Cosmic Rays News

April 18, 2024

Top Headlines

No Gamma Rays Seen Coming from Nearby Supernova

Apr. 16, 2024 — A nearby supernova in 2023 offered astrophysicists an excellent opportunity to test ideas about how these types of explosions boost particles, called cosmic rays, to near light-speed. But surprisingly, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected ...

Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst of All Time Came from the Collapse of a Massive Star

Apr. 12, 2024 — 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 ...

Stellar Winds of Three Sun-Like Stars Detected for the First Time

Apr. 12, 2024 — An international research team has for the first time directly detected stellar winds from three Sun-like stars by recording the X-ray emission from their astrospheres, and placed constraints on the mass loss rate of the stars via their stellar ...

First Results from DESI Make the Most Precise Measurement of Our Expanding Universe

Apr. 4, 2024 — Researchers have used the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument to make the largest 3D map of our universe and world-leading measurements of dark energy, the mysterious cause of its accelerating ...

Latest Headlines

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Unlocking Supernova Stardust Secrets

Mar. 28, 2024 — New research has discovered a rare dust particle trapped in an ancient extra-terrestrial meteorite that was formed by a star other than our ...

'Cosmic Cannibals' Expel Jets Into Space at 40 Percent the Speed of Light

Mar. 27, 2024 — Astronomers have measured the speed of fast-moving jets in space, crucial to star formation and the distribution of elements needed for life. The jets of matter, expelled by stars deemed 'cosmic ...

Astrophysicist's Research Could Provide a Hint in the Search for Dark Matter

Mar. 20, 2024 — Dark matter is one of science's greatest mysteries. Although it is believed to make up about 85 percent of the cosmos, scientists know very little ...

Space Tourism? Cosmic Radiation Exposure

Mar. 5, 2024 — Space weather experts are urging regulators and space tourism innovators to work together to protect their passengers and crews from the risks of space weather radiation ...

Finding New Physics in Debris from Colliding Neutron Stars

Mar. 6, 2024 — Neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics signals, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter, according to ...

Juno Spacecraft Measures Oxygen Production on Jupiter's Moon, Europa

Mar. 5, 2024 — NASA's Juno spacecraft has directly measured charged oxygen and hydrogen molecules from the atmosphere of one of Jupiter's largest moons, Europa. These observations provide key constraints on the ...

Astronomers Discover Heavy Elements After Bright Gamma-Ray Burst from Neutron Star Merger

Feb. 29, 2024 — An international team of astronomers obtained observational evidence for the creation of rare heavy elements in the aftermath of a cataclysmic ...

'Cosmic Lighthouses' That Cleared Primordial Fog Identified With JWST

Feb. 28, 2024 — Scientists working with data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have obtained the first full spectra of some of the earliest starlight in the universe. The images provide the clearest ...

Black Hole at Center of the Milky Way Resembles a Football

Feb. 21, 2024 — The supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way is spinning so quickly it is warping the spacetime surrounding it into a shape that can look like a football, according to a new study. That ...

Gas on the Run -- ALMA Spots the Shadow of a Molecular Outflow from a Quasar When the Universe Was Less Than One Billion Years Old

Feb. 1, 2024 — Theoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the Universe was less than a billion ...

Astrophysical Jet Caught in a 'Speed Trap'

Jan. 25, 2024 — The microquasar SS 433 stands out as one of the most intriguing objects within our Milky Way. A pair of oppositely directed beams of plasma ('jets') spirals away perpendicularly from the ...

Origin of Intense Light in Supermassive Black Holes and Tidal Disruption Events Revealed

Jan. 18, 2024 — A new study is a significant breakthrough in understanding Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) involving supermassive black holes. The new simulations accurately replicate the entire sequence of a TDE ...

NASA Scientists Discover a Novel Galactic 'Fossil'

Jan. 12, 2024 — Researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have discovered X-ray activity that sheds light on the evolution of ...

