Planetary Geophysics: What is it? What can it teach us about finding life beyond Earth? Universe Today has examined the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, and planetary atmospheres, and how these intriguing scientific disciplines can help scientists and the public better understand how we are pursuing life beyond Earth. Here, we will look inward and examine the role that planetary geophysics plays in helping scientists gain greater insight into our solar system and beyond, including the benefits and challenges, finding life beyond Earth, and how upcoming students can pursue studying planetary geophysics. So, what is planetary geophysics andRead More →

Webb Finds Hints of a Third Planet at PDS 70 The exoplanet census now stands at 5,599 confirmed discoveries in 4,163 star systems, with another 10,157 candidates awaiting confirmation. So far, the vast majority of these have been detected using indirect methods, including Transit Photometry (74.4%) and Radial Velocity measurements (19.4%). Only nineteen (or 1.2%) were detected via Direct Imaging, a method where light reflected from an exoplanet’s atmosphere or surface is used to detect and characterize it. Thanks to the latest generation of high-contrast and high-angular resolution instruments, this is starting to change. This includes the James Webb Space Telescope and its sophisticated mirrorsRead More →

This New Map of 1.3 Million Quasars Is A Powerful Tool Quasars are the brightest objects in the Universe. The most powerful ones are thousands of times more luminous than entire galaxies. They’re the visible part of a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of a galaxy. The intense light comes from gas drawn toward the black hole, emitting light across several wavelengths as it heats up. But quasars are more than just bright ancient objects. They have something important to show us about the dark matter. Large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers. Even those only casually familiar with space knowRead More →

Improving a 1960s Plan to Explore the Giant Planets In the 1960s, NASA engineers developed a series of small lifting-body aircraft that could be dropped into the atmosphere of a giant planet, measuring the environment as they glided down. Although it would be a one-way trip to destruction, the form factor would allow a probe to glide around in different atmospheric layers, gathering data and transmitting it back to a parent satellite. An updated version of the 1960s design is being tested at NASA now, and a drop-test flight from a helicopter is scheduled for this month. “We are looking to take an idea toRead More →

Finally, an Explanation for the “String of Pearls” in Supernova 1987A Not long after the explosion of Supernova 1987a, astronomers were abuzz with predictions about how it might look in a few years. They suggested a pulsar would show up soon and many said that the expanding gas cloud would encounter earlier material ejected from the star. The collision would light up the region around the event and sparkle like diamonds. Today, astronomers look at the site of the stellar catastrophe and see an expanding, glowing ring of light. Over the years, its shape has changed to a clumpy-looking string of pearls. What’s happening toRead More →

Hubble views dwarf galaxy LEDA 4216 This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows LEDA 42160, a galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The dwarf galaxy is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the massive Virgo cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

The cosmic neutrino background would tell us plenty about the universe, says researcher Readers of Universe Today are probably already familiar with the concept of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Its serendipitous discovery by a pair of radio astronomers at Bell Labs is the stuff of astronomical legend. Over the past decades, it has offered plenty of insights into the Big Bang and the origins of our universe. But there is another, less well-known background signal that could be just as revolutionary—or at least we think there is. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA is Working on Zero-Boil Off Tanks for Space Exploration No matter what mode of transportation you take for a long trip, at some point, you’ll have to refuel. For cars, this could be a simple trip to a gas station, while planes, trains, and ships have more specialized refueling services at their depots or ports. However, for spacecraft, there is currently no refueling infrastructure whatsoever. And since the fuel spacecraft use must be stored cryogenically, and the tanks the fuel is stored in are constantly subjected to the thermal radiation from the Sun, keeping enough fuel in a tank for a trip to MarsRead More →

Largest-ever map of universe’s active supermassive black holes released Astronomers have charted the largest-ever volume of the universe with a new map of active supermassive black holes living at the centers of galaxies. Called quasars, the gas-gobbling black holes are, ironically, some of the universe’s brightest objects. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA volunteers find 15 rare ‘active asteroids’ Some extraordinary asteroids have “activity”—comet-like tails or envelopes of gas and dust. NASA’s Active Asteroids project announced the discovery of activity on 15 asteroids, challenging conventional wisdom about the solar system. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

JWST observations shed more light on the nature of a distant galaxy cluster Astronomers from the Nanjing University in China and elsewhere have performed high-resolution observations of a distant galaxy cluster known as CL J1001+0220 using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The observational campaign, described in a paper published March 8 on the preprint server arXiv, yields important information regarding the nature of this cluster. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Webb Reveals Secrets of Neptune’s Evolution A twinset of icy asteroids called Mors-Somnus is giving planetary scientists some clues about the origin and evolution of objects in the Kuiper Belt. JWST studied them during its first cycle of observations and revealed details about their surfaces, which gives hints at their origins. That information may also end up explaining how Neptune got to be the way it is today. The Mors-Somnus binary is part of a collection of objects beyond Neptune. They’re called, aptly enough, “Trans-Neptunian Objects” or TNOs, for short. About 3,000 are numbered and known, and many more aren’t yet surveyed. They all lieRead More →

