X-raying eggs while they cook reveals how egg white becomes solid

When an egg is heated, its proteins unfold and form bonds with each other – an X-ray analysis has shown this happening on the micrometre scale over the first 160 seconds of cooking Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2270129-x-raying-eggs-while-they-cook-reveals-how-egg-white-becomes-solid/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Hoinga: Debris of stellar explosion found in unexpected location

In the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA X-ray telescope onboard SRG, astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have identified a previously unknown supernova remnant, dubbed “Hoinga.” The finding was confirmed in archival radio data and marks the first discovery of a joint Australian-eROSITA partnership established to explore our Galaxy using multiple wavelengths, from low-frequency radio waves to…

Algorithm reveals contents of fragile letters sealed for 300 years

Sealed letters folded in intricate patterns have gone unread for more than 300 years, but now researchers have been able to tease out their contents with a combination of X-ray imaging and unfolding algorithms Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2269678-algorithm-reveals-contents-of-fragile-letters-sealed-for-300-years/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

The distance to the North Polar Spur

One of the largest structures in the Milky Way galaxy, the North Polar Spur, was discovered at radio and X-ray wavelengths. The Spur is a giant ridge of bright emission that rises roughly perpendicularly out of the plane of the galaxy starting roughly in the constellation of Sagittarius and then curves upward, stretching across the sky for over thirty degrees (the…

What is a quasar?

A quasar is an extremely bright and distant point-like source visible to radio telescopes. The source is a so-called Active Galactic Nucleus, fueled by a supermassive black hole. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/definition-what-is-a-quasar…

Cosmic ray originated in cataclysmic event

Astronomers found a high energy neutrino – a cosmic ray – that apparently originated during a “tidal disruption event,” that is, when a supermassive black hole shredded a distant star. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/origin-cosmic-ray-when-black-hole-shreds-star…

World’s first video of a space-time crystal

A German-Polish research team has succeeded in creating a micrometer-sized space-time crystal consisting of magnons at room temperature. With the help of the scanning transmission X-ray microscope Maxymus at Bessy II at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin, they were able to film the recurring periodic magnetization structure in a crystal. Published in the Physical Review Letters, the research project was a collaboration between…

Reclusive neutron star may have been found in famous supernova

What remains of the star that exploded just outside our galaxy in 1987? Debris has obscured scientists’ view, but two of NASA’s X-ray telescopes have revealed new clues. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-reclusive-neutron-star-famous-supernova.html…

Ultraluminous X-ray pulsar M51 ULX-7 inspected by researchers

Using NASA’s Swift and Chandra space observatories, astronomers have investigated an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar known as M51 ULX-7. The study, detailed in a paper published February 16 on the arXiv pre-print server, sheds more light on the X-ray variability of this source. Source: https://phys.org/news/2021-02-ultraluminous-x-ray-pulsar-m51-ulx-.html…