Gravitational vortex provides new way to study matter close to a black hole

12 July 2016

An international team of astronomers has proved the existence of a ‘gravitational vortex’ around a black hole, solving a mystery that has eluded astronomers for more than 30 years. The discovery will allow astronomers to map the behaviour of matter very close to black holes. It could also open the door to future investigation of Albert Einstein’s general relativity.

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Artist’s impression of Gaia14aae

Gaia satellite and amateur astronomers spot one in a billion star

17 July 2015

The Gaia satellite has discovered a unique binary system where one star is ‘eating’ the other, but neither star has any hydrogen, the most common element in the Universe. The system could be an important tool for understanding how binary stars might explode at the end of their lives.

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Polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Planck reveals first stars were born late

05 February 2015

New maps from the Planck satellite uncover the ‘polarised’ light from the early Universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars formed much later than previously thought.

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An artist’s impression of a Type Ia supernova – the explosion of a white dwarf locked in a binary system with a companion star.

Gaia discovers its first supernova

12 September 2014

While scanning the sky to measure the positions and movements of stars in our Galaxy, Gaia has discovered its first stellar explosion in another galaxy far, far away.

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Galactic ‘vapour trails’ uncovered in giant cluster

20 September 2013

Astronomers have discovered enormous smooth shapes that look like vapour trails in a gigantic galaxy cluster. These ‘arms’ span half a million light years and provide researchers with clues to a billion years of collisions within the “giant cosmic train wreck” of the Coma cluster.

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