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Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Science
- Time Magazine
Astronomers Discover Uncommon Way for Black Holes to Form
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope continues to deliver the goods. Launched on Christmas Day, 2021, it has since sent back a storm of dazzling images and a trove of good science. Now Webb has done it again. As NASA reports, two astronomers working with raw Webb data the space agency periodically makes available to researchers, have found evidence of a fast-growing black hole in an unexpected place and formed in an unexpected way. What the two astronomers—Pieter van Dokkumum of Yale University and Gabriel Brammer of the University of Copenhagen—found was a pair of spiral galaxies that collided in space. Each galaxy has a black hole at its center that was already present before the collision and which emit a red glow surrounded by a ring of light and matter, giving the overall formation the shape of the infinity symbol. Van Dokkum and Brammer nicknamed the pair the Infinity Galaxy. What surprised them was that the formation was also home to a third, larger, supermassive black hole—one with the mass of perhaps one million suns. This black hole was not in the center of one or the other galaxy as a supermassive black hole should be, but rather in the mashup of dust and gasses between them. 'Everything is unusual about this galaxy,' said Van Dokkum, in an extensive description he wrote for NASA. 'Not only does it look strange, but it also has this supermassive black hole that's pulling a lot of material in.' Just how the object formed is unknown, but Van Dokkum and Brammer have two theories, called the 'light seeds' and 'heavy seeds' scenarios. In the light seeds version, a star explodes and its core collapses, forming a black hole with a mass of perhaps 1,000 suns. Over time, other nearby stars collapse and form their own black holes and finally all of the bodies merge to form one supermassive black hole. But that theory has a problem. 'The merger process takes time,' Van Dokkum says, 'and Webb has found incredibly massive black holes at incredibly early times in the universe—possibly even too early for the process to explain them.' That doesn't mean the light seeds scenario doesn't ever play out, but it does mean that it's not as common as astronomers may believe. In the heavy seeds scenario a supermassive black hole forms directly from the collapse of a large gas cloud. In the case of the Infinity Galaxy, this occurred during the collision, when the galactic gas was shocked and compressed by the violence of the cosmic crackup. 'This compression might just be enough to form a dense knot, which then compressed into a black hole,' Van Dokkum says. That process is also called a direct collapse black hole. Not only did a supermassive black hole form from this collision, that black hole is still growing. Radio and X-ray emissions confirmed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and by the ground-based Very Large Array, confirm that the black hole is still pulling in prodigious amounts of dust and gas from its surroundings. Van Dokkum and Brammer prefer the heavy seeds scenario to explain what they found since it would be such a natural result of a galactic collision. 'By looking at the Infinity Galaxy, we think we have pieced together a story of how this could have happened here,' says Van Dokkum. But they concede that other, less likely occurrences could explain the supermassive black hole. For one thing, the body between the two galaxies in the Infinity Galaxy might be a runaway black hole that was ejected from its parent galaxy and is now passing through the Infinity Galaxy, and just happened to have been spotted by the Webb telescope during this relatively brief interregnum. Alternatively, the supermassive black hole might be at the center of a third galaxy that happens to be in the foreground of the same area of sky as the Infinity Galaxy. If that third galaxy were a dwarf galaxy, it might be faint enough that only the superheated gas and dust surrounding the black hole would be visible. But the researchers don't expect those theories to be borne out. If the black hole were a runaway, the velocity of the gasses flowing into it would likely be different from the velocity of the gasses in the Infinity Galaxy. While they haven't yet measured the speed of the gasses, they expect them to be similar. The idea that the black hole lies at the center of a dwarf galaxy can be dismissed almost out of hand since dwarf galaxies typically don't form black holes that big. All that is enough for the astronomers to claim at least a cautious victory in their discovery. 'We can't say definitively that we have found a direct collapse black hole,' says Van Dokkum. 'But we can say that these new data strengthen the case that we're seeing a newborn black hole while eliminating some of the competing explanations.'
