When a pair of researchers aimed the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope toward a famous quasar, they sought evidence to support a popular theory for why the superfast jets of particles streaming from quasars are confined to narrow streams.
Astronomers Detect Powerful Bursting Radio Source
Astronomers at Sweet Briar College and the Naval Research Laboratory have detected a powerful new bursting radio source whose unique properties suggest the discovery of a new class of astronomical objects.
VLA Study Offers Clue to Galaxy Formation
Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Very Large Array radio telescope to study the most distant known quasar have found a tantalizing clue that may answer a longstanding cosmic chicken-and-egg question.
Black Hole Fits Inside Earth’s Orbit
Thirty years after astronomers discovered the mysterious object at the exact center of our Milky Way Galaxy, an international team of scientists has finally succeeded in directly measuring the size of that object, which surrounds a black hole nearly four million times more massive than the Sun.
Cosmic Explosions Have Common Origin
A Fourth of July fireworks display features bright explosions that light the sky with different colors, yet all have the same cause.
Giant Cosmic Lens Reveals Secrets of Distant Galaxy
An international team of astronomers has discovered that a young galaxy had a central disk of gas in which hundreds of new stars were being born every year — at a time when the Universe was only a fraction of its current age.