The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
As astronomers learn more about stellar chemistry, it could change the way we measure cosmic expansion and dark energy| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
Observations from Chandra show that Little Red Dots aren't super-Eddington.| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
Astronomers use a lensed supernova to prove the Hubble tension is very real.| briankoberlein.com
Neutron star collisions might be able to prove that dark energy is just an illusion.| briankoberlein.com
EHT, D. Pesce, A. ChaelSimulated image of the supermassive black hole in M87 seen at multiple frequencies.Astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope have developed a new way to observe the radio sky at multiple frequencies, and it means we will soon be able to capture color images of supermassive black holes. Color is an interesting thing. In physics, we can say the color of light is defined by its frequency or wavelength. The longer the wavelength, or the lower the frequency, the more towa...| Brian Koberlein
NASA/Swift/Cruz deWildeArtist’s illustration of a gamma ray burst.Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful phenomena in the Universe. First detected during the Cold War, these events beam a tremendous amount of high-energy light our way in a short period of time. They come in two types: short GRBs that last for less than two seconds and long GRBs that last for minutes. Both types have mysterious origins. Short GRBs could be caused by the collisions of neutron stars or perhaps the power...| Brian Koberlein
A new model suggests that evolving dark matter could solve the Hubble tension problem.| briankoberlein.com
M. Kornmesser / ESOAn artist’s impression comparing TRAPPIST-1 planets to the Earth at the same scale.Most astronomers agree that life is likely common throughout the Universe. While Earth is the only world known to have life, we know that life arose early on our world, and the building blocks of life, including amino acids and sugars, form readily. We also know there are countless worlds in the cosmos that might be home for life. But just because life is likely, that doesn’t mean proving...| Brian Koberlein
There is probably a chorus of gravitational wave sources at the center of our galaxy. Will we be able to hear a single song?| briankoberlein.com
What is the difference between a star cluster and a galaxy? The line isn't always clear.| briankoberlein.com
Hubble Space TelescopePseudo-color image of the ultra-diffuse galaxy FCC 224.The above image might not look unusual, but it poses an interesting mystery for astronomers. Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, it is an image of an ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG) known as FCC 224. Unlike regular dwarf galaxies such as the Magellanic Clouds, these galaxies have an unusually low surface brightness for a galaxy of their size. This usually means they contain lots of dark matter. The gravity of the dark...| Brian Koberlein
NASA/JWST/BackhausObserved MEGA galaxies have a lot of variation in color and morphology, giving insight into their ages, dust content and star formation.About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the first atoms formed. The first light of what we now see as the cosmic microwave background was released, and the primordial hydrogen and helium grew cold and dark. The cosmos entered a dark age for about 100 million years until the first stars and galaxies started to form. You could say the rise of ...| Brian Koberlein
Solar astronomers have captured an image of the waves that heat up the Sun's corona.| briankoberlein.com
NASA/ESAThe magnificent Whirlpool galaxy, also known as Messier 51.Everything in the Universe spins. Galaxies, planets, stars, and black holes all rotate, even if just a bit. It comes from the fact that the clouds of scattered gas and dust of the cosmos are never perfectly symmetrical. But the Universe as a whole does not rotate. Some objects spin one way, some another, but add them all up, and the total rotation is zero. At least that’s what we’ve thought. But a new study suggests that t...| Brian Koberlein
NASA/JPLConcept illustration for a proposed Terrestrial Planet Finder.The dream of finding life on an alien Earth-like world is hampered by a number of technical challenges. Not the least of which is that Earth is dwarfed by the size and brightness of the Sun. We might be able to discover evidence of life by studying the molecular spectra of a planet’s atmosphere as it passes in front of the star, but those results might be inconclusive. The way to be certain is to observe the planet direct...| Brian Koberlein
NASA/JPL-CaltechIllustration of a black hole stripping a star.We all know that black holes can devour stars. Rip them apart and consume their remnants. But that only happens if a star passes too close to a black hole. What if a star gets close enough to a star to experience strong tidal effects, but not close enough to be immediately devoured? This scenario is considered in a recent paper on the arXiv.1 The study considered a dying, 2 solar-mass star known as a subgiant. These stars are reach...| Brian Koberlein
