Space & Time In the News ...
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First-ever photo proof of powerful jet emerging from colliding galaxies
Posted on Tuesday April 07, 2020 Researchers have reported the first detection of a relativistic on-axis jet emerging from two colliding galaxies -- the first photographic proof that merging galaxies can produce jets of fast-moving charged particles. Scientists had previously discovered that jets could be found in elliptical-shaped galaxies, which can be formed in the merging of two spiral galaxies. Now, they have an image showing the formation of a jet from two younger, spiral-shaped galaxies. Are gamma-ray bursts powered by a star's collapsing magnetic fields?
Posted on Tuesday April 07, 2020 In its final moments of life, a distant massive star releases an intense burst of high-energy gamma radiation - a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) - the brightest sources of energy in the universe, detectable to humans through powerful telescopes. Scientists have long been divided over what powers these extraordinary explosions. Now research suggests a dying star's collapsing magnetic field may hold the answers. What makes Saturn's atmosphere so hot
Posted on Monday April 06, 2020 New analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft found that electric currents, triggered by interactions between solar winds and charged particles from Saturn's moons, spark the auroras and heat the planet's upper atmosphere. The Milky Way's satellites help reveal link between dark matter halos and galaxy formation
Posted on Monday April 06, 2020 Just like we orbit the sun and the moon orbits us, the Milky Way has satellite galaxies with their own satellites. Drawing from data on those galactic neighbors, a new model suggests the Milky Way should have an additional 100 or so very faint satellite galaxies awaiting discovery. Sulfur 'spices' alien atmospheres
Posted on Monday April 06, 2020 They say variety is the spice of life, and now new discoveries suggest that a certain elemental 'variety' -- sulfur -- is indeed a 'spice' that can perhaps point to signs of life. Predicting in-flight air density for more accurate landing
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2020 Knowing the air density outside of a spacecraft can have a substantial effect on its angle of descent and ability to hit a specific landing spot. But sensors that can withstand the harsh hypersonic conditions are rare. Aerospace engineering researchers developed an algorithm that can run onboard a vehicle, providing important real-time data to aid in steering the craft, particularly during the crucial entry, descent, and landing stage. Discovery of life in solid rock deep beneath sea may inspire new search for life on Mars
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2020 Newly discovered single-celled creatures living deep beneath the seafloor have provided clues about how to find life on Mars. These bacteria were discovered living in tiny cracks inside volcanic rocks after researchers perfected a new method cutting rocks into ultrathin slices to study under a microscope. Researchers estimate that the rock cracks are home to a community of bacteria as dense as that of the human gut, about 10 billion bacterial cells per cubic centimeter. Discovery challenges nuclear theory
Posted on Wednesday April 01, 2020 A discovery by a team of nuclear physicists could change how atoms are understood by scientists and help explain extreme phenomena in outer space. Hubble finds best evidence for elusive mid-sized black hole
Posted on Tuesday March 31, 2020 Astronomers have found the best evidence for the perpetrator of a cosmic homicide: a black hole of an elusive class known as 'intermediate-mass,' which betrayed its existence by tearing apart a wayward star that passed too close. New global groundwater maps
Posted on Tuesday March 31, 2020 Researchers have developed new satellite-based, weekly global maps of soil moisture and groundwater wetness conditions. High altitude water Cherenkov Observatory tests speed of light
Posted on Tuesday March 31, 2020 New measurements confirm, to the highest energies yet explored, that the laws of physics hold no matter where you are or how fast you're moving. On Mars or Earth, biohybrid can turn carbon dioxide into new products
Posted on Tuesday March 31, 2020 Chemists have created a hybrid system of bacteria and nanowires that captures energy from sunlight and transfers it to the bacteria to turn carbon dioxide and water into organic molecules and oxygen. On Earth, such a biohybrid could remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. On Mars, it would provide colonists with raw material to manufacture organic compounds ranging from fuels to drugs. The efficiency is greater than the photosynthetic efficiency of most plants. Weighing in on the origin of heavy elements
Posted on Monday March 30, 2020 Nuclear physicists conducted a physics experiment that utilizes novel techniques to study the nature and origin of heavy elements in the universe. A Martian mash up: Meteorites tell story of Mars' water history
Posted on Monday March 30, 2020 Researchers probed Martian meteorites to reconstruct Mars' chaotic history. Their findings suggest that Mars might not have had a global magma ocean. ALMA resolves gas impacted by young jets from supermassive black hole
Posted on Friday March 27, 2020 Astronomers obtained the first resolved image of disturbed gaseous clouds in a galaxy 11 billion light-years away by using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The team found that the disruption is caused by young powerful jets ejected from a supermassive black hole residing at the center of the host galaxy. This result will cast light on the mystery of the evolutionary process of galaxies in the early Universe. Paired with super telescopes, model Earths guide hunt for life
Posted on Thursday March 26, 2020 Astronomers have created five models representing key points from our planet's evolution, like chemical snapshots through Earth's own geologic epochs. The models will be spectral templates for astronomers to use in the approaching new era of powerful telescopes, and in the hunt for Earth-like planets in distant solar systems. Looking for dark matter close to home
Posted on Thursday March 26, 2020 Eighty-five percent of the universe is composed of dark matter, but we don't know what, exactly, it is. Astronomers use slime mould to map the universe's largest structures
Posted on Thursday March 26, 2020 The behaviour of one of nature's humblest creatures and archival data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are helping astronomers probe the largest structures in the Universe. Holographic cosmological model and thermodynamics on the horizon of the universe
Posted on Thursday March 26, 2020 A holographic cosmological model with a power-law term has been proposed by a researcher to study thermodynamic properties on the horizon of the Universe. This model was found to satisfy the second law of thermodynamics. In addition, a relaxation-like process of the Universe was examined systematically to study maximization of the entropy on the horizon. Shining light on sleeping cataclysmic binaries
Posted on Wednesday March 25, 2020 Almost 35 years ago, scientists made the then-radical proposal that colossal hydrogen bombs called novae go through a very long-term life cycle after erupting, fading to obscurity for hundreds of thousands of years and then building up to become full-fledged novae once more. A new study confirms that the novae we observe flashing throughout the universe represent just a few percent of these cataclysmic variables, as they are known, with the rest ''hiding'' in hibernation. New 3D view of methane tracks sources
Posted on Monday March 23, 2020 NASA's new 3-dimensional portrait of methane concentrations shows the world's second largest contributor to greenhouse warming. Star formation project maps nearby interstellar clouds
Posted on Monday March 23, 2020 Astronomers have captured new, detailed maps of three nearby interstellar gas clouds containing regions of ongoing high-mass star formation. The results of this survey, called the Star Formation Project, will help improve our understanding of the star formation process. Expanding universe: We may be in a vast bubble
Posted on Friday March 20, 2020 The few thousand galaxies closest to us move in a vast 'bubble' that is 250 million light years in diameter, where the average density of matter is half as large as for the rest of the universe. This is the hypothesis put forward by a theoretical physicist to solve a conundrum that has been splitting the scientific community for a decade: at what speed is the universe expanding? The strange orbits of 'Tatooine' planetary disks
Posted on Thursday March 19, 2020 Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments. Black hole team discovers path to razor-sharp black hole images
Posted on Wednesday March 18, 2020 A team of researchers have published new calculations that predict a striking and intricate substructure within black hole images from extreme gravitational light bending. New telescope design could capture distant celestial objects with unprecedented detail
Posted on Wednesday March 18, 2020 Researchers have designed a new camera that could allow hypertelescopes to image multiple stars at once. The enhanced telescope design holds the potential to obtain extremely high-resolution images of objects outside our solar system, such as planets, pulsars, globular clusters and distant galaxies. Precision mirrors poised to improve sensitivity of gravitational wave detectors
Posted on Wednesday March 18, 2020 Deformable mirrors, which are used to shape and control laser light, have a surface made of tiny mirrors that can each be moved, or actuated, to change the overall shape of the mirror. S have, for the first time, made a deformable mirror based on the bimetallic effect in which a temperature change is used to achieve mechanical displacement. Frozen-planet states in exotic helium atoms
Posted on Wednesday March 18, 2020 Scientists describe the configuration and energy levels of antiprotonic helium that can potentially be produced by colliding slow antiprotons with ordinary helium at CERN. On the origin of massive stars
Posted on Wednesday March 18, 2020 A scene of stellar creation, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, sits near the outskirts of the famous Tarantula Nebula. This cloud of gas and dust, as well as the many young and massive stars surrounding it, is the perfect laboratory to study the origin of massive stars. Scientists discover pulsating remains of a star in an eclipsing double star system
Posted on Monday March 16, 2020 Scientists have discovered a pulsating ancient star in a double star system, which will allow them to access important information on the history of how stars like our Sun evolve and eventually die. Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field
Posted on Sunday March 15, 2020 A trio of studies are the latest developments in a paradigm shift that could change how Earth history is understood. They support an assertion by a geophysicist that a once-liquid portion of the lower mantle, rather than the core, could have exceeded the thresholds needed to create Earth's magnetic field during its early history. Mercury's scorching daytime heat may help it make its own ice at caps
Posted on Friday March 13, 2020 Despite Mercury's 400-degree Celsius daytime heat, there is ice at its caps. And now a study shows how that Vulcan scorch probably helps the planet closest to the sun make some of that ice. What can you do with spiral graph? Help understand how galaxies evolve
Posted on Friday March 13, 2020 Researchers have developed a technique to accurately measure the winding arms of spiral galaxies that is so easy, virtually anyone can participate. This new and simple method is currently being applied in a citizen science project, called Spiral Graph, that takes advantage of a person's innate ability to recognize patterns, and ultimately could provide researchers with some insight into how galaxies evolve. New minor planets found beyond Neptune
Posted on Wednesday March 11, 2020 Using data from the Dark Energy Survey, researchers have found and cataloged more than 300 minor planets beyond Neptune, including more than 100 new discoveries. This updated catalog of trans-Neptunian objects, and the methods used to find them, could aid in future searches for undiscovered planets in the far reaches of the solar system. Exoplanet where it rains iron discovered
Posted on Wednesday March 11, 2020 Researchers have observed an extreme planet where they suspect it rains iron. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 2400 degrees Celsius, high enough to vaporize metals. Strong winds carry iron vapor to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets. Scientists find Earth and moon not identical oxygen twins
Posted on Tuesday March 10, 2020 Scientists have found that the Earth and moon have distinct oxygen compositions and are not identical in oxygen as previously thought according to a new study. Astronomers use slime mold model to reveal dark threads of the cosmic web
Posted on Tuesday March 10, 2020 A computational approach inspired by the growth patterns of a bright yellow slime mold has enabled a team of astronomers and computer scientists to trace the filaments of the cosmic web that connects galaxies throughout the universe. 'Axion' particle solves three mysteries of the universe
Posted on Tuesday March 10, 2020 A hypothetical particle called the axion could solve one of physics' great mysteries: the excess of matter over antimatter, or why we're here at all. Discovery points to origin of mysterious ultraviolet radiation
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) are gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas that produce a special type of ultraviolet light known as Lyman-alpha emission. An extremely powerful energy source must produce this radiation, but scientists debate what that energy source is. A study of Lyman-alpha blob 6 (LAB-6) is the first LAB with strong evidence of an infalling gas feature. The findings suggest that star-forming galaxies are likely the primary energy source of Lyman-alpha radiation emitted from LAB-6. Ancient shell shows days were half-hour shorter 70 million years ago
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Earth turned faster at the end of the time of the dinosaurs than it does today, rotating 372 times a year, compared to the current 365, according to a new study of fossil mollusk shells from the late Cretaceous. The new measurement informs models of how the Moon formed and how close to Earth it has been over the 4.5-billion-year history of the Earth-Moon gravitational dance. Astronomers pinpoint rare binary brown dwarf
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Astronomers working on 'first light' results from a newly commissioned telescope in Chile made a chance discovery that led to the identification of a rare eclipsing binary brown dwarf system. 'Strange' glimpse into neutron stars and symmetry violation
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 New results from precision particle detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) offer a fresh glimpse of the particle interactions that take place in the cores of neutron stars and give nuclear physicists a new way to search for violations of fundamental symmetries in the universe. Turbulent convection at the heart of stellar activity
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Different stars can exhibit different levels of activity. The Sun's signs of solar activity are rather feeble on an astronomical scale. Other stars are up to ten times more active. While researchers have identified the magnetic fields generated in the interior of stars in a dynamo process as drivers of activity, the exact workings of this dynamo are unclear. Scientists now find that a common, turbulence-dependent dynamo mechanism plays a crucial role for stellar activity in all stages of stellar evolution. New type of pulsating star discovered
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Two research teams searching NASA's TESS Explorer data found an unusual star. Pooling their resources they discovered a binary star that pulsates on one side - the first such stellar object discovered. Safety zone saves giant moons from fatal plunge
