News (Page 749)

NASA scientists confirm water vapor on Europa Forty years ago, a Voyager spacecraft snapped the first closeup images of Europa, one of Jupiter’s 79 moons. These revealed brownish cracks slicing the moon’s icy surface, which give Europa the look of a veiny eyeball. Missions to the outer solar system in the decades since have amassed enough additional information about Europa to make it a high-priority target of investigation in NASA’s search for life. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

First global geologic map of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, completed The first map showing the global geology of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, has been completed and fully reveals a dynamic world of dunes, lakes, plains, craters and other terrains. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

The measurements of the expansion of the universe don’t add up Physicists use two types of measurements to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, but their results do not coincide, which may make it necessary to update the cosmological model. “It’s like trying to thread a cosmic needle,” explains researcher Licia Verde of the University of Barcelona, co-author of an article on the implications of this problem. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

How to observe a ‘black hole symphony’ using gravitational wave astronomy Shrouded in mystery since their discovery, the phenomenon of black holes continues to be one of the most mind-boggling enigmas in our universe. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Zeroing in on baby exoplanets could reveal how they form Twenty-four years ago, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system—a milestone recognised by this year’s Nobel prize in physics. Today we know of thousands more ‘exoplanets,” and researchers are now trying to understand when and how they form. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Study sheds more light on the nature of the transient X-ray pulsar MAXI J1409-619 Turkish astronomers have analyzed the observational data of the transient X-ray pulsar MAXI J1409-619 to probe the properties of this source. The study provided a comprehensive timing and X-ray spectral analysis of the pulsar, shedding more light on the nature of this object. Results of the research were published November 7 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Orion A in infrared Stars form within giant clouds of gas and dust that pervade galaxies like our own Milky Way. This image depicts one such cloud, known as Orion A, as seen by ESA’s Herschel and Planck space observatories. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Nearly extreme black holes which attempt to regrow hair become bald again Black holes ‘have no hair’: no attributes that can be used to tell them apart. Extreme black holes (spinning at maximally allowed rate) can have an additional property, permanent hair that is made of a massless scalar field. Nearly extreme black holes (like Gargantua, the black hole featured in the movie “Interstellar”) have hair that is a transient phenomenon: nearly extreme black holes that attempt to regrow hair will lose it and become bald again. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Astrophysicists find when galaxies rotate, size matters The direction in which a galaxy spins depends on its mass, researchers have found. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Image: Hubble spots a curious spiral The universe is simply so vast that it can be difficult to maintain a sense of scale. Many galaxies we see through telescopes such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the source of this beautiful image, look relatively similar: spiraling arms, a glowing center, and a mixture of bright specks of star formation and dark ripples of cosmic dust weaving throughout. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

NASA finds Neptune moons locked in ‘dance of avoidance’ Even by the wild standards of the outer solar system, the strange orbits that carry Neptune’s two innermost moons are unprecedented, according to newly published research. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →

Making planets in a rocket How are celestial bodies created? Aside from philosophical questions, researchers are taking practical steps to investigate the very first moments when planets are born—on a sounding rocket launching from Sweden next week. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →