Science

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Quasar jets are particle accelerators thousands of light-years long

An international collaboration bringing together over 200 scientists from 13 countries has shown that the very high-energy gamma-ray emission from quasars, galaxies with a highly energetic nucleus, is not concentrated in the region close to their central black hole but in fact extends over several thousand light-years along jets of plasma. This discovery shakes up current scenarios for the behaviour of such plasma jets. The work, published in the journal Nature on June 18th, 2020, was carried out as part of the H.E.S.S collaboration, involving in particular the CNRS and CEA in France, and the Max Planck society and a group of research institutions and universities in Germany.

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Composite image of Centaurus A, showing the jets emerging from the galaxy’s central black hole, together with the associated gamma radiation.

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Astronomers Discover a Mysterious Cosmic Clock

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lasts of radiation detected every 16 days, which could help explain mysterious bursts of energy from space.

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Are Planets with Oceans Common in the Galaxy? It’s Likely, NASA Scientists Find

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This illustration shows NASA's Cassini spacecraft flying through plumes on Enceladus in October 2015.

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Stunning New Hubble Images Reveal Stars Gone Haywire

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Stunning New Hubble Images Reveal Stars Gone Haywire

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NASA’s IBEX Charts 11 Years of Change at Boundary to Interstellar Space

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As the Sun wades through the interstellar medium, it generates a hot, dense wave like the wave at the front of a boat coursing through the sea. In this illustration, this is the boundary in darker blue. IBEX has helped scientists determine the shape of the heliosphere, which has a comet-like tail.

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HOPS 383: X-rays From a Newborn Star Hint at Our Sun's Earliest Days

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X-ray: NASA/CXC/Aix-Marseille University/N. Grosso et al.; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

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A Cosmic Baby Is Discovered, and It's Brilliant

Born from an exploded star, the infant magnetar belongs to a family of extreme objects called neutron stars. Its discovery may lend insight into these strange phenomena.

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This illustration shows magnetic field lines protruding from a highly magnetic neutron star, or a dense nugget left over after a star goes supernova and explodes. Known as magnetars, these objects generate bright bursts of light that might be powered by their strong magnetic fields.

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A Super View of a Supergiant

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A Super View of a Supergiant

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Future Space Travelers May Follow Cosmic Lighthouses

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An image of NICER on the exterior of the space station with one of the station’s solar panels in the background.

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Solar Orbiter makes first close approach to the Sun

ESA’s Sun-exploring mission Solar Orbiter has made its first close approach to the star on June 15, getting as close as 77 million kilometres to its surface, about half the distance between the Sun and Earth.

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Solar Orbiter reaches first perihelion