A “beautiful effect” predicted by quantum electrodynamics (QED) can explain the puzzling first observations of polarized X-rays emitted by a magnetar – a neutron star featuring a powerful magnetic field,…
Category: Space
‘H’ is for hot and huge in Chandra image
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Princeton Univ/C. Bambic et al.; Optical: SDSS; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA/ESO; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N.Wolk With a single letter seemingly etched in the X-ray glow around it, a giant black hole…
Mysterious flashes: Now we have double the number of known ‘repeating fast radio bursts’
Astronomers in the Canadian-led CHIME/FRB Collaboration – including researchers from the University of Toronto – have doubled the number of known repeating sources of mysterious flashes of radio waves, known as…
Pressure required to launch a rock from Mars into space much lower than thought, discovers study
A Martian meteorite, designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 and nicknamed “Black Beauty,” weighing approximately 11 ounces. Caltech researchers have now discovered that the shock pressure necessary to launch rocks from…
New map of the universe’s cosmic growth supports Einstein’s theory of gravity
Cosmic growth: unlike ancient philosophers imagining the universe’s origins, modern cosmologists use quantitative tools to gain insights into its evolution and structure. Modern cosmology dates back to the early 20th…
New video series captures team working on NASA’s Europa Clipper
Engineers and technicians work on the towering main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. A new video series lifts the curtain on the clean…
The Cosmochemist’s Guide to the Galaxy
At the end of 2020, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully returned about 5.4 grams of the asteroid Ryugu. NASA’s sister mission, OSIRIS-REx, is currently flying back to Earth with…
Environmental groups sue FAA over SpaceX Texas rocket launch
SpaceX’s Starship turns after its launch from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, Thursday, April 20, 2023. The Federal Aviation Administration is being sued by wildlife and environmental groups over SpaceX’s…
The Young Cluster of Galaxies at the Edge of the Universe
An image of many oval and spiral shaped galaxies. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Takahiro Morishita (IPAC); Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) Astronomers have looked back in time to the early…
A supermassive black hole and its jet, all in a single picture
This image shows the jet and shadow of the black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy together for the first time. The observations were obtained with a set…
