Andy Tomaswick, Author at Universe Today

February 27, 2022February 27, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

The new NIAC Awards are out! New Spacesuits, Breathing Martian air, Advanced Telescopes, and More

The NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) has been a significant funder of pie in the sky research for a long time now. From extrasolar object interceptors to beaming power into a lunar crater, we love reporting about NIAC funded concepts here at UT. Now, a new crop of Phase I and a smaller but more focused crop of Phase II fellows are funded to push the boundaries of space exploration forward.

February 27, 2022February 27, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Astronomers see an Enormous Shockwave, 60 Times Bigger Than the Milky Way

Astronomers have a thing for big explosions and collisions, and it always seems like they are trying to one-up themselves in finding a bigger, brighter one. There’s a new entrant to that category – an event so big it created a burst of particles over 1 billion years ago that is still visible today and is 60 times bigger than the entire Milky Way.

February 27, 2022February 27, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Windspeeds on Venus Change Dramatically With Altitude

Venus is a difficult place to explore. Only a few missions have ever made it to the surface, in no small part because of how difficult it is to traverse the planet’s atmosphere. That difficulty was confirmed recently by a team led researchers at the University of Lisbon, who found that the upper part of Venus’ atmosphere suffers from hurricane-force winds of up to 360 kilometers per hour.

February 27, 2022February 27, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

What’s Going on Inside a Black Hole? The Answers Could be Written on its Surface

Both quantum computing and machine learning have been touted as the next big computer revolution for a fair while now. However, experts have pointed out that these techniques aren’t generalized tools – they will only be the great leap forward in computer power for very specialized algorithms, and even more rarely will they be able to work on the same problem. One such example of where they might work together is modeling the answer to one of the thorniest problems in physics: how does General Relativity relate to the Standard Model?

February 24, 2022February 24, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Here’s What China is Planning to do in Space for the Next 5 Years

Central planning is literately central to any communist country, though its history has mixed results. As part of that planning, bureaucrats in all parts of the government are occasionally tasked with coming up with goals and milestones for their specific part of the government. These usually take the form of a five or ten-year plan, which is what the China National Space Agency (CNSA) released on January 28th.

February 23, 2022February 23, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

China Releases a Selfie-Stick Video of Tianwen-1 Above Mars

Selfies have become ubiquitous everywhere – even Mars. Now, the Tianwen 1 orbiter is getting into the spirit with a selfie taken high up in Martian orbit.

February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Twin Brown Dwarfs Discovered, Orbiting one Another at Three Times the Distance From the Sun to Pluto

Gravity is a funny force. The gravity of every given object technically impacts every other given object, though, in practice, large distance and small masses make those forces negligible for such interactions. But in some cases, especially when large groups are floating in empty space, gravity can still hold sway over considerable distances. Such is the case with a new pair of brown dwarfs found by astronomers at the Keck Observatory.

February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Atomic Clocks Separated by Just a few Centimetres Measure Different Rates of Time. Just as Einstein Predicted

The connection between relativity and quantum mechanics has been a black box for the world of physics for decades. That partially stems from the difficulty in collecting data on systems that interface between the two of them. Relativity is the realm of the supermassive, while quantum mechanics can best be described as the realm of the minuscule. But, there is, in fact, one particular realm where they overlap. One of the results of relativity is that gravity can affect the flow of time. Commonly known as “time dilation,” this effect has now been studied by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the US using an extraordinarily accurate atomic clock.

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

New Photos Show a Black Hole Blasting out Powerful Winds

Pictures of galaxies never cease to amaze, and astronomers are consistently coming up with new ones that provide a different viewpoint on the universe and maybe some exciting science along with it. A recent picture of the galaxy NGC 7582, taken with the Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows an active supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s core. However, something appears to be redirecting its “wind” away from the rest of the spiral galaxy.

February 20, 2022February 20, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Astronomers Discover a Strange new Star That Might be From the Collision Between two Dead Stars

With how many stars there are in our galaxy, there are sure to be plenty of different types of them. But they still continue to amaze us with their differences and constantly challenge our models on how exactly they form. Now a new class of stars was discovered by Dr. Klaus Werner of the University of Tübingen, and they are covered in different materials than expected.