Category Astronomy/Space

This is a 3-D visualization of reconstructed dark matter clump distributions in a distant galaxy cluster, obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields data. The unseen matter in this map is comprised of a smooth heap of dark matter on which clumps form. Credit: Yale University

The dark matter map is derived from Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields data of a trio of galaxy clusters that act as cosmic magnifying glasses to peer into older, more distant parts of the universe, a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Yale astrophysicist Priyamvada Natarajan led an international team of researchers that analyzed the Hubble images...

Caption: An artist’s conception of a free-floating planet analog courtesy of NASA/JPL.

There may be a large number of undetected bright, substellar objects similar to giant exoplanets in our own solar neighborhood, according to new work from a team led by Carnegie’s Jonathan Gagné and including researchers from the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at Université de Montréal. Similarly-aged stars moving through space together in a group, ie an association – are of great interest to researchers, as they are considered a prime target to hunt for brown dwarfs and free-floating planet-like objects.

Recent studies of an association of stars called TW Hya have revealed some of the first known isolated giant planet-sized objects in the neighborhood of our own Sun, ~100 light years a...

These images of the sun were captured at the same time on Jan. 29, 2017 by the six channels on the SUVI instrument on board GOES-16 and show a large coronal hole in the sun’s southern hemisphere. Each channel observes the sun at a different wavelength, allowing scientists to detect a wide range of solar phenomena important for space weather forecasting. Credit: NOAA

The first images from the Solar Ultraviolet Imager or SUVI instrument aboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite have been successful, capturing a large coronal hole on Jan. 29, 2017...

In the heart of an active galaxy, matter falling toward a supermassive black hole generates jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

When the universe was young, a supermassive black hole – bloated to the bursting point with stupendous power – heaved out a jet of particle-infused energy that raced through the vastness of space at nearly the speed of light. Billions of years later, a trio of Clemson University scientists, led by College of Science astrophysicist Marco Ajello, has identified this black hole and 4 others similar to it that range in age from 1.4 billion to 1.9 billion years old...