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Scientists measure the distance to stars by their music

Fri, 2023-12-15 14:03
A team of astronomers has used asteroseismology, or the study of stellar oscillations, to accurately measure the distance of stars from the Earth. Their research examined thousands of stars and checked the measurements taken during the Gaia mission to study the near Universe.

New red galaxies turn out to be already known blue galaxies

Fri, 2023-12-15 01:55
Not all discoveries turn out to be actual new discoveries. This was the case for the extremely red objects (EROs) found in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data. Analysis shows that they are very similar to blue-excess dust obscured galaxies (BluDOGs) already reported in Subaru Telescope data.

Astronomers discover first population of binary stripped stars

Fri, 2023-12-15 01:54
Astronomers have discovered a population of massive stars that have been stripped of their hydrogen envelopes by their companions in binary systems. The findings shed light on the hot helium stars that are believed to be the origins of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers.

Reaching for the (invisible) stars

Fri, 2023-12-15 01:54
Supernovae -- stellar explosions as bright as an entire galaxy -- have fascinated us since time immemorial. Yet, there are more hydrogen-poor supernovae than astrophysicists can explain. Now, scientists may have found the missing precursor star population.

Unexpected chemistry reveals cosmic star factories´ secrets

Thu, 2023-12-14 13:25
Two galaxies in the early universe, which contain extremely productive star factories, have been studied by a team of scientists. Using powerful telescopes to split the galaxies' light into individual colors, the scientists were amazed to discover light from many different molecules -- more than ever before at such distances. Studies like this could revolutionize our understanding of the lives of the most active galaxies when the universe was young, the researchers believe.

Tiniest free-floating brown dwarf

Wed, 2023-12-13 21:25
Brown dwarfs are objects that straddle the dividing line between stars and planets. They form like stars, growing dense enough to collapse under their own gravity, but they never become dense and hot enough to begin fusing hydrogen and turn into a star. At the low end of the scale, some brown dwarfs are comparable with giant planets, weighing just a few times the mass of Jupiter.

Some icy exoplanets may have habitable oceans and geysers

Wed, 2023-12-13 11:19
A new study expands the search for life beyond our solar system by indicating that 17 exoplanets (worlds outside our solar system) could have oceans of liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, beneath icy shells. Water from these oceans could occasionally erupt through the ice crust as geysers. The science team calculated the amount of geyser activity on these exoplanets, the first time these estimates have been made. They identified two exoplanets sufficiently close where signs of these eruptions could be observed with telescopes.

NASA's Webb stuns with new high-definition look at exploded star

Tue, 2023-12-12 16:34
Like a shiny, round ornament ready to be placed in the perfect spot on a holiday tree, supernova remnant Cassiopeia A (Cas A) gleams in a new image.

14-inch spacecraft delivers new details about 'hot Jupiters'

Tue, 2023-12-12 16:33
The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) spacecraft is about the size of a cereal box. It has also recorded incredibly detailed measurements of the atmospheres of planets hundreds of light-years from Earth.

Scholars say it's time to declare a new epoch on the moon, the 'lunar Anthropocene'

Fri, 2023-12-08 13:30
According to anthropologists and geologists, it's time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the moon: the Lunar Anthropocene. They argue the new epoch may have dawned in 1959 when the USSR's unmanned spacecraft Luna 2 alighted on the lunar surface.

Giant doubts about giant exomoons

Thu, 2023-12-07 16:14
The extrasolar planets Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b are supposedly the home worlds of the first known exomoons. A new study now comes to a different conclusion.

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