Spiral Galaxies Show Their Metal
Nearby spiral galaxies aren’t metalheads, but they might have lots of metals in their arms.
For Whom the Cosmic Web Tolls
“No [galaxy] is an island entire of itself; every [galaxy] / is a piece of the [cosmic web], a part of the main” – apologies to John Donne for butchering his poem.
Deep Spectra with PEPSI
The new high-resolution, hydra-headed PEPSI spectrograph is now in operation. One of the first targets it investigated is an ancient, planet-hosting star.
How many stars have companions?
The fraction of binary stars has implications in many fields of astronomy. Yet, we still don’t know this number, and even less how it varies with properties such as metallicity. Today’s paper sheds some light on this open question.
Image credits: Palomar Observatory/STScI/WikiSky
Where the Wild (Planet)Things Are
New research shows hot Jupiters find safety in numbers. According to radial velocity data, these giant exoplanets are more commonly found around stars in open clusters.
The Multiple Identities of Omega Centauri
Omega Centauri is a huge globular cluster, so much so that some astronomers think it could be the remnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy. We will see that this is not necessarily true.