See the heart of the Milky Way as it’s never been captured before
The radio telescope images from South Africa show us the black hole, exploded stars, and magnetized streaks at the heart of the Milky Way.
Tag: supernovas
Astronomers may have an origin story for ‘The Cow,’ a mysteriously powerful cosmic blast
Telescopes captured lots of data from an unusually bright, short-lived star explosion in June 2018. Such supernovae defy usual explanations.
Blindingly bright black holes could help cosmologists see deeper into the universe’s past
The blinding light of quasars, which emanate from black holes, could reveal more about the relatively murky early history of our cosmos.
This could be a brand new type of supernova
A recent supernova may have been caused by a theorized but never observed phenomenon: the merger of a star with a black hole or neutron star.
Astronomers just confirmed a new type of supernova
An astronomer hypothesized this new, third type of star explosion over 40 years ago. Now scientists have proof electron-capture supernovae really occur.
We finally know why the Betelgeuse star dimmed—and it’s not what you think
Stargazers were stumped when the brightest star in the Orion constellation started dramatically fading. Now we know what really happened.
Stars are dying all across the galaxy—why don’t we see them?
Astronomers estimate that perhaps 50 stars have exploded in our galaxy during the last millennium—one roughly every two decades. But the 1054 supernova is one of just five stellar detonations that researchers have confidently identified in historical records, the last of which took place more than 400 years ago. So where are all the supernovae? Where are our celestial fireworks?
Ancient supernovas may have pierced moon rocks with star shrapnel
In a not-yet-peer-reviewed preprint, two researchers are proposing that signs of another cosmic connection could lie undetected in labs and museums around the world. Exploding stars could, according to their results, have expelled bursts of dust particles that rocketed across the Milky Way, eventually burying themselves in lunar rocks.
NASA’s top observatories teamed up to capture an imploding star in captivating 3D
A stunning new three-dimensional image of the Crab Nebula provides insight into the stellar object’s complicated past.
We really don’t know when Betelgeuse is going to explode
We’ve known the star’s days are numbered for quite some time, but unusual activity has scientists keeping a close eye.