News by Subject Space & Planetary

A new study, led by a theoretical physicist at Berkeley Lab, suggests that never-before-observed particles called axions may be the source of unexplained, high-energy X-ray emissions surrounding a group of neutron stars.

Astronomers have catalogued 126 years of changes to HS Hydra, a rare evolving eclipsing binary star system. Analyzing observations from astro-photographic plates in the late 1800s to TESS observations in 2019, they show that the two stars in HS Hydrae began to eclipse each other around a century ago, peaking in the 1960s. The degree of eclipsing then plummeted over the course of just a half century, and will cease around February 2021.

When three galaxies collide, what happens to the huge black holes at the centers of each? A new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes reveals new information about how many black holes are furiously growing after these galactic smash ups.

On April 15, 2020, a brief burst of high-energy light swept through the solar system, triggering instruments on many NASA spacecraft. Scientists think the blast came from a supermagnetized stellar remnant located in a neighboring galaxy.

Magnetars in the Milky Way have a distinctive X-ray signature, which allowed astronomers to associate rare giant gamma-ray bursts with these neutron stars. But how to identify extragalactic magnetars, which are too distant to display the faint signal that characterizes galactic magnetars? A recently discovered short gamma ray burst was localized to a star-forming region in a nearby galaxy, leading astronomers to believe they've found a fingerprint that will help locate more extragalactic magnetars.

Earth gets blasted by mild gamma ray bursts most days. But sometimes a giant flare like GRB 200415A arrives at our galaxy, sweeping along energy that dwarfs our sun. It erupted from a rare, powerful neutron star called a magnetar - giving new clues to GRB origins - and from relatively nearby. The extreme explosions from these bursts can disrupt mobile phone reception, and can also be messengers from the very early history of the universe.

Yellowstone National Park's Old Faithful geyser regularly blasts a jet of boiling water high in the air. Now, an international team of astronomers has discovered a cosmic equivalent, a distant galaxy that erupts roughly every 114 days.

In 2020, astronomers added a new member to an exclusive family of exotic objects with the discovery of a magnetar. New observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory help support the idea that it is also a pulsar, meaning it emits regular pulses of light.

Chinese scientists have established the world's first integrated quantum communication network, combining over 700 optical fibers on the ground with two ground-to-satellite links to achieve quantum key distribution over a total distance of 4,600 kilometers for users across the country.

Rocks on Ryugu, a 'rubble pile' near-Earth asteroid recently visited by Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft, appear to have lost much of their water before they came together to form the asteroid, new research suggests.