An article published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics” describes the discovery of the the most energetic pulses ever detected in a pulsar. An international team of scientists used the two MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov) telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands, to observe the Crab pulsar.

An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” describes a research that led to the discovery of stars really out of the ordinary. Those are binary systems consisting of two very massive stars where immense eruptions can take place. These systems are twins of Eta Carinae, which became famous for the eruption sighted in the 19th century. Examining observations made using the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes a group of researchers found 5 candidates in other galaxies.

Analyzing the observations made using NASA’s Spitzer WISE space telescopes, many runaway stars were discovered. Those stars are called that way for the remarkable speed they’re moving at in space. One way to identify a potential runaway star is to seek what in jargon is called “bow shock” and indicates the area between a magnetosphere and a surrounding environment. It’s an arc-shaped structure that extends in front of the star and can be very extensive.

At the American Astronomical Society’s meeting in Kissimmee, Florida, astronomers presented the results of research that aims to understand how come the multiple systems of stars and planets from the material on the disks of dust around new stars. The radio telescope Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) was used to study almost one hundred newborn stars in the Perseus molecular cloud to try to answer these questions.