Monica Young

Oct 28, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Monica Young

The crumbs of a supermassive black hole’s stellar meal has revealed the presence of a second star in a close orbit. In 2019 a supermassive black hole ate a star. It’s incredible that such an incredible event is now commonplace — not in individual galaxies, where such stellar meals happen only every 10,000 to 100,000 years, but in our telescopes, through which astronomers can monitor millions of galaxies to observe their feeding habits.

Sep 18, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Monica Young

A pair of plasma jets powered by a supermassive black hole span far beyond their host galaxy — potentially affecting the cosmic web around it. The supermassive black hole at the center of a massive galaxy has powered a giant pair of plasma jets, spanning 23 million light-years long from tip to tip. That’s almost 10 times the distance between our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. Astronomers have nicknamed the record-breaking system Porphyrion, after the king of the giants in Greek mythology.

Sep 13, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Monica Young

NASA’s Juno mission has spotted a new volcano on Jupiter’s moon, Io. NASA’s Juno mission has spotted a new volcano on Jupiter’s exceedingly volcanic moon, Io. The new feature has spewed multiple lava flows and deposits covering a region about 180 kilometers (110 miles) on a side. The volcano is fresh, as NASA’s Galileo mission saw only a featureless surface in the same region when it flew by in 1997.

Sep 11, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Monica Young

Astronomers can see hot gas boiling on the surface of the giant star R Doradus, 180 light-years away. On the red giant star R Doradus, boiling motions have created gargantuan bubbles 75 times the size of the Sun.

Sep 3, 2024 | skyandtelescope.org | Monica Young

A supermassive black hole has twice now grabbed gas from a passing star — and astronomers predict a third chance will come in early 2025. When a star ventures too close to a supermassive black hole, the extreme gravitational field pulls on the star, shredding it to pieces. Stellar gas stretches out like taffy before some of it enters the maw, the remainder tossed away like yesterday’s leftovers. But some stars survive, at least for a while.