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UrduLiquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question.
Tag: Astronomy
NASA’s Webb to Uncover Riches of the Early Universe
Telescopes have spotted many distant galaxies – but none earlier than 400 million years after the big bang. What were galaxies that existed even earlier like? Two research teams using the James Webb Space Telescope will wield its state-of-the-art instruments to reveal an untold number of details about this early period in the universe for the first time – and revise what we know about some of the earliest chapters of galaxy evolution.
Dead Star Caught Ripping Up Planetary System
A star’s death throes have so violently disrupted its planetary system that the dead star left behind, called a white dwarf, is siphoning off debris from both the system’s inner and outer reaches. This is the first time astronomers have observed a white dwarf star that is consuming both rocky-metallic and icy material, the ingredients of planets.
Black Hole Activity Not Evolving in Central Cluster Galaxies
University of Kentucky postdoc presents important new findings about black holes and their host galaxies at American Astronomical Society meeting
Astronomers May Have Detected a ‘Dark’ Free-Floating Black Hole
If, as astronomers believe, the death of large stars leave behind black holes, there should be hundreds of millions of them scattered throughout the Milky Way galaxy. The problem is, isolated black holes are invisible.
Johns Hopkins Astronomers To Discuss New Satellite Galaxy Simulation
With a new simulation that shows how satellite galaxies orbit bigger galaxies like the Milky Way, Johns Hopkins University researchers have reconciled long-dueling visions of what astronomers actually see using telescopes and what theorists have predicted they should see.
Science Results From NRAO Facilities to Be Presented at Multiple AAS 240 Press Conferences
Seven new scientific results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) will be revealed at multiple press conferences during the 240th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) between June 13-15, 2022 in Pasadena, California.
New Clues about How Hot Jupiters Form
Since the first hot Jupiter was discovered in 1995, astronomers have been trying to figure out how the searing-hot exoplanets formed and arrived in their extreme orbits. Johns Hopkins University astronomers have found a way to determine the relative age of hot Jupiters using new measurements from the Gaia spacecraft, which is tracking over a billion stars.
Rapid-fire fast radio burst shows hot space between galaxies
A recently discovered, rare and persistent rapid-fire fast radio burst source – sending out an occasional and informative cosmic ping from more than 3.5 billion light years away – helps to reveal the secrets of the broiling hot space between the galaxies. That’s according to an international team of astronomers who published their findings in the journal Nature.
UCI-led astronomy team finds evidence of galactic metal shrouded in dust
A thorough understanding of galaxy evolution depends in part on an accurate measurement of the abundance of metals in the intergalactic medium – the space between stars – but dust can impede observations in optical wavelengths.
Planets of Binary Stars as Possible Homes for Alien Life
Nearly half of Sun-size stars are binary. According to University of Copenhagen research, planetary systems around binary stars may be very different from those around single stars. This points to new targets in the search for extraterrestrial life forms.
Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes
Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb’s surface in hot lava.
Researchers Use Galaxy as a ‘Cosmic Telescope’ to Study Heart of the Young Universe
A unique new instrument, coupled with a powerful telescope and a little help from nature, has given researchers the ability to peer into galactic nurseries at the heart of the young universe.
Search reveals eight new sources of black hole echoes
Scattered across our Milky Way galaxy are tens of millions of black holes —immensely strong gravitational wells of spacetime, from which infalling matter, and even light, can never escape. Black holes are dark by definition, except on the rare occasions when they feed.
NAU scientist joins extended OSIRIS-REx mission to visit another asteroid
Because of the potential to deepen our understanding of the solar system and beyond, NASA this week extended the missions of eight of its spacecraft, including OSIRIS-REx—and NAU planetary geologist Chris Haberle will be one of the scientists involved in the newly extended project.
Discovery of 30 exocomets in a young planetary system
For the past thirty years, the star β Pictoris has fascinated astronomers because it enables them to observe a planetary system in the process of formation.
