About 200 to 400 million years after the Big Bang created the universe, the first stars began to appear. Ordinarily stars lying at such a great distance in space and time would be out of reach even for NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, due for launch in 2020. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
One year ago, I wrote an article about the remarkable discovery of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, a system of seven temperate terrestrial planets orbiting an ultra-cool red dwarf star. This was an enormous astronomical discovery because these low-mass stars are the most numerous ones in our galaxy, and the discovery of potentially habitable planets around one of them led many people to speculate about the existence of life there and elsewhere in our galaxy around similar stars. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
An international team of astronomers reports the finding of ASASSN-18di—a powerful white-light superflare on a previously undetected, mid-type M-dwarf star. The discovery is detailed in a paper published April 12 on the arXiv pre-print repository. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Weekly Space Hangout: April 25, 2018: Carolyn Collins Petersen discusses “Space Exploration: Past, Present, Future” Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Paul M. Sutter (pmsutter.com / @PaulMattSutter) Dr. Kimberly Cartier (KimberlyCartier.org / @AstroKimCartier ) Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org) Special Guests: Carolyn Collins Petersen is no stranger to the Weekly Space Hangout, having been a regular journalist during previous seasons. We are excited to welcome Carolyn back to the show this week, this time as our Special Guest, to discuss her newest book, Space Exploration: Past, Present, Future, which was released in the US on April 1. In it, Carolyn discussesRead More →
I Can’t Stop Watching This Amazing Animation from Comet 67P The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission was an ambitious one. As the first-ever space probe to rendezvous with and then orbit a comet, Rosetta and its lander (Philae) revealed a great deal about the comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In addition to the learning things about the comet’s shape, composition and tail, the mission also captured some incredible images of the comet’s surface before it ended. For instance, Rosetta took a series of images on June 1st, 2016, that showed what looks like a blizzard on the comet’s surface. Using these raw images (which were posted on MarchRead More →
Facial Recognition Deep Learning Software is Surprisingly Good at Identifying Galaxies Too A lot of attention has been dedicated to the machine learning technique known as “deep learning”, where computers are capable of discerning patterns in data without being specifically programmed to do so. In recent years, this technique has been applied to a number of applications, which include voice and facial recognition for social media platforms like Facebook. However, astronomers are also benefiting from deep learning, which is helping them to analyze images of galaxies and understand how they form and evolve. In a new study, a team of international researchers used a deepRead More →
Astronomers are beginning to understand what happens when black holes get the urge to roam the Milky Way. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Young scientists from ITMO University have explained how neutron stars generate intense directed radio emission. They developed a model based on the transitions of particles between gravitational states, i.e. quantum states in a gravitational field. The researchers were the first to describe such states for electrons on the surface of neutron stars. Physical parameters obtained with the developed model are consistent with real experimental observations. The results are published in The Astrophysical Journal. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
A team of researchers with Keele University in the U.K. has described one of the darkest planets ever observed. In their paper uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, the team describes the planet and where it appears to stand among other dark planets. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
As science enthusiasts around the world bid farewell to legendary cosmologist Stephen Hawking, researchers continue to make important discoveries about the evolution of galaxy clusters that capture the imagination. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
If We’re Searching for Earth 2.0, Would We Know It When We Find It? In the past few decades, there has been an explosion in the number of extra-solar planets that have been discovered. As of April 1st, 2018, a total of 3,758 exoplanets have been confirmed in 2,808 systems, with 627 systems having more than one planet. In addition to expanding our knowledge of the Universe, the purpose of this search has been to find evidence of life beyond our Solar System. In the course of looking for habitable planets, astronomers have used Earth as a guiding example. But would we recognize a trulyRead More →
Carnival of Space #558 Welcome to the 558th Carnival of Space! The Carnival is a community of space science and astronomy writers and bloggers, who submit their best work each week for your benefit. We have a fantastic roundup today, so now, on to this week’s stories! First up, over at Blasting News, we learn that as the Google Lunar XPrize ends Israel is still shooting for the moon! Israel’s SpaceIL is still planning to land on the Moon by the end of 2018! Best of luck! Then, we visit The Hill, where we learn why Why NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is such aRead More →
The DARKNESS Instrument Will Block Stars and Reveal Their Planets. 100 Million Times Fainter than the Star The hunt for planets beyond our Solar System has led to the discovery of thousands of candidates in the past few decades. Most of these have been gas giants that range in size from being Super-Jupiters to Neptune-sized planets. However, several have also been determined to be “Earth-like” in nature, meaning that they are rocky and orbit within their stars’ respective habitable zones. Unfortunately, determining what conditions might be like on their surfaces is difficult, since astronomers are unable to study these planets directly. Luckily, an international teamRead More →
A machine learning method called “deep learning,” which has been widely used in face recognition and other image- and speech-recognition applications, has shown promise in helping astronomers analyze images of galaxies and understand how they form and evolve. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Hydrogen sulfide, the gas that gives rotten eggs their distinctive odor, permeates the upper atmosphere of the planet Uranus – as has been long debated, but never definitively proven. Based on sensitive spectroscopic observations with the Gemini North telescope, astronomers uncovered the noxious gas swirling high in the giant planet’s cloud tops. This result resolves a stubborn, long-standing mystery of one of our neighbors in space. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
A new international study involving The Australian National University (ANU) and The University of Sydney has found that galaxies grow bigger and puffier as they age. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Artificial intelligence is giving scientists new hope for studying the habitability of planets, in a study from astronomers Chris Lam and David Kipping. Their work looks at so-called “Tatooines,” and uses machine learning techniques to calculate how likely such planets are to survive into stable orbits. The study is published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, astronomers have identified 152 X-ray sources, including 95 new young stellar objects (YSOs) in Serpens South star-forming cluster. The finding is detailed in a paper published April 13 in the arXiv pre-print server. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
EPFL scientists have completed the fastidious task of analyzing 27 dwarf galaxies in detail, identifying the conditions under which they were formed and how they’ve since evolved. These small-scale galaxies are perfect for studying the mechanisms of new star formation and the very first steps in the creation of the universe. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
