New findings published this week in Physical Review Letters suggest that carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen cosmic rays travel through the galaxy toward Earth in a similar way, but, surprisingly, that iron arrives at Earth differently. Learning more about how cosmic rays move through the galaxy helps address a fundamental, lingering question in astrophysics: How is … Read more
The long relationships between stars and the planets around them—including the Sun and the Earth—maybe even more complex than previously thought. This is one conclusion of a new study involving thousands of stars using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. By conducting the largest survey ever of star-forming regions in X-rays, a team of researchers has helped … Read more
At the heart of almost every sufficiently massive galaxy, there is a black hole whose gravitational field, although very intense, affects only a small region around the centre of the galaxy. Even though these objects are thousands of millions of times smaller than their host galaxies, our current view is that the Universe can be … Read more
The widely studied metallic asteroid known as 16 Psyche was long thought to be the exposed iron core of a small planet that failed to form during the solar system’s earliest days. But new University of Arizona-led research suggests that the asteroid might not be as metallic or dense as once thought and hints at … Read more
As we all know, the Sun is a giant ball of plasma, and like any plasma, it should support Alfven waves. Alfven waves are waves in a plasma where the ions move in response to tension from a magnetic field. Scientists predicted it 50 years ago until now we had not been able to see them. … Read more
Astronomers are able to measure the masses of black holes in a relatively straightforward way: watching how matter moves in their vicinity (including other black holes), affected by the gravitational field.
Scientists have spotted evidence of Jupiter-like stripes in the thick atmosphere of a nearby brown dwarf, a new study reports — and this evidence was gathered in a novel way.
For the first time ever, astronomers have measured wind speed on a brown dwarf, or “failed star,” an object heftier than a planet but not massive enough to host the fusion reactions that power stars.
A newfound black hole may be the closest black hole to Earth, and you can spot its cosmic home in the night sky without a telescope.
The breakthrough by the researchers revealed that a symmetry that exists within the core of atoms is not as fundamental as scientists have believed. The discovery sheds light on the forces at work within the nucleus of atoms, opening the door to a greater understanding of the universe.
A new study using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton challenges one of the fundamental ideas of cosmology that everything looks the same in all directions if you look over large enough distances.
A double star system has been flipping between two alter egos, according to observations with Chandra X-ray Observatory and The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array(VLA). Using nearly a decade and a half worth of Chandra data, researchers noticed that a stellar duo behaved like one type of object before switching its identity … Read more