Tag Archive for 'X-rays'

Siraj & Loeb explore the possibility that accretion flares resulting from the tidal disruption of small Oort Cloud bodies by a putative primordial black hole could power an observable optical signal that could be searched for with the upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. Image credit: Sci-News.com / Zdeněk Bardon / ESO.

Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Detected Close to Milky Way’s Center

Jul 18, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Using data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and other telescopes, astronomers have found evidence for an intermediate-mass black hole in IRS 13,...

This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Ancient Mars was Cool and Relatively Wet, New Study Suggests

Jul 11, 2024 by News Staff

In a new study, planetary scientists found strong similarities between soils found in Gale Crater on Mars and those of Canada’s Newfoundland, a cold...

Halo around Cygnus X-3. Image credit: NASA.

IXPE Discovers New Ultra-Luminous X-ray Source in Milky Way

Jun 25, 2024 by News Staff

Cygnus X-3, an X-ray binary system located some 7,400 parsecs (24,136 light-years) in the constellation of Cygnus, represents a class of ultra-luminous...

This image shows a region near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy in X-ray and radio light. At the bottom of the image, near the center, is a brilliant, tangled knot of material that resembles a paint splatter. This is the brightest region in the image, and it contains the supermassive black hole at the center of our Galaxy, known as Sagittarius A*. The lower third of the image resembles an angry firestorm. Streaks of red and orange are scattered in every direction, as if a legion of embers from a fire crackled and popped into the air all at once. Flame-like structures lick toward the center from our right. Much of the image is infused with wispy blue clouds showing X-rays detected by Chandra. At a few points, the wispy blue clouds seem to form into balls of teal colored light and are known as dust halos. They are caused by X-rays from bright X-ray sources reflecting off dust surrounding the sources. These dust halos resemble underwater lights glowing in a cloudy swimming pool at night. Rising up from Sagittarius A* in the center of the image is a pillar of blue light referred to as a chimney. This chimney of hot gas is surrounded by red clouds that are filled with stars, presenting themselves as tiny red flecks. Near the top of the blue pillar is a streak of light blue, outlined by an illustrated, gray box. This streak is referred to as the chimney exhaust vent. Just to our left is another illustrated box that shows the close-up image of the chimney vent as observed by Chandra. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Universe of Chicago / Mackey et al. / NRF / SARAO / MeerKAT / SAO / N. Wolk.

Milky Way’s Center is Venting, Astronomers Say

May 17, 2024 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered an ‘exhaust vent’ funneling hot gas away from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive...

This artist’s concept shows the possible locations of iron revealed in XRISM’s X-ray spectrum of NGC 4151. Image credit: Conceptual Image Lab, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

XRISM Detects Iron in Accretion Disk around NGC 4151’s Supermassive Black Hole

May 8, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

NGC 4151 is a spiral galaxy located some 62 million light-years away in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. This artist’s concept shows the...

This Hubble image shows IC 776, a dwarf galaxy around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.

Hubble Space Telescope Finds ‘Complex’ Galaxy in Virgo Cluster

Apr 29, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Hubble team has released a beautiful new image of the dwarf galaxy IC 776, which is found in the constellation of Virgo. This Hubble image shows IC...

This composite image shows the quasar H1821+643. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Nottingham / Russell et al. / NSF / NRAO / VLA / SAO / N. Wolk.

Astronomers Find Underachieving Quasar in Distant Galaxy Cluster

Mar 22, 2024 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and NSF’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), astronomers have found that H1821+643 — the nearest quasar...

Multiwavelength image of the massive galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / Omoruyi et al. / STScI / Tremblay et al. / ASTRON / LOFAR / NASA / CXC / SAO / N. Wolk.

Astronomers Detect Mega-Eruption from Supermassive Black Hole in Distant Galaxy Cluster

Feb 22, 2024 by News Staff

Some of the gas sent gas away from the supermassive black hole — which is located in the center of the galaxy cluster SDSS J1531+3414 (SDSS J1531...

Shuai et al. used a synchronized attosecond X-ray pulse pair (pictured pink and green here) from an X-ray free electron laser to study the energetic response of electrons (gold) in liquid water on attosecond time scale, while the hydrogen (white) and oxygen (red) atoms are ‘frozen’ in time. Image credit: Nathan Johnson, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Physicists Take First Look at Electrons Moving in Real-Time in Liquid Water

Feb 16, 2024 by News Staff

A research team led by Argonne National Laboratory physicists has isolated the energetic movement of an electron while ‘freezing’ the motion of the...

Daly et al. found Sagittarius A* is spinning with 60% of the maximum possible rate of spin, a limit set by material not being able to travel faster than the speed of light. This image shows Sagittarius A* in X-ray light from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Image credit: NASA / CXC / University of Wisconsin / Bai et al.

Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole is Spinning Very Rapidly, New Research Shows

Feb 12, 2024 by News Staff

Sagittarius A*, the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole that resides at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, is spinning so quickly it is warping the spacetime...

