Artist’s impression of STAR-X after its proposed launch in 2028. The aperature of the X-ray telescope is the large circular shape toward the left. The ultraviolet telescope is the outrigger tube attached to the facility’s underside.
The STAR-X team and NASA/GSFC
A Northwestern University-led team of astronomers has developed the most extensive inventory to date of the galaxies where short gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs) originate. Using several highly sensitive instruments and sophisticated galaxy modeling, the researchers, including Anya Nugent, pinpointed the galactic homes of 84 SGRBs and probed the characteristics of 69 of the identified host galaxies.
W.M. Keck Observatory/Adam Makarenko
CIERA 13th Annual Public Lecture by Dr. Carolyn Porco. October 6th, 2022 at Northwestern’s Cahn Auditorium. Thirty-two years ago, the United States and Europe joined hands and set off together on an historic adventure. It was a mission named Cassini that called for a 7-year journey across the Solar System and entry into orbit around
“This GRB is an extraordinarily rare event,” said Rastinejad, a Northwestern Ph.D. student. “It was so bright that it triggered the Swift gamma-ray telescopes twice and fully saturated the detectors — something I haven’t seen in my time observing GRBs.” “As long as we have been able to detect GRBs, there is no question that
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. O'Connor (UMD/GWU) & J. Rastinejad & W. Fong (Northwestern University)
On Aug. 21, a NASA-funded team that includes Northwestern faculty and students launched the “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately
Tali Figueroa-Feliciano
For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has been used to directly image an exoplanet — that’s a planet outside of our solar system. Although it’s not the first time an exoplanet has been directly imaged, it is the first time the Webb Telescope’s powerful gaze has been turned to the task. And
This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope: purple shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 3.00 micrometers, blue shows the NIRCam instrument’s view at 4.44 micrometers, yellow shows the MIRI instrument’s view at 11.4 micrometers, and red shows the MIRI instrument’s
NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team and A. Pagan (STScI)
A team at Northwestern University spent a decade working on a rocket. The goal was to send it to space to take an image of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the constellation that exploded. On August 21, 2022, the team launched their rocket. “People just went wild,” said Tali Figeroa-Feliciano, project lead.
The images of space produced by the James Webb Telescope have captured the attention of the world, giving academic experts and everyday stargazers the clearest picture of the universe ever seen. “Even astronomers, like when we look at this, we had the same reaction as everyone else,” said Allison Strom, a Northwestern University professor of physics and
When astronomers use radio telescopes to gaze into the night sky, they typically see elliptical-shaped galaxies, with twin jets blasting from either side of their central supermassive black hole. But every once in a while — less than 10% of the time — astronomers might spot something special and rare: An X-shaped radio galaxy, with
Aretaios Lalakos
A still image taken from the 3D simulation of the natural development of an X-shaped jet. The gas (bright red) falls into the black hole, which launches a pair of relativistic jets (light blue). The jets propagate vertically and shock the ambient gas (dark red). The older cavities (dark blue) buoyantly rise at an angle
Aretaios Lalakos
On Aug. 21, 2022, a NASA-funded Northwestern University team of astrophysicists launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately 11,000
Northwestern University
On Aug. 21, 2022, a NASA-funded Northwestern University team of astrophysicists will launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately
Northwestern University
On Aug. 21, the NASA-funded team launched its “Micro-X” rocket from White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico. The rocket spent 15 minutes in space — just enough time to snap a quick image of supernova remnant Cassiopeia A, a star in the Cassiopeia constellation that exploded approximately 11,000 light-years away from Earth. Then,
Northwestern University
In a new study, the team of astrophysicists who launched STARFORGE discovered that star formation is a self-regulatory process. In other words, stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses. The new finding may enable researchers to better understand star formation within our own Milky
STARFORGE
360° narrowband map of a star forming cloud from the STARFORGE simulations, visit http://starforge.space to see more movies or learn about the project. This 360° movie shows a massive (20,000 solar mass) star forming molecular cloud as it is being destroyed by newly born stars. This happens due to massive stars that are extremely bright
STARFORGE
This lecture was presented on October 14, 2021 by Dr. Phil Plait, astronomer and best-selling author. Plait discussed the explosion in exoplanet detections since the 1990s (over four thousand so far!). These planets orbit a wide variety of stars, and themselves are all wildly different; huge, small, hot, cold, airless, or with thick atmospheres. The
