Latest news with #astronomy
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Hello, neighbor! See the Andromeda galaxy like never before in stunning new image from NASA's Chandra telescope (video)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The galaxy next door to the Milky Way, Andromeda, has never looked as stunning as it does in a new image from NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope. The image of the galaxy, also known as Messier 31 (M31), was created with assistance from a range of other space telescopes and ground-based instruments including the European Space Agency (ESA) XMM-Newton mission, NASA's retired space telescopes GALEX and the Spitzer Space Telescope as well as the Infrared Astronomy Satellite, COBE, Planck, and Herschel, in addition to radio data from the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. All these instruments observed Andromeda in different wavelengths of light across the electromagnetic spectrum, with astronomers bringing this data together to create a stunning and intricate image. The image is a fitting tribute to astronomer Vera C. Rubin, who was responsible for the discovery of dark matter thanks to her observations of Andromeda. As the closest large galaxy to the Milky Way, at just around 2.5 million light-years away, Andromeda has been vital in allowing astronomers to study aspects of galaxies that aren't accessible from our own galaxy. For example, from inside the Milky Way, we can't see our galaxy's spiral arms, but we can see the spiral arms of Andromeda. Every wavelength of light that was brought together to create this incredible new image of Andromeda tells astronomers something different and unique about the galaxy next door. For example, the X-ray data provided by Chandra has revealed the high-energy radiation released from around Andromeda's central supermassive black hole, known as M31*. M31* is considerably larger than the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). While our home supermassive black hole has a mass 4.3 million times that of the sun, M31* dwarfs it with a mass 100 million times that of the sun. M31* is also notable for its occasional flares, one of which was observed in X-rays back in 2013, while Sgr A* is a much "quieter" black hole. Andromeda was chosen as a tribute to Rubin because this neighboring galaxy played a crucial role in the astronomer's discovery of a missing element of the universe. An element that we now call dark matter. In the 1960s, Rubin and collaborators precisely measured the rotation of Andromeda. They found that the speed at which this galaxy's spiral arms spun indicated that the galaxy was surrounded by a vast halo of an unknown and invisible form of matter. The mass of this matter provided the gravitational influence that was preventing Andromeda from flying apart due to its rotational speed. The gravity of its visible matter wouldn't have been sufficient to hold this galaxy then, astronomers have discovered that all large galaxies seem to be surrounded by similar haloes of what is now known as dark matter. This has led to the discovery that the matter which comprises all the things we see around us — stars, planets, moons, our bodies, next door's cat — accounts for just 15% of the "stuff" in the cosmos, with dark matter accounting for the other 85%. The finding has also prompted the search for particles beyond the standard model of particle physics that could compose dark matter. Thus, there's no doubt that Rubin's work delivered a watershed moment in astronomy, and one of the most important breakthroughs in modern science, fundamentally changing our concept of the universe. Related Stories: — How did Andromeda's dwarf galaxies form? Hubble Telescope finds more questions than answers — The Milky Way may not collide with neighboring galaxy Andromeda after all: 'From near-certainty to a coin flip' — Gorgeous deep space photo captures the Andromeda Galaxy surrounded by glowing gas June 2025 has been a brilliant month of recognition of Rubin's immense impact on astronomy and her lasting legacy. In addition to this tribute image, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory released its first images of the cosmos as it gears up to conduct a 10-year observing program of the southern sky called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Additionally, in recognition of Rubin's monumental contributions to our understanding of the universe, the United States Mint recently released a quarter featuring Rubin as part of its American Women Quarters Program. She is the first astronomer to be honored in the series.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The James Webb Space Telescope has photographed its first undiscovered planet
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Photographers often can't get enough light – but by blocking out some light, the largest telescope launched into space has photographed what could be its first previously undiscovered planet. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has photographed what researchers believe is a new exoplanet, dubbed TWA 7 b. While the new exoplanet is estimated to be around the mass of Saturn, the TWA 7 b is believed to be the lightest planet ever seen using the Mid-Infrared Instrument imaging. The exoplanet orbits the star TWA 7, around 34 light-years from Earth. One of the challenges in locating new, distant planets is that the stars they orbit typically give off so much light that the planet's dimmer light is lost in the star's brightness. The James Webb Space Telescope compensates for this using the coronagraph technique. A coronagraph is a technique that requires blocking off light from a star in order to see objects otherwise lost in the star's brightness. By blocking off the star's brightness – the black circular gap marked by the star icon in the photograph above – scientists were able to see evidence of TWA 7 b. The new exoplanet hasn't yet been confirmed – NASA notes that there's a small chance that the object in the photograph is a background galaxy rather than an exoplanet. But