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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers find a cosmic Titan in the Early Universe

    October 18, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An international team of astronomers has discovered a titanic structure in the early Universe, just two billion years after the Big Bang. This galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, is the largest and most massive structure yet found at such a remote time and distance. It has a mass estimated at a million billion Suns. Credit: Luis Calçada & Olga Cucciati/ESO

    An international team of astronomers has discovered a titanic structure in the early Universe, just two billion years after the Big Bang. This galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, is the largest and most massive structure yet found at such a remote time and distance. It has a mass estimated at a million billion Suns.
    Credit: Luis Calçada & Olga Cucciati/ESO

    Largest galaxy proto-supercluster found. An international team of astronomers has discovered a titanic structure in the early Universe, just 2 billion years after the Big Bang. This galaxy proto-supercluster, nicknamed Hyperion, is the largest and most massive structure yet found at such a remote time and distance.

    The team that made the discovery was led by Olga Cucciati of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Bologna, It...

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    All in the family: Kin of Gravitational Wave source discovered

    October 17, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image provides three different perspectives on GRB150101B, the first known cosmic analogue of GW170817, the gravitational wave event discovered in 2017. At center, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy where GRB150101B took place. At top right, two X-ray images from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory show the event as it appeared on January 9, 2015 (left), with a jet visible below and to the left; and a month later, on February 10, 2015 (right), as the jet faded away. The bright X-ray spot is the galaxy's nucleus. Credit: NASA/CXC

    This image provides three different perspectives on GRB150101B, the first known cosmic analogue of GW170817, the gravitational wave event discovered in 2017. At center, an image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the galaxy where GRB150101B took place. At top right, two X-ray images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray observatory show the event as it appeared on January 9, 2015 (left), with a jet visible below and to the left; and a month later, on February 10, 2015 (right), as the jet faded away. The bright X-ray spot is the galaxy’s nucleus.
    Credit: NASA/CXC

    Kilonovae – immense cosmic explosions that produce silver, gold and platinum – may be more common than thought...

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    Giant Planets around Young Star Raise Questions about how Planets Form

    October 16, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an artist's impression of four gas giant in orbit around CI Tau. Credit: Amanda Smith, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

    This is an artist’s impression of four gas giant in orbit around CI Tau.
    Credit: Amanda Smith, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge

    Researchers have identified a young star with four Jupiter and Saturn-sized planets in orbit around it, the first time that so many massive planets have been detected in such a young system. The system has also set a new record for the most extreme range of orbits yet observed: the outermost planet is more than a thousand times further from the star than the innermost one, which raises interesting questions about how such a system might have formed.

    The star is just two million years old – a ‘toddler’ in astronomical terms – and is surrounded by a huge disc of dust and ice...

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    ‘Pulsar in a box’ reveals surprising picture of a neutron star’s surroundings

    October 15, 2018, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    electrons (blue) and positrons (red) from a computer-simulated pulsar

    Explore a new “pulsar in a box” computer simulation that tracks the fate of electrons (blue) and their antimatter kin, positrons (red), as they interact with powerful magnetic and electric fields around a neutron star. Lighter tracks indicate higher particle energies. Each particle seen in this visualization actually represents trillions of electrons or positrons. Better knowledge of the particle environment around neutron stars will help astronomers understand how they produce precisely timed radio and gamma-ray pulses. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    An international team of scientists studying what amounts to a computer-simulated “pulsar in a box” are gaining a more detailed understanding of the complex, high-energy environment around spinning neutron stars, also calle...

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