March 10, 2013 Sharpless 308, a cosmic bubble in Canis Major Image Credit: ESA, J. Toala & M. Guerrero (IAA-CSIC), Y.-H. Chu & R. Gruendl (UIUC), S. Arthur (CRyA–UNAM), R. Smith (NOAO/CTIO), S. Snowden (NASA/GSFC) and G. Ramos-Larios (IAM) Sharpless 308 (also known as Sh2-308 or S 308) is a cosmic bubble of nearly 60 [continue reading]
Two X-ray space observatories, NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton, have teamed up to measure definitively, for the first time, the spin rate of a black hole with a mass 2 million times that of our Sun. This artist’s concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to [continue reading]
ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory has completed the most detailed study ever of the fierce wind from a giant star, showing for the first time that it is not a uniform breeze but is fragmented into hundreds of thousands of pieces. Artist’s impression comparing a smooth stellar wind (left) with a highly fragmented stellar wind [continue reading]
KIPAC scientists use X-ray observations show how galaxies shape their environment, and vice-versa A major component of our understanding of galaxy evolution that has remained elusive is the influence of the local environment on the galaxy, especially when discussing galaxies in large clusters. Galaxy clusters, the largest gravitationally bound objects in the Universe, [continue reading]
Very sensitive, wide-field observations with a worldwide network of radio telescopes have uncovered supermassive black holes residing in the center of dust obscured galaxies. In some cases, the amount of dust is so large that even x-rays from the accreting black holes are absorbed in these systems. This is the result of research done by astronomers [continue reading]
One of the lowest mass supermassive black holes ever observed in the middle of a galaxy has been identified, thanks to NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other observatories. The host galaxy is of a type not expected to harbor supermassive black holes, suggesting that this black hole, while related to its supermassive cousins, [continue reading]