A joint effort with the Italian Space Agency, the IXPE observatory is NASA’s first mission dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from the most extreme and mysterious objects in the universe – supernova remnants, supermassive black holes, and dozens Read More …
With a multiwavelength campaign, a group of astronomers led by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) studied a repeating fast radio burst (FRB). The object FRB20201124A, discovered in November 2020, reactivated in March 2021, emitting a series of radio Read More …
Massive galaxies and a fraction of lower mass galaxies in the Local Universe host a super massive black hole in their centre. Their mass ranges between millions and tens billions solar masses. When matter from the galaxies falls into the Read More …
Matter in the Universe is not evenly distributed but forms a cosmic web of filaments shaped by gravity, with galaxy clusters found at their intersections. Galaxy clusters are the largest bound entities in the Universe – they trace the highest Read More …
The X-ray pulsars were discovered in the 70s and are among the most luminous objects in the X-ray sky. They are binary systems that consist of a magnetized neutron star in orbit with a normal stellar companion. The magnetic field Read More …
White dwarfs are among the most stable of stars. Left on their own, these stars that have exhausted most of their nuclear fuel — while still typically as massive as the Sun — and shrunk to a relatively small size Read More …
The massive galaxies and a fraction of lower mass galaxies in the Local Universe host a super massive black hole (SMBH) in their centre. They have masses between millions to 10 billions times the mass of the Sun. When matter Read More …
The X-ray XMM-Newton space telescope in October 12th, 2021 completed its 4000th orbit around the Earth with a billion kilometers travelled so far! XMM-Newton is an European Space Agency X-ray satellite launched in December 10th of 1999. The mission was Read More …
Astronomers have measured motions within a remarkable cosmic structure for the first time using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. The data show a blast wave and debris from an exploded star moving away from the explosion site and colliding with a Read More …
Astrophysicists have used computer simulations to show that in deep in space, tsunami-like structures may form on much bigger scales than here on Earth, from gas escaping the gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole. In fact, the mysterious environment Read More …