Surprise Gamma-Ray Feature Beyond Our Galaxy

Jan. 11, 2024 — Astronomers analyzing 13 years of data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have found an unexpected and as yet unexplained feature outside of our ...

Hubble Sights a Galaxy With 'Forbidden' Light

Dec. 22, 2023 — A whirling image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-014 ...

Pancake Stack of Films on a Balloon Most Accurate Gamma-Ray Telescope

Dec. 21, 2023 — A pancake stack of radioactivity-sensitive films carried through the sky by a balloon was able to take the world's most accurate picture of a neutron star's gamma ray beam. To achieve this, ...

Interpreting the Afterglow of a Black Hole's Breakfast

Dec. 4, 2023 — An entirely new way to probe how active black holes behave when they eat has been discovered by an international team of ...

New Astrophysics Model Sheds Light on Additional Source of Long Gamma-Ray Bursts

Nov. 29, 2023 — Cutting-edge computer simulations combined with theoretical calculations are helping astronomers better understand the origin of some of the universe's most energetic and mysterious light shows ...

A Gamma-Ray Pulsar Milestone Inspires Innovative Astrophysics and Applications

Nov. 28, 2023 — Scientists have announced the discovery of nearly 300 gamma ray ...

Telescope Array Detects Second Highest-Energy Cosmic Ray Ever

Nov. 23, 2023 — In 1991, an experiment detected the highest-energy cosmic ray ever observed. Later dubbed the Oh-My-God particle, the cosmic ray’s energy shocked astrophysicists. Nothing in our galaxy had the ...

Dwarf Galaxies Use 10-Million-Year Quiet Period to Churn out Stars

Nov. 21, 2023 — If you look at massive galaxies teeming with stars, you might be forgiven in thinking they are star factories, churning out brilliant balls of gas. But actually, less evolved dwarf galaxies have ...

Investigating the Contribution of Gamma-Ray Blazar Flares to Neutrino Flux

Nov. 20, 2023 — Gamma-ray flares from blazars can be accompanied by high-energy neutrino emission. To better understand this phenomenon, an international research team has statistically analyzed 145 bright blazars. ...

Tracking Down Quantum Flickering of the Vacuum

Nov. 13, 2023 — Absolutely empty -- that is how most of us envision the vacuum. Yet, in reality, it is filled with an energetic flickering: the quantum fluctuations. Experts are currently preparing a laser ...

Researchers Find Gravitational Lensing Has Significant Effect on Cosmic Birefringence

Nov. 2, 2023 — Future missions will be able to find signatures of violating the parity-symmetry in the cosmic microwave background polarization more accurately after a pair of researchers has managed to take into ...

Exploding Stars

Nov. 2, 2023 — When massive stars or other stellar objects explode in the Earth's cosmic neighborhood, ejected debris can also reach our solar system. Traces of such events are found on Earth or the Moon and ...

The Crab Nebula Seen in New Light by NASA's Webb

Oct. 30, 2023 — NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in ...

Uranus Aurora Discovery Offers Clues to Habitable Icy Worlds

Oct. 26, 2023 — Astronomers confirm the existence of an infrared (IR) aurora on Uranus. This could help astronomers identify exoplanets that might support life, a large number of which are icy ...

Massive Space Explosion Observed Creating Elements Needed for Life

Oct. 25, 2023 — Scientists have observed the creation of rare chemical elements in the second-brightest gamma-ray burst ever seen -- casting new light on how heavy elements are ...

Pulsars May Make Dark Matter Glow

Oct. 6, 2023 — The central question in the ongoing hunt for dark matter is: what is it made of? One possible answer is that dark matter consists of particles known as axions. A team of astrophysicists has now shown ...

Scientists Discover the Highest Energy Gamma-Rays Ever from a Pulsar

Oct. 5, 2023 — Scientists have detected the highest energy gamma rays ever from a dead star called a pulsar. The energy of these gamma rays clocked in at 20 tera-electronvolts, or about ten trillion times the ...