as scientists continue to research the find, the evidence points to the shape being the James Webb Telescope's first discovery of a previously unknown planet. The telescope's ability to photograph the mid-infrared has enabled the James Webb to aid scientists in studying distant but known planets for the last three years. Now, the technology inside the telescope has allowed for the discovery of what appears to be an undiscovered planet. The James Webb Telescope – the largest ever to launch into space – is designed to detect light outside what humans can see with the naked eye. The near and mid-infrared capabilities of the telescope are helping scientists explore what NASA describes as otherwise hidden regions of space. Infrared technology is key to photographing distant space objects through clouds of dust, as well as low-energy stars and planets like brown dwarfs and young protostars. The infrared technology inside the James Webb has allowed the TWA 7 b to be detected through the three dust rings that surround that system's star. The exoplanet is positioned in a gap in the dust disks, leading scientists to theorize that the planet could be what's shaping the dust structures. While ongoing work is needed to confirm the object as a planet and record additional observations, the photograph also illustrates Webb's potential to find previously unseen planets. The research was published earlier this week in Nature. Browse the best lenses for astrophotography or find inspiration in these star photography tips.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover rare planet at the edge of the Milky Way using space-time phenomenon predicted by Einstein
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have used a space-time phenomenon first predicted by Albert Einstein to discover a rare planet hiding at the edge of our galaxy. The exoplanet, dubbed AT2021uey b, is a Jupiter-size gas giant located roughly 3,200 light-years from Earth. Orbiting a small, cool M dwarf star once every 4,170 days, the planet's location is remarkable — it is only the third planet in the entire history of space observation to be discovered so far away from our galaxy's dense center. Yet perhaps more exceptional than the planet's location is the method used to discover it. The effect, known as microlensing, occurs when the light of a host star is magnified by the warping of space-time due to a planet's gravity. The researchers published their findings May 7 in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "This kind of work requires a lot of expertise, patience, and, frankly, a bit of luck," study co-author Marius Maskoliūnas, an astronomer at Vilnius University in Lithuania, said in a statement. "You have to wait for a long time for the source star and the lensing object to align and then check an enormous amount of data. Ninety percent of observed stars pulsate for various other reasons, and only a minority of cases show the microlensing effect." Nearly 6,000 alien worlds beyond our solar system have been discovered since the first exoplanet was detected in 1992. The two most common detection methods, called transmit photometry and radial velocity, detect planets through the dimming of host stars as they pass in front of them, or from the wobble that the planets' gravitational tugs impart upon them. A rarer method, known as microlensing, is derived from Einstein's theory of general relativity and is produced by massive objects as they warp the fabric of the universe, called space-time. Gravity, Einstein discovered, isn't produced by an unseen force but by space-time curving and distorting in the presence of matter and energy. Related: James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation This curved space, in turn, determines how energy and matter move through it. Even though light travels in a straight line, light traveling through a curved region of space-time also travels in a curve. This means that when a planet passes in front of its host star, its gravity acts as a lens — magnifying the star's light and causing its brightness to spike. "What fascinates me about this method is that it can detect those invisible bodies," Maskoliūnas said, essentially by measuring the bodies' shadows. "Imagine a bird flying past you. You don't see the bird itself and don't know what color it is — only its shadow. But from it, you can, with some level of probability, determine whether it was a sparrow or a swan and at what distance from us. It's an incredibly intriguing process." RELATED STORIES —James Webb telescope zooms in on bizarre 'Einstein ring' caused by bending of the universe —James Webb telescope uncovers 1st-ever 'Einstein zig-zag' hiding in plain sight — and it could help save cosmology —Stunning 'Einstein engagement ring' from the early universe is one of the oldest ever discovered AT2021uey b's cosmic shadow was first spotted in 2021 in data taken by the European Space Agency's Gaia telescope, revealing its presence by a momentary spike in the brightness of its host star. The astronomers then took detailed follow-up observations using Vilnius's Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, from which they calculated its source as a planet 1.3 times the mass of Jupiter. Its host star burns at about half the temperature of our own, and the gas giant sits four times farther than Earth's distance from the sun. According to the researchers, the planet's discovery so far from the Milky Way's central bulge, in a region that is comparatively sparse in heavier elements needed to form planets, offers a fresh hint of the unlikely places where planets can be found. "When the first planet around a sun-like star was discovered, there was a great surprise that this Jupiter-type planet was so close to its star," Edita Stonkutė, another Vilnius University astronomer and leader of the microlensing project that found the planet, said in the statement. "As data accumulated, we learned that many types of planetary systems are completely unlike ours — the solar system. We've had to rethink planetary formation models more than once."
