Weekly Space Hangout: November 18, 2020 – Dr. Ralph Lorenz, Planetary Scientist and Dragonfly Mission Architect This week we are airing Fraser’s pre-recorded interview with Dr. Ralph Lorenz, planetary scientist and aerospace engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Ralph is the Mission Architect of the upcoming Dragonfly Mission to Titan, and the author […]
Some of the Milky Way’s oldest stars aren’t where they’re expected to be Some of the oldest stars in our galaxy have orbits similar to the Sun, and we don’t know why The post Some of the Milky Way’s oldest stars aren’t where they’re expected to be appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go […]
Study investigates mode switching phenomenon in the pulsar PSR J1326−6700 Using the Parkes 64-meter radio telescope, Chinese astronomers have performed a detailed study of a pulsar known as PSR J1326−6700. The results of this research provide more insights into the mode switching phenomenon observed in this pulsar. The study was published November 11 on arXiv.org. […]
Machine learning yields a breakthrough in the study of stellar nurseries Artificial intelligence can make it possible to see astrophysical phenomena that were previously beyond reach. This has now been demonstrated by scientists from the CNRS, IRAM, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, Ecole Centrale Marseille and Ecole Centrale Lille, working together in the ORION-B program. In a […]
Earth’s toughest bacteria can survive unprotected in space for at least a year A remarkable microbe named Deinococcus radiodurans (the name comes from the Greek deinos meaning terrible, kokkos meaning grain or berry, radius meaning radiation, and durare meaning surviving or withstanding) has survived a full year in the harsh environment of outer space aboard […]
An Iceberg the Size of South Georgia Island is on a Collision Course with… South Georgia Island Back in July 2017, satellites watched as an enormous iceberg broke free from Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. The trillion-ton behemoth has been drifting for over three years now. While it stayed close to […]
Past Supernovae Could be Written Into Tree Rings A new study by CU Boulder geoscientist Robert Brakenridge shows how nearby supernovae could have disrupted Earth’s climate in the past The post Past Supernovae Could be Written Into Tree Rings appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to Source
The ‘Workspace of the future,’ vizLab will unlock the secrets of the universe In a refurbished Southern California garage, Carnegie astrophysicists are creating the scientific, virtual reality-enabled workspace of the future where they will unlock the mysteries of the cosmos. phys.org Go to Source
In the mysterious Blue Ring Nebula, scientists see the fate of binary stars Scientists have discovered a rare object called the Blue Ring Nebula, a ring of hydrogen gas with a star at its center. The properties of this system suggest it is the remnant of two stars meeting their ultimate demise: an inward orbital […]
Astronomers think they’ve seen a magnetar form for the first time; the collision of two neutron stars Astronomers have seen how two neutron stars created the brightest kilonova ever observed. The post Astronomers think they’ve seen a magnetar form for the first time; the collision of two neutron stars appeared first on Universe Today. Universe […]
There’s a Vast Microbial Ecosystem Underneath the Crater that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs How did life arise on Earth? How did it survive the Hadean eon, a time when repeated massive impacts excavated craters thousands of kilometres in diameter into the Earth’s surface? Those impacts turned the Earth into a hellish place, where the oceans […]
Ten times more hyper-luminous galaxies observed than stars can produce A team of astronomers led by SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research has observed 10 times more hyper-luminous galaxies in the infrared than stars can produce according to the models. If the theory is correct, it means that stars alone cannot account for the brightness […]
The family tree of the Milky Way. The mergers that gave us the galaxy we see today Galaxies build themselves up slowly over time by cannibalizing their neighbors. Using an advanced suite of computer simulations, researchers have now traced back the evolutionary history of our own Milky Way. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, currently hosts […]
Fast radio bursts within the Milky Way seem to be coming from magnetars Fast radio bursts are some of the most mysterious events known in astronomy, but they are slowly becoming better understood. Case in point: recent observations of a fast radio burst in the Milky Way reveals the powerhouse behind the blasts: a flaring […]
A Record Close Shave: Asteroid 2020 VT4 Just Skimmed by Earth Wow. A low-flying space rock set a record last Friday (appropriately, the 13th), when 2020 VT4 passed just under 400 kilometers (250 miles) over the Southern Pacific. The post A Record Close Shave: Asteroid 2020 VT4 Just Skimmed by Earth appeared first on Universe […]
Merging Black Holes and Neutron Stars. All the Gravitational Wave Events Seen So Far in One Picture The Theory of Relativity predicted the existence of black holes and neutron stars. Einstein gets the credit for the theory because of his paper published in 1915, even though other scientists’ work helped it along. But regardless of […]
Wilkes-Barre campus observatory used to report asteroid data to NASA Penn State Wilkes-Barre’s observatory recently observed an stellar event and shared data with NASA for use on a future mission to an unexplored region of the solar system. phys.org Go to Source
Gravitational lenses could hold the key to better estimates of the expansion of the universe The universe is expanding but astrophysicists aren’t sure exactly how fast that expansion is happening—not because there aren’t answers, but rather because the answers they could give don’t agree. phys.org Go to Source
Ancient zircon minerals from Mars reveal the elusive internal structure of the red planet Analysis of an ancient meteorite from Mars suggests that the mineral zircon may be abundant on the surface of the red planet. phys.org Go to Source
Gravitational lenses measure universe expansion It’s one of the big cosmology debates: The universe is expanding, but how fast exactly? Two available measurements yield different results. Leiden physicist David Harvey adapted an independent third measurement method using the light warping properties of galaxies predicted by Einstein. He published his findings in the Monthly Notices of […]
