Next week’s night sky
Tuesday this week is the first quarter moon. It will be in the sky all evening, making for some great casual observing. If you have a camera attached to a high powered telescope, you may be able to catch a time-lapse of the terminator (the line dividing day and night) sweeping across the surface of the moon! On Friday about 45 minutes after sunset, Jupiter is just a few degrees away from the moon. If you look around the moon for a big and bright object, you will probably be able to see it with your naked eye!
Hubble Constant Measurement
Researchers determined a more accurate measurement of the Hubble constant by measuring kilonovae. This Hubble constant is a constant of acceleration that helps us determine things like how far an object is based on its redshift, how fast an object is moving, and how fast the universe is expanding. A kilonova happens when two black holes or two neutron stars merge, creating gravitational waves. These waves shoot across the universe at almost the speed of light!. The researchers found that the Hubble constant was 73.8. All this number means is that a galaxy one megaparsec away is moving away from us at 73.8 kilometers/second. To learn more about this discovery, go here: [2008.07420] Measuring the Hubble Constant with a sample of kilonovae.
Microquasar pulsing
Quasars are weird objects, and microquasars are even weirder. These quasars are tiny, about half the size of the US. So it’s even stranger that researchers found a cloud pulsing with the same period! It is unclear to researchers how the black hole at the center of this gas cloud could make the gas cloud pulse. The black hole might be shooting off heavy molecules along its accretion disk, but that is unlikely. To learn more, go here: Researchers find gas cloud pulsing in synch with distant microquasar.
Magnetized gas
Magnetized gas flows in the milky way were found to be feeding a young star cluster. It seems that the magnetized gas flows had created this star cluster. Researchers are puzzled as to why the gas is magnetized, and why it is being pulled to a specific place. Solving this mystery could help us unlock the secrets of star-forming clusters! To learn more, go here: https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2042225796984/magnetized-filamentary-gas-flows-feeding-the-young-embedded-cluster-in-serpens-south.
23,000,000 mph supernova
The speed of debris in a Kepler supernova was found to be faster than 23 million mph! This beautiful supernova would have been visible to the naked eye around four centuries ago, making this discovery even more interesting. To learn more, go here: Debris in Kepler supernova remnant clocked at 23 million mph.
Do you have any cool astronomy research news from this week? Share it in the comments below!