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Earth's Rotation Is Speeding up This Summer—but Just for 3 Days
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Although the Earth completes one full rotation in 86,400 seconds on average, that spin fluctuates by a millisecond or two every day. Before 2020, the Earth never experienced a day shorter than the average by much more than a millisecond, but in the past five years, it's been more likely to see days during the summer than are nearly half-a-millisecond shorter than pre-2020s levels. In 2025, the Earth will continue this trend, and scientists predict that three days—July 9, July 22, and August 5—could be atypically short compared to historical averages. While many of the astronomical truths of existence feel like immutable facts compared to our relatively puny lifespans, the movement of the heavens is constantly changing and evolving. Take the Earth's rotation, for example. During the Mesozoic, dinosaurs actually experienced 23 hours days, and as early as the Bronze Age, the average day was 0.47 seconds shorter. 200 million years from now, a standard Earth day will actually be 25 hours long (and it remains to be seen whether or not humans will still complain about there not being enough hours in the day). While the Earth's rotation changes over cosmic timescales, it also fluctuates on daily ones. We all know that a day lasts 24 hours, or 86,400 seconds, but that's not perfectly accurate. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tidal forces, subterranean geology, and many other mechanisms can cause the planet's rotation to slow down or speed up, and those micro-adjustments can trend over time. Although Earth's overall rotational trend is to slow down, since 2020, scientists have noticed—thanks to the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS) at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington D.C.—that Earth's rotation is speeding up. So much so, in fact, that experts expect we'll need to subtract a leap second for the first time ever in 2029. A new report from claims that this fast-rotating trend won't be slowing down in 2025, either. According to IERS data, the three shortest days (mathematically speaking) this year will be July 9, July 22, and August 5. These are the dates when the Moon will be furthest from the equator, which will impact the speed of Earth's rotation. Current predictions place the shortest day, August 5, at roughly 1.51 milliseconds shorter than average. That doesn't quite beat out the recent record holder—July 5, 2024, which clocked in at 1.66 milliseconds shorter than average—but it's still a full half-millisecond faster than when this rotational trend began in 2020 (and, technically, it could still break the record once scientists measure the actual rotation on the day). 'Nobody expected this,' Leonid Zotov, an Earth rotation expert from Moscow State University, told Zotov co-authored a study in 2022 analyzing the cause of Earth's recent rotational uptick. 'The cause of this acceleration is not explained […]. Most scientists believe it is something inside the Earth. Ocean and atmospheric models don't explain this huge acceleration.' Scientists will continue to study the reasons behind the Earth's rotational fluctuation, and we'll all endure at least one leap second skip before abandoning leap seconds completely by 2035. However, Zotov also tells that this acceleration is not a new trend. In other words, we're not traveling back toward back toward the Mesozoic in terms of rotation. The planet will eventually continue its steady deceleration—this is, of course, it's natural tendency, but surface changes like polar ice melt can also contribute to the Earth's rotation slowing down. The only constant is change. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Listen to the Andromeda galaxy's stars played as musical notes in eerie NASA video
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The Andromeda galaxy's spiralling stars are played as musical notes in a new NASA observatory video, creating a cosmic crescendo that's out of this world. The sonification video, released by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, combines observations of the Andromeda galaxy collected by some of the world's most powerful telescopes, according to a NASA statement. Chandra also released a spectacular composite image of the galaxy, which is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way. Researchers created the composite image by stacking photos taken in different light wavelengths, merging radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray data. The researchers then converted those images to sound by assigning a separate range of notes to each of these wavelengths. In the video, a line passes across the lights, playing each assigned note like keys on a piano. "Musical notes ring out when the line encounters light," a representative for NASA wrote in the statement. "The lower the wavelength energy, the lower the pitches of the notes. The brighter the source, the louder the volume." NASA described the composite image as a tribute to pioneering astronomer Vera Rubin, who studied Andromeda. The tribute comes days after a new observatory named after Rubin released its first images. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory features the world's largest digital camera and will spend the next decade creating a time-lapse movie of the universe. Related: 6 incredible objects hidden in Vera C. Rubin Observatory's mind-boggling first image Andromeda, or Messier 31 (M31), is located around 2.5 million light-years from the Milky Way. Studying the galaxy has led to many scientific discoveries. For example, Rubin and her colleagues' observations of Andromeda led them to conclude that there must be an unseen matter influencing how its spiral arms rotate, according to the statement. The research was pivotal in furthering scientists' understanding of dark matter, an enigmatic non-luminous substance that shapes the universe. Researchers created the new image and soundscape of Andromeda by combining different data collected over many years. For example, the X-ray image comes from data collected by Chandra and the European Space Agency's X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission (XMM-Newton). Researchers used this data to identify high-energy radiation around the supermassive black hole at the heart of Andromeda, according to the statement. RELATED STORIES —Monster black hole jet from the early universe is basking in the 'afterglow' of the Big Bang —'This doesn't appear in computer simulations': Hubble maps chaotic history of Andromeda galaxy, and it's nothing like scientists expected —James Webb telescope unveils largest-ever map of the universe, spanning over 13 billion years The images and sounds aren't just for fun. They are another way of examining Andromeda, and therefore a learning opportunity. Andromeda offers a view of a spiral galaxy that we can't get from the Milky Way, given we're inside it, and so studying Andromeda furthers researchers' understanding of our own spiral galaxy, according to the statement. "This collection helps astronomers understand the evolution of the Milky Way, our own spiral galaxy, and provides a fascinating insight into astronomical data gathering and presentation," the NASA representative wrote.
