The Swedish Academy of Sciences has announced that the 2017 Nobel prize in Physics goes to three scientists for their foundational work leading to the discovery of ripples in the fabric of space and time known as gravitational waves. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
(Phys.org)—French astronomers have recently presented a new abundance analysis of the star 68 Tauri (also known as HD 27962), which determines its chemical composition more precisely than previous studies. The results of the research are available in a paper published Sept. 28 on the arXiv pre-print repository. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Round 5 a.m. on a Tuesday this past May, Tabetha “Tabby” Boyajian sat staring at a laptop, cross-legged on her couch in the living room of her Baton Rouge, La., home. The coffee table was cluttered with the artifacts of an all-nighter: an empty wine glass to calm her nerves alongside an empty coffee mug to fuel her through the night. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Lockheed Martin Unveils Details of their Proposed Base Camp for Mars Before NASA can mount its proposed “Journey to Mars“, which will see astronauts set foot on the Red Planet for the first time in history, a number of logistical and technical issues need to be addressed first. In addition to a launch vehicle (the Space Launch System), a crew capsule (the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle), and a space station beyond the Moon (the Deep Space Gateway), the astronauts will also need a space habitat in orbit of Mars. To build this habitat, NASA has reached out to its long-time contractor, Lockheed Martin. And onRead More →
Matt William’s New Sci-Fi Book is Out: The Cronian Incident It’s time to do a little shameless self promotion for our tireless staff writer Matt Williams. In addition to pumping out an astonishing amount of space news here on Universe Today, Matt is also a science fiction author, having written 10! books. But in the last week, he’s reached a bit of a special milestone: he’s a published science fiction author, thanks to Castrum Press. Matt’s new book is called The Cronian Incident, and it’s part 1 of a new series called the Formist Series. Here’s the blurb: The Cronian Incident by Matthew Williams JustRead More →
Old Mars Odyssey Data Indicates Presence of Ice Around Martian Equator Finding a source of Martian water – one that is not confined to Mars’ frozen polar regions – has been an ongoing challenge for space agencies and astronomers alike. Between NASA, SpaceX, and every other public and private space venture hoping to conduct crewed mission to Mars in the future, an accessible source of ice would mean the ability to manufacture rocket fuel on sight and provide drinking water for an outpost. So far, attempt to locate an equatorial source of water ice have failed. But after consulting old data from the longest-running missionRead More →
ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space Observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and ESA’s Rosetta mission, have revealed the presence of the organohalogen Freon-40 in gas around both an infant star and a comet. Organohalogens are formed by organic processes on Earth, but this is the first ever detection of them in interstellar space. This discovery suggests that organohalogens may not be as good markers of life as had been hoped, but that they may be significant components of the material from which planets form. This result, which appears in the journal Nature Astronomy, underscores the challenge of finding molecules thatRead More →
Zooming in on the Rho Ophiuchi star formation region Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
ESOcast 131 Light: ALMA and Rosetta Detect Freon-40 in Space (4K UHD) Astronomers found the molecule Freon-40, which is made by biological processes on Earth, in places which predate life… Watch this episode to find out more! Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is helping identify potential celestial targets for the James Webb Space Telescope through a series of preparatory science observations to be completed before Webb is ready to make observations of its own. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected the faint molecular fingerprint of methyl chloride – a chemical commonly produced by industrial and biological processes here on Earth – around an infant star system known as IRAS 16293-2422. Traces of this organic compound were also discovered in the thin atmosphere of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P/C-G) by the Rosetta space probe. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
ESOcast 130: Why Astronomers Want to Use ALMA – ALMA is State of the Art Technology ESOcast 130 describes why astronomers are so keen to exploit ALMA’s enormous size and power, and how its state of the art technology is leading to observations of groundbreaking precision and quality. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
(Phys.org)—A team of astronomers from Mexico has lately conducted a kinematics study of a supernova remnant in the Milky Way galaxy known as G109.1-1.0 (or CTB 109). The new research reveals crucial insights into basic properties of this remnant. The findings were presented Sept. 23 in a paper published on the arXiv preprint repository. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
In the center of a rich cluster of galaxies located in the direction of the constellation of Coma Berenices, lies a galaxy surrounded by a swarm of star clusters. NGC 4874 is a giant elliptical galaxy, about ten times larger than the Milky Way, at the center of the Coma Galaxy Cluster. With its strong gravitational pull, it is able to hold onto more than 30,000 globular clusters of stars, more than any other galaxy that we know of, and even has a few dwarf galaxies in its grasp. Powered by WPeMaticoRead More →
The universe is not only expanding – it is accelerating outward, driven by what is commonly referred to as “dark energy.” The term is a poetic analogy to label for dark matter, the mysterious material that dominates the matter in the universe and that really is dark because it does not radiate light (it reveals itself via its gravitational influence on galaxies). Two explanations are commonly advanced to explain dark energy. The first, as Einstein once speculated, is that gravity itself causes objects to repel one another when they are far enough apart (he added this “cosmological constant” term to his equations). The second explanationRead More →
The Discussion: You’d be forgiven for thinking we recorded this episode drunk – but we assure you, we weren’t. And you’ll have to forgive us for our crappy audio and shameless national stereotyping! But in this show, recorded from our dark sky star party in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, we discuss the event, Jeni’s talk on exoplanet research and we take a look at listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A fresh look at the age and high metallicity of an observable star cluster Australia takes the plunge and announces the creation of its ownRead More →
NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Launch Delayed to 2019 The 18-segment gold coated primary mirror of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is raised into vertical alignment in the largest clean room at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Nov. 2, 2016. The secondary mirror mount booms are folded down into stowed for launch configuration. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com The most powerful space telescope ever built will have to wait on the ground for a few more months into 2019 before launching to the High Frontier and looking back nearly to the beginning of time and unraveling untold astronomical secrets on how the earlyRead More →
Mission to Metal World Takes a Big Step Forward with Thruster Test As NASA sets its sight on the next generation of space exploration, one area of focus is on missions that can teach us more about our Solar System. This was a major priority during the thirteenth round of NASA’s Discovery Program, which put out the call for proposals back in February of 2014. One of the proposals to make the cut was the Psyche mission, which will send an orbiter to the asteroid of the same name in 2o22. This mission is unique in that it will entail visiting an asteroid that isRead More →
What to look out, and up, for in October. Jeni, Paul & Ralph pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Blue/green ice giant Uranus The Orionids meteor shower brings us the debris from Comet Halley Saturn, recently liberated from the perpetual gaze of Cassini A not-to-be-missed conjunction of Venus and Mars on 5th October. Finally, a couple of comets that may be visible Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Paul – Spiral Galaxy NGC772 in Aries. Jeni – Brocchi’s Cluster or The Coathanger Cluster inRead More →
New Study Says Earth Avoided a “Carbon Overdose” During Formation According to the Nebular Hypothesis, the Sun and planets formed 4.6 billion years ago from a giant cloud of dust and gas. This began with the Sun forming in the center, and the remaining material forming a protoplanetary disc, from which the planets formed. Whereas the planets in the outer Solar System were largely made up of gases (i.e. the Gas Giants), those closer to the Sun formed from silicate minerals and metals (i.e. the terrestrial planets). Despite having a pretty good idea of how this all came about, the question of exactly how theRead More →
