Brian Koberlein, Author at Universe Today

October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Could Life at TRAPPIST-1 Survive the Star's Superflares?

Artist's Illustration of a Young Red Dwarf Stripping Away a Planet's Atmosphere. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Player (STScI)

The TRAPPIST-1 system is a science-fiction writer’s dream. Seven Earth-sized worlds orbit a red dwarf star just 40 light-years away. Three of those worlds are within the habitable zone of the star. The system spans a distance less than 25 times that of the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Oh, what epic tales a TRAPPIST civilization would have! That is, if life in such a system is even possible…

October 25, 2024October 25, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Here are Some Potentially Habitable World Targets for the Upcoming LIFE Mission

LIFE will have five separate space telescopes that fly in formation and work together to detect biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres. Image Credit: LIFE, ETH Zurich

The odds are good that we are not alone in the Universe. We have found thousands of exoplanets so far, and there are likely billions of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy alone. But finding evidence of extraterrestrial life is challenging, and even the most powerful telescopes we currently have may not produce definitive proof. But there are telescopes in the pipeline that may uncover life. It will be decades before they are built and launched, but when they are, which systems should they target first? That’s the question answered in a recent paper.

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

The First Triple Star System Found Containing a Black Hole

V404 Cygni in the process of consuming a nearby star while a second star orbits at a distance. Credit: Jorge Lugo

Neutron stars and black holes are the remnants of dead stars. They typically form as part of a supernova explosion, where the outer layers of an old star are violently cast off while the core of the star collapses to form the remnant. This violent origin can have significant consequences for both the remnant and the surrounding environment.

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

There's a Particle Accelerator at the Center of the Milky Way

Gamma ray emissions in the center of the Milky Way. Credit: Albert, et al

Nestled on the slopes of Cerro La Negra at an elevation of 13,000 feet is an unusual-looking observatory. Known as the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov (HAWC) observatory, it looks like a tightly packed collection of grain silos, which is essentially what it is. But rather than holding grain, the silos are each filled with 188,000 liters of water and four photomultiplier tubes. While it’s an unusual setup, it’s what you need to observe high-energy gamma rays from deep space.

October 14, 2024October 14, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Can an Asteroid's Movements Reveal a New Force in the Universe?

Illustration of the asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

There are four fundamental forces in the Universe. These forces govern all the ways matter can interact, from the sound of an infant’s laugh to the clustering of galaxies a billion light-years away. At least that’s what we’ve thought until recently. Things such as dark matter and dark energy, as well as a few odd interactions in particle physics, have led some researchers to propose a fifth fundamental force. Depending on the model you consider, this new force could explain dark matter and cosmic expansion, or it could interact with elemental particles we haven’t yet detected. There are lots of theories about this hypothetical force. What there isn’t a lot of is evidence. So a new study is looking for evidence in the orbits of asteroids.

October 11, 2024October 11, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

A Black Hole has Destroyed a Star, and Used the Wreckage to Pummel Another Star

Illustration of a tidal disruption event. Credit: NASA/CXC/SAO and Soheb Mandhai/The Astro Phoenix

When a supermassive black hole consumes a star, it doesn’t just swallow it whole. It shreds the star, ripping it apart bit by bit before consuming the remains. It’s a messy process known as a tidal disruption event (TDE). Astronomers occasionally catch a glimpse of TDEs, and one recent one has helped solve a mystery about a type of transient X-ray source.

October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Most Mars Meteorites Came From Five Craters

A digital-image mosaic of Mars’ Tharsis plateau shows the extinct volcano Arsia Mons. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

Meteorites strike Earth every day. It’s estimated that about 100 – 300 metric tonnes of material strike our planet every year. Most of it consists of sand-grain sized dust that burns up in the atmosphere, but each year a few thousand will reach Earth’s surface.

October 4, 2024October 4, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

The Sun Unleashes its Strongest Flare This Cycle

Image of the October 3, 2024 X9 flare seen in extreme ultraviolet light. Credit: NASA/SDO

Yesterday the Sun released a huge solar flare, and it’s heading toward Earth! It’s nothing to worry about since it’s nowhere near as large as the Carrington Event of 1859, but it is large enough to give us some amazing aurora.

October 3, 2024October 3, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Gravitational Lens Confirms the Hubble Tension

Webb image showing the appearances of a lensed supernova. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

We’ve known the Universe is expanding for a long time. The first solid paper demonstrating cosmic expansion was published by Edwin Hubble in 1929, based on observations made by Vesto Slipher, Milton Humason, and Henrietta Leavitt. Because of this, the rate of cosmic expansion is known as the Hubble constant, or Hubble parameter, H₀. From this parameter, you can calculate things such as the age of the Universe since the Big Bang, so knowing the value of H₀ is central to our understanding of modern cosmology.

October 2, 2024October 2, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Bernard's Star Has a Planet (Again)!

This artist’s impression shows Barnard b, a sub-Earth-mass planet that was discovered orbiting Barnard’s star. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

The thing about exoplanets is that astronomers don’t see them the way most people think they do. Part of the reason for that is the way we announce them. Whenever an interesting exoplanet is discovered, the press release usually has colorful artwork showing oceans, mountains, and clouds. Something visually captivating like the image above. But the reality is that we have only imaged a few exoplanets directly, and even then, they appear only as small fuzzy blobs. Most of the known exoplanets were discovered by the transit method, where the star dims slightly as the planet passes in front of it. So what astronomers actually see is a periodic flickering of starlight.