Artistic animation of a distant quasar surrounded by a gas halo
2019-12-19
Artistic animation of a distant quasar surrounded by a gas halo ESO Video Casts Go to SourceRead More →
3D view of gas halo observed by MUSE surrounding a galaxy merger seen by ALMA
2019-12-19
3D view of gas halo observed by MUSE surrounding a galaxy merger seen by ALMA ESO Video Casts Go to SourceRead More →
Cool Photo of Canadarm2 With its Dextre Hand. Oh and the Earth. That’s Nice Too.
2019-12-19
Cool Photo of Canadarm2 With its Dextre Hand. Oh and the Earth. That’s Nice Too. Check out this image of the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) Canadarm2 on the International Space Station. The CSA’s Dextre is attached to one end of the arm. The Canadarm2 played a vital role in assembling the ISS, while Dextre helps maintain the ISS, freeing astronauts from routine yet dangerous spacewalks, and allowing them to focus … Continue reading “Cool Photo of Canadarm2 With its Dextre Hand. Oh and the Earth. That’s Nice Too.” The post Cool Photo of Canadarm2 With its Dextre Hand. Oh and the Earth. That’s Nice Too.Read More →
NASA Will Be Building a Quiet, Supersonic Aircraft: the X-59
2019-12-18
NASA Will Be Building a Quiet, Supersonic Aircraft: the X-59 NASA’s X-Plane Program has been around for 70 years. Over the course of those decades, the agency has developed a series of airplanes and rockets to test out various technologies and design advances. Now NASA has cleared the newest one, the X-59, for final assembly. The X-59 is a supersonic aircraft design. Its full name … Continue reading “NASA Will Be Building a Quiet, Supersonic Aircraft: the X-59” The post NASA Will Be Building a Quiet, Supersonic Aircraft: the X-59 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
GISMO instrument maps inner Milky Way, sees cosmic ‘candy cane’
2019-12-18
GISMO instrument maps inner Milky Way, sees cosmic ‘candy cane’ A feature resembling a candy cane appears at the center of this colorful composite image of our Milky Way galaxy’s central zone. But this is no cosmic confection. It spans 190 light-years and is one of a set of long, thin strands of ionized gas called filaments that emit radio waves. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Science Fiction Might Be Right After All. There Might Be Breathable Atmospheres Across the Universe
2019-12-18
Science Fiction Might Be Right After All. There Might Be Breathable Atmospheres Across the Universe The last few years has seen an explosion of exoplanet discoveries. Some of those worlds are in what we deem the “habitable zone,” at least in preliminary observations. But how many of them will have life-supporting, oxygen-rich atmospheres in the same vein as Earth’s? A new study suggests that breathable atmospheres might not be as … Continue reading “Science Fiction Might Be Right After All. There Might Be Breathable Atmospheres Across the Universe” The post Science Fiction Might Be Right After All. There Might Be Breathable Atmospheres Across the UniverseRead More →
NASA’s Webb telescope to search for young brown dwarfs and rogue planets
2019-12-18
NASA’s Webb telescope to search for young brown dwarfs and rogue planets How small are the smallest celestial objects that form like stars, but don’t produce their own light? How common are they compared to full-fledged stars? How about “rogue planets,” which formed around stars before being tossed into interstellar space? When NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope launches in 2021, it will shed light on these questions. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
New clues on dark matter from the darkest galaxies
2019-12-18
New clues on dark matter from the darkest galaxies They are called low-surface-brightness galaxies and it is thanks to them that important confirmations and new information have been obtained on one of the largest mysteries of the cosmos: dark matter. “We have found that disc galaxies can be represented by a universal relationship. In particular, in this study we analysed the so-called Low-Surface-Brightness (LSB) galaxies, a particular type of galaxy with a rotating disc so called because they have a low-density brightness,” says Chiara di Paolo, astrophysicist at SISSA and lead author of a study recently published in MNRAS together with Paolo Salucci (astrophysicist atRead More →
Europe’s exoplanet hunter reaches orbit around Earth
2019-12-18
Europe’s exoplanet hunter reaches orbit around Earth Europe’s CHEOPS planet-hunting space telescope left Earth on Wednesday and moved into orbit, a day after its lift-off was delayed by a technical rocket glitch during the final countdown. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Parkes radio telescope observations shed more light on the mode switching phenomenon in PSR J0614+2229
2019-12-18
