Latest news with #astronomers
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
A solar eclipse will pass over the same place twice in less than a year
The next two total solar eclipses will both pass over the same country, each occurring less than a year apart. Spain is the only country in the world to experience the path of totality for the solar eclipse on 12 August 2026, as well as the eclipse on 2 August 2027, offering sky gazers a unique opportunity to witness the celestial event. Six of the top 10 sunniest cities in Europe are in Spain, meaning there is little chance it will be obscured by clouds. Taking place at the height of the August tourist season, the Great European Eclipse of 2026 will see the path of totality cross over most of northern Spain, as well as the Balearic islands. A third eclipse will also be visible in Spain in January 2028, though it will only be an annular solar eclipse. This is were the Moon covers the Sun's centre but leaves the outer edges visible to produce a 'ring of fire'. All three of the solar eclipses will be visible from the UK as partial solar eclipses, though the chance of clear skies is less certain. Astronomers recommend using special glasses to view the eclipses to avoid damage, or to use home made projection equipment to track the Moon's progression as it passes in front of the Sun. "You mustn't look at it with the naked eye, you mustn't look at it with a telescope – unless you have the right kind of filters,' said Dr Robert Massey, deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society. "It's perfectly possible to take a picture of a solar eclipse. My recommendation would be that if you're projecting the image onto a piece of white card, that you just photograph the projection and then you can see the progression of the eclipse and see that bite taken out of the Sun as the Moon moves across it."
Sustainability Times
a day ago
- Science
- Sustainability Times
Undeniable Signal From the Unknown: CHIME Reveals Spinning Radio Object Behaving Unlike Anything Ever Observed
IN A NUTSHELL 🌌 An international team of astronomers discovered CHIME J1634+44 , a unique radio-emitting celestial object. , a unique radio-emitting celestial object. 🌀 This object has an exceptionally slow spin period of 841 seconds and shows signs of accelerating rotation . and shows signs of . 🔭 The discovery was made using the CHIME/FRB Pulsar Survey , which monitors the sky with high sensitivity. , which monitors the sky with high sensitivity. 🧩 CHIME J1634+44 could redefine our understanding of long-period transients and challenge existing astrophysical models. In a groundbreaking discovery, astronomers have detected a mysterious radio-emitting celestial object that defies current astrophysical understanding. This revelation, brought to light by the CHIME/FRB Pulsar Survey, introduces a unique cosmic entity that could challenge and expand our comprehension of long-period radio transients. Known as CHIME J1634+44, this extraordinary object not only spins at an unusually slow pace but also exhibits a rare phenomenon of accelerating rotation. Such an object has never been observed before, making this discovery a beacon for future astronomical research and exploration. A Signal with an 841-Second Beat and a Unique Pulse Structure The enigmatic CHIME J1634+44 impresses with its remarkable spin period of 841 seconds, placing it among the slowest-rotating radio emitters ever documented. Even more intriguing is its secondary periodicity of 4,206 seconds, suggesting a possible interaction with a companion object, likely through gravitational or material dynamics. Since its discovery in October 2022, CHIME J1634+44 has been observed experiencing reactivation bursts, totaling an impressive 89 unique bursts over a span of 4.5 years. This object stands out because of its consistent emission of fully circularly polarized radio bursts, a rarity among long-period emitters. Such characteristics imply that CHIME J1634+44 might not be a typical slow-rotating pulsar but rather something more exotic. It could potentially be a magnetic white dwarf, a magnetar, or an entirely new form of celestial object. This opens up exciting possibilities for scientists to explore and understand the nature of such cosmic phenomena. 'They Built Them by the Water!': New Study Uncovers Lost Nile Branch That Once Guided the Construction of the Egyptian Pyramids A Discovery Born from High-Precision Sky Monitoring The revelation of CHIME J1634+44 was made possible by the CHIME/FRB single-pulse pulsar survey, which utilizes an advanced triggering algorithm to isolate signals within the Milky Way based on dispersion measures (DM). The researchers, as documented in their study, meticulously used the CHIME/FRB trigger criteria for all sources with a DM low enough to be considered within the Milky Way galaxy, according to both the NE2001 and the YMW16 DM models. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has been pivotal in uncovering a wide array of transient radio phenomena, ranging from fast radio bursts (FRBs) to more slowly varying emitters like CHIME J1634+44. Its capability to monitor vast sections of the sky with high sensitivity and temporal resolution is ideal for detecting these elusive, low-frequency signals, making CHIME an essential tool in the study of cosmic radio transients. 