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  White dwarfs seen eating the remnants of destroyed planets Four distant white dwarfs, the remnants of dead stars, have been spotted consuming what could be the crust of pulverised planets. Mark Hollands at the University of Warwick, UK, and his colleagues have discovered that the material is similar to Earth’s crust, which could help reveal whether the formation of our own planet is a common process throughout the galaxy. The spectrum of light emitted by … Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264669-white-dwarfs-seen-eating-the-remnants-of-destroyed-planets/#ixzz6zcekCTP6     Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2264669-white-dwarfs-seen-eating-the-remnants-of-  destroyed-planets/#ixzz6zceL7NEp  

White dwarf star is the size of the moon but more massive than the sun The smallest white dwarf star ever found is about the same size as Earth’s moon, but more massive than the sun. It appears to be shrinking, which could lead to a colossal explosion. Ilaria Caiazzo at the California Institute of Technology and her colleagues discovered this star, called ZTF J190132.9+145808.7, using the Zwicky Transient Facility in California. They then performed additional observations with other telescopes to confirm its properties. The researchers found that it rotates extraordinarily quickly , spinning once every 6.9 minutes. The magnetic field strength at its surface ranges between 600 and 900 megagauss – more than 1 billion times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field. The star, which is about 130 light years from Earth, has a radius of about 2140 kilometres, only 400 kilometres bigger than the moon. But it also has a mass about 1.3 times that of the sun, close to the limit for ho

  Scientists catch 1st glimpse of a black hole swallowing a neutron star After more than four years of exploring a menagerie of cosmic happenings through gravitational waves , scientists have finally spotted the third expected variety of collision — twice. The new flavor of collision includes one black hole and one neutron star, making it a mash-up of sorts. Scientists have observed dozens of mergers of pairs of black holes , and a couple mergers of pairs of neutron stars , the superdense stellar corpses. But a crash between a black hole and neutron star, while predicted by scientists, had not been definitively detected.  Now, researchers say they have done just that, observing the unique ripples in space-time caused by such a collision. "With this new discovery of neutron star-black hole mergers outside our galaxy, we have found the missing type of binary," Astrid Lamberts, a CNRS researcher at Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in France, said in a statement. &qu

  Newly found mega comet may be the largest seen in recorded history     A giant comet found far out in the solar system may be 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet, making it potentially the largest ever found in modern times. The object, officially designated a comet on June 23 , is called  Comet C/2014 UN271 or Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers, University of Pennsylvania graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli and astronomer Gary Bernstein.  Astronomers estimate this icy body has a diameter of 62 miles to 124 miles (100 to 200 km), making it about 10 times wider than a typical comet . This estimate is quite rough, however, as the comet remains far away from Earth and its size was calculated based on how much sunlight it reflects. The comet will make its closest approach to our planet in 2031 but will remain at quite a distance even then. We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen — or at least larger than any well-st

  Astronomers spot 3,000 light-year 'light echo' of dying supermassive black hole At the dark hearts of galaxies like the Milky Way lie supermassive black holes , with millions or even billions of times the sun's mass.  Some of those supermassive black holes are what scientists call active galactic nuclei (AGN), which spew out copious amounts of radiation like X-rays and radio waves. AGN are responsible for the twin jets of ionized gas you see shooting away in pictures of many galaxies . As all things must pass, so too must every AGN one day shut off. But scientists have never quite understood how or when that happens. Now, researchers led by Kohei Ichikawa, an astronomer at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, may have found a clue. Looking at the distant galaxy Arp 187, those researchers have seen what they think is an AGN in its very last days. Ichikawa and his colleagues observed Arp 187 with the radio telescopes at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter

  Space miners may use rockets to harvest the moon's water ice  Rockets may help humanity explore the solar system in more ways than one. Three companies — Masten Space Systems, Lunar Outpost and Honeybee Robotics — are developing a new system that would use rockets to mine water ice on the moon . Water ice is thought to be abundant in the moon's polar regions, especially on the permanently shadowed floors of some craters. Harvesting this resource is crucial to establishing a permanent human presence on the moon , NASA officials and exploration advocates say, and not just because it will help keep astronauts alive. Water ice can be broken into its constituent hydrogen and oxygen, the chief components of rocket fuel, allowing spacecraft to top up their tanks away from Earth To spur development of moon mining tech, NASA recently established the " Break the Ice Lunar Challenge ." The contest will award up $500,000 total to the most promising resource-harves

 IC 1101- Biggest Galaxy in observed universe IC 1101 is a supergiant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Abell 2029 galaxy cluster and is one of the largest known galaxies. Its halo extends about 600 kiloparsecs (2 million light-years) from its core, and it has a total of about 100 trillion stars. The galaxy is located 320 megaparsecs (1.04 billion light-years) from Earth. The galaxy was discovered on 19 June 1790, by the British astronomer Frederick William Herschel   Characteristics The galaxy is classified as a supergiant elliptical (E) to lenticular (S0) and is the brightest galaxy in A2029 (hence its other designation A2029-BCG; BCG meaning brightest cluster galaxy ). The galaxy's morphological type is debated due to it possibly being shaped like a flat disc but only visible from Earth at its broadest dimensions. However, most lenticulars have sizes ranging from 15 to 37  kpc (50 to 120 thousand  ly ). IC 1101 is among the largest known galaxies , but there

