Latest news with #galaxy
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
The Universe's Most Powerful Cosmic Rays May Finally Be Explained
Somewhere in our galaxy are engines capable of driving atomic fragments to velocities that come within a whisker of lightspeed. The explosive deaths of stars seems like a natural place to search for sources of these highly energetic cosmic bullets, yet when it comes to the most powerful particles, researchers have had their doubts. Numerical simulations by a small international team of physicists may yet save the supernova theory of cosmic ray emissions at the highest of energies, suggesting there is a brief period where a collapsing star could still become the Universe's most extreme accelerator. For more than a century, scientists have scanned the skies for phenomena that may be responsible for the relatively constant showers of atomic nuclei and occasional electrons that pepper our planet. Simply following their trajectory would be like picking up a bottle on the beach and looking to the horizon for its home. The charges of most cosmic rays put them at the mercy of a turbulent ocean of magnetic fields across the galaxy and beyond, leaving researchers to search for other clues. A mere few thousand light years away in our galactic backyard, the historic supernova known as Tycho's star has been studied for signs of physics capable of accelerating charged particles. In 1572, astronomers marveled at the star's sudden brightening, now understood to be the final hoorah of a white dwarf ending its life in a thermonuclear catastrophe. As its core collapsed under its own weight, the burst of heat and radiation slammed into the shell of surrounding gases, generating immense magnetic fields. In 2023 researchers published their analysis on those fields, finding their ability to generate cosmic rays was "significantly smaller" than those expected of existing models. While this doesn't rule out collapsing stars as potential particle accelerators, it does raise questions on just how much power they can provide. Every now and then, Earth is struck by some true monsters – particles that are up to a thousand times more powerful than anything our own technology has been capable of generating. These peta-electronvolt (PeV) energies are the work of hypothetical cosmic engines dubbed PeVatrons. According to astrophysicists Robert Brose from the University of Potsdam in Germany, Iurii Sushch from the Spanish Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research, and Jonathan Mackey from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, dying stars just might be the mysterious PeVatrons scientists have been searching for. For it to work, the dying star first needs to cough up enough material to form a dense shell around itself. Then, at the moment of supernova the rapidly expanding shock wave smashes into this dense environment, generating the necessary magnetic turbulence to whip nuclei and electrons towards PeV-levels of acceleration. The critical element, they claim, is timing – only within its first decade or two is the surrounding shell dense enough to provide the amount of turbulence required for particles to reach the highest of energies. "It is possible that only very young supernova remnants evolving in dense environments may satisfy the necessary conditions to accelerate particles to PeV energies," the team writes. Had Tycho's star held its breath for just another few centuries, astrophysicists may have recorded a shower of cosmic rays at the highest of magnitudes. Perhaps in the near future, the violent end of another nearby star just might give us the opportunity they need to solve the perplexing mystery of PeVatrons once and for all. This research has been accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. China's Tianwen-2 Launches to Grab First 'Living Fossil' Asteroid Samples Scientists Have Clear Evidence of Martian Atmosphere 'Sputtering' Chance X-Ray Discovery Reveals Mystery Object 15,000 Light Years Away
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I have watched every Star Wars film and this is my ultimate ranking from best to worst: CERI THOMAS
A long time ago in a galaxy far away… you were lucky if you got a new Star Wars trilogy once every couple of decades. Heck, the first 30 years of the franchise's existence saw just six films and a small smattering of mediocre TV shows spring from the mind of George Lucas. But since Disney bought the rights to Star Wars in 2012, things have gone into hyperdrive. A new trilogy of movies was just the start of things. Soon the House of the Mouse brought us standalone prequel flicks like Rogue One and Solo too. And then the avalanche of TV content really got going as The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book Of Boba Fett, Rebels, The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka and more filled our download screens with more Jedi, droids, wookiees and Sith than you can shake a lightsaber at.
