Faint glow within galaxy clusters illuminates dark matter A new look at Hubble images of galaxies could be a step toward illuminating the elusive nature of dark matter, the unobservable material that makes up the majority of the universe, according to a study published online today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Sapphires and rubies in the sky Researchers at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our solar system. These so-called super-Earths were formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of calcium, aluminium and their oxides—including sapphire and ruby. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
ESO to Host Cherenkov Telescope Array-South at Paranal ESO’s Director General and the Managing Director of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Observatory have signed the agreement needed for CTA’s southern hemisphere array to be hosted near ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. In addition, the Chilean Government and ESO have signed the agreement enabling ESO to host this new telescope within ESO’s Paranal Observatory site. This will allow the world’s most ambitious gamma-ray observatory to access not only Chile’s pristine observing conditions, but also ESO’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, expertise, and facilities. ESO will operate the facility on behalf of the CTA Observatory and its Members. ESO NewsRead More →
The Saturn Nebula Kind of Looks Like the Planet in a Small Telescope, But in One of the Most Powerful Telescopes on Earth, it Looks Like This Saturn is an icon. There’s nothing else like it in the Solar System, and it’s something even children recognize. But there’s a distant object that astronomers call the Saturn nebula, because from a distance it resembles the planet, with its pronounced ringed shape. The Saturn nebula bears no relation to the planet, except in shape. … Continue reading “The Saturn Nebula Kind of Looks Like the Planet in a Small Telescope, But in One of the Most PowerfulRead More →
Saturn is Losing its Rings, Fast. They Could be Gone Within 100 Million Years According to new research based on data obtained by the Cassini probe, Saturn’s rings could be gone within 100 million years. The post Saturn is Losing its Rings, Fast. They Could be Gone Within 100 Million Years appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
A Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Robot that Could Search for Life on Europa The search for life has led astronomers to the icy moons in our Solar System. Among those moons, Europa has attracted a lot of attention. Europa is Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon—and the sixth-largest in the Solar System—at 3,100 kilometres (1,900 mi) in diameter. Scientists think that its oceans could contain two or three times as much … Continue reading “A Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Robot that Could Search for Life on Europa” The post A Nuclear-Powered Tunneling Robot that Could Search for Life on Europa appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Astronomers discover nine new variable stars A team of astronomers from Chile has detected nine new variable stars in the globular cluster NGC 6652 and its background stream. Six of the newly found stars were classified as eclipsing binaries, one as an SX Phoenicis star, and two remain unclassified. The finding is detailed in a paper published December 10 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Newly discovered adolescent star seen undergoing ‘growth spurt’ Astronomers have discovered a young star undergoing a rare growth spurt—giving a fascinating glimpse into the development of these distant stellar objects. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Carnival of Space #591 This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his Next Big Future blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #591 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 #591” The post Carnival of Space #591 appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Weekly Space Hangout: Dec 19, 2018: News Roundup 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) Announcements: Want to support CosmoQuest? Here are specific ways you can help: * Donate! (Streamlabs link) https://streamlabs.com/cosmoquestx * Donate and challenge your friends to donate too! (Tiltify … Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: Dec 19, 2018: News Roundup” The post Weekly Space Hangout: Dec 19, 2018: News Roundup appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Did You Know that the Earth Loses Several Hundred Tons of Atmosphere to Space Every Day? Scientists have known for some time that Earth’s atmosphere loses several hundred tons of oxygen each day. They understand how this oxygen loss happens on Earth’s night side, but they’re not sure how it happens on the day side. They do know one thing though; they happen during auroras. According to a press release from … Continue reading “Did You Know that the Earth Loses Several Hundred Tons of Atmosphere to Space Every Day?” The post Did You Know that the Earth Loses Several Hundred Tons of Atmosphere toRead More →
Mystery of coronae around supermassive black holes deepens Researchers from RIKEN and JAXA have used observations from the ALMA radio observatory located in northern Chile and managed by an international consortium including the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to measure, for the first time, the strength of magnetic fields near two supermassive black holes at the centers of an important type of active galaxies. Surprisingly, the strengths of the magnetic fields do not appear sufficient to power the “coronae,” clouds of superheated plasma that are observed around the black holes at the centers of those galaxies. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
The Saturn Nebula reveals its complexity A planetary nebula is the corpse that remains when a star dies. When planetary nebulae were observed for the first time with a telescope, they presented a roughly circular shape, resembling that of the gas giant planets. Hence their name, which remains in use even though they are very different from planets. The article published recently by Astronomy & Astrophysics is the first detailed study of a galactic planetary nebula with the MUSE integral field spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). This work has revealed unexpected complexity in the gas and dust expelled by a giant red starRead More →
New bright high-redshift quasar discovered using VISTA Using the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), astronomers have detected a new bright quasar at a redshift of about 6.8. The newly identified quasar, designated VHS J0411-0907, is the brightest object in the near-infrared J-band among the known quasars at redshift higher than 6.7. The finding is reported in a paper published December 6 on arXiv.org. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
MuSCAT2 to find Earth-like planets in the TESS era A Japan-Spain team has developed a powerful 4-color simultaneous camera named MuSCAT2 for the 1.52-m Telescopio Carlos Sánchez at the Teide Observatory, Canaries, Spain. The instrument aims to find a large number of transiting exoplanets, including Earth-like habitable planets orbiting stars near the sun, in collaboration with NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in April 2018. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Rare relic is one of only three fossil clouds known in the universe A relic cloud of gas, orphaned after the Big Bang, has been discovered in the distant universe by astronomers using the world’s most powerful optical telescope, the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaii. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
Messier 74 – the NGC 628 Spiral Galaxy Located in the Pisces constellation, roughly 30 million light years from Earth, is the spiral galaxy known as Messier 74 (aka. the “Phantom Galaxy”). The post Messier 74 – the NGC 628 Spiral Galaxy appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Just discovered! “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System Astronomers have discovered a distant body that’s more than 100 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. Its provisional designation is 2018 VG18, but they’ve nicknamed the planet “Farout.” Farout is the most distant body ever observed in our Solar System, at 120 astronomical units (AU) away. The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center … Continue reading “Just discovered! “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System” The post Just discovered! “Farout”, the Farthest Object Ever Seen in the Solar System appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go toRead More →
Here are 20 Protoplanetary Disks, With Newly Forming Planets Carving Out Gaps in the Gas and Dust A new survey by an ALMA collaboration has resulted in stunning images of 20 nearby protoplanetary disks, which shows the process of planet formation as it happens. The post Here are 20 Protoplanetary Disks, With Newly Forming Planets Carving Out Gaps in the Gas and Dust appeared first on Universe Today. Universe Today Go to SourceRead More →
Outer solar system experts find ‘far out there’ dwarf planet A team of astronomers has discovered the most-distant body ever observed in our Solar System. It is the first known Solar System object that has been detected at a distance that is more than 100 times farther than Earth is from the Sun. phys.org Go to SourceRead More →