The Black Knight Satellite: A Hodgepodge of Alien Conspiracy Theories The Black Knight satellite conspiracy theory claims that a spacecraft of extraterrestrial origin is in near- polar orbit of the Earth, and that NASA is covering up its existence and origin. This conspiracy theory combines several unrelated stories into one narrative. A photo taken during the STS-88 mission claimed by some to show the Black Knight satellite is catalogued by NASA as a photo of space debris, and space journalist James Oberg considers it as probable debris of a thermal blanket confirmed as lost during the mission.                    Take a good look at the photograph above. NASA captured this image of a mysterious black object orbiting the Earth in 1998, during the first Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The space agency refers to the strange entity as item STS088-724-66 in its catalogue of space junk floating in low-Earth orbit (within 1,200 miles ). Jerry Ros

Venus     It's a cloud-swaddled planet named for a love goddess, often called Earth’s twin. But pull up a bit closer, and Venus turns hellish. Our nearest planetary neighbor, the second planet from the Sun, has a surface hot enough to melt lead. The atmosphere is so thick that, from the surface, the Sun is just a smear light. In some ways it is more an opposite of Earth than a twin: Venus spins backward, has a day longer than its year, and lacks any semblance of seasons. It might once have been a habitable ocean world, like Earth, but that was at least a billion years ago. A runaway greenhouse effect turned all surface water into vapor, which then leaked slowly into space. The present-day surface of volcanic rock is blasted by high temperatures and pressures. Asked if the surface of Venus is likely to be life-bearing today, we can give a quick answer: a hard “no.” Further, Venus may hold lessons about what it takes for life to get its start ­– on Earth, in our solar

Uranus The first planet found with the aid of a telescope, Uranus was discovered in 1781 by astronomer William Herschel, although he originally thought it was either a comet or a star. First X-rays from Uranus Discovered It was two years later that the object was universally accepted as a new planet, in part because of observations by astronomer Johann Elert Bode. Herschel tried unsuccessfully to name his discovery Georgium Sidus after King George III. Instead the scientific community accepted Bode's suggestion to name it Uranus, the Greek god of the sky, as suggested by Bode.​ Interesting Facts About Uranus Uranus is known as the “sideways planet” because it rotates on its side. Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. Uranus was the first planet found using a telescope. Uranus is an Ice Giant planet and nearly four times larger than Earth. Uranus has 27 known moons, most of which are named after literary characters. Like Saturn, Jupiter and Neptu

Neptune  Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye. In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846. Neptune is so far from the Sun that high noon on the big blue planet would seem like dim twilight to us. The warm light we see here on our home planet is roughly 900 times as bright as sunlight on Neptune. The ice giant Neptune was the first planet located through mathematical calculations. Using predictions made by Urbain Le Verrier, Johann Galle discovered the planet in 1846. The planet is named after the Roman god of the sea, as suggested by Le Verrier Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. Tiny Neptune Moon May Have Broken from Larger Moon Mo

  Scientists Find ‘Monster’ Black Hole So Big They Didn’t Think it Was Possible   Until recently, scientists did not think it was possible for a stellar black hole to have a mass larger than 20 times that of the sun, an approximation based on their understanding of the way stars evolve and die in the Milky Way. But that assumption was metaphorically crushed in the gravity of a “monster” black hole that a group of Chinese-led international scientists discovered inside our own galaxy. The hole has a mass 70 times that of the sun, researchers said in their late-2019 study published in the journal Nature. “No one has ever seen a 70-solar-mass stellar black hole anywhere,” Joel Bregman, one of the study authors and a professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan, said in an interview. “This is the first.”  Black holes form when a star runs out of fuel and collapses on itself, creating a strong gravitational pull that prevents anything — even light — from escaping. In th

Saturn- Second largest planet The Latest   Saturn and Titan Resources Introduction Adorned with thousands of beautiful ringlets, Saturn is unique among the planets. It is not the only planet to have rings—made of chunks of ice and rock—but none are as spectacular or as complicated as Saturn's. Like fellow gas giant Jupiter, Saturn is a massive ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium. Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest planet in our solar system. Surrounded by more than 60 known moons, Saturn is home to some of the most fascinating landscapes in our solar system. From the jets of water that spray from Enceladus to the methane lakes on smoggy Titan, the Saturn system is a rich source of scientific discovery and still holds many mysteries. Size and Distance With a radius of 36,183.7 miles (58,232 kilometers), Saturn is 9 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Saturn would be about as big as a volleyball. From