Feb 24, 2023 11:22 PM
(This post was last modified: Feb 24, 2023 11:28 PM by C C.)
The Milky Way may be spawning many more stars than astronomers had thought
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/milk...-astronomy
INTRO: The Milky Way is churning out far more stars than previously thought, according to a new estimate of its star formation rate. Gamma rays from aluminum-26, a radioactive isotope that arises primarily from massive stars, reveal that the Milky Way converts four to eight solar masses of interstellar gas and dust into new stars each year, researchers report in work submitted to arXiv.org on January 24. That range is two to four times the conventional estimate and corresponds to an annual birthrate in our galaxy of about 10 to 20 stars, because most stars are less massive than the sun... (MORE - details)
Will the universe end in a bang or a whimper? A pair of theoretical physicists have proposed a third path: perhaps the universe will never end.
https://www.livescience.com/dark-energy-...h-suggests
INTRO: In a study that attempts to define the nature of dark energy — a mysterious phenomenon thought to be causing the universe to expand faster and faster every moment — the physicists find that cosmic expansion isn't always a given. Rather, they write, dark energy may periodically "switch" on and off, sometimes growing the cosmos, sometimes shrinking it down until the conditions are right for a new Big Bang to occur — and for a new universe to be born... (MORE - details)
RELATED TOPIC (scivillage): There is no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang (Penrose's CCC)
A mysterious object is being dragged into the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/980869
INTRO: For two decades, scientists have observed an elongated object named X7 near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and wondered what it was. Was it pulled off a larger structure nearby? Was its unusual form the result of stellar winds or was it shaped by jets of particles from the black hole?
Now, having examined the evolution of X7 using 20 years of data gathered by the Galactic Center Orbit Inintiative, astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group and the Keck Observatory propose that it could be a cloud of dust and gas that was ejected during the collision of two stars.
Over time, they report, X7 has stretched, and it is being pulled apart as the black hole drags it closer, exerting its tidal force upon the cloud. They expect that within the next few decades, X7 will disintegrate and the gas and dust of which it is composed will eventually be drawn toward the black hole, which is called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*.
The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal... (MORE - details)
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/milk...-astronomy
INTRO: The Milky Way is churning out far more stars than previously thought, according to a new estimate of its star formation rate. Gamma rays from aluminum-26, a radioactive isotope that arises primarily from massive stars, reveal that the Milky Way converts four to eight solar masses of interstellar gas and dust into new stars each year, researchers report in work submitted to arXiv.org on January 24. That range is two to four times the conventional estimate and corresponds to an annual birthrate in our galaxy of about 10 to 20 stars, because most stars are less massive than the sun... (MORE - details)
Will the universe end in a bang or a whimper? A pair of theoretical physicists have proposed a third path: perhaps the universe will never end.
https://www.livescience.com/dark-energy-...h-suggests
INTRO: In a study that attempts to define the nature of dark energy — a mysterious phenomenon thought to be causing the universe to expand faster and faster every moment — the physicists find that cosmic expansion isn't always a given. Rather, they write, dark energy may periodically "switch" on and off, sometimes growing the cosmos, sometimes shrinking it down until the conditions are right for a new Big Bang to occur — and for a new universe to be born... (MORE - details)
RELATED TOPIC (scivillage): There is no evidence for a Universe before the Big Bang (Penrose's CCC)
A mysterious object is being dragged into the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/980869
INTRO: For two decades, scientists have observed an elongated object named X7 near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way and wondered what it was. Was it pulled off a larger structure nearby? Was its unusual form the result of stellar winds or was it shaped by jets of particles from the black hole?
Now, having examined the evolution of X7 using 20 years of data gathered by the Galactic Center Orbit Inintiative, astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Group and the Keck Observatory propose that it could be a cloud of dust and gas that was ejected during the collision of two stars.
Over time, they report, X7 has stretched, and it is being pulled apart as the black hole drags it closer, exerting its tidal force upon the cloud. They expect that within the next few decades, X7 will disintegrate and the gas and dust of which it is composed will eventually be drawn toward the black hole, which is called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*.
The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal... (MORE - details)