This artist impression shows ultra-fast winds blasting out from the center of galaxy Markarian 817. These winds, moving at many millions of km per hour, clear out interstellar gas from a vast region of space. Without this gas, the galaxy can’t form new stars and the black hole in the galactic center has little left to eat. The inset shows what is happening at galaxy’s heart. A supermassive black hole draws in gas from its surroundings, which forms a hot, brightly lit accretion disk (orange). The cause of the winds (white) is magnetic fields within the disk, which fling particles out in all directions at incredibly high speeds. These winds effectively block out X-rays (blue) which are sent out by the extremely hot plasma surrounding the black hole, called the corona. Zak et al. caught Markarian 817 blasting out ultra-fast winds using ESA’s X-ray telescope XMM-Newton. Lasting for around a year, the winds will have significantly affected star formation in the galaxy. The fact that the black hole at the center of the galaxy was showing rather average activity levels before producing the winds suggests that ultra-fast black hole winds are much more common than previously thought. In other words, black holes and their host galaxies strongly affect each other’s evolution. Image credit: ESA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

XMM-Newton Detects Ultra-Fast Black Hole Wind in Markarian 817

Feb 1, 2024 by News Staff

Markarian 817 is a Seyfert 1 galaxy located 430 million light-years away in the constellation of Draco. Also known as Mrk 817 or QSO J1436+5847, it hosts...

This composite image shows the Green Monster structure within the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / ESA / STScI / CSA / Milisavljevic et al. / JPL / Caltech / J. Schmidt / K. Arcand.

Astronomers Solve Mystery of ‘Green Monster’ Feature in Cassiopeia A

Jan 8, 2024 by News Staff

New research suggests that the Green Monster — a curious structure first spotted in Webb data in April 2023 — came from that blast wave slamming...

At the center of this complex landscape of brilliant, colorful gas clouds is the supernova remnant 30 Doradus B. Image credit: NASA / CXC / Penn State University / Townsley et al. / STScI / HST / JPL / CalTech / SST / SAO / J. Schmidt / N. Wolk / K. Arcand.

At Least Two Supernova Explosions Created Supernova Remnant 30 Doradus B, Astronomers Say

Jan 5, 2024 by News Staff

30 Doradus B, also cataloged as NGC 2060, is found in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At the center of this complex...

This composite image shows the young star cluster NGC 2264, also known as the Christmas Tree Cluster. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / T.A. Rector, NRAO, AUI, NSF, NOIRLab & AURA / B.A. Wolpa, NOIRLab, NSF & AURA / IPAC / Caltech / Universe of Massachusetts / L. Frattare / J.Major.

Astronomers Release Stunning Image of ‘Christmas Tree’ Star Cluster

Dec 20, 2023 by News Staff

The ‘Christmas Tree Cluster,’ also known as NGC 2264, is located approximately 2,600 light-years away in the constellation of Monoceros. This composite...

This composite image shows Omega Centauri, a globular cluster some 17,710 light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus; in the image, the Chandra data are shown along an optical view from Hubble and infrared view from Spitzer. Image credit: NASA / CXC / San Francisco State University / Cool et al. / ESA / STScI / JPL / Caltech / SAO / N. Wolk.

Astronomers Find Group of Spider Pulsars in Omega Centauri

Dec 4, 2023 by News Staff

Spider pulsars are a type of millisecond pulsar that strips their companion stars of their atmospheres through energetic winds. This composite image shows...

Bogdán et al. and Goulding et al. combined data from Webb and Chandra to identify the growing black hole at the center of UHZ1. Image credit: NASA / CXC / SAO / Bogdán et al. / ESA / CSA / STScI / L. Frattare / K. Arcand.

Growing Supermassive Black Hole Detected in Early Universe

Nov 7, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Observations of quasars reveal that many supermassive black holes were in place less than 700 million years after the Big Bang. However, the origin of...

Composite images of Eta Carinae. Image credit: NASA / SAO / GSFC / Corcoran et al.

Chandra Discovers New Details about ‘Great Eruption’ of Eta Carinae

Sep 27, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers are tracking the expansion of the X-ray nebula around Eta Carinae, a luminous binary system...

The 50-million-year-old feather from the Green River biota, Wyoming, the United States. Image credit: Slater et al., doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02177-8.

Paleontologists Detect Traces of Ancient Proteins in Fossil Feathers

Sep 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have analyzed 125-million-year-old feathers from a dinosaur species called Sinornithosaurus as well as feathers of the early bird Confuciusornis...

XRISM lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in Japan at 07:42 p.m. EDT on September 6, 2023. Image credit: JAXA.

XRISM Mission Launches to Study Universe’s Most Energetic Objects and Events

Sep 8, 2023 by News Staff

The X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) — a collaboration between the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA, with significant...

This artist’s impression shows the millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 stealing gas from its companion star. Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Matter Ejections Explain Peculiar High-Low Mode Switches in Distant Millisecond Pulsar

Aug 30, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 is known to switch between two brightness modes almost constantly, something that until now has been an enigma. This...

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