Category Astronomy/Space

The sun is emitting plumes of hydrogen plasma. The white areas are where the sun’s magnetic field is especially strong. Credit: SoHO, a joint project of the European Space Agency and NASA

Surprising observation might reveal what the sun was like when it formed. The sun’s core rotates nearly 4X faster than the sun’s surface, according to new findings by an international team of astronomers. Scientists had assumed the core was rotating like a merry-go-round at about the same speed as the surface. “The most likely explanation is that this core rotation is left over from the period when the sun formed, some 4.6 billion years ago,” said Roger Ulrich, a UCLA professor emeritus of astronomy, who has studied the sun’s interior for more than 40 years...

This artist’s impression of SN 2017egm shows the power source for this extraordinarily bright supernova. The explosion was triggered by a massive star that collapsed to form a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field and rapid spin, called a magnetar. Debris from the supernova explosion is shown in blue, and the magnetar is shown in red. (Credit: M. Weiss/CfA)

Many rock stars don’t like to play by the rules, and a cosmic one is no exception. A team of astronomers has discovered that an extraordinarily bright supernova occurred in a surprising location. This “heavy metal” supernova discovery challenges current ideas of how and where such super-charged supernovas occur. Supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the Universe...