Category Astronomy/Space

This illustration shows a “disrupted planet” slowly broken up into a cloud of gas and dust as it orbits the star RZ Piscium about 550 light years from Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

Astronomers have discovered that a distant star, RZ Picseum, 550 light years from Earth, in the constellation Pisces is crushing one or more planets into its orbit into a vast cloud of gas and dust. The discovery may shed light on a brief but volatile period in the history of many solar systems, including our own.

“We know it’s not uncommon for planets to migrate inward in young solar systems since we’ve found so many solar systems with ‘hot Jupiters’ – gaseous planets similar in size to Jupiter but orbiting very close to their stars,” said Pilachowski, who is the Daniel Kirkwood Chair...

A hidden or ‘choked’ jet (white) powering a radio-emitting ‘cocoon’ (pink) is the best explanation for the radio waves, gamma rays and X-rays the astronomers observed. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF: D. Berr

Data distinguish between different theoretical models. 3 months of observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have allowed astronomers to zero in on the most likely explanation for what happened in the aftermath of the violent collision of a pair of neutron stars in a galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth. What they learned means that astronomers will be able to see and study many more such collisions.

On August 17, 2017, the LIGO and VIRGO gravitational-wave observatories combined to locate the faint ripples in spacetime caused by the merger of two superdense neutron stars...

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have directly observed granulation patterns on the surface of a star outside the Solar System — the ageing red giant ?1 Gruis. This remarkable new image from the PIONIER instrument reveals the convective cells that make up the surface of this huge star. Each cell covers more than a quarter of the star’s diameter and measures about 120 million kilometres across. Credit: ESO

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have for the first time directly observed granulation patterns on the surface of a star outside the Solar System – the ageing red giant π1 Gruis. This remarkable new image from the PIONIER instrument reveals the convective cells that make up the surface of this huge star, which has 350 times the diameter of the Sun...

Artist’s impression of the Halloween asteroid 2015 TB145, which resembles a human skull in certain light conditions. Credit: José Antonio Peñas/SINC

There is one year to go until asteroid 2015 TB145 approaches Earth once again, just as it did in 2015 around the night of Halloween, an occasion which astronomers did not pass up to study its characteristics. This dark object measures between 625 and 700 metres, its rotation period is around 3 hours and, in certain lighting conditions, it resembles a human skull.

An asteroid zipped past on 31 October 2015, relatively close to us, just 486,000 km away, 1.3 times the distance separating us from the Moon...