Page 2 - Submillimeter Array News Today

A so-called nova will cause a star system 3,000 light years away to shine any day now, making it suddenly visible to the naked eye.

But astronomers puzzled by the lack of signatures of expected heavy elements.

"This was an event that Earth sees only once every 10,000 years," said Northwestern University astrophysicist Peter Blanchard.

Northwestern University scientists said Friday they had confirmed that the cause of the brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed in October 2022 was an exploding star, known as a supernova, 2.4 billion light years away.

<p>In 2022, astronomers discovered the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) of all time. Now, astronomers confirm that a ‘normal’ supernova, the telltale sign of a stellar collapse, accompanied the GRB. The team also looked for signatures of heavy elements like gold and platinum in the supernova. They found no evidence of such elements, deepening the mystery of their origins.</p>

A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organised magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarised light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all b...

Zoom in / A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope has revealed powerful magnetic fields swirling from the edge of the supermassive black hole

<p>A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration has uncovered strong and organised magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Seen in polarised light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the heart of the Milky Way galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of the black hole at the centre of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all...

ESO, European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere

<p>A new series of observations by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration measuring the degree of polarization in the emitted light shows that the black hole Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) in the center of our Milky Way is surrounded by strong, spiral-shaped magnetic fields. Such a magnetic structure is likely produced by the magnetized plasma that is falling onto Sgr A* and is similar to that of M87*, the black hole at the center of the galaxy M87. This important result suggests that al...