General relativity warps space and time, and astronomers can use that fact to their advantage.
The Crab Nebula
The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova that occurred in 1054 AD.
Standardizing the Candle
The evidence for dark energy lies in our ability to relate the redshift of a galaxy with it’s distance. To prove dark energy is real we have to measure redshift and distance independently, and that takes a bit of doing.
Total Eclipse of the Heart
In August of last year a star briefly brightened by a factor of 5 in a single day.
So You’re Saying I’ve Got a Chance
New research questions the claim that the universe is accelerating. But this new work isn’t as strong as some claim.
Go Speed Racer! Go!
We’ve just discovered the fastest star in our galaxy, and it was likely given its speed by a supernova explosion.
Play It Again, Sam
Light from a supernova has been gravitationally lensed by a galaxy, and as a result we can observe the supernova over and over gain.
It’s Gonna Blow!
Eta Carinae is about 7,500 light years away, and its going to explode any time now. Mind you, “any time now” means sometime over the next ten to twenty thousand years or so. But recently the star been in the news again as an existential threat to our planet. It must be that time of year again.
Magneto
It’s generally thought that SN2007bi is a clear example of a pair instability supernova due to its intensity and long brightness period, but now new supernova observations suggest that SN2007bi wasn’t a pair-instability supernova after all. But if it wasn’t, then how could it remain so bright for so long?