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New Study Provides Explanation for Pluto’s Giant Blades of Ice When it made its historic flyby of Pluto in July of 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft gave scientists and the general public the first clear picture of what this distant planetoid looks like. In addition to providing breathtaking images of Pluto’s “heart”, its frozen plains, and mountain chains, one of the more interesting features it detected was Pluto’s mysterious “bladed terrain”. According to data obtained by New Horizons, these features are made almost entirely out of methane ice and resemble giant blades. At the time of their discovery, what caused these features remained unknown. ButRead More →

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For decades, astronomers have tried to pin down why two of the most common types of active galaxies, known as Type I and Type II galaxies, appear different when observed from Earth. Although both galaxy types host voracious supermassive black holes known as active galactic nuclei, which actively swallow matter and emit massive amounts of radiation, Type I galaxies appear brighter to astronomers’ telescopes. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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In August, detectors on two continents recorded gravitational wave signals from a pair of black holes colliding. This discovery, announced today, is the first observation of gravitational waves by three different detectors, marking a new era of greater insights and improved localization of cosmic events now available through globally networked gravitational-wave observatories. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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The latest iteration of the Cherenkov Telescope Array’s (CTA’s) science case, Science with the Cherenkov Telescope Array, was made available today via the CTA website library (www.cta-observatory.org/science/library/) and arXiv (1709.07997) and will be published in a special edition of the International Journal of Modern Physics D in the coming weeks. The work includes more than 200 pages that introduce and elaborate on CTA’s major science themes and place CTA in the context of other major observatories. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula The spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, emerges from the darkness like a series of oddly-shaped bubbles, lit up in glorious pinks and blues. This colourful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which mapped the dust inside a planetary nebula for the first time. The map — which reveals a wealth of intricate structures in the dust, including shells, a halo and a curious wave-like feature — will help astronomers understand how planetary nebulae develop their strange shapes and symmetries. ESO NewsRead More →

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There are hundreds of billions of stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Estimates indicate a similar number of galaxies in the observable universe, each with its own large assemblage of stars, many with their own planetary systems. Beyond and between these stars and galaxies are all manner of matter in various phases, such as gas and dust. Another form of matter, dark matter, exists in a very different and mysterious form, announcing its presence indirectly only through its gravitational effects. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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New Study Could Help Locate Subsurface Deposits of Water Ice on Mars It is a well-known fact that today, Mars is a very cold and dry place. Whereas the planet once had a thicker atmosphere that allowed for warmer temperatures and liquid water on its surface, the vast majority of water there today consists of ice that is located in the polar regions. But for some time, scientists have speculated that there may be plenty of water in subsurface ice deposits. If true, this water could be accessed by future crewed missions and even colonization efforts, serving as a source of rocket fuel and drinkingRead More →

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Newly Discovered Star Cluster Analyzed by Gaia Probe In 2013, the European Space Agency (ESA) deployed the Gaia mission, a space observatory designed to measure the positions of movements of celestial bodies. For the past four years, Gaia has been studying distant stars, planets, comets, asteroids, quasars and other astronomical objects, and the data it has acquired will be used to construct the largest and most precise 3D space catalog ever made, totaling 1 billion objects. Using data provided by Gaia, a team of international scientists conducted a study of the recently-discovered star cluster known as Gaia 1. Located about 15,000 light years from Earth andRead More →

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An international team of scientists from the Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), the Towson and Pittsburgh Universities (USA) and the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, has shed new light on the origins of the famous Tycho’s supernova. The research, published in Nature Astronomy, debunks the common view that Tycho’s supernova originated from a white dwarf, which had been slowly accreting matter from its companion in a binary system. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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Carnival of Space #528 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Allen Versfeld at his Urban Astronomer blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #528. And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out,Read More →

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(Phys.org)—A team of astronomers led by Andrés E. Piatti of the Astronomical Observatory of Córdoba in Argentina has recently observed an extra-tidal clumpy structure around the globular cluster NGC 288. The results of these observations, available in a paper published Sept. 21 on arXiv.org, could redefine our understanding of external regions of globular clusters in our Milky Way galaxy. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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Cristina Ramos Almeida, researcher at the IAC, and Claudio Ricci, from the Institute of Astronomy of the Universidad Católica de Chile, have published a review in Nature Astronomy on the material that obscures active galactic nuclei obtained from infrared and X-ray observations. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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Messier 57 – The Ring Nebula Welcome back to Messier Monday! We continue our tribute to our dear friend, Tammy Plotner, by looking at the the Big Ring itself, the planetary nebula known as Messier 57. Enjoy! In the 18th century, while searching the night sky for comets, French astronomer Charles Messier kept noting the presence of fixed, diffuse objects in the night sky. In time, he would come to compile a list of approximately 100 of these objects, with the purpose of making sure that astronomers did not mistake them for comets. However, this list – known as the Messier Catalog – would goRead More →

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Rare Element Could Point the Way to Past Life on Mars Over the past few decades, our ongoing studies of Mars have revealed some very fascinating things about the planet. In the 1960s and early 70s, the Mariner probes revealed that Mars was a dry, frigid planet that was most likely devoid of life. But as our understanding of the planet has deepened, it has come to be known that Mars once had a warmer, wetter environment that could have supported life. This in turn has inspired multiple missions whose purpose it has been to find evidence of this past life. The key questions inRead More →

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Australia To Create Its Own Space Agency This year’s International Astronautical Congress is being held in Adelaide, Australia and the opening ceremonies of this meeting of ‘all things space’ included a special announcement. The Australian government announced that it will establish a new national space agency, with the hopes of growing Australia’s already vibrant space industry. Michaelia Cash, Australian’s acting Minister of Industry, Innovation and Science was quoted as saying that Australia will not have a NASA but an agency “right for our nation, right for our industry … that will provide the vehicle for Australia to have a long-term strategic plan for space –Read More →