CNN
3 days ago
- General
- CNN
Astronomers spot bright flashes from a mysterious new class of cosmic object
Astronomers have detected an astonishing celestial object emitting bright flashes of radio waves and X-rays that last for two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes. In a fresh twist, the discovery marks the first time powerful X-rays have been associated with an object that might be a long-period transient. Astronomers first spotted this cryptic new class of objects in 2022, and fewer than a dozen have been found so far. 'Long-period (radio) transients (LPTs) are a recently identified class of cosmic objects that emit bright flashes of radio waves every few minutes to several hours,' said Dr. Andy Wang, an associate lecturer at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy in Australia, in an email. 'What these objects are, and how they generate their unusual signals, remain a mystery.' The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, is located about 15,000 light-years from Earth in the same galaxy as our solar system. The X-ray emissions, uncovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, could be the key to helping astronomers understand more about the true nature of these intriguing cosmic objects and their pulsing behavior. 'X-rays usually come from extremely hot and energetic environments, so their presence suggests that something dramatic happened to the object,' said Wang, lead author of a study reporting the observations, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The long-period transients appear to be more energetic than previously believed if they can produce X-rays, which have more energy than radio waves, Wang said. Now, researchers are trying to figure out the source of ASKAP J1832-0911's radio waves and X-rays, which don't fit into a neat box for categorization, and whether it's truly representative of a long-period transient or an eccentric outlier. At first, the team thought the object might be a magnetar, or the dense remnant of a star with an extremely powerful magnetic field, or a pair of stars that includes a highly magnetized dead star called a white dwarf. But neither of those quite matched up with the bright and variable emissions of radio waves and X-rays, the researchers said. 'This object is unlike anything we have seen before,' Wang said. 'Even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.' Astronomers traced a previous detection of a long-period transient, announced in March, to a white dwarf that's closely orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star. The two stars orbit each other so closely that their magnetic fields interact, emitting long radio bursts. In that study, researchers detected signals in visible and infrared light that corresponded with the signals they observed, suggesting they could belong to two different types of objects. Wang's team made no such observations of ASKAP J1832-0911, he said. Charlie Kilpatrick, coauthor of the March study, called the new find 'exciting.' He did not participate in the new research. 'The nature of this source bridges the gap between the most extreme magnetars and white dwarfs, which is telling us just how extreme (these) compact objects can be,' wrote Kilpatrick, research assistant professor at Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics in Illinois, in an email. Wang said future X-ray observations may reveal more about the object, such as its temperature and size, which researchers could use to determine the source. But the new detections are already changing the way Wang and his collaborators think about long-period transient signals. Radio astronomers regularly scan the sky using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, located in Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia and operated by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO. Wang and his collaborators first picked up on a bright signal from the object in December 2023. Then, the object released extremely bright pulses of radio waves in February 2024. Fewer than 30 known objects in the sky have ever reached such brightness in radio waves, Wang said. By coincidence, the Chandra X-ray Observatory was pointing at something else, but it happened to catch X-ray observations of the 'crazy' bright phase of the long-period transient, Wang said. 'Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack,' Wang said. 'The ASKAP radio telescope has a wide field view of the night sky, while Chandra observes only a fraction of it. So, it was fortunate that Chandra observed the same area of the night sky at the same time.' Unlike rapidly spinning neutron stars called pulsars, which release pulses that last milliseconds to seconds, ASKAP J1832-0911 periodically varied in radio wave and X-ray intensity every 44 minutes. The object also dropped off in X-ray and radio wave intensity. Observations taken by Chandra six months later in August 2024 showed no X-rays. The team also used the CRACO, or Coherent Radio Astronomy Core, instrument, which was recently developed to detect mysterious fast radio bursts, or millisecond-long flashes of radio waves, and other celestial phenomena. The instrument can rapidly scan and process data to spot bursts and zero in on their location. 'That's the equivalent of sifting through a whole beach of sand to look for a single five-cent coin every minute,' said Dr. Keith Bannister, a CSIRO astronomer and engineer who helped develop the instrument. But CRACO is also able to detect long radio pulses and helped the team determine that the bursts of radio waves were repeating. Other observations showed that the X-rays were repeating as well. Data from telescopes in the United States, South Africa and India and collaborators from around the world made the extremely rare detection a truly global effort, Wang said. Moving forward, Wang and his team will continue searching for more objects emitting these long radio pulses. 'Finding one such object hints at the existence of many more,' said study coauthor Dr. Nanda Rea, a professor at the Institute of Space Science and The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia in Spain, in a statement. 'The discovery of its transient X-ray emission opens fresh insights into their mysterious nature.'
