Scientists suggest that some dead stars made of the densest material in the known universe, called “neutron stars”, may serve as traps for dark matter particles that crash into each other at high speeds and annihilate each other. The crew says the destruction process will likely heat the dead stars from the inside out. Dark… Read More »
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Astronomers have identified the largest known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy after detecting an unusual wobble in space. The “sleeping giant,” called Gaia BH3, has a mass almost 33 times that of… Read More »
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Astronomers have identified the largest known stellar black hole in the Milky Way galaxy after detecting an unusual wobble in space. The “sleeping giant,” called Gaia BH3, has a mass almost 33 times that of… Read More »
Massive stars gain their magnetism by colliding and merging with other stars, according to evidence from a strange binary system surrounded by a dusty, element-rich nebula. This bipolar nebula, which has the double designation NGC 6164/6165, contains the star system HD 148937. light years Far away in the southern constellation Norma, HD 148937 contains two… Read More »
Some 90s trends have made a very welcome comeback; Others no one needs to see again. But unlike the frosted tips, baggy Batik shirts, landline phones and pogs that have (hopefully?) been consigned to the trash can, binary stars are resurfacing as worth studying. And not too soon. In short, binary stars are vital in… Read More »
A very young star formed within the dark cloud L1527 (top left), the “Cosmic Rocks” (top right), the Tarantula Nebula (bottom left), and the Chameleon I molecular cloud (bottom right).NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Webb ERO Production Team. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Mehdi Zamani (ESA/Webb). NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has opened… Read More »
In December 2023, the Hubble Space Telescope completed its largest program since its launch in 1990. With this program, the telescope has made observations of 500 individual stars over three years, and scientists are now ready to dive into this cosmic Easter egg data. The comprehensive Hubble Telescope survey is called the Library of Ultraviolet… Read More »
You should feel for the brown dwarfs. Not only has their failure to ignite like normal stars earned them the unfortunate nickname (fail stars), but new findings from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed that they can’t even maintain a relationship together. Brown dwarfs are celestial bodies formed when giant clouds of gas and dust,… Read More »
White dwarfs are the stars that will be left behind when stars like the Sun “die” and smolder in space as cooling stellar embers. Recent observations have shown that some of these stellar corpses may take longer to cool than previously expected. This means that white dwarfs may have a way to produce energy after… Read More »