Time of India
4 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
First time astronomers capture earliest signs of planet formation around a young star
Source: European Southern Observatory In a pioneering discovery for astronomy, scientists have captured the very first signs of planet formation around a young star, offering an unprecedented look at how planetary systems like our own might begin. Using two of the world's most powerful space observatories, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) in Chile; researchers observed a distant, infant star known as HOPS-315 , located about 1,300 light-years away in the Orion constellation. This discovery doesn't just tell us more about the universe; it offers a time machine-like glimpse into how our own solar system may have formed around 4.6 billion years ago. What is HOPS-315, and why is it key to understanding planet birth HOPS-315 is what astronomers call a protostar—a very young star still in the early stages of development. It's surrounded by a dense envelope of gas and dust that hasn't yet been fully absorbed or cleared away. As gravity causes this material to collapse and rotate, it flattens into a disk around the star. This is known as a protoplanetary disk , and it's from this swirling structure that planets eventually form. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like A fascinating fantasy game! Sea of Conquest Play Now Undo Utilizing the combined power of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory's ALMA facility in Chile, scientists focused on HOPS-315, a young protostar located about 1,370 light-years away. Though similar in type to our sun, HOPS-315 is far younger, only 100,000 to 200,000 years old. What makes HOPS-315 truly special is that it represents the earliest stage of planet formation ever directly observed outside our solar system. Until now, astronomers have mostly seen young stars with already-formed or forming planets. This is the first time they've captured the exact moment when dust begins turning into the solid building blocks of planets. 'This is the first time we've identified when planet formation actually begins around another star,' said Melissa McClure, the study's lead author from Leiden University. How do new planets form from gas and dust around young stars? Zoom into the baby star HOPS-315 The journey of a planet starts in the dusty remains of a newborn star. When a star forms from collapsing clouds of gas and dust in space, the leftover material forms a spinning disk. Inside this disk, temperatures vary, with the hottest regions closest to the star. In these hot zones, gaseous elements begin to cool and condense into tiny solid crystals, a process known as mineral condensation. These crystals then clump together over time to form planetesimals, the mile-wide 'seeds' that eventually grow into full-fledged planets. By observing HOPS-315, researchers were able to detect signs of this very process. They found silicon monoxide gas and crystals, key indicators that mineral condensation had just begun—marking the starting point of planet formation. What meteorites reveal about early planet formation in our solar system The clues about how planets form don't just come from distant stars—they also come from right here on Earth. Meteorites, the rocky fragments that fall to Earth from space, are essentially fossils from the early solar system . Many of these space rocks are believed to have formed at the same time as Earth and the other planets. Inside them, scientists have discovered high-temperature crystalline minerals like those now being seen around HOPS-315. 'These crystals are like time capsules,' explained Edwin Bergin of the University of Michigan. 'They let us match what we see around distant stars with the history of our own solar system.' How this discovery mirrors the formation of our own solar system What's particularly striking about the new observations is that the crystalline materials around HOPS-315 were found at a distance from the star similar to where our solar system's asteroid belt is located in relation to the sun. This similarity suggests that the conditions under which planetesimals form may follow consistent patterns across the universe—even in star systems vastly different from our own. 'We're seeing these minerals in exactly the same region we'd expect based on our solar system,' said Logan Francis, co-author and researcher at Leiden University. Why HOPS-315 is being called a baby photo of Earth's solar system This isn't just another distant star being studied; it's a direct window into the earliest moments of planetary evolution, one that mirrors the path our own Earth may have taken. Team member Merel van 't Hoff from Purdue University summed it up best: 'This system is like a baby photo of our solar system. It's one of the best examples we have to study how Earth, and everything else, first began.' By observing HOPS-315, astronomers haven't just captured the formation of a new planetary system; they may have also unlocked secrets about our own origins. As telescopes grow more powerful, we're getting closer than ever to understanding the cosmic recipe that made Earth and life as we know it possible. Also Read: Shubhanshu Shukla's emotional reunion with family melts millions of hearts online | Watch first pictures
Perth Now
4 days ago
- Science
- Perth Now
Astronomers capture birth of planets around a baby sun
Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system. It's an unprecedented snapshot of "time zero", scientists reported on Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel. "We've captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like earth are born around young protostars," said Leiden Observatory's Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. "For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now." NASA's Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It's a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and 1370 light years away. A single light year is about nine trillion kilometres. In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disc around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing - signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disc gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts towards earth. They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what's believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system's planets. The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, "so we didn't know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system", McClure said in an email. "Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation." While other research has looked at younger gas discs and, more commonly, mature discs with potential planet wannabes, there had been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said. In a stunning picture taken by the ESO's Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void. It's impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disc as massive as the sun's might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure. The study appears in the journal Nature.
