r/AstroUpon

Astronomers have discovered a massive, unseen object lurking in the orbit of a distant, pulsating star. By “listening” to the rhythmic vibrations of the star TIC 160582982, researchers detected the gravitational tug of a mysterious companion that is heavy enough to be a neutron star or even a stellar-mass black hole, yet emits no conspicuous light of its own.

The discovery, detailed in a recent paper by a team of astronomers including Chenglong Lv, Javier Pascual-Granado, and Ali Esamdin, highlights the power of a technique called asteroseismology, therefore the study of “starquakes” and stellar vibrations.

>Read more<

Voyager 1 is nearly 1 light day from the Earth, but the final, silent wait has begun for its siblings. They are no longer probes; they are mankind’s longest-enduring monuments. Here are our messengers to the outer Solar System and far beyond.

>Read more<

Deep in the central bulge of our galaxy lie two incredibly dense ancient stellar systems known as “bulge fossil fragments.” For decades, these two crowded neighborhoods, designated Terzan 5 and Liller 1, have teased astronomers with hints of extreme astrophysical activity. Now, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has turned its infrared gaze toward them, discovering over 1,000 previously unknown variable stars and providing a crucial missing link to the understanding of exotic objects hidden within.

A newly published research paper by astronomers led by Kevin B. Burdge of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) details a groundbreaking survey of these two clusters. The findings not only map an unprecedented number of variable stars but also showcase a novel technique for extracting time-series data from JWST observations in the galaxy’s most crowded environments.

>Read more<

We like to think of the Moon as a quiet, dead rock floating silently in space. In reality? It’s a hyper-active cosmic shooting gallery. Because the Moon has no atmosphere to burn up incoming space debris, every tiny micrometeoroid slams directly into the lunar dust at speeds exceeding 30,000 mph.

Now, NASA Goddard is sending a specialized payload called LEMS-SP to the lunar surface aboard a commercial CLPS lander. Think of it as placing a hyper-sensitive stethoscope directly onto the skin of the Moon.

>Read more<