Researchers depict the formation of galaxies An international team of astronomers, with researchers at Leiden Observatory playing a leading role, has mapped the fuel for galaxy formation in the iconic Hubble Ultra Deep Field. The results of the research have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Solar Cycle 25 has arrived. Here’s what to expect from the Sun in the coming months and years The sun goes through a regular 11-year cycle, swinging between periods of dormancy and periods of activity. Scientists from NASA and NOAA have just announced that the sun has just passed its minimum, and will be ramping up in activity over the next few years, meaning that we have entered a new round of the … Continue reading “Solar Cycle 25 has arrived. Here’s what to expect from the Sun in the coming months and years” The post Solar Cycle 25 has arrived. Here’s what to expectRead More →
What’s the Best Way to Communicate With an Interstellar Probe When it’s Light-Years Away From Earth? A new study by an international team of scientists addressed a major challenge with interstellar missions: how to send and receive information The post What’s the Best Way to Communicate With an Interstellar Probe When it’s Light-Years Away From Earth? appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
There Could Be Carbon-Rich Exoplanets Made Of Diamonds Scientists are getting better at understanding exoplanets. We now know that they’re plentiful, and that they can even orbit dead white dwarf stars. Researchers are also getting better at understanding how they form, and what they’re made of. A new study says that some carbon-rich exoplanets could be made of silica, and even diamonds, under … Continue reading “There Could Be Carbon-Rich Exoplanets Made Of Diamonds” The post There Could Be Carbon-Rich Exoplanets Made Of Diamonds appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Chinese Asteroid Mining Robot Due to Launch in November Does it seem like science is catching up with science fiction? Sometimes it does. Especially when there’s an announcement like this one. A Chinese company says that they’ll be launching an asteroid-mining robot by November. Origin Space is a private company based in Beijing. Though they’re calling this an “asteroid mining robot,” it’s really a … Continue reading “Chinese Asteroid Mining Robot Due to Launch in November” The post Chinese Asteroid Mining Robot Due to Launch in November appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Chitin Could be the Perfect Building Material on Mars It’s hard to deny that we’re heading for a future with a human presence on Mars. But to develop sustained presence, there are an enormous number of technical problems to be worked out. One of those problems concerns manufacturing and building. We can’t send everything people will need to Mars. We’ll need some way to … Continue reading “Chitin Could be the Perfect Building Material on Mars” The post Chitin Could be the Perfect Building Material on Mars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Asteroid Bennu has little pieces of Vesta on it The asteroid belt is a chaotic place. Things smash into each other, get thrown into completely different orbital planes, and are occasionally visited by small electronic spacecraft launched by humans. All three things seem to have happened to the asteroid Bennu, which is currently being orbited by OSIRIS-REx, a mission launched by NASA in 2016. … Continue reading “Asteroid Bennu has little pieces of Vesta on it” The post Asteroid Bennu has little pieces of Vesta on it appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Our Complete Guide to Mars Opposition Season 2020 Grab your telescope: when it comes to astronomy, 2020 saved the best for last, with a fine opposition of the planet Mars coming right up next month on October 13th. The post Our Complete Guide to Mars Opposition Season 2020 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
NASA’s Janus Mission is Going to Visit Two Binary Asteroids Gravity is good for a lot of things. It brings objects closer together. Occasionally they crash into each other. But sometimes two objects get locked in a unique gravitational dance that pairs them together. That dance can be short-lived, or it can last for billions of years. In some cases the objects are large (i.e. … Continue reading “NASA’s Janus Mission is Going to Visit Two Binary Asteroids” The post NASA’s Janus Mission is Going to Visit Two Binary Asteroids appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
New analysis of black hole reveals a wobbling shadow In 2019, the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration delivered the first image of a black hole, revealing M87*—the supermassive object in the center of the M87 galaxy. The team has now used the lessons learned last year to analyze the archival data sets from 2009-2013, some of them not published before. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Indian astronomers discover 70 new variable stars Astronomers from India have conducted a long-term photometric variability survey of an open cluster known as NGC 559. As a result, they detected 70 new variable stars in the field of this cluster. The finding is presented in a paper published September 15 on the arXiv pre-print repository. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Surface of Mars Might Have Gotten an Acid Bath, Obscuring Evidence of Past Life According to a recent study, the presence of acidic and alkali fluids on the surface of Mars mean that its soil is not likely to hold onto evidence of past life. The post The Surface of Mars Might Have Gotten an Acid Bath, Obscuring Evidence of Past Life appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
If dark matter is a particle, it should get inside red giant stars and change the way they behave Dark matter makes up the vast majority of matter in the universe, but we can’t see it. At least, not directly. Whatever the dark matter is, it must interact with everything else in the universe through gravity, and astronomers have found that if too much dark matter collects inside of red giant stars, it can … Continue reading “If dark matter is a particle, it should get inside red giant stars and change the way they behave” The post If dark matter is a particle, itRead More →
A History of the Magellanic Clouds and How They Got Their Names The Magellanic Clouds are a pair of dwarf galaxies that are bound to the Milky Way. The Milky Way is slowly consuming them in Borg-like fashion, starting with the gas halo that surrounds both Clouds. They’re visible in the southern sky, and for centuries people have gazed up at them. They’re named after the Portuguese … Continue reading “A History of the Magellanic Clouds and How They Got Their Names” The post A History of the Magellanic Clouds and How They Got Their Names appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →
Data sonification: Sounds from around the Milky Way The center of our Milky Way galaxy is too distant for us to visit in person, but we can still explore it. Telescopes give us a chance to see what the Galactic Center looks like in different types of light. By translating the inherently digital data (in the form of ones and zeroes) captured by telescopes in space into images, astronomers create visual representations that would otherwise be invisible to us. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Can ripples on the sun help predict solar flares? Solar flares are violent explosions on the sun that fling out high-energy charged particles, sometimes toward Earth, where they disrupt communications and endanger satellites and astronauts. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Destruction of Dark Matter isn’t Causing Extra Radiation at the Core of the Milky Way While recent studies suggest that dark matter interactions might create gamma rays, a new study of gamma rays in our galaxy throws shade on that idea. The post The Destruction of Dark Matter isn’t Causing Extra Radiation at the Core of the Milky Way appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
This is the View You Get Staring out of the Space Station’s Cupola Module Those lucky few who have the incredible opportunity to see the Earth from space often report the view gives them a sense of awe, unity and clarity. This perspective-altering experience has come to be known as the Overview Effect, from a book by the same name published 1987 by space philosopher Frank White. In the … Continue reading “This is the View You Get Staring out of the Space Station’s Cupola Module” The post This is the View You Get Staring out of the Space Station’s Cupola Module appeared first onRead More →
Spacecraft DAPPER will study ‘Dark Ages’ of the universe in radio waves The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) has joined a new NASA space mission to the far side of the Moon to investigate when the first stars began to form in the early universe. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Starspots: Revving up the variability of solar-like stars In cosmic comparison, the Sun is a bore. While the brightness of some other stars with similar characteristics fluctuates strongly, the Sun’s variations are much more moderate. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, from the Turkish-German University and Boğaziçi University in Turkey, and from Kyung Hee University in South Korea, have now investigated how exactly sun- and starspots affect this behavior. In addition to the number and size of the spots, their distribution plays a crucial role. If groups of sunspots were to appear more frequently clumped together in so-calledRead More →
