New Atlas

Space Audio available

Gigantic "ghost" galaxy spotted circling the Milky Way

Michael Irving November 13, 2018

Astronomers have spotted a mysterious “ghost” galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. Huge but extremely faint, the oddball galaxy has been named Antlia 2, and it might just be weird enough to force us to rethink what we know about galactic physics and dark matter.

The new galaxy, named Antlia 2 (right) is extremely faint compared to the Milky Way (middle) ...

Space Audio available

13.5 billion year old star was born just after the Big Bang - and it’s in our neighborhood

Michael Irving November 4, 2018

Astronomers have identified one of the oldest stars ever found, which appears to be just one generation removed from the beginning of the universe itself. Being relatively close to Earth, the find could mean our galactic neighborhood is much older than previously thought.

Ultra metal-poor stars such as HD 140283 (pictured) are among the oldest known stars still surviving, ...

Space

Australian observatory hunts Earth-like planets by watching for wobbling stars

Michael Irving November 1, 2018

A new exoplanet hunting tool has been installed onto an Australian telescope. Dubbed Veloce, the instrument looks out for the wobble of a star caused by the gravitational tug of orbiting planets, and it specializes in red dwarfs, the most common type of star in the universe.

The Anglo-Australian Telescope in Siding Spring Observatory is home to a new planet-hunting instrument

Space Audio available

How dying stars could reignite with help from enigmatic class of black hole

Michael Irving October 31, 2018

A white dwarf is one of the last stages of life for stars of a certain size, and it’s all downhill from there. But supercomputer simulations run by astronomers at LLNL suggest that these dying stars could be reignited by a close encounter with an enigmatic class of black hole.

Simulations suggest that white dwarf stars could be reignited by a close encounter with an intermediate-mass ...

Space

ESO telescope stares into the mouth of a cosmic pirate

Anthony Wood October 24, 2018

Astronomers have gazed into the gaping mouth of NGC 2467, also known as the Skull and Crossbones Nebula. The image reveals a cosmic vista populated by young stars and churning clouds of colorful cosmic dust and gas.

NGC 2467, as seen by the FORS2 instrument mounted on the ESO's Very Large Telescope

Space

Alien life could be wiped out by outbursts from violent young stars

Michael Irving October 21, 2018

The majority of stars in our Milky Way aren’t Sun-like – they’re the smaller and cooler red dwarfs. To determine how well these stars might be able to support life, A NASA program is using Hubble to monitor their flare activity, and the first results don’t paint a positive picture.

An artist's rendering of a red dwarf star, which could sterilize exoplanets with its intense radiation ...

Space

Hypervelocity alien stars could be invading the Milky Way

Anthony Wood October 2, 2018

Astronomers have discovered a population of incredibly fast-moving stars bearing down on the Milky Way. It is possible that these newly found "hypervelocity" stellar bodies were created in another galaxy, before being hurled out into intergalactic space on a collision course with the Milky Way.

Space Audio available

"Nuclear pasta" ranked strongest material in the universe

Michael Irving September 18, 2018

Forget steel, forget diamond and even forget graphene – “nuclear pasta” may be the strongest material in the universe. This strange substance is formed in the intense pressures inside neutron stars, and researchers have now run computer simulations to test just how strong it is.

Computer simulations have found that "nuclear pasta" – strange material found inside neutron stars – may ...

Physics

Can we use gravitational waves to detect hidden dimensions?

Michael Irving September 16, 2018

The universe as we know it is made up of three spatial dimensions, right? But some physics models suggest the existence of extra dimensions that we can’t perceive. In an effort to find evidence of these dimensions, researchers have studied gravitational waves and come up empty.

The collision of two neutron stars could help shed light on whether our universe is hiding ...

Biology Audio available

Fruit flies found to navigate using celestial markers

Anthony Wood September 2, 2018

According to a new study, the humble, and arguably disgusting fruit fly shares a surprising characteristic with early human explorers – the ability to navigate vast swathes of land using the Sun as a landmark.

The common fruit fly may navigate using an inbuilt celestial compass