Researchers use muonic x-rays to find elemental makeup of samples without damaging them
By combining technologies originally designed for high-energy particle accelerators and astronomy observations, researchers can now for the first time analyze the elemental makeup of samples without damaging them, which could be useful for researchers working in other fields such as archaeology, reports a new study in Scientific Reports.
Astronomers discover new type of stellar explosion called micronovae
Astronomers have discovered a new kind of stellar explosion that could be commonplace in the universe and may change our understanding of how eruptions in stars occur.
Astronomers Closer to Unlocking Origin of Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts
Nearly 15 years after the discovery of fast radio bursts (FRBs), the origin of the millisecond-long, deep-space cosmic explosions remains a mystery. That may soon change, thanks to the work of an international team of scientists – including UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang – which tracked hundreds of the bursts from five different sources and found clues in FRB polarization patterns that may reveal their origin.
Simulations provide clue to missing planets mystery
Forming planets are one possible explanation for the rings and gaps observed in disks of gas and dust around young stars.
Near-earth asteroid might be a lost fragment of the moon
A near-Earth asteroid named Kamo`oalewa could be a fragment of our moon, according to a new paper published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment by a team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona.
Tread lightly: ‘Eggshell planets’ possible around other stars
Strange ‘eggshell planets’ are among the rich variety of exoplanets possible, according to a study from Washington University in St. Louis. These rocky worlds have an ultra-thin outer brittle layer and little to no topography. Such worlds are unlikely to have plate tectonics, raising questions as to their habitability.
Gamma ray discovery could advance understanding of UFOs’ role in the evolution of galaxies
Researchers detected gamma rays from ultra-fast outflows (UFOs) in several nearby galaxies for the first time, providing a basis for scientists to understand what happened in our own Milky Way galaxy.
ALMA Scientists Detect Signs of Water in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Scientists studying SPT0311-58 found H20, along with carbon monoxide in the galaxy, which is located nearly 12.88 billion light years from Earth. Detection of these two molecules in abundance suggests that the molecular Universe was going strong shortly after the elements were forged in early stars.
A Cosmic Whodunit: ALMA Study Confirms What’s Robbing Galaxies of Their Star-Forming Gas
Astronomers examining the nearby Universe with the help of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have just completed the largest high-resolution survey of star-forming fuel ever conducted in galaxy clusters. But more importantly, they’re tackling a long-standing mystery in astrophysics: what’s killing galaxies? The research, which provides the clearest evidence to date that extreme environments in space have severe impacts on the galaxies within them, will be published in an upcoming edition of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series.
New galaxy images reveal a fitful start to the Universe
New images have revealed detailed clues about how the first stars and structures were formed in the Universe and suggest the formation of the Galaxy got off to a fitful start.
Need for Larger Space Telescope Inspires Lightweight Flexible Holographic Lens
Inspired by a concept for discovering exoplanets with a giant space telescope, a team of researchers is developing holographic lenses that render visible and infrared starlight into either a focused image or a spectrum.
New Receivers Achieve First Light, Set Record for Observational Capabilities at ALMA
A new set of receivers installed on antennas at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have achieved first light. With it, they set a new record for the longest wavelengths visible with the radio array.
How disorderly young galaxies grow up and mature
Using a supercomputer simulation, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in following the development of a galaxy over a span of 13.8 billion years.
New class of habitable exoplanets represent a big step forward in the search for life
A new class of exoplanet very different to our own, but which could support life, has been identified by astronomers, which could greatly accelerate the search for life outside our Solar System.
Unveiling a century-old mystery: Where the Milky Way’s cosmic rays come from
Astronomers have succeeded for the first time in quantifying the proton and electron components of cosmic rays in a supernova remnant.
Astronomers Uncover Briefest Supernova-Powered Gamma-Ray Burst
Astronomers have discovered the shortest-ever gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the implosion of a massive star. Using the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, astronomers identified the cause of this 0.6-second flurry of gamma rays as a supernova explosion in a distant galaxy. GRBs caused by supernovae are usually more than twice as long, which suggests that some short GRBs might actually be imposters — supernova-produced GRBs in disguise.
Spotted: An exoplanet with the potential to form moons
Cambridge, MA ¬- Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have helped detect the clear presence of a moon-forming region around an exoplanet — a planet outside of our Solar System. The new observations, published Thursday in…
InSight mission: Mars unveiled
Using information obtained from around a dozen earthquakes detected on Mars by the Very Broad Band SEIS seismometer, developed in France, the international team of NASA’s InSight mission has unveiled the internal structure of Mars. The three papers published on…
A large tidal stream observed in the Sombrero galaxy
According to the latest cosmological models, large spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way grew by absorbing smaller galaxies, by a sort of galactic cannibalism. Evidence for this is given by very large structures, the tidal stellar streams, which are…
New Method Predicts ‘Stealth’ Solar Storms Before They Wreak Geomagnetic Havoc on Earth
On 23 July 2012, humanity escaped technological and economic disaster. A diffuse cloud of magnetized plasma in the shape of a slinky toy tens of thousands of kilometers across was hurled from the Sun at a speed of hundreds of kilometers per second.
New method predicts ‘stealth’ solar storms before they wreak geomagnetic havoc on Earth
For the first time, stealth coronal mass ejections can be detected before they wreak havoc on Earth without the need for dedicated spacecraft
Long-period oscillations of the Sun discovered
Ten years of data from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory combined with numerical models reveal the deep low musical notes of the Sun.
From the Sun to the stars
A journey of exoplanet discovery begins as Penn State’s NEID spectrometer starts its scientific mission
The origin of bifurcated current sheets explained
A Korean research team has identified the origin of bifurcated current sheets, considered one of the most unsolved mysteries in the Earth’s magnetosphere and in magnetized plasma physics. A POSTECH joint research team led by Professor Gunsu S. Yun of…
NASA returns Hubble Space Telescope to science operations
NASA has returned the science instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope to operational status, and the collection of science data will now resume. This will be the first science data collected since the payload computer experienced a problem on June…
Cosmic rays help supernovae explosions pack a bigger punch
The final stage of cataclysmic explosions of dying massive stars, called supernovae, could pack an up to six times bigger punch on the surrounding interstellar gas with the help of cosmic rays, according to a new study led by researchers…
RAS launches new multi-disciplinary journal
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is pleased to announce the launch of its first new journal in almost 100 years. Tentatively titled RAS Techniques and Instruments , it will cover topics in astronomy and geophysics ranging from instrumentation, data science,…
Tail without a comet: the dusty remains of Comet ATLAS
A serendipitous flythrough of the tail of a disintegrated comet has offered scientists a unique opportunity to study these remarkable structures, in new research presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021. Comet ATLAS fragmented just before its closest approach…
Researchers Reveal Cause of Jupiter’s X-Ray Aurorae
An international research team led by YAO Zhonghua from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) has explained the cause of Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for 40 years.
Researchers reveal cause of Jupiter’s x-ray aurorae
An international research team led by YAO Zhonghua from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) has explained the cause of Jupiter’s X-ray aurorae, a mystery that has puzzled scientists for 40 years. The…
National Astronomy Meeting 2021: Media invitation
Around 850 astronomers and space scientists will gather online from 19 – 23 July, for the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting 2021 (NAM 2021) hosted by the University of Bath. Postponed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the…
A star in a distant galaxy blew up in a powerful explosion, solving an astronomical mystery
Giant explosion in space illuminates thousand-year mystery
CUR Physics and Astronomy Division Announces 2021 Outstanding Research Mentor Awardee
The Physics and Astronomy Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research announces the 2021 recipient of its Outstanding Research Mentor award: Thomas Pannuti (Morehead State University).
Galactic gamma ray bursts predicted last year show up right on schedule
Sherlock Holmes story gives clue to successful prediction of bursts from nearby magnetar