Space

Jul 25th, 2024 - Chandra X-ray Observatory's 25th anniversary is celebrated with new images that span from local solar system bodies to distant galaxy clusters, showcasing its role in advancing our understanding of the universe. A collection of 25 new images has been released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of NASA 's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The telescope was launched into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. Since then, Chandra has observed thousands of objects — some of them ... [Read More]

Jul 25th, 2024 - Astronomers have spotted a rare "'missing link"' black hole, and it's lurking right in the center of our galaxy. The IRS 13 star cluster has long been a puzzle for astronomers. Located just a tenth of a light-year from the heart of our Milky Way galaxy where the Sagittarius A* supermassive black hole resides, the proximity of the cluster to the enormous black hole's powerful gravitational pull means that it shouldn't have much structure.  But after investigation, researchers have ... [Read More]

Jul 25th, 2024 - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope — and it has a super orbit. The planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter's. One big difference: It takes this planet more than a century, possibly as long as 250 years, to go around its star. It's 15 times the distance from its star than Earth is to the sun. Scientists had long suspected ... [Read More]

Jul 25th, 2024 - Antimatter particles detected on the International Space Station (ISS) may be evidence for unknown physics, new research suggests. The particles, antimatter versions of helium nuclei, may have been produced by cosmic fireballs, — and physicists can't explain how those fireballs formed using the Standard Model , the theory which describes the zoo of subatomic particles. All elementary particles have corresponding antiparticles with opposite electric charges, which annihilate each other on ... [Read More]

Jul 25th, 2024 - A vein-filled rock is catching the eye of the science team of NASA's Perseverance rover. Nicknamed "Cheyava Falls" by the team, the arrowhead-shaped rock contains fascinating traits that may bear on the question of whether Mars was home to microscopic life in the distant past. Analysis by instruments aboard the rover indicates the rock possesses qualities that fit the definition of a possible indicator of ancient life. The rock exhibits chemical signatures and structures that could possibly ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - In a compelling display of cosmic detective work, scientists have leveraged the Universe's most precise timekeepers — pulsars — to potentially uncover evidence of dark matter. These rapidly spinning neutron stars emit beams of radiation at exact intervals, akin to cosmic lighthouses, making them exceptionally reliable for measuring time. Pulsars are offering insights beyond cosmic time. Their steady 'ticking' might have brought us closer to unlocking one of the Universe's greatest ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - TOPICS: A study from Durham University reveals that stellar magnetic fields could be key to understanding the orbital decay of 'hot Jupiter ' exoplanets, providing new insights into their eventual consumption by their parent stars. A recent study led by researchers at Durham University has discovered a novel mechanism that may solve the long-standing mystery of decaying planetary orbits around stars similar to our Sun. Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters , the study suggests that ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - Astronomers have untangled a messy collision between two massive clusters of galaxies in which the clusters' vast clouds of dark matter have decoupled from the so-called normal matter. The two clusters each contain thousands of galaxies and are located billions of light-years away from Earth. As they plowed through each other, the dark matter—an invisible substance that feels the force of gravity but emits no light—sped ahead of the normal matter. The new observations are the first ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - Stargazers will soon be able to witness a "double" meteor shower as both the Alpha Capricornids and the Southern Delta Aquariids peak next week.  The twin-skywatching event is "just an amazing coincidence," Nicholas Moskovitz , a planetary astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, told Live Science. Meteor showers occur when Earth's orbit intersects a comet's path. The rocky debris left behind by the comet burns up as it enters Earth's atmosphere. During the double meteor showers this ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - The James Webb Space Telescope has provided a detailed analysis of WASP-39b, a tidally locked exoplanet exhibiting differing atmospheric conditions on its morning and evening sides, with a cloudier and cooler morning compared to a hotter evening. The different atmospheric conditions of the 'morning' and 'evening' sides of a distant planet have been revealed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The atmospheres of exoplanets – planets outside our Solar System – have been measured ... [Read More]

Jul 24th, 2024 - The launch of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in 2021 kicked off an exciting new era for exoplanet research, especially for scientists looking at terrestrial planets orbiting stars other than our sun. But three years into the telescope's mission, some scientists have run into challenges that have slowed down progress. In a recent paper published in Nature Astronomy , the TRAPPIST-1 JWST Community Initiative lays out a step-by-step roadmap to overcome the challenges they faced while ... [Read More]

Jul 23rd, 2024 - "Quite Unexpected" – Astronomers Discover Strange Spike-Like Structures Extending From Protostellar Disk TOPICS: Researchers have discovered that baby stars emit plumes of magnetic flux during their formation. Researchers from Kyushu University have unveiled new insights into the development of baby stars. Utilizing the ALMA radio telescope in Chile, the team discovered that the protostellar disk surrounding a nascent star expels plumes of dust, gas, and electromagnetic energy in its ... [Read More]

Jul 23rd, 2024 - Late summer is a great time to take a visual trip along our Milky Way. Credit: Stuart Atkinson Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is a frustrating time for many amateur astronomers. The nights never get dark enough to easily see the faint, fuzzy galaxies and nebulae they enjoy looking at through their telescopes, and there are fewer bright stars in the sky too. Occasionally a display of electric-blue noctilucent clouds will decorate the northern sky, but only a dedicated band of observers stay ... [Read More]

Jul 23rd, 2024 - Researchers have discovered a significant connection between supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and dark matter particles, potentially resolving the longstanding "final parsec problem" in astronomy.  This discovery, detailed in an article published in the journal Physical Review Letters , suggests that previously overlooked behaviors of dark matter particles facilitate the merging of SMBH pairs into a single larger black hole. Final parsec problem  In 2023, astrophysicists detected a ... [Read More]

Jul 23rd, 2024 - CNN . Nasa used the robot's instruments to analyse the rock, receiving data that indicated it was pure sulphur. Scientists were "stunned", said Nasa when it revealed the discovery "Finding a field of stones made of pure sulphur is like finding an oasis in the desert," said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity's project scientist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. It's the "strangest find" and "most unexpected" of Curiosity's 12 years on Mars .  Previous research has ... [Read More]

Jul 23rd, 2024 - Our universe is shrouded in mystery, with about 70 percent of it consisting of dark energy. The exact nature of dark energy remains a puzzle that, once solved, could unlock profound insights into the formation of our solar system, the evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy, the origins of life, and even the fate of our universe. Dark energy can be described as the effect of a negative pressure pushing space outward. We will get more technical, I promise, but let's start with an analogy to understand ... [Read More]