Category Astronomy/Space

Chandra image of the black hole at the center of spiral galaxy M81. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA

A high-performance computing researcher has predicted a physical effect that would help physicists and astronomers provide fresh evidence of the correctness of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Bin Chen, who works at the university’s Research Computing Center, describes the yet-to-be-observed effect in the paper “Probing the Gravitational Faraday Rotation Using Quasar X-ray Microlensing,” in the journal Scientific Reports. “To be able to test general relativity is of crucial importance to physicists and astronomers,” Chen said.

This testing is especially so in re...

The planet Kepler-438b is shown here in front of its violent parent star. It is regularly irradiated by huge flares of radiation, which could render the planet uninhabitable. Here the planet’s atmosphere is shown being stripped away. Credit: With credit to Mark A Garlick/University of Warwick

The most Earth-like planet could have been made uninhabitable by vast quantities of radiation.The atmosphere of the planet, Kepler-438b, is thought to have been stripped away as a result of radiation emitted from a superflaring red dwarf star, Kepler-438. Regularly occurring every few hundred days, the superflares are approximately 10X more powerful than those ever recorded on the sun and equivalent to the same energy as 100 billion megatons of TNT.

While superflares themselves are unlikely to have a ...

ESO’s VISTA survey telescope has spied a horde of previously hidden massive galaxies that existed when the Universe was in its infancy. By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have for the first time found out exactly when such monster galaxies first appeared. The newly discovered massive galaxies are marked on this image of the UltraVISTA field. Credit: ESO/UltraVISTA team. Acknowledgement: TERAPIX/CNRS/INSU/CASU

By discovering and studying more of these galaxies than ever before, astronomers have, for the first time, found out exactly when such monster galaxies first appeared...

An image of LX Cyg and its surroundings, obtained with the 80cm telescope at the University of Vienna Observatory. Credit: Stefan Uttenthaler et al./University of Vienna

A carbon star is a giant red star nearing the end of its life, with an atmosphere containing more carbon than oxygen. LX Cygni could be an interesting example of an object that is currently in the process of transitioning into a carbon star. “These observations are important to understand the chemical evolution of the universe, because most of the carbon in the universe is thought to come from stars just like LX Cygni,” Uttenthaler said.

Most of the carbon in our bodies comes from an earlier generation of stars such as LX Cygni...