Astronomers discover a rare eclipsing X-ray binary An international team of astronomers reports the detection of a rare eclipsing Be/X-ray binary system as part of the Swift Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) Survey (S-CUBED). The finding was detailed in a research paper published March 12 on the preprint server arXiv. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Citizen Scientists Find Fifteen “Active Asteroids” Nature often defies our simple explanations. Take comets and asteroids, for example. Comets are icy and have tails; asteroids are rocky and don’t have tails. But it might not be quite so simple, according to new research. That nice, clean definition took a hit in 1996 when a pair of astronomers discovered that what was thought to be a main-belt comet was actually an asteroid. The object is named 7968 Elst–Pizarro after the two scientists. It displayed a comet-like dust tail at perihelion. These images from the La Silla Observatory show the active asteroid 7968 Elst–Pizarro. Its tail isRead More →

Astronomers Find the Most Massive Supercluster to Date The Earth’s place in space is a fairly familiar one with it orbiting an average star. The star – our Sun – orbits the centre of our Galaxy the Milky Way. From here onwards, the story is less well known. The Milky Way is part of a large structure called the Laniakea Supercluster which is 250 million light years across! That really is a whacking great area of space and it contains at least 100,000 galaxies. There are larger superclusters though like the newly discovered Einasto Supercluster which measures an incredible 360 million light years across andRead More →

One Impact on Mars Produced More than Two Billion Secondary Craters There are plenty of craters on Mars, especially when compared to Earth. That is primarily thanks to the lack of weathering forces and strong plate tectonics that disrupt the formations of such impacts on our home planet. However, not all impact craters on Mars are directly caused by asteroid impacts. Many of them are caused by the ejecta from an asteroid impact falling back to the planet. One recent study showed how impactful this can be – it concludes that a single large impact crater on Mars created over two billion other smaller cratersRead More →

Gravity From Mars has an Effect on Earth’s Oceans We are all too familiar of the Moon’s effect on our planet. It’s relentless tug causes our tides but even Mars, which is always at least 55 million kilometres away, can have a subtle effect too. A study has revealed a 2.4 million year cycle in the geological records that show the gentle warming and cooling of our oceans. The records match the interactions between the orbits of Earth and Mars over the longest timescales. These are known as the ‘astronomical grand cycles’ but to date, not much evidence has been found.  The rhythmical rising andRead More →

Earth’s Long-Term Habitability Relies on Chemical Cycles. How Can We Better Understand Them? We, and all other complex life, require stability to evolve. Planetary conditions needed to be benign and long-lived for creatures like us and our multicellular brethren to appear and to persist. On Earth, chemical cycling provides much of the needed stability. Chemical cycling between the land, atmosphere, lifeforms, and oceans is enormously complex and difficult to study. Typically, researchers try to isolate one cycle and study it. However, new research is examining Earth’s chemical cycling more holistically to try to understand how the planet has stayed in the ‘sweet spot’ for soRead More →

Astrophysicist explains science behind once-in-a-lifetime nova outburst that will light up the sky this year The total solar eclipse isn’t the only reason to keep your eyes to the sky this year. For the first time in 80 years, a star system 3,000 light years away will be visible to the naked eye thanks to a once-in-a-lifetime nova outburst. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA’s Swift temporarily suspends science operations On March 15, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory entered into safe mode, temporarily suspending science operations due to degrading performance from one of its three gyroscopes (gyros), which are used to point the observatory for making observations. The rest of the spacecraft remains in good health. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

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 →