Science Updates - A look at CfA discoveries from recent journals

Large Millimeter Telescope Alfonso Serrano
March 12, 2021

Ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), powered by starburst activity and often with supermassive black holes accreting material at their nuclei, contain large reservoirs of molecular gas. This is to be expected: Molecular gas is the raw material for new stars and moreover the presence of the infrared luminous warm dust implies an abundance of molecular gas.

schematic diagram of the Her X-1 X-ray binary system
March 5, 2021

The binary star system Her X-1 consists of a 1.5 solar-mass neutron star – the super-dense, collapsed remnant of a massive star – in orbit around the 2.2 solar-mass star, HZ Herculis.

image of the Milky Way as seen at radio wavelengths
February 26, 2021

One of the largest structures in the Milky Way galaxy, the North Polar Spur, was discovered at radio and X-ray wavelengths. The Spur is a giant ridge of bright emission that rises roughly perpendicularly out of the plane of the galaxy starting roughly in the constellation of Sagittarius and then curves upward, stretching across the sky for over thirty degrees (the size of sixty full-moons) where it appears to join other bright filamentary features.