Latest news with #TheAstrophysicalJournal
Saba Yemen
6 days ago
- Science
- Saba Yemen
Astronomers Detect unique cosmic structure like no other
Washington – SABA: For the first time, astronomers have detected a massive cloud of energetic subatomic particles enveloping a giant galaxy cluster known as 'PLCK G287.0+32.9.' Galaxy clusters are among the largest known structures in the observable universe—vast gatherings of galaxies held together by gravity. This particular discovery has revealed a cloud spanning about 20 million light-years, nearly 200 times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. According to Al Jazeera Net, which reported on Monday, the findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal. The galaxy cluster lies about 5 billion light-years from Earth, and it was initially discovered in 2011 using a combination of terrestrial and space-based observatories. The new study, led by researchers from the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, was unveiled during a press conference at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, Alaska. The discovery relied on X-ray data collected by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, appearing in the new imagery as blue and violet hues. Additional data came from the MeerKAT Radio Telescope in South Africa—one of the world's most powerful radio observatories—which provided the orange and yellow tones. Furthermore, visible light data was obtained using the Pan-STARRS telescope located atop Mount Haleakalā on the Hawaiian island of Maui, known for its clear and high-altitude skies. This exceptional cloud appears to be powered in an unusual way—through giant shockwaves and gas turbulence within the cluster. Unlike typical galaxy clusters, where such emissions are found mostly around the edges, this cloud completely envelops the entire cluster. These findings raise intriguing questions about the nature of such clouds and offer new insights into long-standing mysteries—such as: How do electrons in these clouds maintain their energy across such vast distances and time scales? This discovery marks a significant step forward in understanding cosmic structures and the energetic environments that shape our universe. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (International)
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
'People thought this couldn't be done': Scientists observe light of 'cosmic dawn' with a telescope on Earth for the first time ever
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For the first time, scientists have used Earth-based telescopes to peer back into the cosmic dawn — an era more than 13 billion years ago when light from the first stars began reshaping our universe. The residual light from this ancient epoch is millimeters in wavelength and extremely faint, meaning that although space-based observatories have been able to peer into it, the signal is drowned out by the electromagnetic radiation in Earth's atmosphere before ground-based telescopes can detect the primordial light. But now, by deploying a specially designed telescope, scientists at the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) project have detected traces that the first stars left on the background light of the Big Bang. They published their findings June 11 in The Astrophysical Journal. "People thought this couldn't be done from the ground," study co-author Tobias Marriage, CLASS project leader and a professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University, said in a statement. "Astronomy is a technology-limited field, and microwave signals from the Cosmic Dawn are famously difficult to measure. Ground-based observations face additional challenges compared to space. Overcoming those obstacles makes this measurement a significant achievement." The CLASS observatory sits at an altitude of 16,860 feet (5,138 meters) in the Andes mountains of northern Chile's Atacama desert. The telescope, which obtained its first light in 2016, is tuned to survey the sky at microwave frequencies. Besides enabling it to map 75% of the night sky, the telescope's unprecedented sensitivity lets it receive microwave signals from the cosmic dawn, or the first billion years of the universe's life. For the first 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with a cloud of electrons so dense that light couldn't travel across it. But our cosmos eventually expanded and cooled, and the electrons were captured by protons to form hydrogen atoms. Related: Astronomers discover the 1st-ever merging galaxy cores at cosmic dawn These hydrogen atoms not only enabled microwave-wavelength light to move freely — filling space with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — but also, where it was dense enough, collapsed under gravity and ignited to form the first stars. The light from these stars then reionized pockets of unclumped hydrogen gas, separating their electrons so that some collided with light from the CMB, causing it to become polarized. The signal from this polarized portion of the CMB is a vital part of the cosmological puzzle; without it, our picture of the early universe remains muddy. And while efforts from past space-based telescopes, such as NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) and the European Space Agency's Planck space telescope, have filled in parts of this gap, their pictures contain noise and, being satellites, could not be tweaked and improved once deployed in orbit. RELATED STORIES —Atacama Telescope reveals earliest-ever 'baby pictures' of the universe: 'We can see right back through cosmic history' —'We had less than a 2% chance to find this': James Webb telescope uncovers baffling 'Big Wheel,' one of the most massive galaxies in the early universe —1st supernovas may have flooded the early universe with water — making life possible just 100 million years after the Big Bang "Measuring this reionization signal more precisely is an important frontier of cosmic microwave background research," co-author Charles Bennett, a physics professor at Johns Hopkins who led the WMAP space mission, said in the statement. To arrive at these observations, the researchers compared CLASS telescope data with that from the Planck and WMAP missions, narrowing down a common signal for the polarized microwave light. "For us, the universe is like a physics lab. Better measurements of the universe help to refine our understanding of dark matter and neutrinos, abundant but elusive particles that fill the universe," Bennett added. "By analyzing additional CLASS data going forward, we hope to reach the highest possible precision that's achievable."