'They Can See Us Even in Silence': China's New Magnetic Wake Tech Shatters Submarine Stealth in Shallow Waters Like the Taiwan Strait Acceleration in Spin Suggests Powerful Forces at Play A particularly unusual characteristic of CHIME J1634+44 is its accelerating spin, marked by a negative period derivative of approximately −9.03 seconds per second. This finding is unexpected, as known neutron stars or pulsars typically exhibit spin-down behavior due to energy loss through radiation or winds. The observed spin-up suggests either material accretion from a companion star or possibly energy injection via gravitational wave radiation. If confirmed, this would make CHIME J1634+44 the first known long-period transient to exhibit such spin behavior, challenging current theoretical models and paving the way for new insights into angular momentum transfer in extreme astrophysical systems. This discovery could significantly alter our understanding of how these cosmic entities function and evolve, providing a fresh perspective on traditional pulsar mechanics. 'They Can Dodge Anything We Throw at Them': China's Secret Algorithm Outsmarts Even America's Most Advanced Hypersonic Defenses A Key to Unraveling the Long-Period Transient Puzzle Long-period transients remain among the least understood types of radio sources. Their origins, emission mechanisms, and evolutionary pathways are largely speculative. The unique attributes of CHIME J1634+44 may hold the key to unraveling the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic class of astrophysical phenomena. The researchers emphasize the scientific potential of CHIME J1634+44, describing it as an important test bed for long-period transient emission theories. Its distinctive traits—particularly the combination of long periodicity, spin acceleration, and circular polarization—set it apart from the known neutron star and magnetar populations. If ongoing and future observations can clarify the mechanisms behind its emissions, they may help astrophysicists distinguish between competing origin models and inspire new theoretical frameworks. This discovery not only poses new questions about the nature of cosmic radio emitters but also challenges existing paradigms in astrophysics. As researchers continue to study CHIME J1634+44, they are likely to uncover insights that may redefine our understanding of the universe. What other cosmic mysteries lie hidden, waiting to be discovered through the eyes of advanced astronomical technology? This article is based on verified sources and supported by editorial technologies. Did you like it? 4.5/5 (20)
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Fuzzy, Large, And Very Old: Everything We Know About Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
We've only known about its existence for a few short weeks, and already astronomers have been able to learn a lot about the mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. The object was detected on 1 July 2025, and it made a big splash. Scientists rapidly discovered that it came from outside the Solar System – just the third known object to have done so. Astronomers thronged to study, track, and categorize it. Thanks to their efforts, we now have a pretty detailed – but still evolving – profile of the unusual comet. Initial observations suggest that it is very different from the other two interstellar objects, 1I/'Oumuamua, which appeared in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019. Related: Astronomers Have Traced Our New Interstellar Comet's Origin, And It's a First Here's what we know. Please note that all papers are, at time of writing, preprints that are awaiting peer review. Trajectory Ongoing observations of 3I/ATLAS have enabled astronomers to chart its future path through the Solar System. It was discovered when it was at a distance of 4.5 astronomical units from the Sun (one astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun). That placed it inside the orbit of Jupiter. It's traveling at just under 60 kilometers (37 miles) per second, but that will speed up as the comet approaches the Sun. 1I/'Oumumua was traveling at 26 kilometers per second, and 2I/Borisov at 32. The closest 3I/ATLAS will come to the Sun is around 1.36 astronomical units, inside the orbit of Mars, on 29 October 2025. Its closest approach to Earth will be in December 2025, when it will come to a distance of 1.8 astronomical units. Origin The speed and trajectory of 3I/ATLAS suggest that it comes from the thick disk of the Milky Way, the puffy region around the thin disk wherein just 15 percent of the galaxy's stellar mass resides. This part of the galaxy is relatively sparse, and most of the stars in it are very old. Age The comet's origin provides clues about its age. Since it seems to hail from a region of mostly elderly objects, it stands to reason that 3I/ATLAS is likewise quite venerable. This is supported by a separate paper that has analyzed the speed and velocity of the comet to try to calculate its age. It is traveling much faster than the two previous interstellar objects, 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, suggesting that it is older than them too. Future observations will help narrow down the object's age, but this analysis places it somewhere between 3 and 11 billion years old. The Universe is 13.8 billion years old, and the Sun is 4.6 billion. 