astrophysics
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Incredible New Observation Shows Supermassive Black Holes Orbiting Each Other
You think our galaxy is special? Ha. Our boring pinwheel of gas and dark matter might be a nice hangout for humans. But 750 or so million light years away, there’s an elliptical galaxy, Galaxy 0402+379, whose two supermassive black holes are orbiting each other from a distance of only 24 or so light years.…
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This Ancient Stellar Blob Could Change Our Understanding Of How Galaxies Form
Only a billion or so years after the universe formed, a galaxy far more massive than our own blazed into existence. Just half a billion years later — less than the amount of time it took life to emerge and evolve into humans on Earth — the galaxy was a dead disc, no longer forming…
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Why Is This Quasar Running Away From Such A Handsome Galaxy?
We don’t understand quasars all that well, but are pretty certain that these incredibly bright lights belong in the centres of galaxies. So it looked a little weird when astronomers spotted quasar 3C 186 36 thousand light years away from the centre of its galaxy, seemingly trying to escape.
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Wild New Theory Suggests Radio Bursts Beyond Our Galaxy Are Powering Alien Starships
Since their discovery 10 years ago, fast radio bursts have confounded astronomers. These intergalactic pulses of radio energy have defied explanation, but a new theory suggests a technological origin, whereby aliens use these beams to propel their ships through space. Extremely speculative stuff, to be sure, but it’s an idea worth pursuing given just how…