Black Holes, Monsters In Space by John Saunders
Click on this text to view the article!
Month: March 2013
NASA’s Van Allen Probes discover a surprise circling Earth
Two giant swaths of radiation, known as the Van Allen belts, surrounding Earth were discovered in 1958. In 2012, observations from the Van Allen Probes showed that a third belt can sometimes appear. The radiation is shown here in yellow, with green representing the spaces between the belts. // NASA/Van Allen Probes/GSFC The twin spacecraft …
NASA’s Van Allen Probes discover a surprise circling Earth Read More »
NuSTAR helps solve riddle of black hole spin
This artist’s concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our Sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. // NASA/JPL-Caltech The findings resolve a long-standing debate about similar measurements in other black holes and will lead to a better understanding of how …
‘Methuselah’ Star Looks Older Than the Universe
This Digitized Sky Survey image shows the oldest star with a well-determined age in our galaxy. Called the Methuselah star, HD 140283 is 190.1 light-years away. Astronomers refined the star’s age to about 14.5 billion years. Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), STScI/AURA, Palomar/Caltech, and UKSTU/AAO by Mike Wall, Space.com The oldest known star appears to be …
New Gigantic Telescopes Will Crack the Secrets of the Skies
A rendering of the Giant Magellan Telescope, one of three “extremely large telescope” facilities slated for completion within a decade that will be large enough to resolve the universe’s first objects. Illustration: GMTO Corporation From the properties of dark matter to how the universe took shape shortly after the Big Bang, some of the universe’s …
New Gigantic Telescopes Will Crack the Secrets of the Skies Read More »