COSMOS MAGAZINE
Hubble spots ‘bullseye’ galaxy with 9 rings
Astronomers have discovered a huge ring galaxy, LEDA 1313424, nicknamed “the Bullseye,” which is 2.5 times bigger than the Milky Way.
Credit: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)
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A small blue dwarf galaxy crashed through its center 50 million years ago, creating ripple-like rings and leaving a gas trail between them, now 130,000 light-years apart.
Credit: NASA, ESA, Imad Pasha (Yale), Pieter van Dokkum (Yale)
Is "city killer" asteroid 2024 YR4 on a collision course? ESO says no
Asteroid 2024 YR4 has made international headlines since its discovery in late 2024 because of it's small chance of hitting Earth in 2032, but new data has ruled out the risk.
Asteroid 2024 YR4 observed with ESO’s Very Large Telescope. ESO/O. Hainaut.
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Asteroid 2024 YR4 observed with ESO’s Very Large Telescope. ESO/O. Hainaut.
Grand canyons on the Moon were created in just minutes
New research suggests that 2 massive canyons on the Moon were carved out by streams of impacting rocks travelling at about a kilometre a second.
Credit: NASA/SVS/Ernie T. Wright.
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Vallis Schrödinger (left) and Vallis Planck (right) canyons on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA/SVS/Ernie T. Wright.
The canyons, Vallis Schrödinger and Vallis Planck – at 270km long and 2.7km deep, 280km long and 3.5km deep, respectively – are comparable in size to the Grand Canyon in the US. They were likely carved out of the lunar crust in less than 10 minutes.
Credit: NASA/SVS/Ernie T. Wright.
Supermassive black hole puts on endless light show
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken the longest and most detailed look yet at Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, and found that it’s constantly emitting a stream of flares.
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Sagittarius A*'s accretion disk emits a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest. This image shows the 2.1 micron data taken on April 7, 2024. Credit: Farhad Yusef Zadeh/Northwestern University
Ryugu asteroid belonged to celestial body with liquid saltwater
Scientists studying samples from asteroid Ryugu have found salt crystals, suggesting it once belonged to a larger body with warm salty water, adding to discoveries of organic materials and RNA building blocks.
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Colorised microscopic image of sodium carbonate deposit on Ryugu sample. Credit: KyotoU/Toru Matsumoto