3I/ATLAS is unlikely to be at the upper end of the age range, but it's still probably older than the Solar System. "This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," says astrophysicist Chris Lintott of the University of Oxford in the UK, co-author of one of the papers that has emerged. "We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the Solar System, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since." Appearance We don't know much about the appearance of 3I/ATLAS yet, because it is very small and still quite far away, but initial observations suggest that it is quite large compared to 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov – about 10 kilometers across, compared to up to 400 meters long (around 1,300 feet) for 1I/'Oumuamua and 975 meters for 2I/Borisov. The spectrum of light reflected off the comet has been measured by a number of independent teams, all arriving at the same findings, suggesting that the object has either a complex mix of grain sizes, a different composition from those of Solar System comets, or a combo of both explanations. New images taken with the Gemini North telescope reveal the comet's puffy coma, a sort of 'atmosphere' of dust and gas that surrounds the comet. As it draws closer to the Sun, scientists expect its activity to pick up, resulting in cometary outgassing. "3I/ATLAS likely contains ices, especially below the surface, and those ices may start to activate as it nears the Sun," says astronomer Darryl Seligman of Michigan State University in the US. "But until we detect specific gas emissions, like H2O, CO or CO2, we can't say for sure what kinds of ice or how much there is." What next? Astronomers are going to continue keeping a close eye on 3I/ATLAS. Since it is so much larger than either of the previous two interstellar visitors, it presents a much better observation target, and its projected origin and age means it represents a rare opportunity to study parts of the galaxy in time and space that are usually out of reach. Its appearance has another implication, too. It suggests that interstellar visitors are relatively common to the Solar System – which is all the more reason to be excited about the forthcoming ESA/JAXA Comet Interceptor mission, designed to visit comets and study them up close, currently slated for a 2029 launch. Related News Sold: Largest Mars Rock Exceeds Auction Expectations One of 2025's Best Meteor Showers Is Upon Us: Here's How to Watch Meteorite Discovery Could Fill Billion Year Gap in Moon History Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
3 days ago
- Science
- Forbes
Complete Guide To ‘Ammonite,' The Solar System's Latest Member
Sedna orbiting near of Neptune planet. 3d render The solar system suddenly has a new member. A new object discovered in the solar system beyond Neptune and Pluto has astronomers rethinking the history of the solar system. Called 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed 'Ammonite,' the discovery of this unique so-called trans-Neptunian object is both unexpected and could reshape what we know about the solar system's past. Here's everything you need to know about Ammonite, the solar system's newly found object. Is Ammonite A Planet Or A Dwarf Planet? Ammonite is not classed as a planet. It's not even called a dwarf planet, like Pluto (and Ceres, Haumea, Makemake and Eris). Ammonite is classed as a sednoid — an object similar to Sedna, a dwarf planet candidate in the outer solar system, which was found in 2003. Like Sedna, Ammonite orbits beyond Neptune and has a highly eccentric orbit. Ammonite is only the fourth sednoid ever discovered (after Sedna, 2012 VP113 — nicknamed Biden — and Leleākūhonua). How Big Is Ammonite? Based solely on how much sunlight it reflects, Ammonite is thought to be between 137 and 236 miles (220 and 380 kilometers) in diameter, according to the paper announcing its discovery published this week in Nature Astronomy. That's large, but significantly smaller than Pluto's diameter of about 1,477 miles (2,377 kilometers) and Earth's diameter of 7,926 miles (about 12,756 kilometers). How Far Away Is Ammonite? The solar system is measured in Earth-sun distances, one of which is called an astronomical unit (au). When it was found, Ammonite was 71 au from the sun. That's about twice as far as Neptune (30 au) and Pluto (40 au). However, Ammonite's orbital path is highly elliptical, getting as far from the sun as 432 au. It takes about 4,000 Earth-years to complete one orbit of the sun. 'Ammonite was found in a region far away where Neptune's gravity has little influence,' said Dr. Fumi Yoshida of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health and the Chiba Institute of Technology, who leads the FOSSIL project that uncovered Ammonite. That implies that 'something extraordinary occurred during the ancient era when Ammonite formed,' said Yoshida. How Does Ammonite Affect The 'Planet Nine' Thesis? The discovery appears to make the existence of a ninth planet less likely. There is an unusual clustering of six minor bodies in the outer solar system (including the sednoids). All appear to have hugely elongated and elliptical orbits, suggesting that they may have been 'herded' by the gravitational influence of a planet. However, Ammonite's orbit is oriented in the opposite direction to the three other sednoids, breaking their orbital clustering — and, therefore, challenging the 'Planet Nine' theory. 