When a star weighs a little too close to a black hole, we know – broadly – what is happening. The intense tidal forces tore the star apart in what is called a tidal disruption event, releasing one last burst of light before the star’s rumble passes the event horizon. …
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The International Space Station (ISS), in Earth orbit at hundreds of kilometers altitude, is not perfectly airtight. Every day, the cabin loses a minute how much air, carefully controlled so that a viable atmospheric pressure can be maintained, and to identify leaks. Now the last one just happened, just two …
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About 15,000 light-years away, an active black hole periodically appears to illuminate another unremarkable cloud of gas with gamma rays. But there is a catch. The gas cloud is about 100 light-years from the black hole – and just how the cloud pulsates with it in time is a mystery. …
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We found the fastest known star in the Milky Way. In the extreme environment at the center of our galaxy is a newly discovered star named S4714 around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A *. On its orbital journey, S4714 reaches a speed of about 8 percent of the speed …
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