General Articles

Sterre en Planete radio podcast of 21st September 2025 – interview by Willie Koorts with Dr Pierre De Villiers

On Sunday evening Willie Koorts had a fascinating half hour interview with Pierre De Villiers, outlining his part in the establishment of the Hermanus Astronomy Centre and many of its interesting and unique projects and outreach activities over the years. Click here to listen to the podcast: Sterre en Planete Podcast  Also, here is a …

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(A-D) The first four Supermassive Dark Star spectral candidates. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2513193122

Potential smoking gun signature of supermassive dark stars found in JWST data

The first stars in the universe formed out of pristine hydrogen and helium clouds, in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. New James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations reveal that some of the first stars in the universe could have been very different from regular (nuclear fusion-powered) stars, which have been …

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This image of the Crab Nebula combines data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) in magenta and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in dark purple.

Historic nebula seen like never before with Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explore

This image of the Crab Nebula combines data from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer(IXPE) in magenta and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in dark purple. Credit: X-ray (IXPE: NASA), (Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO) Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/K. Arcand & L. Frattare APRIL 10, 2023 by Elizabeth Landau, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre On Feb. 22, 1971, a sounding rocket …

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Slim Boom. Credit: Phil Drury, University of Sheffield

Scientists observe flattest explosion ever seen in space

Slim Boom. Credit: Phil Drury, University of Sheffield An explosion the size of our solar system has baffled scientists, as part of its shape—similar to that of an extremely flat disk—challenges everything we know about explosions in space. The explosion observed was a bright Fast Blue Optical Transient (FBOT)—an extremely rare class of explosion which …

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This illustration shows the ingredients of a long gamma-ray burst, the most common type. The core of a massive star (left) has collapsed, forming a black hole that sends a jet of particles moving through the collapsing star and out into space at nearly the speed of light. Radiation across the spectrum arises from hot ionized gas (plasma) in the vicinity of the newborn black hole, collisions among shells of fast-moving gas within the jet (internal shock waves), and from the leading edge of the jet as it sweeps up and interacts with its surroundings (external shock). Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed reveals new mysteries of cosmic explosions

This illustration shows the ingredients of a long gamma-ray burst, the most common type. The core of a massive star (left) has collapsed, forming a black hole that sends a jet of particles moving through the collapsing star and out into space at nearly the speed of light. Radiation across the spectrum arises from hot …

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