NASA
NASA | A Black Widow Pulsar Consumes its Mate
Black widow spiders and their Australian cousins, known as redbacks, are notorious for an unsettling tendency to kill and devour their male partners. Astronomers have noted similar behavior among two rare breeds of binary system that...
NASA
NASA’s NICER Reveals 1st-ever Pulsar Surface Map
Scientists have reached a new frontier in our understanding of pulsars, the dense, whirling remains of exploded stars, thanks to observations from NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Data from this X-ray telescope...
NASA
NASA | Stellar Odd Couple Makes Striking Flares
Every 3.4 years, pulsar B1259--63 dives twice through the gas disk surrounding the massive blue star it orbits. With each pass, it produces gamma rays. During the most recent event, NASA's Fermi observed that the pulsar's gamma-ray flare...
NASA
NICER Finds X-ray Pulsar in Record-fast Orbit
Scientists analyzing the first data from the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission have found two stars that revolve around each other every 38 minutes. One of the stars in the system, called IGR J17062-6143 (J17062...
NASA
Fermi Detects Gamma-ray Puzzle from M31
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has found a signal at the center of the neighboring Andromeda galaxy that could indicate the presence of the mysterious stuff known as dark matter. The gamma-ray signal is similar to one seen by...
NASA
NASA’s Black Hole Field Guide: Episode 4 - Social Supermassive Black Holes
It’s not just smaller black holes that have all the fun – really, really massive black holes also enjoy being the center of attention! Watch this chapter to learn more about these giant black holes and all their companions! Music:...
NASA
NASA's Fermi Finds Vast 'Halo' Around Nearby Pulsar
A new study of observations from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has discovered a faint but sprawling glow around a nearby pulsar. If visible to the human eye, this gamma-ray “halo” would appear larger in the sky than the famed...
NASA
NICER Mission Overview
The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload, destined for the exterior of the space station, will study the physics of neutron stars, providing new insight into their nature and behavior. These stars are called...
NASA
NASA’s Black Hole Field Guide: Episode 3 - Social Black Holes
Watching black holes by themselves is fun, but what about ones that like being more social? Some black holes really LOVE to dance with other objects in the universe. Learn more about them by watching this helpful video! Music: "Tango...
NASA
NASA | Neutron Stars Rip Each Other Apart to Form Black Hole
This supercomputer simulation shows one of the most violent events in the universe: a pair of neutron stars colliding, merging and forming a black hole. A neutron star is the compressed core left behind when a star born with between...
NASA
NICER in Space
Several cameras on the International Space Station (ISS) have eyes on NICER. Since arriving to the space station on June 5 – aboard SpaceX’s eleventh cargo resupply mission – NICER underwent robotic installation on ExPRESS Logistics...
NASA
NASA's Fermi Satellite Clocks a 'Cannonball' Pulsar
Astronomers using NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Space Telescope and the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have found a pulsar hurtling through space at nearly 2.5 million miles an hour -- so fast it could...
NASA
NICER: Launching Soon to the Space Station
This video introduces the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASA’s Explorer program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific...
NASA
NASA'S NICER Does the Space Station Twist
This time-lapse video, obtained June 8, 2018, shows the precise choreography of NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) as it studies pulsars and other X-ray sources from its perch aboard the International Space...
NASA
NASA's NICER Tracks a Magnetar's Hot Spots
For the first time, NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) has observed the merging of multimillion-degree X-ray spots on the surface of a magnetar, a supermagnetized stellar core no larger than a city. NICER tracked...
Curated Video
Neutron Stars Explained in Simple Words for Laymen
Neutron stars are formed from the core of some starrs. Neutron stars generally have a radius of only around 12 km. With masses exceeding 1.4 times that of the Sun, these are some of the densest objects in the Universe. A tablespoonful of...
NASA
NASA | A Flickering X-ray Candle
The Crab Nebula, created by a supernova seen nearly a thousand years ago, is one of the sky's most famous "star wrecks." For decades, most astronomers have regarded it as the steadiest beacon at X-ray energies, but data from orbiting...
TMW Media
The Milky Way, Our Galaxy: Learn about other stars compared to our sun and how they will die
What are the outer rings of a dying star? How are Supernovas created? The Milky Way, Our Galaxy, Part 2
NASA
NASA | Colliding Neutron Stars Create Black Hole and Gamma-ray Burst
Armed with state-of-the-art supercomputer models, scientists have shown that colliding neutron stars can produce the energetic jet required for a gamma-ray burst. Earlier simulations demonstrated that mergers could make black holes....
Science360
My STEM Spark
NSF Director France Córdova shares her STEM spark moment. Visit the Director's blog for the full post: https://t.co/BaV2UOxrvt
NASA
NICER Charts the Area Around a New Black Hole
Scientists have mapped the environment surrounding a black hole that is 10 times the mass of the Sun using NASA's Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) payload aboard the International Space Station. NICER detected X-ray...
NASA
What is a Neutron Star?
Here's just some of what we already know about neutron stars. An upcoming NASA mission will further investigate these unusual objects from the International Space Station. The Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer mission, or NICER,...
Next Animation Studio
Mystery astronomical object may be a ‘black neutron star’
Astronomers have found a so-called black neutron star that changes our understanding of both black holes and neutron stars.
NASA
NASA | Swift's Christmas Burst From Blue Supergiant Star Explosion
Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are the most luminous and mysterious explosions in the universe. The blasts emit surges of gamma rays -- the most powerful form of light -- as well as X-rays, and they produce afterglows that can be observed at...