Phys.org
Stars Around The Milky Way: Cosmic Space Invaders Or Victims Of Galactic Eviction?
Published 26th February 2018
Astronomers have investigated a small population of stars in the halo of the Milky Way Galaxy, finding its chemical composition to closely match that of the Galactic disk. This similarity provides compelling evidence that these stars have originated from within the disc, rather than from merged dwarf galaxies. The reason for this stellar migration is thought to be theoretically proposed oscillations of the Milky Way disc as a whole, induced by the tidal interaction of the Milky Way with a passing massive satellite galaxy.
Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-stars-...-invaders.html
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Proxima Centauri's No Good, Very Bad Day
Published 26th February 2018
A team of astronomers led by Carnegie's Meredith MacGregor and Alycia Weinberger detected a massive stellar flare—an energetic explosion of radiation—from the closest star to our own Sun, Proxima Centauri, which occurred last March. This finding, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, raises questions about the habitability of our Solar System's nearest exoplanetary neighbor, Proxima b, which orbits Proxima Centauri.
Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-proxim...d-bad-day.html
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Beaming With The Light Of Millions Of Suns
Published 26th February 2018
In the 1980s, researchers began discovering extremely bright sources of X-rays in the outer portions of galaxies, away from the supermassive black holes that dominate their centers. At first, researchers thought these cosmic objects, called ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs, were hefty black holes with more than ten times the mass of the sun. But observations beginning in 2014 from NASA's NuSTAR and other space telescopes are showing that some ULXs, which glow with X-ray light equal in energy to millions of suns, are actually neutron stars—the burnt-out cores of massive stars that exploded. Three such ULXs have been identified as neutron stars so far.
Now, a Caltech-led team using data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has identified a fourth ULX as being a neutron star—and found new clues about how these objects can shine so brightly.
Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-millions-suns.html
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This Was Exactly Where Cassini Crashed Into Saturn
Published 26th February 2018
On September 15th, 2017, after nearly 20 years in service, the Cassini spacecraft ended its mission by plunging into the atmosphere of Saturn. During the 13 years it spent in the Saturn system, this probe revealed a great deal about the gas giant, its rings, and its systems of moons. As such, it was a bittersweet moment for the mission team when the probe concluded its Grand Finale and began descending into Saturn's atmosphere.
Read all about it here: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-cassini-saturn.html









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