Starship Asterisk*

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The black hole powering the quasar has a record mass relative to the galaxy's stellar mass.

Link: Science News

Mercury

True. But it's amusing that six years elapsed from the coining of "quasar" to that journal's usage of it. The full paragraph: The next year [in 1964], American astrophysicist Hong-Yee Chiu called these objects quasars, a term that initially made a bigger hit with the public than with his p...

Mercury

by Ken Croswell Contrary to a previous report, there’s no evidence of an intermediate-mass black hole in Omega Centauri, the Milky Way’s most massive and luminous globular star cluster, a new study finds. Instead, a hive of much smaller black holes diving into and out of the tightly packed star clus...

Mercury

From the fourth paragraph:

“The Astrophysical Journal has up till now not recognized the term ‘quasar’; and it regrets that it must now concede,” the editor lamented.

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Recent discoveries of record-breaking quasars have pushed the boundaries of our understanding. In 2021, astronomers reported the most distant quasar ever seen and, in 2024, the most luminous quasar known.

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The find suggests all rocky planets get wet soon after birth, boosting the chances for life.

Link: Science News

Mercury

Marsquakes shake up views of the Red Planet's deep interior

by Ken Croswell

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

No one knows why.

Link: Science News

Mercury

Certain red dwarfs pulsate.

by Ken Croswell

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Amy McDermott

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

Listen at

CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor, part 1

and

CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor, part 2

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The spacecraft could reach Uranus in 2044.

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

A population of ancient stars around the Galactic center is the oldest known in the Milky Way, a new study finds.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

A single doomed moon could clear up two mysteries about Saturn.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Katherine Kornei

Our planet’s journey through the galaxy syncs up with the rhythm of long-ago crust formation.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

Infrared cameras reveal patterns of star formation previously concealed by dust in the Cartwheel Galaxy.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

The discovery helps refine the dividing line between neutron stars and black holes.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

The first image contains a galaxy cluster’s past and recent star birth in more remote galaxies.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Lisa Grossman

We see the galaxy as it was just 500 million years after the big bang.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Neutrinos hint that the Sun has more carbon and nitrogen than previously thought.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Katherine Kornei

Detected by gravitational lensing, the interstellar wanderer may be a hefty neutron star instead.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Asa Stahl

The catalog includes asteroids, galaxies, and the stuff between the stars.

Link: Science News

Mercury

by Ken Croswell

Two small, metal-poor, star-forming galaxies just beyond the Local Group resemble the first galaxies that ever arose after the Big Bang.

Link: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Mercury

by Nikk Ogasa

Jets of gas released when hot meets cold could explain what looks like dunes on Jupiter's volcanic moon.

Link: Science News

Starship Asterisk*

Search found 74 matches

A Distant Quasar's Black Hole is Oddly Huge for its Galaxy

Re: Extreme Quasars Illuminate the Fast Lives of the First Black Holes

The Nearest Midsized Black Hole Might Instead Be a Horde of Lightweights

Re: Extreme Quasars Illuminate the Fast Lives of the First Black Holes

Extreme Quasars Illuminate the Fast Lives of the First Black Holes

Sulfur was Key to the First Water on Earth

Marsquakes Shake Up Views of the Red Planet's Deep Interior

The Black Hole-Powered Jet in M87 Is Making Stars Explode

A Brightness Gap Exposes the Inner Lives of Red Dwarf Stars

PNAS: Light Pollution is Fixable

Lithium Comes from Nova Explosions

Ambitious New Mission Seeks Origin of the Martian Moons

Planetary Scientists Plot a Return to the Nearest Ice Giant, Uranus

Astronomers Find the Protogalaxy that Spawned the Milky Way

Saturn's Ring and Tilt Came from One Missing Moon, New Theory Says

Passing through Spiral Arms May Have Created Earth's Crust

A New James Webb Image Shows Galactic Collision's Aftermath

The Most Massive Neutron Star Ever Seen Has 2.35 Solar Masses

How James Webb Space Telescope Data Has Revealed Surprises

The Most Distant Rotating Galaxy is 13.3 Billion Light-Years Away

Neutrinos Begin to Reveal the Composition of the Sun and Universe

A Celestial Loner Might Be the First Rogue Black Hole

New Gaia Data Released

Nearby Primitive Galaxies Offer Window on Early Universe

Lava and Frost May Form Mysterious Lumps on Io