CNN
3 days ago
- General
- CNN
Astronomers spot bright flashes from a mysterious new class of cosmic object
Astronomers have detected an astonishing celestial object emitting bright flashes of radio waves and X-rays that last for two minutes and repeat every 44 minutes. In a fresh twist, the discovery marks the first time powerful X-rays have been associated with an object that might be a long-period transient. Astronomers first spotted this cryptic new class of objects in 2022, and fewer than a dozen have been found so far. 'Long-period (radio) transients (LPTs) are a recently identified class of cosmic objects that emit bright flashes of radio waves every few minutes to several hours,' said Dr. Andy Wang, an associate lecturer at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy in Australia, in an email. 'What these objects are, and how they generate their unusual signals, remain a mystery.' The object, named ASKAP J1832-0911, is located about 15,000 light-years from Earth in the same galaxy as our solar system. The X-ray emissions, uncovered by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, could be the key to helping astronomers understand more about the true nature of these intriguing cosmic objects and their pulsing behavior. 'X-rays usually come from extremely hot and energetic environments, so their presence suggests that something dramatic happened to the object,' said Wang, lead author of a study reporting the observations, which was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The long-period transients appear to be more energetic than previously believed if they can produce X-rays, which have more energy than radio waves, Wang said. Now, researchers are trying to figure out the source of ASKAP J1832-0911's radio waves and X-rays, which don't fit into a neat box for categorization, and whether it's truly representative of a long-period transient or an eccentric outlier. At first, the team thought the object might be a magnetar, or the dense remnant of a star with an extremely powerful magnetic field, or a pair of stars that includes a highly magnetized dead star called a white dwarf. But neither of those quite matched up with the bright and variable emissions of radio waves and X-rays, the researchers said. 'This object is unlike anything we have seen before,' Wang said. 'Even those theories do not fully explain what we are observing. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.' Astronomers traced a previous detection of a long-period transient, announced in March, to a white dwarf that's closely orbiting a small, cool red dwarf star. The two stars orbit each other so closely that their magnetic fields interact, emitting long radio bursts. In that study, researchers detected signals in visible and infrared light that corresponded with the signals they observed, suggesting they could belong to two different types of objects. Wang's team made no such observations of ASKAP J1832-0911, he said. Charlie Kilpatrick, coauthor of the March study, called the new find 'exciting.' He did not participate in the new research. 'The nature of this source bridges the gap between the most extreme magnetars and white dwarfs, which is telling us just how extreme (these) compact objects can be,' wrote Kilpatrick, research assistant professor at Northwestern University's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics in Illinois, in an email. Wang said future X-ray observations may reveal more about the object, such as its temperature and size, which researchers could use to determine the source. But the new detections are already changing the way Wang and his collaborators think about long-period transient signals. Radio astronomers regularly scan the sky using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, located in Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia and operated by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or CSIRO. Wang and his collaborators first picked up on a bright signal from the object in December 2023. Then, the object released extremely bright pulses of radio waves in February 2024. Fewer than 30 known objects in the sky have ever reached such brightness in radio waves, Wang said. By coincidence, the Chandra X-ray Observatory was pointing at something else, but it happened to catch X-ray observations of the 'crazy' bright phase of the long-period transient, Wang said. 'Discovering that ASKAP J1832-0911 was emitting X-rays felt like finding a needle in a haystack,' Wang said. 