Tag Archives: cosmic

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An X-ray jet blasts through wreckage surrounding a supernova. | Credit: NASA/Swift/Cruz deWilde Astronomers have used a newly discovered and still mysterious class of cosmic explosions to better understand the process of stellar life and death in the distant universe. The blasts in …

A new study has returned to a popular Milky Way attraction, formed by a fast-spinning dead star core that scientists say is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the galaxy.  At the heart of this colorful nebula is a so-called pulsar, a type of neutron star that blasts streams of high-energy particles through space as it revolves like …

Astronomers have used a newly discovered and still mysterious class of cosmic explosions to better understand the process of stellar life and death in the distant universe. The blasts in question are Fast X-ray Transients (FXTs), recently discovered outbursts of X-rays that last for just a few minutes. The source of FXTs has been shrouded in mystery. Now, with the …

Put them together and you get a remarkable puzzle. Black holes devour stars and interstellar gas. This causes them to grow. But they also turn into quasars, excreting blasts of raw energy back out into space, sparking another cycle of star formation. So which came first? Is a black hole a chicken? Or an egg? “With this latest find, we …

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that a seemingly ordinary white dwarf star is actually the result of a dramatic stellar merger. This result, detailed in a new study led by Snehalata Sahu and Boris Gaensicke of the University of Warwick in the U.K., suggests that other “normal-looking” white dwarfs scattered throughout the universe could also have violent …

Astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery that unveils one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: the elusive ordinary matter that lies between galaxies. For decades, scientists have struggled to detect the full extent of normal matter, which makes up stars, planets, and everything we know. This matter is vastly different from dark matter, which is invisible and detectable only through its …

Humans have long imagined space to be an empty frontier where only roving planets and far-off stars may travel. However, new research puts that idea to the test as astronomers have discovered a hidden system of ‘interstellar tunnels’ that connect our Solar System to the rest of the galaxy in surprising ways. According to the study published in the journal …

The new image, dubbed the “Eye of Sauron,” shows the complex magnetic field of a high-energy jet being shot directly at Earth by a distant blazar. (Image credit: Y.Y. Kovalev et al.) Astronomers have snapped a stunning shot of the complex magnetic field of a gigantic energy jet, dubbed the “Eye of Sauron,” staring directly at us from across the …

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have stumbled upon a powerful and mysterious astrophysical object in the NGC 4945 galaxy, which lies about 11 million light-years away from Earth. This enigmatic object, dubbed “Punctum,” has sparked a flurry of curiosity and debate among astronomers. First identified by a team led by Elena Shablovinskaia of the Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos at the …

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be a discovery machine, thanks to its wide field of view and resulting torrent of data. Scheduled to launch no later than May 2027, with the team working toward launch as early as fall 2026, its near-infrared Wide Field Instrument will capture an area 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared …