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... in the News
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2006 Nov UMBC Astronomer Helps Discover Possible New Black Hole
JCA Scientist
Dr. Volker Beckmann
and collegues from NASA/GSFC and elsewhere around the world
report on a new X-ray Nova studied using
the Swift and INTEGRAL spacecraft.
They suggest this is the result of a black hole in a binary system
suddenly "switching on" as it consumed material from its companion.
Why it feeds in bursts, rather than with a steady stream remains a
mystery.
This work resulted in
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2006 Jul NASA Scientists Conduct Census of Nearby Hidden Black Holes
JCA Scientist
Dr. Volker Beckmann
and collegues from USRA and ISDC report on a census of
Compton-thick AGN using INTEGRAL.
They find a deficit of such
sources (aka "hidden black holes") in the local universe, with implications
for star and galaxy formation in the early universe.
This work resulted in An article related to this work was the lead story on the main ESA HomePage on 2006 July 26. |
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2006 Jun XMM-Newton spots the greatest of great balls of fire
JCA Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist
Alexis Finoguenov
and UMBC's
Prof Mark Henriksen
report on XMM-Newton observations of
a comet-like ball of gas hurling through a distant galaxy cluster.
The gas ball is about three million light years across (or about five
billion times the size of our solar system), and traveling
at 750 kilometres per second.
From our perspective, it appears as a
circular X-ray glow with a comet-like tail nearly half the size of the moon.
This work resulted in
Nature News: "Goodness gracious, great ball of fire" USA Today: "Goodness, that's a great ball of fire" The Los Angles Times: "Great Ball of Fire: X-Rays Spot Mass of Gas 5 Billion Times Larger Than Solar System" Discovery Magazine "Map: X-Ray Vision Shows How a Galaxy Cluster Grows" (full page feature) |
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2005 Jul Three Satellites Needed to Discover One Shy Star
Volker Beckmann and colleagues have
discovered a "shy star"
(the neutron star IGR J16283-4838 in the Norma spirqal arm of the Galaxy),
using
INTEGRAL, RXTE and Swift observations.
This work resulted in
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2005 Mar New Image of Earth, Seen Through Gamma-Ray Eyes
Dirk Petry's
work on cosmic ray interactions in the
Earth's atmosphere is the subject of a
NASA's "Looking at Earth" Feature.
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2005 Jan Close to Black Holes' Edges, Scientists Make Two Discoveries
Jane Turner's
discovery of three hotspots orbiting the supermassive black hole
in Mrk 766 is the subject of a press release by
This release was picked up by several organisations worldwide.
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