Speedy stars reveal a satellite’s supermassive secret
By rewinding the orbits of hypervelocity stars, today’s authors discover something unusual about the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxy.
Origin of the plume in M86: Ram pressure stripping or galaxy-galaxy collision?
Using X-ray observations from XMM-Newton, this paper studied the chemical makeup of the hot gas around the galaxy M86, which is being stripped as it moves through a cluster. They found that the galaxy’s core still holds onto its enriched gas, and that part of the stripped material likely comes from a past galaxy collision—not just the core being peeled away.
Testing The Waters: Determining The Origin of The Cocytos Stream
How do you distinguish between home-grown and imported stars in the Milky Way? You use the Gaia space observatory, of course!
Dust Ahead of Schedule: The Surprising UV Bump in a Galaxy at Cosmic Dawn
What do you get when baby galaxies crash and light up in UV? A surprising early signature of cosmic dust.
Hungry Hungry Nova
Today’s bite features the beautiful red nova, ZTF SLRN-2020, and how its beauty may be the dying breath of a planet.
NCIS JWST: Analyzing The Aftermath of The Bullet Cluster’s Collision
BANG! That’s the sound of a new study of the Bullet Cluster that digs deep into where the system’s dark matter is and what properties it may have.