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    Category Astronomy/Space

    VERITAS supplies critical piece to Neutrino Discovery Puzzle

    July 15, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist’s conception shows a blazar – the core of an active galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. Scientists using the VERITAS array have detected gamma rays from the blazar TXS 0506+056, which is also thought to be a source of neutrinos. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

    The VERITAS array has confirmed the detection of gamma rays from the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. While these detections are relatively common for VERITAS, this black hole is potentially the first known astrophysical source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, a type of ghostly subatomic particle.

    On September 22, 2017 the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a cubic-kilometer neutrino telescope located at the South Pole, detected a high-energy neutrino of potential astrophysical origin...

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    Hubble and Gaia team up to fuel Cosmic Conundrum

    July 14, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Using two of the world's most powerful space telescopes -- NASA's Hubble and ESA's Gaia -- astronomers have made the most precise measurements to date of the universe's expansion rate. This is calculated by gauging the distances between nearby galaxies using special types of stars called Cepheid variables as cosmic yardsticks. By comparing their intrinsic brightness as measured by Hubble, with their apparent brightness as seen from Earth, scientists can calculate their distances. Gaia further refines this yardstick by geometrically measuring the distances to Cepheid variables within our Milky Way galaxy. This allowed astronomers to more precisely calibrate the distances to Cepheids that are seen in outside galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

    Using two of the world’s most powerful space telescopes — NASA’s Hubble and ESA’s Gaia — astronomers have made the most precise measurements to date of the universe’s expansion rate. This is calculated by gauging the distances between nearby galaxies using special types of stars called Cepheid variables as cosmic yardsticks. By comparing their intrinsic brightness as measured by Hubble, with their apparent brightness as seen from Earth, scientists can calculate their distances. Gaia further refines this yardstick by geometrically measuring the distances to Cepheid variables within our Milky Way galaxy. This allowed astronomers to more precisely calibrate the distances to Cepheids that are seen in outside galaxies. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

    Using the power and synergy of two s...

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    Breakthrough in the Search for Cosmic Particle Accelerators

    July 13, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist's impression of the active galactic nucleus. The supermassive black hole at the center of the accretion disk sends a narrow high-energy jet of matter into space, perpendicular to the disc. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

    Artist’s impression of the active galactic nucleus. The supermassive black hole at the center of the accretion disk sends a narrow high-energy jet of matter into space, perpendicular to the disc. Credit: DESY, Science Communication Lab

    Scientists trace a single neutrino back to a galaxy billions of light years away. Using an internationally organised astronomical dragnet, scientist have for the first time located a source of high-energy cosmic neutrinos, that travel billions of light years through the universe, flying unaffected through stars, planets and entire galaxies. The joint observation campaign was triggered by a single neutrino that had been recorded by the IceCube neutrino telescope at the South Pole, on 22 September 2017...

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    Colorful Celestial Landscape

    July 12, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    New observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope show the star cluster RCW 38 in all its glory. This image was taken during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system. It shows the cluster and its surrounding clouds of brightly glowing gas in exquisite detail, with dark tendrils of dust threading through the bright core of this young gathering of stars. Credit: ESO/K. Muzic

    New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope show the star cluster RCW 38 in all its glory. This image was taken during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system. It shows the cluster and its surrounding clouds of brightly glowing gas in exquisite detail, with dark tendrils of dust threading through the bright core of this young gathering of stars. Credit: ESO/K. Muzic

    New observations show the star cluster RCW 38 in all its glory. This image was taken during testing of the HAWK-I camera with the GRAAL adaptive optics system. It shows RCW 38 and its surrounding clouds of brightly glowing gas in exquisite detail, with dark tendrils of dust threading through the bright core of this young gathering of stars.

    By gazing into infrared wavelengths, HAWK-I can examine ...

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