What’s the missing ingredient in the secret sauce behind human-level intelligence? Is it something we can teach the machines? property= description.
A team of astrophysicists has created a simulated image that shows how the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could conduct a mega-exposure similar to but far larger than Hubble’s celebrated Ultra Deep Field Image. This Hubble observation transformed our view of the early universe, revealing galaxies that formed just a few hundred million years after the big bang.
“Roman has the unique ability to image very large areas of the sky, which allows us to see the environments around galaxies in the early universe,” said Nicole Drakos, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California Santa Cruz, who led the study. “Our study helps demonstrate what a Roman ultra-deep field could tell us about the universe, while providing a tool for the scientific community to extract the most value from such a program.”
This tiny galaxy has a huge black hole at its center that’s churning out stars.
Scientists observed a black hole birthing new stars in a dwarf galaxy for the first time, providing evidence as to how these all-consuming objects can create stellar nurseries. The observations also reveal how ancient black holes may have formed shortly after the Big Bang.
Continue reading “New study reveals the gentler side of black holes” »
Dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2–10 sparkles with young stars in this Hubble visible-light image. The bright region at the center, surrounded by pink clouds and dark dust lanes, indicates the location of the galaxy’s massive black hole and active stellar nurseries. Credit: NASA, ESA, Zachary Schutte (XGI), Amy Reines (XGI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
Black holes are often described as the monsters of the universe—tearing apart stars, consuming anything that comes too close, and holding light captive. Detailed evidence from NASA
Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the United States Federal Government that succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). It is responsible for the civilian space program, as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. It’s vision is “To discover and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity.”
Neutrino detectors are about to get a lot bigger.
One of the most mysterious particles in the universe are neutrinos, with only dark matter out-baffling scientists as a more puzzling phenomenon.
Continue reading “Astronomers Want to Build a Neutrino Telescope. Using the Pacific Ocean?” »
It’s time to make peace with one of the largest-known stars.
Everything is relative. By that, I mean: Jupiter, when compared to Earth, is large. Yet Jupiter, when compared to the Sun, is small. By virtue, the Sun in comparison with hypergiants is basically microscopic. Our local star actually sits right in the middle, between big and small, by star classification. There are many stars in our galaxy alone that fall on one end of the spectrum or the other. Yet, none has quite captured the imagination exactly like the “nearby” star known as VY Canis Majoris (otherwise known as HD 58,061 or HIP 35793) can.
Located approximately between 3,800 and 5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Canis Major, VY Canis Majoris is technically classified as a red hypergiant, which means it is among the largest of stars known to exist in our galaxy. How large is it, you might ask? Well, VY Canis Major is estimated to be larger than between 1,800 and 2100 Suns, with between 15 to 25 times more mass. At its peak, it may be even weighed as much as 40 solar masses (one solar mass is equivalent to one of our suns, or 1.989 × 1,030 kg), but astronomers believe the star has moved beyond “main sequence” and is reaching the end of its stellar life span. Therefore, a significant amount of its mass has already been blown away by solar winds.
Continue reading “A Hypergiant Star Is ‘Breathing’ in Space. Has It Reached Its Death Throes?” »
The first direct observation of light from behind a supermassive black hole confirms a prediction in Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
This is the first direct detection of pre-supernova activity in a red supergiant star.
#space #Thecosmicstudio #supernova
led by specialists from the University of Barcelona, discovered a huge population of black holes, which seemed to “lurk” in the globular star cluster Palomar 5 in the Milky Way. In the distant future, this cluster will completely consist of black holes.