'The fact that Ammonite's current orbit does not align with those of the other three sednoids lowers the likelihood of the Planet Nine hypothesis,' said Dr. Yukun Huang at the Center for Computational Astrophysics (CfCA) of NAOJ, who conducted simulations of Ammonite's orbit. 'It is possible that a planet once existed in the solar system but was later ejected, causing the unusual orbits we see today.' The orbit of Ammonite (red line) and the orbits of the other three sednoids (white lines). Ammonite ... More was discovered close to its perihelion, at a distance of 71 astronomical units (71 times the average distance between the Sun and Earth). The yellow point shows its position as of July 2025. Could 'Planet Nine' Still Exist After Ammonite's Discovery? The so-called 'Planet Nine' could still exist, but much farther out in the solar system. It could also be a 'ghost planet,' ejected long ago, with only its past gravitational influence remaining. The orbits of Ammonite and the other sednoids could also be explained by the gravitational influence of a star passing close to the solar system billions of years ago. How Was Ammonite Found? Ammonite was first observed using the Subaru Telescope's wide-field prime-focus camera, Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), in March 2023 as part of the survey project FOSSIL (Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy). That also explains why it's named after a fossil of a cephalopod. It was observed using Suburu again in May and August 2023. The Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope's MegaCam was used in July 2024 to trace its orbit more precisely. However, its orbit was calculated by finding it in archive images going back 19 years, including images from 2014 and 2021 from the DECam instrument in Chile and in 2005 images taken by Kitt Peak National Observatory. This animation shows the observations of comet 3I/ATLAS when it was discovered on July 1, 2025. The ... More NASA-funded ATLAS survey telescope in Chile first reported that the comet originated from interstellar space. Why Is Ammonite Called A 'Fossil' Of The Solar System? Ammonite's status as a 'fossil' of the early solar system comes from the finding that it's at least 4.5 billion years old — almost as old as the solar system itself. Numerical simulations using NAOJ's CfCA PC Cluster supercomputer indicate Ammonite's orbit has remained stable for that time. It also revealed that around 4.2 billion years ago, the orbits of all the sednoids were very similar. Ammonite is part of the fossil record of the orbital configuration of the early solar system. That helps astronomers understand what the solar system looked like when it first formed. Why The Discovery Of Ammonite Is So Significant The discovery of Ammonite goes far beyond merely adding one more distant object to the solar system's population. 'Ammonite's orbit tells us that something sculpted the outer solar system very early on. Whether it was a passing star or a hidden planet, this discovery brings us closer to the truth,' said Dr. Shiang-Yu Wang, the study's corresponding author and a Research Fellow in ASIAA. 'Spacecraft have only explored limited regions of the Solar System [and] most of the vast solar system remains unexplored,' said Yoshida. 'Wide-field observations with the Subaru Telescope are steadily pushing back the frontier. ' Whether 2023 KQ14 is officially named Ammonite remains to be seen, with the International Astronomical Union set to assign a name at a later date. Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Newly discovered 'cosmic unicorn' is a spinning dead star that defies physics: 'We have a real mystery on our hands'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Using the world's most advanced radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered a spinning dead star so rare, strange and unique that they have dubbed it a "cosmic unicorn." The unique properties of this object, CHIME J1634+44, challenge our current understanding of spinning dead stars and their environments. CHIME J1634+44, also known as ILT J163430+445010 (J1634+44), is part of a class of objects called Long Period Radio Transients (LPTs). LPTs are a newly found and mysterious type of celestial body that emits bursts of radio waves that repeat on timescales of minutes to hours. That's significantly longer than the emission of standard pulsars, or rapidly spinning neutron star stellar remains that sweep beams of radiation across the cosmos as they spin. But as strange as all LPTs are, CHIME J1634+44 still stands out. Not only is it the brightest LPT ever seen, but it is also the most polarized. Additionally, its pulses of radiation seem highly choreographed. And what really stands out about CHIME J1634+44 is the fact that it is the only LPT astronomers have ever seen whose spin is speeding up. "You could call CHIME J1634+44 a 'unicorn' even among other LPTs. The bursts seem to repeat either every 14 minutes or 841 seconds — but there is a distinct secondary period of 4206 seconds, or 70 minutes, which is exactly five times longer," team leader Fengqiu Adam Dong, a Jansky Fellow at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), said in a statement. "We think both are real, and this is likely a system with something orbiting a neutron star." The team discovered the unusual traits of CHIME J1634+44 using ground-based instruments