Paris, France (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The Einstein Probe satellite, utilizing its innovative lobster-eye X-ray optics, has detected a rare cosmic phenomenon-an intense X-ray burst from an unusual binary star system. This discovery highlights the mission's capacity to identify and track transient X-ray sources, shedding new light on the complex interactions and life cycles of massive stars. The newly identified stellar system c

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The Milky Way's central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, is proving to be a relentless source of cosmic activity, continuously producing bursts of light with no apparent pattern, according to new findings by astrophysicists using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). A team led by Northwestern University conducted the longest and most detailed observational study of Sagittarius

Ann Arbor, MI (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
The first space mission led by the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy is scheduled to launch in 2029 with the support of a NASA grant worth $10 million. The mission is called STARI-STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry-and will showcase the viability of a new technique for studying exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system. The technique coul

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
Black holes are not just cosmic voids; they are dynamic engines capable of generating and redistributing immense amounts of energy. Encircled by swirling disks of gas and dust-known as accretion disks-these enigmatic entities can channel energy through powerful jets when strongly magnetized, a process primarily governed by the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) effect. Despite its prominence in theoret

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
NASA is advancing research on astronaut health with a new experiment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) aimed at accelerating the detection of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This initiative is expected to enhance health safety measures for both astronauts in space and patients on Earth. Antibiotic-resistant infections pose a major global health challenge, leading to increased mor

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
For the first time, astronomers have mapped the three-dimensional structure of an exoplanet's atmosphere, uncovering extreme weather conditions driven by powerful jet streams. By utilizing the full capability of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT), researchers identified high-speed winds transporting iron and titanium across the skies of WASP-121b, also known as

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
One of the foremost objectives in astrophysics is the identification of Earth-like exoplanets that could potentially support life. Although thousands of exoplanets have been detected, most of these discoveries have been made indirectly by observing their impact on their host star's light rather than capturing their own light. For example, when a planet transits in front of its star, it causes a

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
An international team of astronomers has conducted an unprecedentedly precise observation of the exoplanet WASP-121b by utilizing the combined power of the four telescopes in the Very Large Telescope (VLT) array. Their findings reveal one of the most extreme planetary climates ever recorded, challenging current atmospheric models. WASP-121b, a well-studied ultra-hot Jupiter, is known for i

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 20, 2025
With the return of darker skies following a period of bright full moon conditions, astronomers have resumed tracking asteroid 2024 YR4. Ground-based telescopes rely on dark skies to detect asteroids, which can appear extremely faint. During a full moon, the brightness of the night sky makes it difficult to observe these small celestial objects. NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (

Paris (AFP) Feb 20, 2025
The chance that an asteroid capable of wiping out a city will hit Earth in eight years has been cut in half to around 1.5 percent, according to new calculations from NASA. The drop in odds had been widely anticipated by the global astronomical community, which now broadly expects the probability the asteroid will hit Earth on December 22, 2032 to fall down to zero. For more than 24 hours