Astronomers detected a black hole displaced nearly a kiloparsec from the center of a dwarf galaxy 230 million light-years away. Unlike most, it is actively feeding and producing radio jets, making it one of the most convincing off-nuclear cases ever confirmed. The discovery reveals that black holes can grow and shape galaxies even when not in the core, reshaping theories of cosmic evolution.
Read moreCuriosity is exploring Mars’ boxwork terrain, where ridges and hollows may have formed from cementation and erosion. The rover has been documenting rock textures and chemistry, comparing smoother ridge rocks with nodular hollow-edge rocks. Scientists are weighing drill sites while also monitoring dust, clouds, and long-distance features across Gale Crater.
Read moreFor the first time, a freshly made heavy element, strontium, has been detected in space, in the aftermath of a merger of two neutron stars. The detection confirms that the heavier elements in the Universe can form in neutron star mergers, providing a missing piece of the puzzle of chemical element formation.
Read moreFor the first time, astronomers have witnessed 3D motions of gas in a planet-forming disk. At three locations in the disk around a young star called HD 163296, gas is flowing like a waterfall into gaps that are most likely caused by planets in formation. These gas flows have long been predicted and would directly influence the chemical composition of planet atmospheres.
Read moreAt the center of a galaxy called NGC 1068, a supermassive black hole hides within a thick doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas. When astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study this cloud in more detail, they made an unexpected discovery that could explain why supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early Universe.
Read moreResearchers have constructed a framework for starting and raising a fusion plasma to temperatures rivaling the sun in hundreds of milliseconds.
Read moreHow do some neutron stars become the strongest magnets in the Universe? Astrophysicists have found a possible answer to the question of how these so-called magnetars form. Researchers have used large computer simulations to demonstrate how the merger of two stars creates strong magnetic fields. If such stars explode in supernovae, magnetars could result.
Read morePhysicists at Stockholm University and the Max Planck Institute for Physics have turned to plasmas in a proposal that could revolutionise the search for the elusive dark matter.
Read moreA team of scientists have discovered that the fading of infrared light following Type Ia supernovae explosions can be interrupted, with brightness staying the same for up to a year.
Read moreAstronomers have obtained an extremely high-resolution image showing two disks in which young stars are growing, fed by a complex pretzel-shaped network of filaments of gas and dust. Observing this remarkable phenomenon sheds new light on the earliest phases of the lives of stars and helps astronomers determine the conditions in which binary stars are born.
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