Little Red Dots in Webb Photos Turned Out to Be Quasars In its first year of operation, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) made some profound discoveries. These included providing the sharpest views of iconic cosmic structures (like the Pillars of Creation), transmission spectra from exoplanet atmospheres, and breathtaking views of Jupiter, its largest moons, Saturn’s rings, its largest moon Titan, and Enceladus’ plumes. But Webb also made an unexpected find during its first year of observation that may prove to be a breakthrough: a series of little red dots in a tiny region of the night sky. These little red dots were observed asRead More →

The Maximum Mass of a Neutron Star is 2.25 Solar Masses When stars grow old and die, their mass determines their ultimate fate. Many supermassive stars have futures as neutron stars. But, the question is, how massive can their neutron stars get? That’s one that Professor Fan Yizhong and his team at Purple Mountain Observatory in China set out to answer. It turns out that a non-rotating neutron star can’t be much more than 2.25 solar masses. If it was more massive, it would face a much more dire fate: to become a black hole. To figure this out, the team at Purple Mountain lookedRead More →

Could Earth Life Survive on a Red Dwarf Planet? Even though exoplanet science has advanced significantly in the last decade or two, we’re still in an unfortunate situation. Scientists can only make educated guesses about which exoplanets may be habitable. Even the closest exoplanet is four light-years away, and though four is a small integer, the distance is enormous. That doesn’t stop scientists from trying to piece things together, though. One of the most consequential questions in exoplanet science and habitability concerns red dwarfs. Red dwarfs are plentiful, and research shows that they host multitudes of planets. While gas giants like Jupiter are comparatively rareRead More →

Webb Continues to Confirm That Universe is Behaving Strangely Over a century ago, astronomers Edwin Hubble and Georges Lemaitre independently discovered that the Universe was expanding. Since then, scientists have attempted to measure the rate of expansion (known as the Hubble-Lemaitre Constant) to determine the origin, age, and ultimate fate of the Universe. This has proved very daunting, as ground-based telescopes yielded huge uncertainties, leading to age estimates of anywhere between 10 and 20 billion years! This disparity between these measurements, produced by different techniques, gave rise to what is known as the Hubble Tension. It was hoped that the aptly named Hubble Space TelescopeRead More →

NASA is Fixing its Link to Voyager 1 Voyagers 1 and 2 were, to put it simply, incredible. They were true explorers and unveiled many mysteries of the outer Solar System, revealing the outer planets in all their glory. Communication with Voyager 1 has until recently been possible, slow but possible. More recently however, it has been sending home garbled data rendering communication to all intents impossible although messages can still be sent. Engineers at NASA have narrowed the problem down to an onboard computer, the Flight Data System (FDS). A dump of the entire memory of the FDS has now been received so thatRead More →

The Cosmic Neutrino Background Would Tell Us Plenty About the Universe Readers of Universe Today are probably already familiar with the concept of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Its serendipitous discovery by a pair of radio astronomers at Bell Labs is the stuff of astronomical legend. Over the past decades, it has offered plenty of insights into the Big Bang and the origins of our universe. But there is another, less well-known background signal that could be just as revolutionary – or at least we think there is. The Cosmic Neutrino Background (CvB) has been posited for years but has yet to be found, primarilyRead More →

Mars Was Hiding Another Giant Volcano Olympus Mons is well known for being the largest volcano in the Solar System. It’s joined on Mars by three other shield volcanoes; Ascraeus, Pavonis and Arsia but a recent discovery has revealed a fifth. Provisionally called Noctis volcano, this previously unknown Martian feature reaches 9,022 metres high and 450 kilometres across. Its presence has eluded planetary scientists because it has been heavily eroded and is on the boundary of the fractured maze-like terrain of Noctis Labyrinthus.  Mars seems to like shield volcanoes. They are a type of volcano that have a broad gently sloping profile and are generallyRead More →

Einasto Supercluster: The new heavyweight contender in the universe An international team of scientists led by astronomers from Tartu Observatory of the University of Tartu has discovered many superclusters in the universe, with the most prominent among them named the ‘Einasto Supercluster’ in honor of Prof. Jaan Einasto, a pioneering figure in the field, who celebrated his 95th birthday on 23 February. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →