Tag: Galaxy

Milky Way’s black hole surrounded by strong magnetic fields: astronomers

PARIS, March 27, 2024 (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered powerful magnetic fields spiralling around the black hole that sits at the centre of the Milky Way, the European Southern Observatory said Wednesday. A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) for the first time showed in polarised light a ring of magnetic fields surrounding the Sagittarius A* black hole. The fields are similar to those observed around the M87* black hole at the heart […]

Seeing Milky Way’s new black hole is ‘only the beginning’: US researcher

  by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — At just 33 years old, Caltech assistant professor Katie Bouman is already a veteran of two major scientific discoveries. The expert in computational imaging — developing algorithms to observe distant phenomena — helped create the program that led to the release of the first image of a black hole in a distant galaxy in 2019. She quickly became something of a global science […]

‘Baby’ Milky Way discovered 12 bln light years away

by Laurence COUSTAL PARIS, France (AFP) — A golden halo glinting 12 billion light years away is the farthest galaxy resembling our Milky Way yet spotted, astronomers said Wednesday, adding the “surprisingly unchaotic” infant star system challenges our understanding of the early years of the Universe. The galaxy, called SPT0418-47, is so far away that it took billions of years for its light to reach Earth and so our image of it is from deep […]

Astronomers find the ‘impossible’: a galaxy without dark matter

by Marlowe Hood Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Stupefied astronomers on Wednesday unveiled the first and only known galaxy without dark matter, the invisible and poorly-understood substance thought to make up a quarter of the Universe. The discovery could revise or even upend theories of how galaxies are formed, they reported in the journal Nature. “This is really bizarre,” said co-author Roberto Abraham, an astronomer at the University of Toronto. “For a galaxy […]

Weekend stargazer wins supernova ‘cosmic lottery’

by Marlowe Hood Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — To say that Victor Buso was in the right place at the right time may be the biggest understatement in the history of stargazing. By pure luck, the amateur astronomer from Rosario, Argentina snapped the first before-and-after images ever captured of a star as it explodes in a brilliant flash of light and morphs into a supernova. Astronomers call this pivotal moment “shock breakout,” and have […]

Apple overtakes Samsung in shrinking smartphone market: survey

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)  –  Apple overtook Samsung in the fourth quarter as the largest smartphone producer in a declining global market for handsets, research firm IDC said Friday. A survey by IDC showed Apple — which reported its quarterly data Thursday — led all vendors with 77.3 million iPhones sold, giving it a 19.2 percent market share. Even though Apple’s fourth-quarter unit sales were down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, it was able to move ahead of […]

Push and pull: How the Milky Way flies

PARIS, France (AFP) — It may not feel like it, but our Milky Way galaxy is barrelling through the Universe at more than two million kilometers (1.24 million miles) per hour. On Monday, astronomers said they had discovered a void in deep space that helps explain the direction in which we are headed and our speed. It turns out our galaxy is not only being pulled by galactic forces but pushed as well, they wrote […]

Dwarf galaxies shed light on dark matter

by Marlowe HOOD Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — The first sighting of clustered dwarf galaxies bolsters a leading theory about how big galaxies such as our Milky Way are formed, and how dark matter binds them, researchers said Monday. Theorised but never seen, the bundled galaxies were discovered using the largest optical survey of the night sky ever compiled, they reported in the journal Nature Astronomy. Seven clusters of three-to-five galaxies are each […]

Japan bans Galaxy Note 7 on airplanes over fire risk

TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japan has barred all Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones from airplanes, mirroring moves by US regulators and a string of carriers that banned the recalled devices over fire risk concerns. The weekend announcement from Japan’s transport ministry follows an earlier warning that asked airlines to urge passengers not to turn on or charge the smartphones on aircraft. But aviation authorities went a step further on Saturday, ordering airlines to ban the […]

Samsung says ‘adjusting production’ of recalled Note 7

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung Electronics said Monday it was “adjusting” production of its recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, after key distributors stopped offering replacements because of continued safety concerns. “We are in the process of adjusting production volumes to enhance quality control and to enable thorough investigations following the recent cases of Galaxy Note 7 explosions,” the South Korean company said in a statement. © 1994-2016 Agence France-Presse

Samsung in hot water after ‘new’ phone catches fire on plane

CHICAGO, United States (AFP) — A US flight was evacuated prior to takeoff when a passenger’s Galaxy Note 7 — reportedly a replacement in Samsung’s global recall — caught fire, landing the company in new controversy. Samsung has been struggling with a recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 handsets due to complaints of exploding batteries, a problem the replacement phones are supposed to fix. But on Wednesday, a Southwest Airlines flight leaving Louisville, Kentucky was […]

Samsung to resume S. Korea sales of new Note 7 phones

SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — Samsung said Thursday it would resume sales of new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in South Korea this week, hoping to turn the page on the troubled device after an ongoing global recall prompted by battery explosions. The company on September 2 suspended sales of the oversized “phablet” and recalled 2.5 million units shipped worldwide after faulty batteries caused the phones to explode while charging. With the recall underway in 10 […]