Tag: Galactic

Virgin Galactic unveiling mission control for space tourism

Spaceport America is no longer just a shiny shell of hope that space tourism would one day launch from this remote spot in the New Mexico desert. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-virgin-galactic-unveiling-mission-space.html…

Astronomers investigate AGN jet in the Messier 87 galaxy

Astronomers have taken a closer look at the relatively nearby Messier 87 (or M87) galaxy to investigate the jet of its active galactic nucleus (AGN). The new research, described in a paper published July 31 on arXiv.org, delivers important insights into the parameters of the jet, which could improve the understanding of AGNs in general. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-astronomers-agn-jet-messier-galaxy.html…

ALMA dives into black hole’s ‘sphere of influence’

What happens inside a black hole stays inside a black hole, but what happens inside a black hole’s “sphere of influence”—the innermost region of a galaxy where a black hole’s gravity is the dominant force—is of intense interest to astronomers and can help determine the mass of a black hole as well as its impact on its galactic neighborhood. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-alma-black-hole-sphere.html…

Astronomers identify dozens of new Beta Cephei stars

Using the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope (KELT), astronomers have detected 86 new Beta Cephei (β Cep) stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery, detailed in a paper published July 26 on the arXiv pre-print repository, greatly improves the number of galactic β Cep stars known to date. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-08-astronomers-dozens-beta-cephei-stars.html…

Astronomers reveal true colors of evolving galactic beasts

Astronomers have identified a rare moment in the life of some of the universe’s most energetic objects. Quasars were first observed 60 years ago, but their origins still remain a mystery. Now researchers at Durham University, UK, have spotted what they suggest is a “brief transition phase” in the development of these galactic giants that could shed light on how quasars…

Best Milky Way Map Yet Confirms Our Galaxy Is Warped and Twisted

Astronomers from the U.S. and Europe have put together a new 3D model of the galaxy based on the distance between stars and found that our galaxy is warped and twisted. “I’d say that it is shaped like a Pringle,” said study co-author Radek Poleski, an astronomer at Ohio State University in Columbus. CNET reports: The research, published Thursday in the…

Ten million stars

When you see it with your naked eye, Omega Centauri looks like a fuzzy, faint star. But this blue orb is, in fact, a collection of stars – 10 million of them. Source: https://earthsky.org/todays-image/omega-centauri-image…

Image: Hubble snaps a galactic potpourri of particles

Every now and then, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope glimpses a common object—say, a spiral galaxy—in an interesting or unusual way. A sharply angled perspective, such as the one shown in this Hubble image, can make it seem as if we, the viewers, are craning our necks to see over a barrier into the galaxy’s bright center. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-07-image-hubble-snaps-galactic-potpourri.html…