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Numerical simulations showed that the temperature gradient in the disk of gas around a young gas giant planet could play a critical role in the development of a satellite system dominated by a single large moon, similar to Titan around Saturn. Researchers found that dust in the circumplanetary disk can create a 'safety zone,' which keeps the moon from falling into the planet as the system evolves. Producing human tissue in space
Posted on Monday March 09, 2020 Scientists have sent adult human stem cells to the International Space Station (ISS). Researchers will explore the production of human tissue in weightlessness. Cosmic impact caused destruction of one of world's earliest human settlements
Posted on Friday March 06, 2020 Before the Taqba Dam impounded the Euphrates River in northern Syria in the 1970s, an archaeological site named Abu Hureyra bore witness to the moment ancient nomadic people first settled down and started cultivating crops. A large mound marks the settlement, which now lies under Lake Assad. Pioneering user facility to add magic number factory
Posted on Friday March 06, 2020 A forthcoming N = 126 Factory will investigate one of the great questions in physics and chemistry: how were the heavy elements from iron to uranium created? Dimming Betelgeuse likely isn't cold, just dusty
Posted on Friday March 06, 2020 Scientists report that the average surface temperature of Betelgeuse, calculated using observations taken Feb. 14, 2020, is significantly warmer than expected if its recent dimming had been triggered by a cooling of the star's surface. Their calculations lend support to the theory that Betelgeuse has instead likely sloughed off some material from its outer layers. ALMA spots metamorphosing aged star
Posted on Thursday March 05, 2020 An international team of astronomers has captured the very moment when an old star first starts to alter its environment. The star has ejected high-speed bipolar gas jets which are now colliding with the surrounding material; the age of the observed jet is estimated to be less than 60 years. These features help scientists understand how the complex shapes of planetary nebulae are formed. Is life a game of chance?
Posted on Thursday March 05, 2020 To help answer one of the great existential questions -- how did life begin? -- a new study combines biological and cosmological models. A professor looked at how life's building blocks could spontaneously form in the universe -- a process known as abiogenesis. Impact of satellite constellations on astronomical observations
Posted on Thursday March 05, 2020 Astronomers have recently raised concerns about the impact of satellite mega-constellations on scientific research. To better understand the effect these constellations could have on astronomical observations, ESO commissioned a scientific study of their impact, focusing on observations with ESO telescopes in the visible and infrared but also considering other observatories. Organic molecules discovered by Curiosity Rover consistent with early life on Mars
Posted on Thursday March 05, 2020 Organic compounds called thiophenes are found on Earth in coal, crude oil and oddly enough, in white truffles, the mushroom beloved by epicureans and wild pigs. Thiophenes were also recently discovered on Mars, and astrobiologists think their presence would be consistent with the presence of early life on Mars. This study explores some of the possible pathways for thiophenes' origins on the red planet. Scientists shed light on mystery of dark matter
Posted on Tuesday March 03, 2020 Nuclear physicists are putting forward a new candidate for dark matter -- a particle they recently discovered called the d-star hexaquark. New telescope observations shed new light on black hole ejections
Posted on Tuesday March 03, 2020 A black hole, ejecting material at close to the speed of light, has been observed using e-MERLIN, the UK's radio telescope array. What if mysterious 'cotton candy' planets actually sport rings?
Posted on Monday March 02, 2020 Some of the extremely low-density, 'cotton candy like' exoplanets called super-puffs may actually have rings, according to new research. Space weather model gives earlier warning of satellite-killing radiation storms
Posted on Monday March 02, 2020 A new machine-learning computer model accurately predicts damaging radiation storms caused by the Van Allen belts two days prior to the storm, the most advanced notice to date, according to a new article. Life on Titan cannot rely on cell membranes, according to computational simulations
Posted on Monday March 02, 2020 Researchers have made a new contribution to the ongoing search into the possibility of life on Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Using quantum mechanical calculations, they have shown that azotosomes, a proposed alternative to cell membranes, could not form under the conditions there. Two stars merged to form massive white dwarf
Posted on Monday March 02, 2020 A massive white dwarf star with a bizarre carbon-rich atmosphere could be two white dwarfs merged together, and only narrowly avoided destruction. Scientists seize rare chance to watch faraway star system evolve
Posted on Monday March 02, 2020 Findings suggest that the planet DS Tuc Ab -- which orbits a star in a binary system -- formed without being heavily impacted by the gravitational pull of the second star. |
