Diego Casanova and Erin Boettcher talked about a gap in the observed mass of black holes. This gap corresponds to black holes with a mass between 10,000 to 100,000 times that of the Sun. A new discovery published in Nature presents a candidate for a black hole in this previously undetected mass range. Source: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-017-0224-z
The Sun’s Sibling
This week on Radio Astronomy, Jacqueline Goldstein and Erin Boettcher discuss the birth of stars from stellar nurseries: large, dusty, gaseous clouds in which young stars condense and form.
Juno – A New Look at Jupiter
This week on Radio Astronomy, Erin Boettcher and Jacqueline Goldstein discuss NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. Hear about the latest results from the Juno spacecraft, including pictures of the brightest auroras in the solar system and clues to the formation of the planets around our Sun. Learn more here: https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/news
Supernovae in the Fireworks Galaxy
This week on Radio Astronomy, Jacqueline Goldstein and Zach Pace discuss supernovae in the “Fireworks Galaxy”, NGC 6946. These stellar explosions, which occur at the ends of the lives of massive stars, happen at least ten times more frequently in NGC 6946 than in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Learn more here: http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/05/fireworks-galaxy-sets-off-its-10th-supernova-in-a-century
WHAM
On this week’s episode of Radio Astronomy, Zach Pace and Dr. Matt Haffner discuss the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper, or WHAM. This telescope has mapped the warm, ionized gas in our Milky Way Galaxy over the entire sky. Learn more here: http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/sky-filled-warm-fuzzy-gas
Gravitational Lensing
Jaqueline Goldstein and Zach Pace explain how a gravitationally lensed supernova is helping to test theories on gravity and measure the expansion of our universe.