including the Green Bank Telescope, the Very Large Array (VLA), the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Fast Radio Burst and Pulsar Project, the NASA-operated space-based observatory, and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (Swift). The object was, in fact, simultaneously discovered by a separate team of astronomers at ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, using the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope. While the team led by Dong believes a stellar remnant at the heart of CHIME J1634+44 is a neutron star, the ASTRON team, captained by astronomer Sanne Bloot, refers to it as J1634+44 and think it is a white dwarf. What both teams agree on, though, is just how strange this LPT is. This unicorn is speeding up by feeding on a star Both white dwarfs and neutron stars are dead stars created when stars of differing masses run out of the fuel supplies they need for nuclear fusion at their cores. Once that fuel is over, the stars can no longer support themselves against their own immense gravities. Neutron stars are stellar remnants that form when massive stars, with masses at least eight times that of the sun, reach the end of their lives and collapse. Smaller stars closer in mass to the sun leave behind a slightly less extreme stellar remnant called a "white dwarf." Though most of the mass of these dying massive stars is shed in supernova explosions, the cores of the stars maintain a mass between one and two times that of the sun. This is crushed down to a width of around 12 miles (20 kilometers), creating matter so dense that if a teaspoon of neutron star "stuff" were scooped out and brought to Earth, it would weigh 10 million tons (equal to stacking 85,000 blue whales on a teaspoon). This collapse has another extreme consequence. The dying star maintains its angular momentum, meaning that when its radius is rapidly reduced during collapse, it speeds up greatly. Though the collapse of white dwarfs is less extreme, it also causes an increase in spin speed due to the conservation of angular momentum. An Earth-based example of this is an ice skater pulling in their arms to increase the speed of their spin. What this means is some young neutron stars can spin as fast as 700 times every second. However, as neutron stars and white dwarfs age, they should slow down as they lose energy. That's why no matter what CHIME J1634+44 is, the fact that it is speeding up its spin is very strange. There is a way neutron stars or white dwarfs can increase their spin speed, or "spin up" after their birth. It depends on whether they have a close companion star. As such, the new study's team suspects CHIME J1634+44 may actually be composed of two stellar objects orbiting each other in a tight binary format. The ASTRON team proposes that this companion is either another stellar remnant (like a white dwarf or neutron star) or is a "failed star" brown dwarf — a body that forms like a star but fails to gather enough mass to trigger the nuclear fusion that defines what a star is. As these bodies swirl around each other, they would emit ripples in spacetime called gravitational waves. This carries away angular momentum and causes the two stellar bodies to move closer together. This would cause the period of the binary to appear as if it is shortening. This type of orbital tightening has been witnessed before by astronomers in white dwarf binaries. CHIME J1634+44 gets stranger, however. Its radio bursts are 100% circularly polarized. This means the electromagnetic waves escaping J1634+44 rotate in a circle (like a corkscrew) as they propagate. Thus, the electromagnetic radiation escaping CHIME J1634+44 twists around in a perfect spiral as it moves away from its source. Not only is that extremely rare, but it is something that has never been seen in bursts of radiation from either neutron stars or white dwarfs. That implies the radio wave blasts of CHIME J1634+44 are being generated in a way that is unique for this dead star. Astronomers have a mystery on their hands with this dead star What is also weird about these pulses is the fact that they arrive in pairs, but only when the dead star in the CHIME J1634+44 binary has spun several times without emitting a burst. "The time between pulse pairs seems to follow a choreographed pattern," team member and ASTRON astronomer Harish Vedantham said in a statement. "We think the pattern holds crucial information about how the companion triggers the white dwarf to emit radio waves. "Continued monitoring should help us decode this behavior, but for now, we have a real mystery on our hands." Related Stories: — New kind of pulsar may explain how mysterious 'black widow' systems evolve — Hear 'black widow' pulsar's song as it destroys companion —NASA X-ray spacecraft reveals secrets of a powerful, spinning neutron star The research conducted by these astronomers not only reveals more about neutron stars, the universe's most extreme stellar objects, but also hints at an exciting new phase for radio astronomy. "The discovery of CHIME J1634+44 expands the known population of LPTs and challenges existing models of neutron stars and white dwarfs, suggesting there may be many more such objects awaiting discovery," Dong concluded. Both teams' research was published on Thursday (July 17) in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Solve the daily Crossword
