Pulp Fiction

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Surface Chemistry Shows Which Massive Stars Have Gained Mass from Binary Companions

This artist's illustration shows a blue star gaining mass from its red giant companion. Mass transfer is common in massive stars, most of which are in binary relationships. A pair of researchers have developed a way to identify stars that have gained mass, even if the transfer happened a long time ago. Image Credit: NASA/ESA, A. Feild (STScI))

Most stars, including massive ones, are in binary pairs. Astronomers think that about 70% of them have gained mass from their companions, but there's been no way to determine which ones have done so. Now, researchers have found a way.

A Distant Stream of Stars May Offer New Clues to Dark Matter

A Hubble Space Telescope view of the ultra-diffuse galaxy UGC9050-Dw1 and a stream of stars from an associated globular cluster. The stream is shaped by the influence of dark matter. Credit: STScI, Holm, et al.

Dark matter continues to challenge astronomers as they work to solve the mystery of this so-far-unseen material that permeates the Universe. It's not that the stuff doesn't exist. It does, but we just can't see it. The only way it can be detected is by its gravitational effects on ordinary matter. A team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen PhD student Julie Kiel Holm has found a stream of stars stretching out more than 3,000 light-years from a globular cluster that appears to have been shaped by dark matter in a distant galaxy.

Comet 220P McNaught Puts On An Encore Performance

Comet 220P McNaught from August 22nd. Credit: Frank Astro.

It has been a busy month for astronomy. In the midst of an eclipse season bookended by the total solar eclipse on August 12th and the deep partial lunar eclipse coming right up this week on August 28th, an outbound comet hanging high in the dawn sky just refuses to die: 220P/McNaught.

Monday, August 24, 2026

Can We Steal Energy from Black Holes? Part 1: Leveling Up Spacetime

An illustration of spacetime as a warped grid around the Earth, the picture at the heart of general relativity and frame dragging. Credit: NASA (public domain).

Roger Penrose found a way to extract energy from a spinning black hole without breaking any laws of physics. To understand it, we first have to level up our picture of spacetime, from Newton's empty stage to a swirling, draggable fabric.

NASA Starshade Would Enable Astronomers To Directly Image Rocky Exoworlds

An artist's concept of a generic starshade. Credit: Public Domain

Innovative NASA-funded orbital starshade could help capture first direct images from extrasolar earths.

Sunday, August 23, 2026

Astronomers Use Rare Ultra-Magnetic Star to Crack a Quantum Mystery

A Swinburne astronomer may have just confirmed one of the quirkiest aspects of quantum mechanics: that seemingly empty space can alter the behavior of light. Credit: NASA.

An international team observed a magnetar known as 1E 1547.0–5408 using NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), leading to what could be the first detection of vacuum birefringence taking place in the magnetar’s ultra-strong magnetic field. These findings could potentially resolve a long-standing mystery quantum mechanics.

NASA Highlights Next-Gen Cargo Landers Paving the Way for a Moon Base

Artist's depiction of a NASA moon based, along with it's update imagery. Credit - NASA

NASA and its commercial partners are making progress on their way to a permanent human presence on the Moon. As part of that, a recent press release and accompanying YouTube video hints they may be looking to provide regular updates to the progress of those efforts - and, at least for this first one, that progress looks pretty good.