A NASA instrument built to help astronomers learn about the structure and behaviour of neutron stars, super-dense stellar skeletons left behind by massive explosions, has been mounted to an observation post outside the International Space Station after delivery aboard a SpaceX supply ship earlier this month.
Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to discover a jet from a very distant supermassive black hole being illuminated by the oldest light in the universe. This discovery shows that black holes with powerful jets may be more common than previously thought in the first few billion years after the Big Bang.
On 13 September 2015, the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) discovered its 3,000th comet, cementing its standing as the greatest comet finder of all time. The comet was spotted in SOHO’s data by Worachate Boonplod of Thailand — a citizen scientist typical of the NASA-funded Sungrazer Project volunteers responsible for 95 percent of SOHO comet discoveries.
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