Latest news with #PalomarObservatory
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers spot 'interstellar object' speeding through solar system
An "interstellar object" is speeding toward the inner solar system, where Earth is located, astronomers have confirmed. The object -- likely a comet -- was first detected in data collected between by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS -- an asteroid impact early warning system in Rio Hurtado, Chile, funded by NASA, the space agency announced on Tuesday. MORE: NASA detects new planet with temperatures that suggest habitable conditions Properties such as a marginal coma and short tail indicate signs of cometary activity, according to the Minor Planet Center. Numerous telescopes have reported additional observations since the object was first reported, NASA said. Observations from three different ATLAS telescopes around the world -- as well as the Zwicky Transient Facility at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County, California -- dating back to June 14 were gathered and provided data that supports the existence of the comet, according to a NASA update released Wednesday. It appears to be originating from interstellar space, arriving from the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, and is currently about 420 million miles from Earth, according to NASA. The comet poses no threat to Earth and will remain at a distance of at least 150 million miles, astronomers said. It is estimated to reach its closest approach to the sun around Oct. 30, where it will cross at about 130 million miles away, just inside the orbit of Mars, according to NASA. MORE: NASA catches a glimpse of 'city-killer' asteroid before it disappears until 2028 The object, dubbed "A11pl3Z" or "3I/ATLAS," spans approximately 25 miles, Josep Trigo-Rodriguez, as astrophysicist at the Institute of Space Sciences near Barcelona, Spain, told The Associated Press. It's traveling at a speed of about 152,000 mph and approaching the inner solar system from the bar of the Milky Way, Live Science reported. Its trajectory suggests it did not originate in this solar system, according to This is only the third time in history that an interstellar object entering the inner solar system has been recorded. A cigar-shaped interstellar object called "Oumuamua," the Hawaiian word for "scout," was detected in 2017. And in 2019, an object named "21/Borisov" -- a comet that likely strayed from another star system -- was located. MORE: Asteroid nearly hits Earth in Siberia, with a 2nd massive asteroid passing this week Astronomers will continue to investigate the size and physical properties of the comet through September, after which it will pass too close to the sun to remain visible, NASA said. The comet is expected to reappear on the other side of the sun in early December, NASA said.
Gizmodo
11-05-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
A Rogue Black Hole of Unusual Size Is Devouring Stars in a Distant Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted an apparent supermassive black hole snacking on a star 600 million light-years away, wandering through a galaxy with an even larger black hole at its core. The event, dubbed AT2024tvd, was first spotted by the Palomar Observatory's Zwicky Transient Facility and later confirmed by powerhouse space telescopes including Hubble and Chandra, which helped zero in on the cosmic crime scene. To the researchers' surprise, the responsible black hole was not at the center of its host galaxy, as supermassive black holes tend to be. Rather, this one was 2,600 light-years from the galactic center—a huge distance on paper, but really just one-tenth the distance between our Sun and Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Tidal disruption events (TDEs) like this one occur when a black hole's gravity pulls on a star so violently that the less massive ball of gas is stretched, shredded, and swirled around the black hole, in a process delightfully called spaghettification. The fleeting burst of energy from the event is gargantuan, even rivaling a supernova—the explosive death of a massive star—in brightness. The burst of light is also visible across the electromagnetic spectrum, making TDEs an invaluable resource for spotting black holes that might otherwise be too quiet or hidden to detect, such as the recent rogue object. What makes AT2024tvd special is that it's the first offset TDE discovered by optical surveys, according to a forthcoming paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, which is also posted on the preprint server arXiv. The achievement demonstrates how rogue black holes—warping spacetime and shrouded in darkness as they move through the cosmos—can be spotted, as long as an unfortunate object sacrifices itself for the massive object to reveal itself. 'Tidal disruption events hold great promise for illuminating the presence of massive black holes that we would otherwise not be able to detect,' said study co-author Ryan Chornock, a researcher at the University of California – Berkeley and a member of the ZTF team, in a NASA release. 'Theorists have predicted that a population of massive black holes located away from the centers of galaxies must exist, but now we can use TDEs to find them.' The team has a couple of ideas about how the rogue black hole ended up offset in the galaxy, and so close to the supermassive black hole at its core. (The rogue black hole's mass is estimated to be roughly one million solar masses, at least ten times smaller than the black hole at the galactic center.) One option is that the black hole was at the center of a smaller galaxy that was subsumed by the larger galaxy, and now the black hole is simply drifting through the larger galaxy. Another possibility is that the black hole was the weakest link in what was once a three-body system, and was pushed out by the bigger objects; in other words, two larger black holes may lurk at the galaxy's core, and the rogue black hole was ejected thousands of light-years out. 'If the black hole went through a triple interaction with two other black holes in the galaxy's core, it can still remain bound to the galaxy, orbiting around the central region,' said Yuhan Yao, also a researcher at UC Berkeley and the lead author of the study, in the same release. But at the present moment, the team isn't sure if the black hole was pushed out or is being dragged in by the larger black hole. With future instruments like the Vera Rubin Observatory and the Roman Space Telescope coming online, astronomers are hopeful this is just the beginning of an entirely new class of discoveries. Because if there's anything more unsettling than a black hole swallowing a star, it's the idea that the hungry, hungry objects are just drifting through space in unexpected locations.
