Supernovae and Galaxies Being Used to Solve Astrophysics’ Biggest Questions

Supernovae and Galaxies Being Used to Solve Astrophysics’ Biggest Questions

Two new studies are attempting to solve a couple of big puzzles in astrophysics: Is the Hubble constant actually constant? And why do galaxies have flat rotation curves? Plus, a young star’s circumstellar disk, the search for stellar-mass black holes, magnesium in the deep waters of Neptune and Uranus, and an interview with PSI scientist David Horvath regarding possibly active volcanism on Mars.

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Tiny ‘Unicorn’ Black Hole Found in Milky Way is Closest One to Earth

Tiny ‘Unicorn’ Black Hole Found in Milky Way is Closest One to Earth

A tiny black hole, only three solar masses, has been found inside the Milky Way in the constellation Monoceros. One of the smallest black holes ever found, it is also the closest one to Earth. Plus, Perseverance, Gaia, a brown dwarf, new images of Jupiter, seismic monitoring from space, and this week’s What’s Up.

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Black hole signatures, planetary nebulae, and… Bennu

Black hole signatures, planetary nebulae, and… Bennu

Astrophysicists have finally figured out how to tell neutron stars apart from black holes by finding the signature of the event horizon. Another team discovered that planetary nebulae likely get their unique shapes due to binary systems. And we present some updates on the origin of rocks (and rocks and rocks and pebbles) on Bennu. Same with Ryugu, but we don’t hate Ryugu.

Gravitational waves lead to ground-breaking, “impossible” discovery; Triple-star planetary rings

Gravitational waves lead to ground-breaking, “impossible” discovery; Triple-star planetary rings

Join us today as we examine major news coming out last week from institutions analyzing data from the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors: the largest and farthest collision detected yet has led to the discovery of an “impossible” black hole. Plus a triple-star system has planetary rings and the camera that will be at the heart of the Vera Rubin Observatory takes its first images… of broccoli.

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