Those who enjoy the history of the Roman Empire are well acquainted with the story of Antinous, the young man of extraordinary beauty who deeply captivated Emperor Hadrian. Not only did Hadrian love him, but he also shared a very close and personal bond with him. This bond culminated in tragedy in the year 132 […]
Stars
A Supermassive Black Hole Destroying Stars Solves the Mystery of Stellar Eruptions
A massive black hole has ripped apart a star, and now it’s using the remnants of that star to impact another nearby star or possibly a smaller black hole that was once safe from harm. This discovery, made through NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, helps astronomers connect two previously separate mysteries by offering […]
A star passed so close to the Solar System billions of years ago that it originated the moons of the outer planets
Billions of years ago, a star may have passed incredibly close to our Solar System, triggering a series of cosmic events that led to the creation of the moons around the outer planets and the unusual orbits of distant celestial bodies. This new theory, backed by over 3,000 computer simulations, was proposed by a team […]
First Euclid Images Reveal Billions of Orphan Stars Orbiting an Intriguing Point Between the Galaxies from Which they Were Ejected
The Euclid satellite’s first scientific images have unveiled over 1.5 trillion orphan stars scattered throughout the Perseus galaxy cluster. This discovery, led by astronomers from the University of Nottingham, sheds new light on the origins of these wandering celestial bodies. Located 240 million light-years from Earth, the Perseus cluster is one of the most massive […]
Olbers’ Paradox: Why is the Night Sky Dark if There Are Billions of Stars?
Olbers’ Paradox, also known as the dark sky paradox, is an apparent contradiction about why the night sky is dark instead of being completely illuminated by the light of an infinite number of stars. It is believed that the first to raise the problem was Lord Kelvin, in an essay published in 1901, and that […]
What is the Origin of Phosphorus and why is it so Abundant? Astronomers Propose it Formed in Nova Explosions 8 Billion Years Ago
Phosphorus is one of the essential elements for life on Earth, it plays a critical role in DNA, RNA, ATP, and other biological molecules. Yet, its origins in the universe have puzzled scientists for years. Now, a new theory suggests that the abundant presence of phosphorus on Earth might be tied to a specific type […]
Greatest Explosion Recorded since the Big Bang Unlocks a New Cosmological Mystery
In October 2022, an international team of researchers, including astrophysicists from Northwestern University, observed the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded, GRB 221009A. Now, a team led by Northwestern has confirmed that the phenomenon responsible for this historic burst, nicknamed the “Brightest of All Time” (B.O.A.T.), is the collapse and subsequent explosion of a massive […]
Scientists Propose the Existence of Gravastars or Gravitational Stars Nested Inside Each Other
Black holes continue to mystify scientists. In 1916, German physicist Karl Schwarzschild proposed a solution to Albert Einstein’s general relativity equations suggesting that the center of a black hole contains a “singularity” — a point where space and time cease to exist. According to theory, within the singularity all physical laws, including Einstein’s general relativity, […]
NASA Telescopes Find New Clues to Mysterious Deep Space Signals
Two NASA X-ray telescopes recently observed one of these phenomena – known as a fast radio burst (FRB) – just minutes before and after it occurred. This unprecedented observation is helping scientists better understand these extreme radio events. FRBs last only a fraction of a second but can release as much energy as the Sun […]
First-ever Observation of a Supermassive Black Hole Preventing Star Creation in a Galaxy at the Dawn of the Universe
A quasar is a compact region powered by a supermassive black hole located at the center of a massive galaxy. They are extremely bright, with a pinpoint appearance similar to stars, and are far away from Earth. Due to their distance and brightness, they allow a glimpse into the conditions of the early Universe, when […]