03-06-2025
- Science
How a new planetarium show helped scientists unlock a cosmic secret
NEW YORK -- Scientists have unlocked one of the solar system's many secrets from an unexpected source: a planetarium show opening to the public on Monday. At the American Museum of Natural History last fall, experts were hard at work preparing 'Encounters in the Milky Way," a deep dive into our home galaxy shaped by the movements of stars and other celestial objects. They were fine-tuning a scene featuring what's known as the Oort Cloud, a region far beyond Pluto filled with icy relics from the solar system's formation. Comets can hurtle toward Earth from the cloud, but scientists have never glimpsed its true shape. One evening while watching the Oort Cloud scene, scientists noticed something strange projected onto the planetarium's dome. 'Why is there a spiral there?' said the museum's Jackie Faherty. The inner section of the Oort Cloud, made of billions of comets, resembled a bar with two waving arms, similar to the shape of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists had long thought the Oort Cloud was shaped like a sphere or flattened shell, warped by the push and pull of other planets and the Milky Way itself. The planetarium show hinted that a more complex shape could lie inside. The museum contacted the researcher who provided the Oort Cloud data for the show, who was also surprised to see the spiral. 'It's kind of a freak accident that it actually happened,' said David Nesvorny with the Southwest Research Institute. Realizing they'd stumbled on something new, the researchers published their findings earlier this year in The Astrophysical Journal. The spiral is "a striking shift in our understanding of the outer solar system,' planetary scientist Andre Izidoro with Rice University, who was not involved with the study, said in an email. The discovery, relying on data on how celestial objects move and using simulations, will be difficult to confirm with observations. But knowing more about the orbits of distant comets could give scientists some clues, Izidoro said. While putting together the planetarium show, the museum's experts weren't expecting a window into the universe's inner workings. The show, narrated by actor Pedro Pascal, features many vivid scenes that may capture audiences more than the Oort Cloud, said the museum's Jon Parker — including an ongoing merge of the Sagittarius mini galaxy with the Milky Way. No matter how striking and beautiful the visuals of the show, the museum was committed to making it scientifically accurate. That's what created the perfect conditions to stumble upon something new, said the museum's Carter Emmart. 'You just never know what you're going to find,' Emmart said.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Why do dwarf galaxies line up? 'Zippers' and 'twisters' in the early universe may solve a galactic mystery
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Structures known as "zippers" and "twisters" in the early universe may explain why dwarf galaxies tend to line up with each other, as well as hint at how dark matter operates in the universe. Every major galaxy like the Milky Way has a retinue of smaller dwarf galaxies orbiting it. The Milky Way has several dozen, including the famous Large and Small Magellanic clouds. Beginning in the 1970s, astronomers noticed that these dwarf galaxies' positions and orbits weren't entirely random. Instead, dwarf galaxies tended to exist within the same plane. For example, the 11 brightest satellites of the Milky Way share a plane, and many dwarf galaxies around the Andromeda galaxy form what is known as the Great Plane of Andromeda. When confronted with an observational mystery like this, astronomers turn to computer simulations to try to understand what's going on. That's because we can see only a small fraction of all the matter in the cosmos — just the matter that emits light. The vast majority of the mass of every galaxy, both big and small, is in the form of mysterious, invisible dark matter. We can't directly observe dark matter, so we must use the simulations to piece together what that major component is doing and how it affects the visible galaxies. But computer simulations have routinely found that dwarf galaxies are just scattered everywhere, rather than being arranged into particular planes. Because alignments of dwarf galaxies appear to be common, the theory of galaxy formation is at odds with observations. In a paper submitted to The Astrophysical Journal in April, a team of researchers led by Janvi Madhani at Johns Hopkins University dug deeper into sophisticated simulations to see if they could crack the mystery. The team studied the evolution of 12 simulated galaxies that were similar to the Milky Way, following the flows of dark matter and gas over billions of years. Galaxies do not spring up in an instant. Instead, they grow over time as filaments of matter pour onto them, like a giant cosmic umbilical cord. And it's in these filaments that the researchers found how dwarf galaxies can align with each other. Previous research assumed that once dwarf galaxies formed, they would scatter into random orbits. But the new simulations followed the evolution of the gas to much greater resolution and precision, which allowed the researchers to forget assumptions and see what was actually happening. Related: The faintest star system orbiting our Milky Way may be dominated by dark matter The new study found that instead of scattering, the filaments can lock in with each other and enhance themselves. When they do this, they keep the dwarf galaxies confined to a single plane. But the orientation of that plane depends on what happens to the filaments as new