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Nature Astronomy

All articles tagged with #nature astronomy

Webb Telescope Maps Cosmos's Invisible Skeleton in Unprecedented Detail
physics-and-mathematics19 days ago

Webb Telescope Maps Cosmos's Invisible Skeleton in Unprecedented Detail

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope produced the most detailed map of dark matter yet, revealing how its gravity shapes ordinary matter in a patch of the Sextans constellation and uncovering about 800,000 galaxies; the findings, published in Nature Astronomy from 255 hours of JWST observations, demonstrate dark matter as the universe's scaffolding and hint at how cosmic structure formed, with plans to expand mapping using NASA's Roman Space Telescope.

Jupiter’s true size revealed by Juno measurements
space21 days ago

Jupiter’s true size revealed by Juno measurements

NASA's Juno spacecraft has produced the clearest measurements yet of Jupiter's shape, finding its equator is about 5 miles (8 km) smaller and its poles roughly 15 miles (24 km) shorter than previously estimated. The update, drawing on 26 Juno flybys (versus six earlier data points), helps reconcile atmospheric and gravity data with interior models, and may lead textbooks to be updated about Jupiter’s size and structure.

"Unveiling the Smallest Stars in Exotic Binary Systems"
astronomy2 years ago

"Unveiling the Smallest Stars in Exotic Binary Systems"

Astronomers have discovered the smallest known star, part of a binary system called J0526, located 2,760 light years from Earth. The star, named J0526B, is a hot subdwarf approximately seven times the size of Earth with a surface temperature of 2,226°C, and it orbits a larger unseen white dwarf, J0526A, every 20 minutes. This finding challenges previous theories about the size and nature of stars, suggesting that they can be smaller than previously thought and leading to speculation about the existence of even smaller stars with unknown properties.