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Tag: “light years”

This artist's concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

New Insight Into TRAPPIST 1 Planets

February 7, 2018

Two new, but separate, studies provide fresh insight into planets orbiting the nearby red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. One of the studies, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggests the atmospheres of at least three of the seven TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets found so far do not seem to be as hydrogen-rich as our solar system’s gas giant […]

August 2016 Science Images

August 31, 2016

 

This artist's conception shows a blazar – the core of an active galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole. (M. Weiss/CfA)

A Blast of Gamma Rays from Halfway Across the Universe Detected

December 16, 2015

Back in April 2015, a surge of high-powered gamma rays from half-way across the universe crashed into Earth’s atmosphere. But, according to the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the burst of gamma rays didn’t put any of us in danger and produced no noticeable effects since the high-energy rays are blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. Astronomers, using […]

Artist’s impression of a black hole feasting on matter from its companion star in a binary system. Material flows from the star towards the black hole and gathers in a disc, where it is heated up, shining brightly at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths before spiralling into the black hole. (ESA/ATG medialab)

Slumbering Giant Black Hole Awakes After 26 Years

June 27, 2015

Some 8,000 light years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus, a binary system known as V404 Cygni has come to life for the first time in 26 years. While most binary systems consist of two stars orbiting a common center of mass, V404 Cygni is made up of a black hole and a star that […]

Science Images of the Week

June 6, 2014

Ultra-Light Planet Found Outside Solar System

June 4, 2013

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has discovered what appears to be the lightest planet ever to be directly observed outside of our Solar System. Astronomers made the discovery using the Very Large Telescope (VLT), located in Chile, which captured the faint object moving near a bright star about 300 light years from Earth. The possible […]

New Imager Finds Distant Planets Unlike Others in Known Universe

March 12, 2013

Thanks to new technology, astronomers are conducting the first remote reconnaissance of a distant solar system, allowing them to collect the first chemical fingerprints of four exoplanets orbiting a star some 128 light years from Earth. Astronomers involved with Project 1640, a high-contrast imaging program at the Palomar Observatory in California, say the four exoplanets […]

Scientists Discover Universe’s Largest Known Structure

January 14, 2013

Scientists have found the largest known structure in the universe, a cluster of galactic cores so vast it would take four billion years for a spacecraft traveling at the speed of light to cross it. The sighting challenges a theory from Einstein which suggests such a massive object shouldn’t exist in the universe. A quasar […]

Volunteers Help Discover Extra-Solar Planet

October 17, 2012

The recent discovery of a four-star planet highlights the growing value of citizen scientists, non-professional enthusiasts – including  hobbyists, educators and amateur scientists – who participate in scientific endeavors. The discovery of the extrasolar planet dubbed PH1, which orbits twin suns and is itself orbited by a second distant pair of stars, was made through the combined efforts […]

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