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A Partial Solar Eclipse and the Perseids Round Out August A partial solar eclipse rising over the Vehicle Assembly Building along the Florida Space Coast. Credit: Dave Dickinson How about that Total Lunar Eclipse this past July 13th? It has been a busy year for astronomy for sure, with two total lunar eclipses, a comet fading out from an unexpected burst of glory, and Saturn, Jupiter and Mars reaching opposition in quick succession. Now, watch for a rare event this weekend, with the final eclipse for 2018 coming up on Saturday, August 11th, with a partial solar eclipse spanning northern Europe and the Arctic. CircumstancesRead More →

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An international team of researchers has discovered what they describe as an inside-out planetary nebula—a planetary nebula with surroundings that are the opposite of what normally occurs. In their paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the group describes their find and offer possible explanations for its existence. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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For almost 10 years, astronomers have been studying a mysterious diffuse radiation coming from the centre of our galaxy. Originally, it was thought that this radiation could originate from the elusive dark matter particles that many researchers are hoping to find. However, physicists from the University of Amsterdam and the Laboratoire d”Annecy-le-Vieux de Physique Théorique have now found further evidence that rapidly spinning neutron stars are a much more likely source for this radiation. Their findings are published today in Nature Astronomy. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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A research team led by astronomers from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, have discovered the most lithium-rich giant ever known to date, with lithium abundance 3,000 times higher than normal giants. It is in the direction of Ophiuchus, north side of the galactic disk, with a distance of 4,500 light years from Earth. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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Next time you eat a blueberry (or chocolate chip) muffin consider what happened to the blueberries in the batter as it was baked. The blueberries started off all squished together, but as the muffin expanded they started to move away from each other. If you could sit on one blueberry you would see all the others moving away from you, but the same would be true for any blueberry you chose. In this sense galaxies are a lot like blueberries. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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GW170817 is the name given to a gravitational wave signal seen by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017. Lasting for about 100 seconds, the signal was produced by the merger of two neutron stars. The observation was then confirmed – the first time this has happened for gravitational waves – by observations with light waves: the preceding five detections of merging black holes did not have (and were not expected to have) any detectable electromagnetic signals. The light from the neutron star merger is produced by the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei created in the event. (Neutron star mergers do more thanRead More →

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German astronomers have conducted a study of the central bulge of the Andromeda galaxy and analyzed its stellar populations. The research could improve our understanding of the bulge’s structure and formation history. Results of the study are presented in a paper published July 24 on the arXiv pre-print repository. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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It Looks Like Plate Tectonics Aren’t Required to Support Life When looking for potentially-habitable extra-solar planets, scientists are somewhat restricted by the fact that we know of only one planet where life exists (i.e. Earth). For this reason, scientists look for planets that are terrestrial (i.e. rocky), orbit within their star’s habitable zones, and show signs of biosignatures such as atmospheric carbon dioxide – which is essential to life as we know it. This gas, which is the largely result of volcanic activity here on Earth, increases surface heat through the greenhouse effect and cycles between the subsurface and the atmosphere through natural processes. ForRead More →

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Five Teams Compete to Design a 3D Printed Mars Habitat for NASA If and when we decide to go to Mars (and stay there), the Martian settlers will face some serious challenges. For one, the planet is extremely cold compared to Earth, averaging at about -63 °C (-82°F), which is comparable to cold night in Antarctica. On top of that, there’s the incredibly thin atmosphere that is unbreathable to humans and terrestrial creatures. Add to that the radiation, and you begin to see why settling Mars will be difficult. But as the saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. And to stimulate the inventionRead More →

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Astronomers using the National Science Foundation’s Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have made the first radio-telescope detection of a planetary-mass object beyond our Solar System. The object, about a dozen times more massive than Jupiter, is a surprisingly strong magnetic powerhouse and a “rogue,” traveling through space unaccompanied by any parent star. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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The Coldest Place in Space Has Been Created. Next Challenge, Coldest Place in the Universe Despite decades of ongoing research, scientists are trying to understand how the four fundamental forces of the Universe fit together. Whereas quantum mechanics can explain how three of these forces things work together on the smallest of scales (electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces), General Relativity explains how things behaves on the largest of scales (i.e. gravity). In this respect, gravity remains the holdout. To understand how gravity interacts with matter on the tiniest of scales, scientists have developed some truly cutting-edge experiments. One of these is NASA’s Cold AtomRead More →

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Are we alone in the universe? This question has been with us for thousands of years, but it is only now that science is on the cusp of providing a real answer. We now know of dozens of rocky planets orbiting stars other than our sun where, for all we know, life might exist. And soon, with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, we will have the first chance to peer into the atmospheres of some of these worlds. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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European astronomers have discovered a new transiting brown dwarf in a dynamical-tide regime as part of the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) survey. The newly found object, designated WASP-128b, orbits its host on a close orbit—the measured stellar rotation rate places it in a regime where tidal interaction is dominated by dynamical tides. The finding is detailed in a paper published July 19 on arXiv.org. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →

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Look at This Adorable Pen-Sized Booster, Perfect for Tiny Satellites When it comes to space exploration, the motto “keep it simple” isn’t always followed! For the most part, satellites, spacecraft, telescopes, and the many other technologies that allow humans to study and explore the Universe are the result of highly-technical and complex feats of engineering. But sometimes, it is the simplest ideas that offer the most innovative solutions. This is especially true when it comes to the today’s space agencies, who are concerned with cutting costs and increasing accessibility to space. A good example is the Fenix propulsion system, a proposal created by Italian techRead More →