Bursts of light hint that a star in a nearby galaxy was partially shredded in 2022 and 2024 and might be in for another round.
Category: cosmology – Page 17
An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of a new pulsar, which received the designation PSR J1631–4722. The newfound pulsar, which is young and energetic, turns out to be associated with a supernova remnant known as SNR G336.7+0.5. The finding was detailed in a research paper published Dec. 16 on the arXiv pre-print server.
Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars emitting a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They are usually detected in the form of short bursts of radio emission; however, some of them are also observed via optical, X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.
Pulsars directly associated with known supernova remnants (SNRs) are generally rare as only dozens of such objects have been discovered to date. Finding these associations is crucial for astronomers as they could shed more light on pulsar formation history and supernova explosion mechanisms.
A glowing galaxy not far from the Milky Way has been harboring a strange, puzzling secret at its core.
In the center of NGC 5,084, some 80 million light-years away, the supermassive black hole around which the whole galaxy revolves has been discovered tipped over on its side, with its rotational axis parallel to the galactic plane.
It’s a bit like the Uranus of black holes, and astronomers are uncertain how it could have gotten that way – especially since the evidence suggests that it wasn’t always oriented as it is in our current observations.
In the words of one of the researchers: “Black holes are not as destructive as we thought”
The black hole information paradox has puzzled physicists for decades. New research shows how quantum connections in spacetime itself may resolve the paradox, and in the process leave behind a subtle signature in gravitational waves.
For a long time we thought black holes, as mysterious as they were, didn’t cause any trouble. Information can’t be created or destroyed, but when objects fall below the event horizons, the information they carry with them is forever locked from view. Crucially, it’s not destroyed, just hidden.
But then Stephen Hawking discovered that black holes aren’t entirely black. They emit a small amount of radiation and eventually evaporate, disappearing from the cosmic scene entirely. But that radiation doesn’t carry any information with it, which created the famous paradox: When the black hole dies, where does all its information go?
Astronomers have made a startling discovery. Using data from the eRosita X-ray instrument, researchers say they’ve discovered a “cosmic tunnel” that connects our solar system to other stars.
Scientists have long known that our solar system exists in a Local Hot Bubble. This bubble is believed to have formed following several supernovas over the past several million years and is estimated to be around 300 light-years across.
Using data from the eRosita, researchers from the Max Planck Institute say they found evidence of a cosmic tunnel stretching from our solar system out toward the Centaurus constellation. The tunnel appears to move through the material that makes up the Local Hot Bubble.
This week’s featured image from the Hubble Space Telescope showcases the spiral galaxy NGC 337, located approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus, also known as The Whale.
The stunning image merges observations captured in two different wavelengths, revealing the galaxy’s striking features. Its golden-hued center glows with the light of older stars, while its vibrant blue edges shimmer with the energy of young, newly formed stars. Had Hubble captured NGC 337 about a decade ago, it would have witnessed an extraordinary sight among the galaxy’s hot blue stars — a dazzling supernova illuminating its outskirts.
Named SN 2014cx, the supernova is remarkable for having been discovered nearly simultaneously in two vastly different ways: by a prolific supernova hunter, Koichi Itagaki, and by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). ASAS-SN is a worldwide network of robotic telescopes that scans the sky for sudden events like supernovae.
Astronomers have discovered a new way to study black holes, the mysterious cosmic entities that destroy anything in their path. By observing X-ray bursts from a star being torn apart by a black hole, researchers calculated the black hole’s spin rate for the first time using X-rays. The black hole was found spinning at nearly 50 percent of the speed of light. This research, published in Science, opens new possibilities for understanding black holes’ behavior and evolution.
The discovery dates back to November 2014, when astronomers observed a supermassive black hole in a galaxy 300 million light years away. This black hole ripped apart a star that had ventured too close, an event known as a tidal disruption flare. The flare generated intense bursts of X-rays that were visible from Earth. Since black holes themselves don’t produce many X-rays, researchers saw an opportunity to study this flare closely.
String theory proposes that all particles and forces are made of tiny, vibrating strings, which form the fundamental building blocks of the universe. This framework offers a potential solution to the long-standing paradoxes surrounding black holes, such as their singularities—infinitely tiny points where the laws of physics break down—and the Hawking radiation paradox, which questions the fate of information falling into black holes.
Fuzzballs replace the singularity with an ultra-compressed sphere of strings, likened to a neutron star’s structure but composed of subatomic strings instead of particles. While the theory remains incomplete, its implications are significant, offering an alternative explanation for phenomena previously attributed to black holes.
To differentiate between black holes and fuzzballs, researchers are turning to gravitational waves—ripples in spacetime caused by cosmic collisions. When black holes merge, they emit specific gravitational wave signatures that have so far aligned perfectly with Einstein’s general relativity. However, fuzzballs might produce subtle deviations from these patterns, providing a way to confirm their existence.
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Written by @PaulMSutter
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Edited by Manuel Rubio @ArtandContext
Narrated by David Kelly.
Thumbnail art by Ettore Mazza: https://www.instagram.com/ettore.mazz…
Big Bang Animations by Jero Squartini https://www.fiverr.com/share/0v7Kjv using Manim — MIT License, © 2020–2023 3Blue1Brown LLC
Other animations by Siji Sheehan.
Sound Editing by Craig Stevenson.
Galaxies, space videos from NASA, ESO, and ESA