Magnetars — the dense remains of dead stars that erupt sporadically with bursts of high-energy radiation — are some of the most extreme objects known in the Universe. A major campaign using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other satellites shows magnetars may be more diverse — and common — than previously thought. This [continue reading]
A rare encounter between two gas-rich galaxies spotted by ESA’s Herschel space observatory indicates a solution to an outstanding problem: how did massive, passive galaxies form in the early Universe? Several telescopes have teamed up to discover a rare and massive merging of two galaxies that took place when the Universe was just 3 [continue reading]
A team of astronomers led by Jose Dias do Nascimento (Department of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte [DFTE, UFRN], Brazil) has found the farthest known solar twin in the Milky Way Galaxy, CoRoT Sol 1, which has about the same mass and chemical composition as the Sun. Figure [continue reading]
ESA’s Herschel space observatory has discovered an extremely distant galaxy making stars more than 2000 times faster than our own Milky Way. Seen at a time when the Universe was less than a billion years old, its mere existence challenges our theories of galaxy evolution. Artist’s impression of starburst galaxy HFLS3. The galaxy appears [continue reading]
Using the new KAT-7 telescope in the Karoo and the existing 26 m radio telescope at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), South African and international astronomers have observed a neutron star system known as Circinus X-1 as it fires energetic matter from its core in extensive, compact jets that flare brightly. The details [continue reading]
ESA’s Herschel space observatory has made detailed observations of surprisingly hot molecular gas that may be orbiting or falling towards the supermassive black hole lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The environment at the centre of our Milky Way Galaxy. The Galactic Centre hosts a supermassive black hole in the region known as [continue reading]