Astronomers think they have found a rare, massive burst erupting from an extremely magnetic dead star, or magnetar, that was bright enough to illuminate an entire galaxy. If true, the discovery would mark the first time gamma rays have been observed from a “recently deceased” neutron star erupting outside the Milky Way. The eruption was … Read more
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scientists have finally solved the mysterious origins of the ‘BOAT’, possibly the largest cosmic explosion since the Big Bang. The brightest gamma-ray burst of all time (hence the abbreviation The Brightest Of All Time), also called the BOOT, appears to have been launched by a supernova explosion that … Read more
While expanding nuclear power production would provide carbon-free energy and help countries around the world achieve their climate goals, nuclear power could also come with some inherent risks. Radioactive pollution damages the environment and is virtually impossible to detect without specialized equipment. But what if plants growing near the facility could detect radiation pollution? The … Read more
Scientists may have found evidence that black vampire holes that feed on their victim stars – so-called microquasars – are the cosmic particle accelerators responsible for mysterious high-energy cosmic rays we see bombarding Earth. These stellar-mass black holes exist in binary systems with a supergiant star from which they greedily strip material. Some of that … Read more
Astronomers have discovered an unexpected and unexplained phenomenon outside our Milky Way Galaxy that emits high-energy light called gamma rays. The team behind the discovery, including NASA and cosmologist Alexander Kashlinsky of the University of Maryland, found the gamma-ray signal while sifting through 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi telescope. “It is a completely … Read more