'The ASKAP radio telescope has a wide field view of the night sky, while Chandra observes only a fraction of it. So, it was fortunate that Chandra observed the same area of the night sky at the same time.' Unlike rapidly spinning neutron stars called pulsars, which release pulses that last milliseconds to seconds, ASKAP J1832-0911 periodically varied in radio wave and X-ray intensity every 44 minutes. The object also dropped off in X-ray and radio wave intensity. Observations taken by Chandra six months later in August 2024 showed no X-rays. The team also used the CRACO, or Coherent Radio Astronomy Core, instrument, which was recently developed to detect mysterious fast radio bursts, or millisecond-long flashes of radio waves, and other celestial phenomena. The instrument can rapidly scan and process data to spot bursts and zero in on their location. 'That's the equivalent of sifting through a whole beach of sand to look for a single five-cent coin every minute,' said Dr. Keith Bannister, a CSIRO astronomer and engineer who helped develop the instrument. But CRACO is also able to detect long radio pulses and helped the team determine that the bursts of radio waves were repeating. Other observations showed that the X-rays were repeating as well. Data from telescopes in the United States, South Africa and India and collaborators from around the world made the extremely rare detection a truly global effort, Wang said. Moving forward, Wang and his team will continue searching for more objects emitting these long radio pulses. 'Finding one such object hints at the existence of many more,' said study coauthor Dr. Nanda Rea, a professor at the Institute of Space Science and The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia in Spain, in a statement. 'The discovery of its transient X-ray emission opens fresh insights into their mysterious nature.'
Geek Tyrant
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
Mon Mothma Actress Genevieve O'Reilly on Building ANDOR's Quietest Tragedy with Tony Gilroy — GeekTyrant
In a galaxy ruled by empires and explosions, some of the most devastating moments come not from space battles, but from quiet, human decisions. That's exactly what Andor Season 2 delivered in one of its most gut-wrenching scenes, thanks to a powerful collaboration between actor Genevieve O'Reilly and series creator Tony Gilroy. In Episode 3 of the new season, Mon Mothma (O'Reilly), a key architect of the rebellion, faces a deeply personal crossroads. As her daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael) prepares to enter a traditional Chandrilan marriage, Mon—haunted by her own loveless union—offers Leida a chance to walk away. The scene doesn't hinge on action or spectacle, but it hits just as hard: a mother offering her daughter freedom, only for the daughter to choose the cage. Turns out, that emotional pivot was born from a quiet, behind the scenes conversation. 'Tony and I had discussed this when he said she was getting married and I was like, 'Oh, no, she's not gonna do this to her daughter. He's great about having character conversations with actors. 'He's so deeply collaborative and curious about the actor's perspective. I remember saying to him, 'She has to give her an out. If it's that woman who was there in Rogue One and Return of the Jedi, I understand that there's a pain within her. But if it is that woman who can be a pillar, then what would she do?'' That openness allowed space for something honest and devastating to bloom. What Mon gives her daughter is not control, but a choice. And the fallout crushed her. 'And then for Leida to turn the way she did, it just broke my heart. It's deeply brutal but it was a moment for Mon to gather herself. We saw that. We saw the pain. And I'm sure there were many reasons, but there is a power dynamic shift where Mon steps in to who she is. 'You end in this huge, big [dance] piece where you understand the chaos that everyday people have to hold. And not just everyday people, but somebody who's managing to help build rebellion; what that is and what that chaos within that woman must be.' This is what Andor continues to do better than almost anything else in the Star Wars universe, turning the rebellion into something personal. Every glance, every silence, every difficult choice deepens the story. It's not just about good versus evil. It's about what you sacrifice to do what's right, and what it costs when the people you love make different choices. Source: GamesRadar+
