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JWST captures immense, rare explosion
The exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, GRB 230307A, and its associated kilonova — an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either a black hole or with another neutron star. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Andrew Levan (IMAPP, Warw) In March of this year, astronomers detected a brilliant burst of gamma rays more than a…
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Second-brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen observed creating elements needed for life
A team of scientists has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to observe an exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, GRB 230307A, and its associated kilonova. Kilonovas—an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either a black hole or with another neutron star—are extremely rare, making it difficult to observe these events. The highly sensitive infrared…
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Bright flash leads astronomers to a heavy-metal factory 900 million light years away
An extraordinary burst of high-energy light in the sky has pointed astronomers to a pair of metal-forging neutron stars 900 million light years from Earth. In a study appearing today in Nature, an international team of astronomers, including scientists at MIT, reports the detection of an extremely bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), which is the most…
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Look to the stars
Attendees viewing the moon outside of the Goshen County Library on “International Observe the Moon Night.” Cynthia Sheeley/Torrington Telegram By: Cynthia Sheeley Updated: 2 hours ago / Posted Oct 25, 2023 TORRINGTON – The moon and the night sky have always instilled awe and wonder in those who observe them. By teaching astronomy, adults and…
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What Does Extraterrestrial Mean and Why Are Experts looking for It?
If you hear “extraterrestrial,” what do you picture? Google it, and chances are you’ll find at least one visualization of a humanoid alien, maybe even waving at the camera. The idea that extraterrestrials, specifically intelligent ones, might exist has long captured our fascination. Its longevity across the ages indicates a burning question: Is something or…
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Roman set to ID our furthest-known exoplanet in its uncharted-space jaunt
With a field of view 100 times greater than the Hubble, NASA’s anticipated Roman Space Telescope is set to measure light from a billion galaxies, perform a microlensing survey deep in the Milky Way to find thousands of exoplanets, monitor hundreds of millions of stars and offer a look into distant galactic neighborhoods that could…
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Scientists zoom in on Betelgeuse, show why it hasn’t exploded yet
The colossal star Betelgeuse — so giant that it would reach to Jupiter in our solar system — is on the highway to collapsing under its own weight and creating a blast so bright, it would outshine even the moon in our night sky. Although some hype up Betelgeuse’s looming doom, its coming explosion, called…
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Largest-ever computer simulation of the universe escalates cosmology dilemma
We see countless stars and galaxies sparkling in the universe today, but how much matter is actually there? The question is simple enough — its answer, however, is turning out to be quite a head-scratcher. This dilemma exists largely because current cosmological observations simply disagree on how matter is distributed in the present-day universe. Of…
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Heavy element production in a compact object merger observed by JWST
Abstract The mergers of binary compact objects such as neutron stars and black holes are of central interest to several areas of astrophysics, including as the progenitors of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)1, sources of high-frequency gravitational waves (GW)2 and likely production sites for heavy element nucleosynthesis via rapid neutron capture (the r-process)3. Here we present observations…
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Astronomers May Have Witnessed Worlds in Collision
This artist’s concept illustrates a catastrophic collision between two exoplanets, turning both into hot, dusty debris. Credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook Advertisement <div class="article-block article-text" data-behavior="newsletter_promo dfp_article_rendering" data-dfp-adword="Advertisement" data-newsletterpromo_article-text=" Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters. ” data-newsletterpromo_article-image=”https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/4641809D-B8F1-41A3-9E5A87C21ADB2FD8_source.png” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-text=”Sign Up” data-newsletterpromo_article-button-link=”https://www.scientificamerican.com/page/newsletter-sign-up/?origincode=2018_sciam_ArticlePromo_NewsletterSignUp” name=”articleBody” itemprop=”articleBody”> Long ago, around an otherwise unremarkable faraway star, two infant planets had an extraordinarily…
