Tag: black holes

Technology

Black Holes to Quasars, James Webb Space Telescope Sheds Light on Cosmic Evolution

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has potentially unlocked a crucial piece of the cosmic puzzle, shedding light on one of the universe's most enigmatic phenomena - black holes. Contrary to the spotlight typically reserved for the colossal supermassive black holes, a recent discovery suggests that their smaller counterparts, dubbed "baby quasars," might hold the key to unraveling long standing mysteries.Traditionally, supermassive black holes, with masses billions of times those of the sun, steal the cosmic limelight. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have discovered a population of not-so-gigantic, quasars. These "baby quasars,"Falling within the 10 to 100 million solar mass range, challenge conventional understanding and offer a glimpse into the intermedi...
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Exploring the Cosmic Phenomena of Supernovas and ISRO’s XPOSAT: A Stellar Journey

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”- Carl Sagan This profound statement by Carl Sagan beautifully captures the essence of our cosmic connection. The stars, those twinkling specks in the night sky, are not just distant suns but the very vessels where the recipe of life was cooked. Among the most dramatic events in this cosmic saga are supernovas, stellar explosions of unimaginable scale and power, which seed the universe with the building blocks of planets and life. A supernova occurs when a star reaches the end of its life cycle. The star's core, having exhausted its nuclear fuel, can no longer support the outward pressure against the force of g...
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Love what ISRO, NASA, ESA are doing? Professional astronomer explains how to get into stargazing

ISRO, NASA, ESA and other space agencies have been in the news for a plethora of amazing launches that will serve to shed new light o the Universe. In fact, the Indian space agency ISRO, launched the XpoSat satellite yesterday to study black holes, Magnetars and more. Know how you too can get into stargazing.(The Conversation) There are few things more peaceful and relaxing than a night under the stars. Through the holidays, many people head away from the bright city lights to go camping. They revel in the dark skies, spangled with myriad stars. As a child, I loved such trips, and they helped cement my passion for the night sky, and for all things space. One of my great joys as an astronomer is sharing the night sky with people. There is something wondrous about helping people stare at...
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PSLV-C58 XPoSat Mission launch: 10 things to know about this successful ISRO space odyssey

In yet another proud moment for India, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has powered another amazing mission to a successful conclusion. Dubbed the PSLV-C58 XPoSat Mission, ISRO launched the rocket and got the satellite into place exactly where it was required. While the XPoSat satellite is the most important part of the entire mission, all the hard work involved in boosting it into space in the correct orbit depended on just one thing - the PSLV-C58 rocket system, which has not been just successful, it is also very cheap when compared to other rocket systems from the US space agency, the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA). This success comes quickly on the heels of ISRO having successfully launched two historic missions in 2023 - the Chandrayaan-3 mission and...
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ISRO set to launch XPoSat mission on PSLV-C58 rocket to study black holes and more

 ISRO is set to welcome the new year with the launch of its first X-Ray Polarimeter Satellite that would offer insights into celestial objects like black holes, onboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket on Monday. The launch comes after the success of its Gaganyaan Test Vehicle D1 mission in October.  The PSLV-C58 rocket, in its 60th mission, would carry primary payload XPoSat and 10 other satellites to be deployed in low earth orbits.  The 25-hour countdown commenced on Sunday for the lift-off scheduled at 9.10 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport, located about 135 kms east of Chennai, on January 1. “The countdown commenced for PSLV-C58 at 8.10 am today,” ISRO sources said.  The X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is aimed to investigate the polarisation of intense...
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XPoSat mission: ISRO’s next big thing after Chandrayaan-3 mission

India is gearing up for another groundbreaking space mission following Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L-1 missions. After the successful launch of these two missions, ISRO's confidence in space missions has received a major boosted.Now, the ISRO's X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) is set to take the spotlight, promising to unlock the mysteries of the universe. XPoSat stands as India's first polarimetry mission and only the world's second of its kind, with NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) being the predecessor launched in 2021. We are now on WhatsApp. Click to join. At its core, polarimetry is a scientific technique used to study the movement of light waves. It provides insights into the direction and patterns of vibration exhibited by light waves during their journey throu...
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James Webb Telescope reveals supermassive black holes rarer in early universe than expected

Ever since NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope, it has contributed to a number of new discoveries such as finding ancient galaxies, black holes, deep space phenomena, and more. Now, the James Webb telescope data has contradicted the theory of the presence of supermassive black holes. Webb Telescope shows that they are rarer in numbers in the early universe than NASA expected. Check what the researchers found.Findings on black holesAccording to research published in The Astrophysical Journal, scientists found slowly growing supermassive black holes. This discovery was made with the help of Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Allison Kirkpatrick, an astronomer at the University of Kansas and the study's lead author of the research said, “As it turns out, thes...
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Oppenheimer- How the ‘father of the atomic bomb’ contributed to the discovery of black holes

Today when people are excited about the Oppenheimer movie and can only imagine J. Robert Oppenheimer as the ‘father of the atom bomb', very few people know that the astrophysicist also played a stellar role in other discoveries too. He conducted research on black holes even before they were discovered. He played a significant role in the discovery of black holes and described how the collapse of a massive star can lead to the formation of black holes. Prior to his work at Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1942, Oppenheimer was a prominent theoretical physicist focusing on quantum physics. Research on Black holesIn collaboration with his colleague Hartland S. Snyder at the University of California, Berkeley, Oppenheimer published a research paper in 1939 titled "On Continued Gravitational Con...
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Miracle find! James Webb Telescope discovers farthest known supermassive black hole

Supermassive black holes are incredibly powerful objects in space that even have the power to hold galaxies together with their strong gravity. They have the ability to destroy anything that comes too close to them. And luckily enough, the James Webb Telescope has discovered the farthest supermassive black hole known so far.The distances in space are unbelievably huge. According to the University of Texas at Austin, the new supermassive black hole is located at the center of a galaxy called CEERS 1019. Amazingly, this galaxy was formed just 570 million years after the Big Bang. Along with the supermassive black hole, scientists also found two smaller black holes that formed 1 billion and 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang. CEERS 1019 SignificanceCEERS 1019 is not only very old but al...
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Biggest explosion ever! This astounding space eruption lasted 3 years; computers still at work

In a shocking turn of events, astronomers have observed the largest explosion in space, called AT2021lwx, which has been ongoing for three years and is 10 times brighter than any known supernova. It is also three times brighter than the light emitted during tidal disruption events (TDEs) caused by supermassive black holes. The explosion occurred 8 billion light-years away when the universe was 6 billion years old. Initially detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility and later confirmed by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), the event's true scale and power were recently discovered.AT2021lwx is believed to be the result of a black hole violently disrupting a massive cloud of gas, emitting bright electromagnetic radiation as shockwaves spread through the gas and a s...