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Nov 4, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
Sometimes, the best things come in threes. The system V404 Cygni is an old favorite with astronomers. The binary contains a 9-solar-mass black hole that’s slurping gas from a star slightly less massive than the Sun. Astronomically speaking, only a hair’s breath separates the pair: 0.14 astronomical unit, or less than half Mercury’s average distance from the Sun. (This is normal for these kinds of systems.)The hot gas swirling down onto the black hole creates an X-ray beacon.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
Hubble observations reveal that the storm’s size and shape change in a cyclic pattern. The Great Red Spot has a jiggle. The iconic storm has marred Jupiter for generations. Over time, the spot has changed in color and size, shrinking dramatically to less than half the size it had a century ago. Currently, it’s roughly the width of Earth, making it a fairly small blemish on the gas giant’s face. The Great Red Spot doesn’t move in lockstep with the atmosphere around it.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
newsbreak.com | Camille Carlisle
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
The worldwide network of radio dishes has achieved the highest resolution ever obtained from Earth’s surface. The road to Oz may be paved with yellow bricks, but it took time to lay each of those bricks. Science, too, is a journey that requires building the road you’re traveling on. When astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration released the first image of a black hole’s silhouette in 2019, it was an achievement predicated on more than a decade of work.
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
newsbreak.com | Camille Carlisle
By signing up for our newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyIt’s essential to note our commitment to transparency: Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies.
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Aug 15, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
A new chemical analysis confirms the Chicxulub impactor was a fragile type of asteroid that formed in the outer solar system, unlike several other ancient impactors. Some 66 million years ago, a roughly 10-kilometer-wide asteroid slammed into what today is the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The debris thrown into Earth’s skies would have plunged our planet into a chilly gloom, deadly for the photosynthetic life that formed the base of the food chain.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
Gravitational-wave astronomers have identified ripples in spacetime from the coalescence of a neutron star with what’s likely one of the smallest black holes ever found. When massive stars die in supernovae, their imploded cores can become neutron stars or — if they’re big enough — black holes. Neutron stars top out at around 2½ solar masses; black holes file in beyond that.
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May 27, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
The evidence is in: Venus is volcanically active. A new analysis of Venus’s surface reveals that between 1990 and 1992, kilometer-scale lava flows appeared in two volcanic regions on the planet. Davide Sulcanese (International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Gabriel of the Annunciation University, Italy) and colleagues report the discovery May 27th in Nature Astronomy.
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May 9, 2024 | 
newsbreak.com | Camille Carlisle
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May 9, 2024 | 
skyandtelescope.org | Camille Carlisle
A new visualization from NASA takes the viewer on a one-way journey into a black hole. When I tell people I love black holes, they sometimes look at me like I just said I love a tiger that’s poised to maul me. But black holes are more like dogs than tigers — some cavort like puppies, some lounge like old bloodhounds, but they’re only dangerous if you insist on stuffing your hand in their mouth or standing in the way of that madly wagging tail. Keep a respectful distance, and you’ll be fine.
