Category Astronomy/Space

Artist’s illustration of turbulent winds of gas swirling around a black hole. Some of the gas is spiraling inward, but some is being blown away.

New research led by astrophysicists at York University has revealed the fastest winds ever seen at UV wavelengths near a supermassive black hole. “We’re talking wind speeds of 20% the speed of light, which is more than 200 million kilometres an hour. That’s equivalent to a category 77 hurricane,” says Jesse Rogerson, York U. “And we have reason to believe that there are quasar winds that are even faster.”

Astronomers have known about the existence of quasar winds since the late 1960s. At least 1 in 4 quasars have them...

This is Robotelescope MASTER II, created by a joint force of the Lomonosow Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute (GAISh) scientists, and Moscow Union “Optica”. Credit: Lomonosow Moscow State University

3 years ago a team of Russian scientists working with the global MASTER network of robotic telescopes spotted that the giant star in Leo minor with a catalogue number TYC 2505-672-1, which was considered to be extinct, in fact just faded – its brightness decreased nearly 100 times.

The MASTER network of telescopes was constructed by MSU scientists for a purpose of detecting and researching Gamma-ray bursts and also thermonuclear flashes on white dwarfs, galactic center flares and quasars...

An artist’s rendering shows the planet HD 20782, the most eccentric planet ever known, passing its star in close orbit. Credit: NASA

Extrasolar planet swings around its star like it’s a comet. Led by SF State Uni astronomer Stephen Kane, a team has spotted an extrasolar planet about 117 light-years from earth that boasts the most eccentric orbit yet seen. They detected a signal of reflected light from the planet HD 20782 – a “flash” of starlight bouncing off the eccentric planet’s atmosphere as it made its closest orbital approach to its star.

In this case, “eccentric” refers to how elliptical a planet’s orbit is around its star...

Image from “The atmosphere of Pluto as observed by New Horizons,” by G.R. Gladstone et al. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the March 18, 2016, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by G.R. Gladstone at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, and colleagues was titled, “The atmosphere of Pluto as observed by New Horizons.” Credit: G.R. Gladstone et al. / Science (2016)

Pluto’s surface exhibits a wide variety of landscapes, results from 5 new studies in this special issue on the New Horizons mission report. The dwarf planet has more differences than similarities with its large moon, Charon. What’s more, the studies in this package reveal, Pluto modifies its space environment – interacting with the solar wind plasma and energetic particles around it...