Astronomy

Celestron's EclipSmart binoculars are specialists for solar observation and now they're 25% off on Amazon

By the end of this summer, we may have a good idea as to whether we'll have a bright naked-eye comet gracing our early autumn evening sky, known as C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS).

SpaceX plans to launch the first batch of satellites for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office's "proliferated architecture" early Wednesday morning (May 22).

Fractals are common in nature because of the surprisingly simple way they are made. Mathematically, they also help us make sense of complexity and chaos – and maybe even quantum weirdness

Fractals are common in nature because of the surprisingly simple way they are made. Mathematically, they also help us make sense of complexity and chaos – and maybe even quantum weirdness

The 90-year-old finally realized his dreams of spaceflight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle, which also carried five other crew members on a short suborbital voyage

NASA scientists have discovered signs of an impending flash drought months before the onset by observing the brightness of "glowing" plants from space.

The best binoculars for long distance viewing have high magnification, quality optics and excel for stargazing or wildlife observation — here are our favorites.

The world's biggest AI companies have made artificial general intelligence, or AGI, their goal. But it isn't always clear what AGI means, and there is debate about whether it is a valuable idea

The world's biggest AI companies have made artificial general intelligence, or AGI, their goal. But it isn't always clear what AGI means, and there is debate about whether it is a valuable idea

What did the monster active region that created the recent auroras look like when at the Sun's edge?

Modeling distant planets has revealed that tidal forces generated by their parent stars can combine with intense radiation bombardment and strip away their atmospheres.

Video: 00:51:05

ESA’s Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) mission is designed to advance our understanding of the role that clouds and aerosols play in reflecting incident solar radiation back out to space and trapping infrared radiation emitted from Earth’s surface.

Developed as a cooperation between ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), this exciting mission will make a range of different measurements that together will shed new light on the role that clouds and aerosols play in regulating Earth’s delicate temperature balance. 

With global climate change increasingly affecting our planet, EarthCARE is poised to provide data for climate research, improve the accuracy of climate models and support numerical weather prediction. 

The EarthCare pre-launch press briefing featured: Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programmes, ESA, Dirk Bernaerts, EarthCARE project manager and Acting Head Earth Explorers Division, ESA, Futoshi Takiguchi, Vice President and Director General for the Space Technology Directorate, JAXA, Eiichi Tomita, EarthCARE/CPR Project Manager, JAXA and Maximilian Sauer, EarthCARE Project Manager, Airbus.

Neurodiversity reframes neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD as differences to be embraced rather than treated – but that doesn’t mean abandoning diagnosis and intervention altogether

Neurodiversity reframes neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD as differences to be embraced rather than treated – but that doesn’t mean abandoning diagnosis and intervention altogether

The physics surrounding black holes is just plain weird. A gravitational well so strong that not even light can escape can do some pretty strange things to normal matter. Over the decades, plenty of theories have been put forward about what those strange things might be. And now, a new paper from physicists at the University of Oxford has proved that, once again, Einstein’s theory of gravity was right. 

Their work focused on a “plunging region” immediately outside the black hole’s radius. In this region, matter “plunges” straight into the black hole rather than orbiting it via the more familiar laws of orbital mechanics. One of the paper’s authors, Dr. Andrew Mummery, equates it to watching a river turn into a waterfall. Matter flows nicely along a well-defined path and then seemingly drops off a cliff.

Theoretical work has been ongoing for this region for decades. The idea of the plunge came originally from Einstein’s theory of gravity. It noted that sufficiently close to a black hole, the matter would be forced into the black hole at close to the speed of light. However, no one had yet collected any data and proved this theory.

Fraser celebrates the first direct image of a black hole.

However, data from NASA’s Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) change that. They collected X-ray data on a relatively small black hole located in a star system about 10,000 light years away. That data showed that matter (which is all plasma at that point) rapidly moves toward the interior of the black hole once it reaches a certain threshold. 

This discovery is only the first step in a long-term plan, where researchers hope to use a much bigger telescope to study much larger black holes. The Africa Millimetre Telescope is a proposed new ground-based telescope planned to begin operations in Namibia. Originally proposed back in 2016, the project is slowly moving toward first light and has so far received 10 million Euros in funding. 

With this new telescope, the Oxford physicists hope to glimpse one of the supermassive black holes in the center of our galaxy. They could potentially even capture a video of it rotating—or at least the matter around it rotating. That would be a first for black hole astronomy and a major technical feat in and of itself.

Fraser discusses another weird aspect of the physics of black holes – how cold are they?

For now, plenty of other smaller black holes can be analyzed using data from existing telescopes, such as NuSTAR and NICER, as well as other platforms. The paper also analyzed data from the International Space Station. With new tools and a better understanding of what to look for, there are undoubtedly more discoveries waiting to be made about black holes in the data we’ve already collected.

Learn More:
University of Oxford – First proof that “plunging regions” exist around black holes in space
Mummery et al – Continuum emission from within the plunging region of black hole discs
UT – New View Reveals Magnetic Fields Around Our Galaxy’s Giant Black Hole
UT – Black Hole Event Horizons Can Get So Big it’ll Boggle Your Imagination

Lead Image:
Artist’s illustration of a black hole.
Credit – NASA

The post After Swirling Around a Black Hole, Matter Just Falls Straight In appeared first on Universe Today.

In an ongoing swarm of earthquakes that began hitting Japan in 2020, the shifting weight of surface water may have spurred the shaking

In an ongoing swarm of earthquakes that began hitting Japan in 2020, the shifting weight of surface water may have spurred the shaking

With tentative evidence for long-lasting quantum phenomena inside cells, researchers are beginning to rethink what we need to look for to find clinching evidence of quantum biology

With tentative evidence for long-lasting quantum phenomena inside cells, researchers are beginning to rethink what we need to look for to find clinching evidence of quantum biology