Category Astronomy/Space

This composite image of E0102 allows astronomers to learn new details about this object discovered more than three decades ago. X-rays from Chandra are blue and purple, and visible light data from VLT’s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument are bright red. Additional data from the Hubble Space Telescope are dark red and green. Credit: X-ray (NASA/CXC/ESO/F.Vogt et al); Optical (ESO/VLT/MUSE & NASA/STScI)

Astronomers have discovered a special kind of neutron star for the first time outside of the Milky Way galaxy, using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Neutron stars are the ultra dense cores of massive stars that collapse and undergo a supernova explosion...

One of the new dark-galaxy candidates, identified through a combination of spectral information (left) and images reflecting the emission of gas (middle) and stars (right). The position of the dark-galaxy candidate is marked by the red circle. Credit: R. A. Marino / MUSE

The identification of at least six candidates for dark galaxies could help filling an important gap in our understanding of galaxy evolution. Dark galaxies have a few (if any) stars in them and are, for that reason, notoriously difficult to detect with current instruments.

Despite substantial progress over the past half a century in understanding of how galaxies form, important open questions remain regarding how precisely the diffuse gas known as the ‘intergalactic medium’ is converted into stars...

The pulsar PSR B1957+20 is seen in the background through the cloud of gas enveloping its brown dwarf star companion. Credit: Dr. Mark A. Garlick; Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto

A team of astronomers has performed one of the highest resolution observations in astronomical history of a pulsar 6,500 light-years away. The observation is equivalent to using a telescope on Earth to see a flea on the surface of Pluto. The extraordinary observation was made possible by the rare geometry and characteristics of a pair of stars orbiting each other. One is a cool, lightweight star called a brown dwarf, which features a “wake” or comet-like tail of gas. The other is an exotic, rapidly spinning star called a pulsar.

“The gas is acting as like a magnifying glass rig...

Formation of Atlas, one of the small inner moons of Saturn. Its flat, ravioli-like shape is the result of a merging collision of two similar-sized bodies. The picture is a snapshot in mid-collision, before the moon’s reorientation due to tides is completed. Credit: A. Verdier

The small inner moons of Saturn look like giant ravioli and spaetzle. Their spectacular shape has been revealed by the Cassini spacecraft. For the first time, researchers of the University of Bern show how these moons were formed. The peculiar shapes are a natural outcome of merging collisions among similar-sized little moons as computer simulations demonstrate.

When Martin Rubin, astrophysicist at the University of Bern, saw the images of Saturn’s moons Pan and Atlas on the internet, he was puzzled...