Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This "cosmic web" started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter together. Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a thread-like arrangement

Kashiwa, Japan (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
New images from the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed, for the first time, starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes - quasars - seen less than a billion years after the Big Bang. A new study in Nature this week finds the black holes have masses close to a billion times that of the Sun, and the host galaxy masses are almost one hundred times larger, a ratio

Helsinki, Finland (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
How are plasma eruptions in near-Earth space formed? Vlasiator, a model designed at the University of Helsinki for simulating near-Earth space, demonstrated that the two central theories on the occurrence of eruptions are simultaneously valid: eruptions are explained by both magnetic reconnection and kinetic instabilities. Rapid plasma eruptions known as plasmoids take place on the nightsi

Washington DC (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
From visible starlight to radio waves, the Milky Way galaxy has long been observed through the various frequencies of electromagnetic radiation it emits. Scientists have now revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos - invisible "ghost particles" which exist in great quantities but normally pass straight through Earth undetected

Paris (ESA) Jun 30, 2023
Euclid of Alexandria is considered to be the 'father' of geometry. In his most famous work, 'Elements', he brought together the knowledge of mathematics available in his time, presented it in a consistent way and defined a strict method of proof that became the model for later mathematics. Many structures, theorems and proofs are therefore named after Euclid - and now also a space telescope. The

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
An international research team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to observe disks around 19 protostars with a very high resolution to search for the earliest signs of planet formation. This survey was motivated by the recent findings that planet formation may be well-underway in the more-evolved proto-planetary disks, but until now there had been no systematic study to

Madison WI (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
The Milky Way galaxy is an awe-inspiring feature of the night sky, dominating all wavelengths of light and viewable with the naked eye as a hazy band of stars stretching from horizon to horizon. Now, for the first time, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has produced an image of the Milky Way using neutrinos - tiny, ghostlike astronomical messengers. In a June 30 article in the journal Scien

Madison WI (SPX) Jun 30, 2023
Our Milky Way galaxy is an awe-inspiring feature of the night sky, viewable with the naked eye as a horizon-to-horizon hazy band of stars. Now, for the first time, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has produced an image of the Milky Way using neutrinos-tiny, ghostlike astronomical messengers. In an article to be published tomorrow, June 30, in the journal Science, the IceCube Collaboration, an in

A solid rocket motor for Europe’s Vega C rocket malfunctioned during a static-fire test June 28, likely pushing back the vehicle’s return to flight to 2024.

A European spacecraft is set to launch on a mission to help astronomers resolve an “embarrassing situation” in cosmology, although the launch itself is another kind of embarrassing situation for Europe.