A city-sized collapsed star, pulsar PSR J2030+4415 – the ancient remains of exploded stars so dense its gravity warps nearby space-time – has generated an X-ray filament of matter and antimatter (image above) that stretches for trillions of miles as revealed by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. This discovery could help explain the presence of positrons (the antimatter positively charged counterparts to electrons) detected throughout the Milky Way galaxy and here on Earth.
Analysis of sites on Mars show that the red planet’s protective field was switched off half a billion years ago, and NASA scientists say they know why. An impact basin deep enough to swallow Mount Everest in Valles Marineris highlight what might be the results of a ancient asteroid collision with the Red Planet switching off its magnetic field, bathing the Red Planet in harmful radiation, and eroding its atmosphere by particles streaming from solar winds.
Astronomers have recently discovered that the expanse of space-time within range of our telescopes—‘the universe’—is only a tiny fraction of the aftermath of the Big Bang. In a new, mind-boggling project, an international team of astronomers have mapped 300,000 previously unknown objects using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, almost all of which are galaxies in the distant universe; their radio signals traveling billions of light years to reach Earth.