Parkes radio telescope observations shed more light on the mode switching phenomenon in PSR J0614+2229 Using Parkes radio telescope in Australia, Chinese astronomers have conducted a multifrequency study of the pulsar PSR J0614+2229 (also known as B0611+22). The new research, presented in a paper published December 9 on arXiv.org, provides insight into the mode switching phenomenon occurring in this pulsar. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Why some planets eat their own skies
2019-12-18
Why some planets eat their own skies For many years, for all we knew, our solar system was alone in the universe. Then better telescopes began to reveal a treasure trove of planets circling distant stars. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Weekly Space Hangout: December 18, 2019 – Anita Gale, Co-founder of the Space Settlement Design Competitions
2019-12-18
Weekly Space Hangout: December 18, 2019 – Anita Gale, Co-founder of the Space Settlement Design Competitions Hosts: Fraser Cain (universetoday.com / @fcain) Dr. Pamela Gay (Cosmoquest.org / @StarStryder ) Pam Hoffman (EverydaySpacer.com / @EverydaySpacer) Michael Rodruck (@michaelrodruck) Tonight we welcome Anita Gale, retired Boeing Associate Technical Fellow with over 40 years of experience in Payload and Cargo Integration on crewed spacecraft, including Space Shuttle and Commercial Crew. She is currently an elected member of … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: December 18, 2019 – Anita Gale, Co-founder of the Space Settlement Design Competitions” The post Weekly Space Hangout: December 18, 2019 – Anita Gale, Co-founder of the SpaceRead More →
European planet-studying mission launches from South America
2019-12-18
European planet-studying mission launches from South America A European spacecraft launched from South America Wednesday on a three-year mission to study planets in other solar systems. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers Map the Surface of a Pulsar
2019-12-17
Astronomers Map the Surface of a Pulsar Using NICER data, two teams of researchers were able to map the surface of a pulsar for the first time in history! The post Astronomers Map the Surface of a Pulsar appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Mars Has Auroras Too, We Just Can’t See Them
2019-12-17
Mars Has Auroras Too, We Just Can’t See Them Our eyes can’t see them, but Martian auroras are there, and more commonplace than we once thought. The Martian auroras were first discovered in 2016 by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft. Now some new results are expanding our knowledge of these unusual auroras. Most Universe Today readers know about Earth’s auroras and how they’re created. When a … Continue reading “Mars Has Auroras Too, We Just Can’t See Them” The post Mars Has Auroras Too, We Just Can’t See Them appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Carnival of Space #642
2019-12-17
Carnival of Space #642 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #642 And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry … Continue reading “Carnival of Space #642” The post Carnival of Space #642 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Hundreds of thousands of people select names for exoplanet systems
2019-12-17
Hundreds of thousands of people select names for exoplanet systems On 17 December 2019 the names of 112 sets of exoplanets and host stars named in the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaigns were announced at a press conference in Paris (France). Within the framework of the International Astronomical Union’s 100th anniversary commemorations (IAU100) in 2019, 112 countries organised national campaigns that stimulated the direct participation of over 780 000 people worldwide, who proposed and selected names for each exoplanet and its host star. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Galaxy gathering brings warmth
2019-12-17
Galaxy gathering brings warmth As the holiday season approaches, people in the northern hemisphere will gather indoors to stay warm. In keeping with the season, astronomers have studied two groups of galaxies that are rushing together and producing their own warmth. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
SDO sees new kind of magnetic explosion on sun
2019-12-17
SDO sees new kind of magnetic explosion on sun NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has observed a magnetic explosion the likes of which have never been seen before. In the scorching upper reaches of the Sun’s atmosphere, a prominence—a large loop of material launched by an eruption on the solar surface—started falling back to the surface of the Sun. But before it could make it, the prominence ran into a snarl of magnetic field lines, sparking a magnetic explosion. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
