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New Simulations Show How Galactic Centers Grow Together

Using a state-of-the-art galaxy simulation, a team led by scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) gained new insights into the processes shaping galactic centres across the Universe and the formation history of the Milky Way. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/t5pFs02 via IFTTT
Recent posts

Surface Chemistry Shows Which Massive Stars Have Gained Mass from Binary Companions

Most stars, including massive ones, are in binary pairs. Astronomers think that about 70% of them have gained mass from their companions, but there's been no way to determine which ones have done so. Now, researchers have found a way. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/r7mxVLO via IFTTT

A Distant Stream of Stars May Offer New Clues to Dark Matter

Dark matter continues to challenge astronomers as they work to solve the mystery of this so-far-unseen material that permeates the Universe. It's not that the stuff doesn't exist. It does, but we just can't see it. The only way it can be detected is by its gravitational effects on ordinary matter. A team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen PhD student Julie Kiel Holm has found a stream of stars stretching out more than 3,000 light-years from a globular cluster that appears to have been shaped by dark matter in a distant galaxy. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/k6ygbdz via IFTTT

Comet 220P McNaught Puts On An Encore Performance

It has been a busy month for astronomy. In the midst of an eclipse season bookended by the total solar eclipse on August 12th and the deep partial lunar eclipse coming right up this week on August 28th, an outbound comet hanging high in the dawn sky just refuses to die: 220P/McNaught. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/PRwN9gu via IFTTT

Can We Steal Energy from Black Holes? Part 1: Leveling Up Spacetime

Roger Penrose found a way to extract energy from a spinning black hole without breaking any laws of physics. To understand it, we first have to level up our picture of spacetime, from Newton's empty stage to a swirling, draggable fabric. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Bx7PTjW via IFTTT

NASA Starshade Would Enable Astronomers To Directly Image Rocky Exoworlds

Innovative NASA-funded orbital starshade could help capture first direct images from extrasolar earths. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/1AMzXS2 via IFTTT

Astronomers Use Rare Ultra-Magnetic Star to Crack a Quantum Mystery

An international team observed a magnetar known as 1E 1547.0–5408 using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), leading to what could be the first detection of vacuum birefringence taking place in the magnetar’s ultra-strong magnetic field. These findings could potentially resolve a long-standing mystery quantum mechanics. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/D7iaSXL via IFTTT