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A composite of Hoinga in X-rays (magenta) and radio (blue). Extremely hot gas filling the remnant emits X-rays, while electrons whizzing around magnetic fields at the edge of the shell structure generate radio waves.

A huge cloud of expanding supernova debris was found hidden in plain sight

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

Artwork depicting the magnetic field surrounding a neutron star. Credit: Casey Reed / Penn State University

Are neutron stars blasting out dark matter?

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

An all-sky map showing the X-ray bubbles seen by eROSITA (teal) and in gamma rays by Fermi (red). The X-ray bubbles are larger and appear to fully enclose the gamma-ray bubbles. Credit: MPE/IKI courtesy eROSITA PI Andrea Merloni

Our galaxy is blowing enormous hot bubbles into space and no one knows why

By Phil Plait 3 years ago

Artwork depicting a supermassive black hole surrounded by an accretion disk and magnetic corona, with powerful jets launching away in opposite directions. Credit: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss

How do supermassive black holes launch powerful jets of matter? With hot gas and magnetism.

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

A Hubble image of the Circinus Galaxy taken in 1999, after SN1996cr exploded but before it was discovered, with an arrow representing the approximate location of the supernova. The red glow is from hydrogen.

The nearby supernova no one saw

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

Cosmos hero

Even Superman's X-ray vision can't capture images like this six-month, all-sky shot of the cosmos

By Jeff Spry 4 years ago

An all-sky map showing what may be a change in the expansion rate of the Universe across the sky; faster in some places (red-yellow) and slower in others (purple-black). Credit: K. Migkas et al. 2020, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Are some parts of the Universe expanding faster than others? Maaaaaaybe.

By Phil Plait 4 years ago

eROSITA observation of the interacting galaxy clusters Abell 3391 and 3395. An image in three X-ray colors shows the clusters (left), and a different view highlights the gas connecting them (right).

eROSITA is now scanning the skies for X-rays

By Phil Plait 5 years ago

Artwork depicting a millisecond pulsar, sped up to phenomenal rotation rates by material it's eating from its companion star. Credit: NASA / GSFC SVS / Dana Berry

The most compact accreting binary X-ray millisecond pulsar ever!

By Phil Plait 5 years ago

The face-on spiral galaxy is lovely in optical light (blue) but has a very big secret in X-rays (purple). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Huntingdon Inst. for X-ray Astronomy/G.Garmire, Optical: ESO/VLT

A galaxy torn apart blasts out a six-million-degree scream

By Phil Plait 5 years ago