Our knowledge of the universe is constantly being tested by new facts and unexplained phenomena, the meaning of which scientists have yet to understand. This year, astronomers have recorded and set new records, as Space.com reminds us.
- In the past year, astronomers have detected a record-breaking powerful gamma-ray burst on the Sun. While the previous most powerful rays reached 200 GeV, this time the energy of subatomic particles of solar gamma rays was measured at 1 TeV, and some reached 10 TeV. In other words, they were at least 5000 times brighter. Scientists do not know for sure what caused such powerful outbreaks.
- In the radio waves of a galaxy 8.8 billion years old, astronomers were able to discern traces of neutral hydrogen. Usually this is not possible, but in this case the scientists were lucky – the light of the galaxy was amplified by the gravitational lens by 30 times.
- NASA’s Mars helicopter, the only one on this planet, made its 59th flight in September, the longest on record, covering 579 meters. Then, in October, he repeated this achievement.
- The fastest fleeing stars were also discovered in the outgoing year. This class of stars is already characterized by a higher velocity relative to the surrounding interstellar medium, but two of them – J0927-6335 and J1235-3752 – turned out to be the fastest. They travel 2285 and 1694 km per second, respectively, and will soon enter interstellar space. Astronomers suspect that these white dwarfs once formed a double star system.
- The black holes known to science fall into two categories: stellar mass, formed from supernovae, and supermassive, with a mass of millions or billions of stars, which are usually found in the centers of galaxies. An international team of scientists has discovered the first evidence of a black hole with a non-standard mass of 10 to 100 million, whose age is 13.3 billion years. Scientists do not yet know how it was formed.
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space