NASA, ESA, Erich Karkoschka (LPL)Uranus as seen by Hubble in visible light over the years.In 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made a flyby of Uranus. It gave us the first detailed images of the distant world. What was once only seen as a featureless pale blue orb was revealed to be…well, a mostly featureless pale blue orb. The flyby gave astronomers plenty of data, but the images Voyager 2 returned were uninspiring. That’s because Voyager only viewed Uranus for a moment in time. Things chan...| Brian Koberlein
NASA/CXC/SAO/M. WeissArtist’s rendering of a supernova explosion, inset with a spectrum graph from Chandra.One of the common misconceptions about black holes is that they devour not only matter, but also the history of that matter. So when a black hole forms, you can only guess how it came to be. That isn’t entirely true. Informational history is only lost when matter crosses the event horizon, and perhaps not even then. The material surrounding a black hole still has a rich history. In a...| Brian Koberlein
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, G. MahlerA spiral galaxy lensed around a closer elliptical galaxy.One of the first verified predictions of general relativity is the gravitational deflection of starlight. The effect was first observed in 1919 during a total solar eclipse. Since stars appear as points of light, the effect is seen as an apparent shift in the position of stars near the eclipse. But the effect happens more generally. If a distant galaxy is obscured by a closer one, some of the distant light...| Brian Koberlein
ESAIllustration of the cosmic scales studied by Gaia.No matter where on Earth you stand, if you have a view of the night sky, and if it is dark enough, you can see the Milky Way. The Milky Way is our home, and its faint clouds of light and shadow have inspired human cultures across the globe. And yet, our view of the Milky Way is limited by our perspective. In many ways, we have learned more from other galaxies than from our own. But when the Gaia spacecraft launched in 2013, all of that chan...| Brian Koberlein
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight CenterNASA visualization of a potentially habitable world.Suppose humanity was faced with an extinction-level event. Not just high odds, but certain-sure. A nearby supernova will explode and irradiate all life, a black hole will engulf the Earth, a Mars-sized interstellar asteroid with our name on it. A cataclysm that will end all life on Earth. We could accept our fate and face our ultimate extinction together. We could gather the archives from libraries across ...| Brian Koberlein
Extremely metal poor stars hold clues to the early Universe, if we can find them.| briankoberlein.com
Astronomers have discovered how stellar-mass black holes produce powerful jets.| briankoberlein.com
White dwarfs may be home for habitable worlds we can detect with JWST.| briankoberlein.com
The writings of Brian Koberlein| briankoberlein.com
Another video in the Big Science Observations series has been released. We’re filming a few more next week, so look forward to them. The post More Big Science appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
Earth-sized worlds around a small star might be habitable after all. The post Life Is Possible On Trappist-1 Exoplanets appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
A triple star system puts Einstein's theory of gravity to the test. The post Testing Einstein’s Theory With A Triple Play appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
Four years I wrote about the Electric Universe. Whacking a hornet's nest with a stick would have been a better use of my time. The post Just-So Story appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
We've thought that young planets form gaps in the planetary disks of young stars. Now we find that these gaps can form without the presence of planets. The post Planetary Disks Don’t Need Planets To Make Waves appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
Big Science is still working on the pilot video, but the Winter weather at Green Bank means we can’t finish until Spring. In the mean time look for a Big Science video series on YouTube. The post Big Science Vlog appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
The distant world 2014 MU69 is known only as a small blurry dot. But that will change next year. The post A Billion Miles Further appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
The origin of our Sun is shrouded in mystery. It may also have been shrouded in the nebula of a Wolf-Rayet star. The post Children Of The Wolf appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
How do we know the gravity of a single star? The post How To Weigh A Star appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
The International Astronomical Union has added 86 stars to the list of official names. The post Naming Day appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
Is an asteroid from interstellar space really a probe from an alien civilization? Probably not, but Breakthrough Listen wants to find out. The post The Search For Aliens On A Visiting Asteroid appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time
The most distant quasar ever observed challenges our understanding of how black holes formed. The post The Black Hole At The Edge Of The Universe appeared first on One Universe at a Time.| One Universe at a Time