Carolyn Collins Petersen, Author at Universe Today

September 12, 2023September 13, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers Observe Blobs of Dark Matter Down to a Scale of 30,000 Light-Years Across

Dark matter fluctuations in the lens system MG J0414+0534. The whitish blue color represents the gravitationally lensed images observed by ALMA. The calculated distribution of dark matter is shown in orange; brighter regions indicate higher concentrations of dark matter and dark orange regions indicate lower concentrations. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. T. Inoue et al.?

Dark matter remains mysterious and… well… dark. While we don’t yet have a definite idea of what this cosmic “stuff” is made of, astronomers are learning more about its distribution throughout the Universe. Since we can’t see it directly, observers need to use indirect methods to detect it. One way is through gravitational lensing. Another is by looking for emissions from hydrogen gas associated with small-scale dark matter structures in the Universe.

September 7, 2023September 7, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Mars Doesn’t Have as Many Minerals as Earth

Even though Mars and Earth had similar early histories, including water, Mars still ended up with fewer minerals than Earth. Why? Image Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Earth and Mars are very much alike, but also very different. Among other things, scientists find that Earth is much more mineral-rich than the Red Planet. It has 6,000 different minerals. By contrast, Mars has only 161. That’s a big difference. How could this have happened?

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Some Galaxies Contain Double Supermassive Black Holes

A Hubble Space Telescope view of M87's core and its jet. it points nearly directly at us and is also known as a blazar. Astronomers are studying other blazars that have meandering jets and think that binary black holes may be hidden inside some of them. Courtesy STScI.

Blazars occupy an intriguing spot in the cosmic zoo. They’re bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) that blast out cosmic rays, are bright in radio emission, and sport huge jets of material traveling in our direction at nearly the speed of light. For some blazars, their jets look curvy and snaky and astronomers have questions.

August 31, 2023August 31, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Neptune-sized Exoplanet is Denser Than Steel. The Result of a Catastrophic Collision?

An artist's conception of a hot Neptune. TOI-1538b is a super-dense version of this type of exoplanet and its core is denser than steel. Courtesy Pablo Carlos Budassi, CC BY-SA 4.0.

There’s an odd exoplanet out there posing a challenge to planetary scientists. It’s a hot Neptune denser than steel. The big question is: how did it form?

August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

There’s No Wind on the Moon, So How Does Dust Shift and Swirl So Quickly?

This is an image of the Reiner Gamma lunar swirl on the Moon, supplied by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Credits: NASA LRO WAC science team

The last place to look for windstorms is on the Moon. Yet, it has swirls on its surface that look like the wind put them there. Since there’s no atmosphere on the Moon, planetary scientists had to look for another cause. It turns out there’s a connection to local magnetic anomalies and an interplay with lunar topography.

August 30, 2023August 30, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Satellite Deployed a Drag Sail and Removed Itself from Orbit Five Years Early

The SBUDNIC satellite with its drag sail made from Kapton polyimide film, designed and built by students at Brown reentered Earth's atmosphere five years ahead of schedule. Image courtesy of Marco Cross.

In an age of increasing “stuff” orbiting Earth one big concern is what happens if one satellite hits another. The result could be an explosion, or a chain reaction of collisions, or the closure of an orbit. That would be catastrophic. However, a small satellite called SBUDNIC just sent itself back to Earth earlier than expected. It’s goal: to demonstrate a low-cost way to take care of space debris.

August 29, 2023August 29, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Is the Solar Wind Coming From These Tiny Jets on the Sun?

The Solar Orbiter mission is studying the Sun in great detail. It is helping scientists track down the source of the solar wind. Courtesy: ESA.

Ever since the first direct observations of the solar wind in 1959, astronomers have worked to figure out what powers this plasma flow. Now, scientists using the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft think they have an answer: tiny little outbursts called “picoflares” They flash out from the corona at 100 kilometers per second.

August 28, 2023August 28, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

NASA’s New Horizons Mission Still Threatened

Artist view of the New Horizons spacecraft against a sea of stars. Credit: Serge Brunier/Marc Postman/Dan Durda

The New Horizons spacecraft that studied Pluto and Kuiper Belt Object Arrokoth continues its pioneering exploration of the Kuiper Belt. However, that might soon end if NASA doesn’t change course. The New Horizons science team has been told by NASA that the mission as they know it is slated to end September 30, 2024.

August 24, 2023August 24, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hackers are Attacking Observatories

Hackers broke into the computers at Gemini North Telescope around August 1, 2023. The cybersecurity incident has shut down some telescopes and operations at several of NOIRLab's observatories. Image composite by C.C. Petersen.

Why would anybody want to hack an observatory? That’s the question facing IT professionals at NOIRLab after somebody tried to crack the computer systems at Gemini North in Hawai’i. The cyber break-in and ongoing investigation by NOIRLab and National Science Foundation experts affected observations and operations in Hawai’i and Chile.

August 20, 2023August 20, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Is This How You Get Magnetars?

An artist's impression of the star HD 4 5166, which is on its way to becoming a magnetar. Courtesy ESO.

Imagine a living star with a magnetic field at least 100,000 times stronger than Earth’s field. That’s the strange stellar object HD 45166. Its field is an incredible 43,000 Gauss. That makes it a new type of object: a massive magnetic helium star. In a million years, it’s going to get even stranger when it collapses and becomes a type of neutron star called a “magnetar”.