Three months ago, two neutron stars in a galaxy 130 million light-years away from Earth collided with an explosion so powerful that, for the first time ever, astronomers were able to observe a cosmic event of this scale. It all started when scientists at LIGO/Virgo detected gravitational waves, which were at first thought to be […]
Tag: astronomy
Scientists observe star in closest orbit around a black hole 
In a cluster of stars 14,800 light years away from Earth, one star is involved in the closest orbital dance with a black hole ever observed, circling the black hole twice in an hour. This could be the tightest orbital distance between a black hole and a white dwarf star in the Milky Way, with […]
Newly discovered groups of dwarf galaxies can help scientists understand galactic growth
Galaxies are thought to form by the process of several smaller galaxies merging together. Now, scientists might be able to observe the process firsthand, after a recent discovery of seven groups of dwarf galaxies in the dark skies. The researchers used the largest optical survey of the night sky, as well as four different telescopes, to identify […]
What made Pluto roll over? Sputnik Planitia may hold the answer
A heart-shaped region on the surface of Pluto, called Sputnik Planitia, is at the centre of two theories about the dwarf planet’s reorientation. New studies suggest than as Sputnik Planitia filled with ice, it changed Pluto’s position. There are two theories as to why that happened. One posits that the ice accumulation has changed tidal […]
Enigmatic X-ray flares seen outside the Milky Way
Two new sources of X-ray flares have been observed in galaxies near the Milky Way. While the nature of the X-ray bursts is uncertain, they are unlike any known object in the Milky Way and, as researchers note, seem to be located in old populations of stars. Another distinguishing factor for these mysterious flares is […]
The Stars come to SFU
B.C.’s astronomy enthusiasts will be delighted; the Trottier Observatory and Science Courtyard located on Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus Courtyard will open its door to the public for the first time on April 17th. The Trottier Observatory and Science Courtyard features a six-meter-diameter dome housing a 0.7-metre-diameter reflector telescope which is among the largest in […]
Launch of two Canadian nanosatellites
At 15:11:11 Eastern Daylight Time on July 19, 2014, two Canadian-designed satellites were launched from Yasny, Russia. Named BRITE-Toronto and BRITE-Montreal, these devices – no bigger than a car battery – will stare for long periods of time at the brightest stars in the night sky, monitoring shifts in their brightness and colour. Monitoring these shifts […]
Best picture of an exoplanet ever obtained
Astronomers have taken the best direct picture yet of an exoplanet, Beta Pictoris b, using the the Gemini Planet Imager, a high-resolution camera installed on the Gemini South telescope in Chile. Beta Pictoris b is a Jupiter-like exoplanet located 63.4 light years from us, that orbits around its star at a distance slightly less than […]