streams of gas connect to the same host galaxy. Sometimes, the filaments enhance each other, in what the researchers call a "zipper" — like the zipper merge you perform on a highway on-ramp. This creates a plane of gas that eventually evolves into a collection of dwarf galaxies. Another case involves a "twister," which is when a new filament merges with an existing one with a lot of angular momentum. This shifts the position of the plane but otherwise keeps it intact. But if too many filaments connect to the same galaxy, then any pattern is destroyed and dwarf galaxies get random orbits. Overall, the researchers found that we should expect planes of dwarf galaxies in roughly half — and perhaps up to 70% — of galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda. RELATED STORIES: —How did Andromeda's dwarf galaxies form? Hubble Telescope finds more questions than answers —Early galaxies were shaped like surfboards and pool noodles, James Webb Space Telescope finds —James Webb Space Telescope reveals ancient galaxies were more structured than scientists thought Based on this work, there doesn't appear to be any great tension between what we expect dark matter and gas to do when they build galaxies and what actually happens. So, although it doesn't reveal a crack in our understanding of cosmology, it does solve a decades-long problem in astronomy. Astronomers are especially interested in galaxy formation, especially in the early universe. Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope revealed rather mature galaxies appearing at surprisingly early times. Those galaxies could point the way to a new cosmological paradigm, or they might just be the result of a different kind of zipper-and-twister dance. Only more observations and better simulations will tell us.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Webb telescope may have just revealed a spiral galaxy's startling secret
Scientists have found an unusual neon glow near the center of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy for the first time. This gas needs an enormous amount of energy to shine — more than normal stars can supply. The discovery, based on data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, likely means the barred spiral galaxy, sometimes called Messier 83 or M83, has been harboring an active, supermassive black hole in secret. The new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, upends prior thinking about the galaxy. Previously, it was assumed that if there were a hole in its heart, it would be dormant and certainly not shooting out high-energy radiation. "Before Webb, we simply did not have the tools to detect such faint and highly ionized gas signatures in M83's nucleus," said Svea Hernandez, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement. "We are finally able to explore these hidden depths of the galaxy and uncover what was once invisible." SEE ALSO: These scientists think alien life best explains what Webb just found Dust and gas obscure the view to extremely distant and inherently dim light sources, but infrared waves can pierce through the clouds. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration Black holes are some of the most inscrutable phenomena in outer space. About 50 years ago, they were little more than a theory — a kooky mathematical answer to a physics problem. Even astronomers at the top of their field weren't entirely convinced they existed. Today, not only are black holes accepted science, they're getting their pictures taken by a collection of enormous, synced-up radio dishes on Earth. Unlike a planet or star, black holes don't have surfaces. Instead, they have a boundary called an "event horizon," or a point of no return. If anything swoops too close, it will fall in, never to escape the hole's gravitational clutch. The most common kind, called a stellar black hole, is thought to be the result of an enormous star dying in a supernova explosion. The star's material then collapses onto itself, condensing into a relatively tiny area. But how supermassive black holes, millions to billions of times more massive than the sun, form is even more elusive than typical stellar black holes. Many astrophysicists and cosmologists believe these invisible giants lurk at the center of virtually all galaxies. Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations have bolstered the theory that supermassive black holes begin in the dusty cores of starburst galaxies, where new stars are rapidly assembled, but scientists are still teasing it out. The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy — about 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra — is one such starburst galaxy. It has baffled scientists for decades as they struggled fruitlessly to find signs of a black hole at its center. Webb, a collaboration with the European and Canadian space agencies, was mainly designed to study the early universe, star formation, and distant galaxies. But its extreme sensitivity to infrared light, invisible to peoples' eyes, gave it the power to find clues that other telescopes couldn't, said Linda Smith, a co-author on the paper. Infrared light can shine through dust, which often blocks other forms of light. This gives Webb an advantage in studying cloudy areas where stars are forming or giant black holes might be active. Though the detected signals strongly suggest the presence of a black hole, the team is considering other possible sources, such as powerful shock waves moving through space or inordinately massive stars. The researchers plan to follow up their observations with other telescopes to look at the galaxy in different ways. "Now we have fresh evidence that challenges past assumptions," Smith said.
