories of what happens inside massive ...

A bizarre wobbling asteroid revealed by NASA’s Lucy mission is exposing hidden clues about ancient water, cosmic collisions, and the origins of the solar system. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a wobbling, peanut-shaped relic born from a violent collision and slowly reshaped by the subtle force of sunlight...

An international collaboration has discovered two of the lowest-density giant planets ever detected: rare “super-puff” planets with densities lower than candy floss. The study—led by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Université Côte d’Azur/Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and the University of Birmingham—has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The two planets, named TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, orbit an F7-type dwar...

Astronomers have reported the discovery of an unusual X-ray transient detected by the Einstein Probe that does not fit any known class of cosmic explosions. The paper presenting its multiwavelength analysis was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on June 13.

All eyes on it
On March 5, 2024, a space telescope called the Einstein Probe—designed to scan the sky for sudden X-ray flashes—caught a brief, never-before-seen source called EP240305a. It produced two brief X-ray flares, one right after the other, separated by about 200 seconds of quiet.

Researchers quickly pointed several telescopes at this source to gather more data in X-rays, infrared, optical and radio waveleng...