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A new study reveals that magnetic fields are common in star systems with large blue stars, challenging prior beliefs and providing insights into the evolution and explosive nature of these massive stars.

Astronomers from the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the MIT Kavli Institute and Department of Physics have discovered that magnetic fields in multiple star systems with at least one giant, hot blue star, are much more common than previously thought by scientists. The results significantly improve the understanding of massive stars and their role as progenitors of supernova explosions.

Characteristics of O-type Stars.

2023 was a landmark year in space exploration for the European Space Agency (ESA), marked by significant missions like Juice’s journey to Jupiter, the launch of the Euclid space telescope for dark matter research, and the decommissioning of ESA’s Aeolus mission.

The year also saw advancements in Earth observation technologies, initiatives to address space debris, and collaborative efforts in asteroid impact studies. Notably, the Galileo satellite system’s new high-accuracy service and the first hardware tests for its second generation of satellites were significant milestones.

Neutrinos produced inside an exploding star could betray exotic particles that would lead to a deeper theory of physics. Will our detectors be ready in time for the next nearby supernova?

A colorful, festive image sҺows different types of ligҺt containing tҺe remains of not one, but at least two exploded stars. TҺis supernova remnant is ƙnown as 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B for sҺort) and is part of a larger region of space wҺere stars Һave been continuously forming for tҺe past 8 to 10 million years. It is a complex landscape of darƙ clouds of gas, young stars, ҺigҺ-energy sҺocƙs, and superҺeated gas, located 160,000 ligҺt-years away from EartҺ in tҺe Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of tҺe Milƙy Way.

TҺe new image of 30 Dor B was made by combining X-ray data from NASA’s CҺandra X-ray Observatory (purple), optical data from tҺe Blanco 4-meter telescope in CҺile (orange and cyan), and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (red). Optical data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope was also added in blacƙ and wҺite to ҺigҺligҺt sҺarp features in tҺe image.

A team of astronomers led by Wei-An CҺen from tҺe National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan, Һave used over two million seconds of CҺandra observing time of 30 Dor B and its surroundings to analyze tҺe region. TҺey found a faint sҺell of X-rays tҺat extends about 130 ligҺt-years across. (For context, tҺe nearest star to tҺe sun is about four ligҺt-years away). TҺe CҺandra data also reveals tҺat 30 Dor B contains winds of particles blowing away from a pulsar, creating wҺat is ƙnown as a pulsar wind nebula.

Astronomers from the Western Sydney University in Australia and elsewhere report the detection of a new pulsar wind nebula and a pulsar that powers it. The discovery, presented in a paper published Dec. 12 on the pre-print server arXiv, was made using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), as well as MeerKAT and Parkes radio telescopes.

Pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) are nebulae powered by the wind of a pulsar. Pulsar wind is composed of charged particles; when it collides with the pulsar’s surroundings, in particular with the slowly expanding supernova ejecta, it develops a PWN.

Particles in PWNe lose their energy to radiation and become less energetic with distance from the central pulsar. Multiwavelength studies of these objects, including X-ray observations, especially using spatially-integrated spectra in the X-ray band, have the potential to uncover important information about particle flow in these nebulae. This could unveil important insights into the nature of PWNe in general.

Black holes were thought to arise from the collapse of dead stars. But a Webb telescope image showing the early universe hints at an alternative pathway.

KENNEWICK — The LIGO Hanford Observatory near Richland is expected to detect 60% more cataclysmic cosmic events — like colliding neutron stars and black holes — thanks to a quantum limit breakthrough.

Since the observatory was turned back on in May after three years of upgrades, including adding new quantum squeezing technology, it can probe a larger volume of the universe.

“Now that we have surpassed this quantum limit, we can do a lot more astronomy,” said Lee McCuller, assistant professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology and a leader in the study published in the journal “Physical Review X.”

The mini-halos of dark matter scattered throughout the cosmos could function as highly sensitive probes of primordial magnetic fields. This is what emerges from a theoretical study conducted by SISSA and published in Physical Review Letters.

Present on immense scales, magnetic fields are found everywhere in the universe. However, their origin is still a subject of debate among scholars. An intriguing possibility is that magnetic fields originated near the birth of the universe itself; that is, they are primordial magnetic fields.

In the study, the researcher showed that if magnetic fields are indeed primordial then it could cause an increase in dark matter density perturbations on small scales. The ultimate effect of this process would be the formation of mini-halos of dark matter, which, if detected, would hint towards a primordial nature of magnetic fields. Thus, in an apparent paradox, the invisible part of our universe could be useful in resolving the nature of a component of the visible one.

A team of researchers has analyzed more than one million galaxies to explore the origin of the present-day cosmic structures, reports a recent study published in Physical Review D as an Editors’ Suggestion.

Until today, precise observations and analyses of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large-scale structure (LSS) have led to the establishment of the standard framework of the universe, the so-called ΛCDM model, where cold dark matter (CDM) and dark energy (the cosmological constant, Λ) are significant characteristics.

This model suggests that primordial fluctuations were generated at the beginning of the universe, or in the early universe, which acted as triggers, leading to the creation of all things in the universe including stars, galaxies, galaxy clusters, and their spatial distribution throughout space. Although they are very small when generated, fluctuations grow with time due to the gravitational pulling force, eventually forming a dense region of dark matter, or a halo. Then, different halos repeatedly collided and merged with one another, leading to the formation of celestial objects such as galaxies.