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Young galaxies are most effective at converting gas into stars. Intense accretion of fuel is required to keep galaxies growing, but these gas streams have largely eluded observations. New instruments at optical telescopes are now uncovering clues of their existence.
Extremely deep observations of the Coma galaxy cluster with the Chandra X-ray Observatory have found that the gas between galaxies, where the vast majority of the baryons lie, is far less viscous than expected.
The interstellar medium in our Galaxy is threaded by magnetic fields. A new method of inferring magnetic field directions from spectroscopic measurements of this turbulent medium provides insight into the role of these magnetic fields in molecular cloud formation and evolution.
The report of a 10,000 solar mass black hole in a dwarf galaxy provides new clues about how supermassive black holes form and grow with their host galaxies.
Although dark matter cannot be seen, it can be studied by the gravitational effect of dark objects on the light from background stars. New observations of the nearby Andromeda galaxy probe the possibility that the dark matter could be small black holes.
The first detection of emission from carbon monoxide molecules in a circumstellar envelope delivered a tool for estimating numerous physical characteristics of evolved stars, not least the amount of gas and dust they return to the interstellar medium of a galaxy.
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is the key to understanding the matter cycle in the Universe. Edwin Salpeter’s paper of 1955 founded this research field. Evidence today, however, challenges the initial mass function as an invariant probability distribution function.
After 30 years of searching, the helium hydride ion, the first chemical bond that was formed in the Universe, has finally been detected outside the laboratory, in the interstellar medium. It was seen in planetary nebula NGC 7027 using the GREAT spectrometer aboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
While the measurements of the Hubble constant from the local distance ladder and the cosmic microwave background radiation appear to disagree, given a sufficient number of localized detections, gravitational waves may possibly shed light on the tension.
In 1951, three separate research groups established radio astronomy as a contender to the dominance of optical astronomy. Using the interstellar 21-cm line, they provided a method to look deeper into our own Galaxy and back in time to the birth of all galaxies.
The winds from growing supermassive black holes appear to be located tens of parsecs from the centres of their host galaxies. This location fits with the idea that these outflows influence the progression of star formation.
Since the discovery of the first repeating fast radio burst in 2016, debate has raged over whether it represented a distinct population. With the recent detection of a second repeater using CHIME, the debate is closer to being settled.
Recent observations with the Gaia satellite have confirmed that the cores of cooling white dwarf stars undergo crystallization, as predicted half a century ago.
