Astronomers studying archival data from an Australian radio telescope have discovered a powerful, short-lived burst of radio waves that they say indicates an entirely new type of astronomical phenomenon.
High-School Teams Joining Massive Pulsar Search
High school students and teachers will join astronomers on the cutting edge of science under a program to be operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and West Virginia University, and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Astronomers Find Enormous Hole in the Universe
Astronomers have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen dark matter.
Charged Molecule Discovery
Astronomers using data from the National Science Foundation’s Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope have found the largest negatively-charged molecule yet seen in space. The discovery of the third negatively-charged molecule, called an anion, in less than a year and the size of the latest anion will force a drastic revision of theoretical models of interstellar chemistry, the astronomers say.
Star Cluster Holds Midweight Black Hole, VLA Indicates
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope have greatly strengthened the case that supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies may have formed through mergers of smaller black holes.
Missing Mass Found in Recycled Dwarf Galaxies
Astronomers studying dwarf galaxies formed from the debris of a collision of larger galaxies found the dwarfs much more massive than expected, and think the additional material is missing mass that theorists said should not be present in this kind of dwarf galaxy.