Universe Today

December 31, 2024December 31, 2024 by Matt Williams

A Young Exoplanet's Atmosphere Doesn't Match its Birthplace

The natal disk of PDS 70 with new planet PDS 70b (bright spot on the right). Credit: ESO/A. Müller et al.

If the modern age of astronomy could be summarized in a few words, it would probably be “the age of shifting paradigms.” Thanks to next-generation telescopes, instruments, and machine learning, astronomers are conducting deeper investigations into cosmological mysteries, making discoveries, and shattering preconceived notions. This includes how systems of planets form around new stars, which scientists have traditionally explained using the Nebular Hypothesis. This theory states that star systems form from clouds of gas and dust (nebulae) that experience gravitational collapse, creating a new star.

The remaining gas and dust then settle into a protoplanetary disk around the new star, which gradually coalesces to create planets. Naturally, astronomers theorize that the composition of the planets would match that of the disk itself. However, when examining a still-developing exoplanet in a distant star system, a team of astronomers uncovered a mismatch between the gases in the planet’s atmosphere and those within the disk. These findings indicate that the relationship between a protoplanetary disk and the planets they form might be more complicated.

December 31, 2024December 31, 2024 by David Dickinson

The Quadrantid Meteors and More Ring in 2025

This Weekend: Catch the Quadrantids at their annual peak, Earth at perihelion and the Moon blotting out Saturn.

Quads — An early Quadrantid meteor from late 2016. Credit: Eliot Herman

Ready for another amazing year of skywatching? The very first weekend of 2025 offers up a flurry of wintertime astronomy events, eluding a swift meteor shower, a January ‘SuperSun,’ and a lunar planetary pair up at dusk.

December 31, 2024December 31, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A New Mission Watches Meteoroids Hit the Far Side of the Moon

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that Earth is constantly being bombarded by literally tons of space debris daily. The larger bits form what we know as shooting stars, and most burn up in the atmosphere. Still, throughout our planet’s history, giant versions have caused devastation unlike anything else seen on this planet. Tracking these types of objects is typically done from the Earth, but a new mission set out by researchers in Italy has a novel idea – why not try to learn more about potential impactors by watching them hit the far side of the Moon?

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Even Stars Can Get the Hiccups

An artist’s impression of Pulsational Pair Instability, credit: Gemini Observatory/NSF/AURA/ illustration by Joy Pollard

Stars come in all manner of sizes and temperatures. Many of the massive ones are nearing the end of their lives and at some point in the next few million years, will detonate as supernova explosions. Observing the early stages of these events is tricky though as we can never be sure when they will go pop! It would be great if we could narrow down the timeframe to help hone our search. One theorised phase is that massive stars can ‘hiccup’ with its core expanding and contracting rapidly. This is known as ‘pulsational pair-instability’ and finally a team of astronomers have actually caught a star having the hiccups!

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Hotter White Dwarfs Get Puffier

Concept art of two white dwarf stars with the same mass but different temperatures. The hotter star (left) is slightly puffier, while the cooler star (right) is more compact. Credit:Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University

When our Sun dies, it will turn into a white dwarf. They are a common aspect of stellar evolution and a team of researchers have now turned their attention onto them. They have just completed a survey of 26,000 white dwarfs and confirmed a long-predicted theory that the hotter the star, the puffier it is! This new study will help us to understand white dwarfs and the processes that drive them.

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

NASA to Probe the Secrets of the Lunar Regolith

Regolith Adherence Characterization, or RAC, is one of 10 science and technology instruments flying on NASA’s next Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) flight as part of the Blue Ghost Misison-1. Developed by Aegis Aerospace of Webster, Texas, RAC is designed to study how lunar dust reacts to more than a dozen different types of material samples, located on the payload’s wheels. Photo courtesy Firefly Aerospace

Gaze up at the Moon on any night and you will see a barren world displaying all manner of shades of grey. Aside from the obvious craters and lunar maria, the surface of the Moon is covered in the fine, dusty lunar regolith. The Apollo astronauts in the 60’s and 70’s learned that it was electromagnetically charged and was very abrasive posing a problem for mechanical equipment. Now a new payload on the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative will explore the regolith even further.

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Matt Williams

NOIRLab Launches Collection of Hi-Res Images of 88 IAU-recognized Constellations

NOIRLab all-sky photo of the night sky. Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/E. Slawik/M. Zamani

Located in Tuscon, Arizona, the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) is a national facility consisting of four observatories that provide astronomers affiliated with any US institution with access to observing time. As part of its mission to advance astronomy and science education, NOIRLab recently announced the release of the 88 Constellations Project, a collection of free, high-resolution, downloadable images of all IAU-recognized constellations. This project is an educational archive that is free for all and includes the largest open-source all-sky photo of the night sky.

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Evan Gough

Saturn’s Rings Might Be Really Old After All

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of Saturn in February, 2023. Image Credit: STScI

Saturn’s rings are among the most glorious, stunning, and well-studied features in the Solar System. However, their age has been difficult to ascertain. Did they form billions of years ago when the planet and the Solar System were young? Or did they form in the last few hundred millions of years?

The latest new research shows that the iconic rings are, in fact, very old.

December 30, 2024December 30, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

Covering an Asteroid With Balls Could Characterize Its Interior

Exploring asteroids and other small bodies throughout the solar system has gotten increasingly popular, as their small gravity wells make them ideal candidates for resource extraction, enabling the expansion of life into the solar system. However, the technical challenges facing a mission to explore one are fraught – since they’re so small and variable, understanding how to land on one is even more so. A team from the University of Trieste in Italy has proposed a mission idea that could help solve that problem by using an ability most humans have but never think about.

December 29, 2024December 29, 2024 by Mark Thompson

New Image Revealed by NASA of their New Martian Helicopter.

Rendering of Mars Helicopter : Credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another world in the first half of 2021. It explored the Martian terrain from above proving that powered air flight was a very efficient way to move around alien worlds. Now NASA have released a computer rendering of their next design, the Mars Chopper!