Next week’s night sky:
At 5:21 a.m. EST, or 10:21 GMT, on Saturday, March 13, the moon will officially reach its new moon phase. While new, the moon is travelling between Earth and the sun. Since sunlight can only reach the far side of the moon, and the moon is in the same region of the sky as the sun, the moon becomes completely hidden from view for about a day. After the new moon phase Earth’s celestial night-light will return to shine in the western evening sky.
A cluster of Newborn Stars
Within the Small Magellanic Cloud — a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way — hides the star cluster NGC 602. This stellar nursery formed when a gas cloud collapsed into clumps due to gravity, giving birth to a plethora of new stars. These young, blue stars are slowing eroding away the cosmic material that surrounds them, creating the glorious glowing pillars of material you see above.
This image, which was released in 207, has helped astronomers learn more about both NGC 602 and star formation in general. Further research on the cluster also revealed that not all of its stars were born at the same time. Based on data gathered by the Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 602 likely started forming new stars some 60 million years ago — and it was still giving birth as recently as a million years ago.
A Black Hole on the move
Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space—but catching them in the act has proven difficult. Now, however, researchers have identified the first case a wandering black hole
The research team specifically studied black holes that contained water within their accretion disks—the spiral structures that spin inward towards the black hole. As the water orbits around the black hole, it produces a laser-like beam of radio light known as a maser.
The technique helped the team determine that nine of the 10 supermassive black holes were at rest—but one stood out and seemed to be in motion. Located 230 million light-years away from Earth, the black hole sits at the center of a galaxy named J0437+2456. Its mass is about three million times that of our Sun.
Further observations, however, will ultimately be needed to pin down the true cause of this supermassive black hole’s unusual motion.
Further observations, however, will ultimately be needed to pin down the true cause of this supermassive black hole’s unusual motion.
Do you have any cool astronomy research news from this week? Share it in the comments below!