Indian Express
01-07-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
From James Webb to Euclid, here are top 10 most powerful space telescopes
One of the many breakthroughs of the scientific community remains the invention of space telescopes — telescopes that orbit above the Earth's atmosphere to observe the Universe (planets, stars, galaxies) closely with significant clarity. These telescopes have an important advantage over ground-based telescopes in that they have access to a wider electromagnetic spectrum, enabling them to detect the wavelengths of light (such as X-rays, gamma rays, infrared) which generally gets absorbed or reflected by the Earth's atmosphere, Las Cumbres Observatory stated. The first ever space telescope, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), was launched into the low Earth orbit in 1968 aboard an Atlas-Centaur rocket, as per the National Space Centre. For the next four years following its placement, as per the Centre, the OAO-2 beamed data back to scientists on Earth, including the first observations of astronomical objects in ultraviolet light. There are more than 30 space telescopes which are currently active, and here, we take a look at the 10 most powerful of them: 1. James Webb Space Telescope Launched in the year 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope is the largest and the most powerful observatory, as per the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the most significant endeavours of the Webb telescopes include studying every phase in the history of our Universe, which ranges from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System, as per NASA. The Space Administration has referred to the Webb as the 'premier observatory of the next decade'. The telescope observes the cosmos in infrared using highly sensitive instruments. The agencies overlooking the JWST are NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Spaece Agency (CSA). 2. Hubble Space Telescope Launched in April 1990, the Hubble Space telescope has proven to be a testament to the revolutionary scientific instruments that have propelled our understanding with their remarkable discoveries. Its design, technology and serviceability have made it one of NASA's most transformative observatories, NASA's website states hailing the telescope's achievements. From determining the atmospheric composition of planets around other stars to discovering dark energy, Hubble has changed humanity's understanding of the universe, the website added. Operated by the agencies NASA and ESA, the Hubble observes the cosmos in untraviolet, visible and near-infrared, from the low Earth orbit. 3. Chandra X-ray observatory Launched in the year 1999, the Chandra X-ray observatory, NASA's flagship mission for X-ray astronomy, detects X-ray emissions from very hot regions of the universe such as exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes, as per the website. Operated solely by NASA, it is the 'most powerful X-ray telescope, with eight times the resolution of any previous X-ray telescope and able to detect sources more than 20 times fainter,' the website describes. Here are some mind-blowing facts about the Chandra observatory, according to the Harvard University: – Chandra can observe X-rays from particles up to the last second before they fall into a black hole. – At 45 feet long, Chandra is the largest satellite the shuttle has ever launched. – The electrical power required to operate the Chandra spacecraft and instruments is 2 kilowatts, about the same power as your hair dryer. – STS-93, the space mission that deployed Chandra, was the first NASA shuttle mission commanded by a woman. 4. Spitzer Space Telescope Launched in 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope was the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program — a unit of four space-based observatories, each observing the Universe in a different kind of light, as per the Caltech's Cosmos website. Spitzer, though retired in 2020, continues to remain the most influential as it allowed scientists to peek into cosmic regions which were hidden when observed through optical telescopes. Operated by NASA, its observations, in infrared light, included dusty stellar nurseries, centers of galaxies, and starlight from very distant galaxies at the edge of the Universe. 5. Planck Space Observatory Planck was ESA's first mission to study the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), the relic radiation from the Big Bang, which occurred about 14 thousand million years ago, according to the operator's website. Launched in 2009, Planck measured the temperature variations across the microwave background with much better sensitivity, angular resolution and frequency range than any previous satellite, giving astronomers an unprecedented view of our Universe when it was extremely young, just 300 000 years old, the website highlighted. Planck worked perfectly for 30 months, completing five full-sky surveys with both its instruments. Able to work at slightly higher temperatures than HFI, the Low Frequency Instrument (LFI) continued to survey the sky for a large part of 2013, providing even more data to improve the Planck final results, before being turned off later that year, as per the ESA website. 6. Gaia Launched in 2013, Gaia has made more than three trillion observations of two billion stars and other objects throughout our Milky Way galaxy and beyond, mapping their motions, luminosity, temperature and composition, the European Space Agency highlighted over its website. The telescope's extraordinarily precise three-dimensional map will provide the data needed to tackle an enormous range of important questions related to the origin, structure and evolutionary history of our galaxy. While the telescope ended its observations this year in January, the telescope was responsible for creating a 3D map of over 1 billion stars in the Milky Way, leading the ESA, its operator, to call it the 'billion star surveyor.' 7. Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is a powerful space observatory that detects gamma rays, the most energetic form of light, the NAS website states. Launched in 2008, Fermi enables scientists to address questions revolving around 'crushed stellar remnants like pulsars and the origin of high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays to stellar explosions known as gamma-ray bursts,' it stated. As per NASA's observations, Fermi data has revealed a vast new component of our galaxy known as the Fermi Bubbles, a structure that spans 50,000 light-years and likely formed as a result of an outburst from the monster black hole at the center of our galaxy. According to the National Space Centre, Fermi was initially expected to operate (under NASA) for five years, but the mission has been extended with no signs of stopping any time soon. 8. TESS (Transiting Exoplant Survey Satellite) Launched in 2018 as a follow-up to Kepler, NASA's TESS is responsible for discovering exoplanets, that is, worlds beyond our solar system. During the course of its extended observations of the sky under optical wavelengths, TESS finds and monitors all types of objects that change in brightness, from nearby asteroids to pulsating stars and distant galaxies containing supernovae. In July 2020, TESS finished its primary mission, imaging about 75 per cent of the starry sky as part of a two-year-long survey, the NASA website highlighted. While capturing this giant mosaic, TESS found 66 new exoplanets. 9. Euclid Space Telescope Euclid is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission with critical contributions from NASA that aims to explore two of the biggest mysteries about the universe today: dark matter and dark energy, the NASA website highlighted. To study the evolution of the 'dark universe,' Euclid will make a 3D map of the universe, it added. It will do so by observing billions of galaxies out to 10 billion light-years, across more than a third of the sky. Recently launched in 2023, Euclid is designed to tackle some of the most pertinent questions related to the Universe, including, what is the structure and history of the cosmic web? How has the expansion of the Universe changed over time? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? The telescope observes the cosmos in visible and near-infrared light. The mission's lifetime is six years, with the possibility of extension, as per the ESA website. 10. XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) NASA has partnering with JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) on the XRISM mission to study celestial objects that emit X-rays, its website stated. Launched in 2023, the mission aims to investigate big cosmic questions such as how the largest structures in the universe came to be, what happens to matter under extreme gravitational force, and how high-energy particle jets work. It's purpose involves studying the dynamics of hot gas in galaxy clusters, and black holes. In one of its significant breakthroughs, XRISM has managed to capture the most detailed portrait yet of gases flowing within Cygnus X-3, one of the most studied sources in the X-ray sky, according to NASA.
Hindustan Times
26-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
Asbury Park beach lifeguard impaled by a six-foot-long umbrella in ‘freak' wind accident
A female lifeguard was impaled by a beach umbrella at the Jersey Shore this week, which became a dangerous projectile due to wind gusts. (Image for representation) A female lifeguard was hospitalized after being impaled by a beach umbrella at Asbury Park. (Unsplash) The young woman was struck by a roughly six-foot-long umbrella that pierced through her body, entering beneath her left shoulder and exiting through her back around 9:30 AM on Wednesday at Asbury Park's 3rd Avenue Beach. 'The umbrella went underneath her left shoulder and out the back,' said Asbury Park Fire Chief Kevin Keddy in a statement to The New York Post. 'It was protruding by about a foot,' he added. ALSO READ| Morning Midas cargo ship: EVs behind fire sinking of 3000 vehicles off Alaska - Here's latest Probe how beach umbrella became almost fatal Emergency responders, including fellow lifeguards and EMS personnel, rushed to the scene after a call came in. 'We had to saw off the stake from the front and the back to make it more manageable. We bandaged her up and transported her to the hospital,' Keddy said. The victim, conscious throughout the ordeal, was taken to the Jersey Shore University Medical Centre in Neptune. 'When we dropped her off, she was conscious and alert and in good spirits — all things considered,' Keddy added. There is still no accurate way of knowing how the accident happened. One reason that has been put forward is that the woman might have been attempting to get or pick up an umbrella that had been snagged by a strong wind blast when she fell on the stake. ALSO READ| James Webb Space Telescope spots its 1st alien planet: 'TWA 7b' Umbrellas turning into airborne hazards are not new U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported that about 3, 000 individuals suffer injuries every year, due to beach umbrellas. Notably, a 63-year-old woman named Tammy Perreault was impaled by a beach umbrella in 2022 in South Carolina. In the same way, 55-year-old Lottie Michelle Belk also died in Virginia Beach in 2016 when a windblown umbrella hit her. ALSO READ| Judge warns Meta for being a 'serious copyright infringer' after dismissing AI training lawsuit CPSC's 2024 report also warns that flying beach umbrellas have become 'too common' in the States and urges beachgoers to take precautions.
