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Counting universes ought to be easy. By definition, you can stop at 1. Trouble is, definitions change. A century ago, the “universe” was defined as the Milky Way galaxy. Heretics who disagreed had long been ridiculed— until science staged what became known as the Great Debate, on April 26, 100 years ago. On that date, […] More
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 is one of the most spectacular galaxies in the heavens, but the dramatic bar that pierces its heart produces few if any stars — even though the bar abounds with the raw material for creating them. New computer simulations may explain the paradox in this and other galaxies with […] More
The sharpest images yet taken of the sun’s atmosphere reveal superfine threads of hot plasma draped across small regions that have appeared rather bland until now. Finding these slender strands is essential for understanding how energy moves around in the sun’s atmosphere, says Amy Winebarger, a solar physicist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in […] More
The solar system’s first recorded interstellar visitor has a new proposed origin story. The enigmatic celestial object known as ‘Oumuamua might be a shard of a planet ripped apart by its star’s gravity, researchers suggest April 13 in Nature Astronomy. Ever since ‘Oumuamua showed up in our solar system in 2017, astronomers have struggled to […] More
On one distant world, “heavy metal” could be a weather forecast. Telescope observations indicate that an exoplanet nearly 400 light-years away has iron rain. The planet, dubbed WASP 76b, is an extreme kind of exoplanet known as an ultrahot gas giant (SN: 7/30/19). These worlds “are complete oddballs,” says astronomer David Ehrenreich of the University […] More
The finding suggests large structures in the cosmic web are magnetized MAGNETIC CONNECTION Two distant galaxy clusters, Abell 0399 (left) and Abell 0401 (right), are connected by magnetic fields containing high-energy electrons. X-rays from the cluster cores are shown in purple, and radio emission from the magnetic bridge forms the blue-toned smear in between. DSS, […] More
The discovery could shed light on how galaxies and black holes grow up together A MIGHTY WIND Supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies can blow gas and plasma far away from their galaxies, as shown in this artist’s illustration based on the Pinwheel galaxy. JPL-Caltech/NASA Share this: This article is only available to […] More
The tally counts up the stray photons roaming through space THROUGH THE DARKNESS Gamma rays bursting from distant galaxies, like the one shown in the center of this artist’s illustration, can illuminate the diffuse light, called extragalactic background light, that manages escape its dusty environs. Aurore Simonnet/Swift/NASA Share this: This article is only available to […] More
