Category Astronomy/Space

Principle of the experimental test of the inverse-square law of the gravity in nano-meter scale via neutron scattering. Deviation from the inverse-square law will be observed as the modification in the angular distribution of the scattered neutrons. Credit: The NOP collaboration

Scientists use high-sensitivity experiments to probe exotic gravitational force. Scientists have used a pulsed slow neutron beamline to probe the deviation of the inverse square law of gravity below the wavelength of 0.1 nm. The experiment achieved the highest sensitivity for a neutron experiment demonstrated to date, and is a significant step toward determining whether the space we live in is really limited to the 3 dimensions most are familiar with.

Often, practical limits control the experimental measurements th...

The galaxy Markarian 231, the nearest quasar to Earth, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy is the product of a merger between two galaxies. Astronomers have discovered the signatures of the ionized molecules OH+ and H2O+ in its massive outflow and argue that shock-induced cosmic rays are responsible for their ionization. Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University

There is a process at work in most galaxies that affects both the central black hole mass as well as the galaxy’s global velocity structure and luminosity. Astronomers suspect that feedback of some kind is involved, and one popular mechanism is outflowing gas...

Space Observatory Captures the Details of an Unusual Stellar Detonation

The universe is full of mysterious exploding phenomena that go boom in the dark. One particular type of ephemeral event, called a Fast-Evolving Luminous Transient (FELT), has bewildered astronomers for a decade because of its very brief duration. Now, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope—designed to go hunting for planets across our galaxy—has also been used to catch FELTs in the act and determine their nature. They appear to be a new kind of supernova that gets a brief turbo boost in brightness from its surroundings.

Kepler’s ability to precisely sample sudden changes in starlight has allowed astronomers to quickly arrive at this model for explaining FELTs, and rule out alternative explanations...

This is a photo mosaic of an edge-on view of the Milky Way galaxy, looking toward the central bulge. Superimposed on it are radio-telescope images, colored pink, of the stretched, arc-shaped Magellanic Stream below the plane of the galaxy and the shredded, fragmented Leading Arm crossing the galaxy’s plane and extending above it. These gas clouds are being gravitationally pulled apart like taffy from the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds—satellite galaxies to our Milky Way—which appear as bright clumps within the gas. Credit: Illustration: D. Nidever et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF and A. Mellinger, Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) Survey, Parkes Observatory, Westerbork Observatory, Arecibo Observatory, and A. Feild (STScI) Science: NASA, ESA, and A. Fox (STScI)

On the outskirts of our galaxy, a cos...