AstroUnit

For the first time, a giant exoplanet has been discovered orbiting a dead star (which in this case happens to a white dwarf) every 1.4 days. The planet is roughly the same size as Jupiter and is no more than 14 times as massive and has an equilibrium temperature of 165 K. The mass of the white dwarf is approximately 0.5 solar masses and with the radius roughly 10% that of the Sun. The groundbreaking discovery demonstrated that giant planets can be scattered into tight orbits without being tidally disrupted, and motivates searches for smaller transiting planets around white dwarfs. NGC 2392: A planetary nebula, a phase that results when a star like the Sun becomes a red giant and sheds its outer layers. Source:  Chandra Exoplanet research is clearly amongst the most interesting research topics in astronomy. With the advancement of high-quality telescopes and detectors, thousands of exoplanets have been discovered and the numbers are only projected to surge in the coming years. Norma...

 A new study proposed an interesting and robust test that can be used to infer the origin of solar mass black holes. Solar mass black holes are not expected to form from the conventional stellar evolution but can be produced naturally via neutron star (NS) implosions from the capture of small primordial black holes (PBHs) or from the accumulation of dark matter (DM). The study reports that the mass distribution of such solar-mass BHs would be similar to that of the NSs. This would differ from the mass distribution of black holes in the solar-mass range predicted either by conventional stellar evolution or early universe PBH production.  An artist's impression of IGR J17091-3624: The stellar-mass black hole with the fastest Wind. Source:  Chandra Solar mass black holes should not be confused with stellar-mass black holes. A stellar-mass black hole is a black hole formed by the gravitational collapse of a star. They have masses between 5 to several tens of solar m...