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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Supermassive Black Hole caught burping — twice

    January 14, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an image of galaxy SDSS J1354+1327 (lower center) and its companion galaxy SDSS J1354+1328 (upper right). The inset panel to the right is a four-color image that combines Hubble red, green and blue filtered exposures with Chandra X-ray observations colored purple. The Hubble image shows the northern bubble of hot ionized gas in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The black hole appears to have blasted out jets of bright light from gas it’s accreting from thecompanion galaxy. This happened twice in the past 100,000 years. While astronomers have predicted such objects can flicker on and off as a result of gas-feeding events, this is the first time one has convincingly been caught in the act. The galaxy pair is 800 million light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA , ESA, and J. Comerford (University of Colorado-Boulder)

    This is an image of galaxy SDSS J1354+1327 (lower center) and its companion galaxy SDSS J1354+1328 (upper right). The inset panel to the right is a four-color image that combines Hubble red, green and blue filtered exposures with Chandra X-ray observations colored purple. The Hubble image shows the northern bubble of hot ionized gas in the vicinity of a supermassive black hole. The black hole appears to have blasted out jets of bright light from gas it’s accreting from thecompanion galaxy. This happened twice in the past 100,000 years. While astronomers have predicted such objects can flicker on and off as a result of gas-feeding events, this is the first time one has convincingly been caught in the act. The galaxy pair is 800 million light-years from Earth. Credit: NASA , ESA, and J...

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    Swarm of Hydrogen Clouds flying away from center of the Milky Way

    January 14, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    GBT reveals hydrogen clouds flying out of the Milky Way in the Fermi Bubbles. Credit: Illustration and Design: V. Vosteen; Photo: S. Brunier (GBO/AUI/NSF)

    GBT reveals hydrogen clouds flying out of the Milky Way in the Fermi Bubbles. Credit: Illustration and Design: V. Vosteen; Photo: S. Brunier (GBO/AUI/NSF)

    A team has discovered what appears to be a grand exodus of >100 hydrogen clouds streaming away from the center of the Milky Way and heading into intergalactic space. This observation, made with the National Science Foundation’s Green Bank Telescope (GBT), may give astronomers a clearer picture of the so-called Fermi Bubbles, giant balloons of superheated gas billowing out above and below the disk of our galaxy.

    “The center of the Milky Way is a special place,” notes Jay Lockman, an astronomer at the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia...

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    Astronomers uncover Largest known Population of Brown Dwarfs sprinkled among Newborn stars in the Orion Nebula

    January 13, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This image is part of a Hubble Space Telescope survey for low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets in the Orion Nebula. Each symbol identifies a pair of objects, which can be seen in the symbol's center as a single dot of light. Special image processing techniques were used to separate the starlight into a pair of objects. The thicker inner circle represents the primary body, and the thinner outer circle indicates the companion. The circles are color-coded: red for a planet; orange for a brown dwarf; and yellow for a star. Located in the upper left corner is a planet-planet pair in the absence of a parent star. In the middle of the right side is a pair of brown dwarfs. The portion of the Orion Nebula measures roughly four by three light-years. Credit: NASA , ESA, and G. Strampelli (STScI)

    This image is part of a Hubble Space Telescope survey for low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and planets in the Orion Nebula. Each symbol identifies a pair of objects, which can be seen in the symbol’s center as a single dot of light. Special image processing techniques were used to separate the starlight into a pair of objects. The thicker inner circle represents the primary body, and the thinner outer circle indicates the companion. The circles are color-coded: red for a planet; orange for a brown dwarf; and yellow for a star. Located in the upper left corner is a planet-planet pair in the absence of a parent star. In the middle of the right side is a pair of brown dwarfs. The portion of the Orion Nebula measures roughly four by three light-years. Credit: NASA , ESA, and G. Strampelli (STScI)

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    Faint Galactic Glow: Intriguing Organic molecule Benzonitrile in interstellar space

    January 13, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    The aromatic molecule benzonitrile was detected by the GBT in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1). Credit: B. McGuire, B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

    The aromatic molecule benzonitrile was detected by the GBT in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 (TMC-1). Credit: B. McGuire, B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

    Astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope have made the first definitive interstellar detection of benzonitrile, an intriguing organic molecule that helps to chemically link simple carbon-based molecules and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This discovery is a vital clue in a 30-year-old mystery: identifying the source of a faint infrared glow that permeates the Milky Way and other galaxies.

    Astronomers had a mystery on their hands. No matter where they looked, from inside the Milky Way to distant galaxies, they observed a puzzling glow of infrared light...

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