X-ray

Astronomers have spotted an incredibly bright flash of light beaming halfway across the universe. The strange light was estimated to throw off more light than one quadrillion Suns, and in an ironic twist came from one of the darkest objects possible.

Stars are hot balls of plasma, but astronomers have now spotted a super strange one that may have a solid surface. Its intense magnetic field is strong enough to overcome its blistering temperatures and “freeze” its outer layers into a solid crust.

Gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions since the Big Bang – and now astronomers have detected the most powerful one yet. A beam of high-energy radiation up to 18 times more powerful than the previous record swept over Earth last weekend.

Scientists have turned plastic into diamonds. Using high-powered lasers, the team zapped samples of common PET plastic, which produces intense heat and pressure to form tiny diamonds that may naturally rain down on planets like Uranus and Neptune.

Astronomers have measured the strongest magnetic field ever found in the universe. The honor goes to a powerful type of neutron star, with a surface magnetic field of over 1.6 billion Tesla.

The world’s most powerful X-ray laser is ready for operation after a massive overhaul. The upgraded LCLS-II uses temperatures colder than deep space to accelerate electrons to near light-speed and fire off a million X-ray bursts per second.

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) X-ray space telescope has roared into orbit to start its mission studying polarized X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, including black holes, neutron stars, pulsars, quasars, and galactic nuclei.

Researchers in Australia have tapped into cutting-edge materials science to produce the world's thinnest X-ray detector, which is highly suited to the imaging of wet proteins and living cells, and has the potential to do so on in real time.

A groundbreaking new imaging technique, utilizing X-rays 100 billion times brighter than a hospital X-ray machine, is offering 3D images in unprecedented detail, allowing whole organs to be imaged down to a resolution of 1 micron.

Water can take on far more forms than many people give it credit for, and now scientists have recreated a particularly bizarre one in the lab – a “hot black ice” that may exist deep inside planets like Uranus and Neptune.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory may have spotted the first exoplanet outside our Milky Way. Located in M51, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, the giant exoplanet candidate circles a black hole or neutron star 28 million light years from Earth.

Astronomers have detected a strange radio source from near the center of the Milky Way. The signal repeats seemingly at random and can’t be attributed to any known astronomical object, leading the team to consider that it may be something brand new.