Space startup partners with SpaceX to launch commercial space station
By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON Vast, a startup backed by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb, is aiming to launch a
2023-05-11 21:29
Michelin-star meals on the edge of space offered for $130,000
French space tourism venture Zephalto hopes to send travelers some 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) above Earth, where they'll be wined and dined with incredible views of the Earth from up high.
2023-05-11 18:15
‘Runaway supermassive black hole’ mystery solved: Scientists find new explanation for unusual star structure
Scientists think they have found an explanation for what scientists thought was a “runaway” black hole speeding through the universe. Last month, scientists reported that they had seen what appeared to be an object unlike anything seen before. What originally appeared to be scratches on Hubble images was actually a black hole that had been thrown out from its home galaxy and was now speeding through the cosmos, scientists said. Astronomers had come to that conclusion after spotting a long trail of stars, formed 8 billion years ago. It was a stretched out, narrow shape, roughly the same size as our own Milky Way. Last month’s study suggested that those stars were the wake left behind from that runaway black hole. As the black hole travelled through a gas cloud, it left behind the right conditions to start forming stars, that study suggested. It was shock and a breakthrough for a number of reasons: it was unprecedented, and required a number of different conditions for it to be true. That led astronomers both to celebrate and question the theory, and in the time since other researchers have been working on their own ideas. Now scientists at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) have suggested their own, more ordinary explanation of the unusual, long star structure. They suggest that it is in fact just a flat or thin galaxy – one without a bulge that makes it wider – that is being seen from its side. “The motions, the size, and the quantity of stars fits what has been seen in galaxies within the local universe,” said Jorge Sanchez Almeida, an IAC researcher who is the first author of the article, in a statement. “It’s a relief to have found the solution to this mystery, the new proposed scenario is much simpler. In one sense it is also a pity, because the existence of fleeing black holes is expected, and this could have been the first one to be observed.” The team compared the mystery structure with another, much better known galaxy, named IC5249. That is near to us, has a similar mass of stars, and doesn’t have a galaxy either. They found that it was surprisingly similar. The stars were moving in similar ways to those found in closer, comparative galaxies, researchers said. That led scientists working on the new paper to suggest that it is a relatively normal and expected galaxy, rather than an out-of-control black hole. But they hope that further observations will shed further light on what exactly it is doing – and could still allow the galaxy to prove of interest to astronomers. “We also looked at the relation between the mass of the assumed galaxy and its maximum velocity of rotation, and discovered that indeed it is a galaxy which behaves like a galaxy,” said Ignacio Trujillo, an IAC researcher who worked on the study. “It is an interesting object, because it is quite a large galaxy at a very large distance from Earth, where the majority of the galaxies are smaller.” The proposal is reported in a paper, ‘Supermassive black hole wake or bulgeless edge-on galaxy?’, published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. Read More Aliens may intercept human communication ‘within next 100 years’, study says Powerful auroras likely this week due to rare ‘backward’ sunspot Meteorite crashes through roof of New Jersey home Aliens may intercept human communication ‘within next 100 years’, study says Powerful auroras likely this week due to rare ‘backward’ sunspot Meteorite crashes through roof of New Jersey home
2023-05-10 21:45
Webb telescope spots three debris belts around luminous star Fomalhaut
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON There has been plenty of excitement in recent decades about planets detected orbiting various
2023-05-09 04:24
Virgin Galactic set for first spaceflight since Richard Branson's trip two years ago
Virgin Galactic, the suborbital space tourism company, is gearing up for its first flight to the edge of space in nearly two years.
2023-05-09 00:51
Blizzard Announces Warcraft Arclight Rumble, a Mobile Action Strategy Game
Warcraft Arclight Rumble, Blizzard's newly announced mobile action strategy game set within the Warcraft universe, is now available for pre-register.
2023-04-10 15:38
EA Announces Upcoming Developer Livestream for Dead Space Remake
More news is on the way for the upcoming Dead Space Remake as EA announces a dedicated livestream happening on May 12.
2023-04-10 15:38
How to Watch the Dead Space Remake Developer Livestream: May 12
Want to tune into the upcoming Dead Space Remake developer livestream? Here's what you need to know.
2023-04-10 15:38
Next-Gen Dead Space Remake Release Date Announced for January 2023
Dead Space is set to launch exclusively for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on Jan. 27, 2023.
2023-04-10 15:38
EA reveals release schedule
EA laid out its release plans for its fiscal year of 2023.
2023-04-10 15:38
Is the Dead Space Remake on PlayStation 4?
Are you wondering if the Dead Space Remake is on PlayStation 4 or not? Here's everything you need to know.
2023-04-10 15:38
Overwatch Diversity Tool Sparks Controversy Online
On May 12, Activision Blizzard released a blog post pulling back the curtains on its "Diversity Space Tool," a project that is said to have been in development
2023-04-10 15:38