Carolyn Collins Petersen, Author at Universe Today

November 22, 2022November 22, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Milky Way’s Stellar Halo Isn’t a Sphere After All

stellar halo around the milky way — The Milky Way's anatomy includes a rounded stellar halo That view is changing with new data. Image courtesy ESA.

Our galaxy’s stellar halo is giving astronomers some new food for thought. It turns out everyone thought the halo was spherical. But, it’s not. That’s news to everyone who said it was spherical. According to a new measurement done by a team at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, it has a tilted, oblong football shape. This all tells astronomers an interesting tale about our galaxy’s ancient history.

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hubble Sees a Dense Cloud of Gas and Dust That’s About to Become a Star

A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. — A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the centre of this HST image. Courtesy NASA/ESA/STScI

The process of star birth begins in a shroud of gas and dust. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) excels in showing detailed views of these stellar crêches because there’s still a lot to learn about them. Its latest image shows an object called a “dense core”, where a stellar embryo could already exist.

November 18, 2022November 18, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Perseverance has Found a Nice Patch of Sandstone on Mars

Sandstone on Mars in Jezero Crater — This image of “Yori Pass” was taken by a Hazcam imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Nov. 5, 2022. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s rolling geology robot shared a great image of sandstone that it found on Mars in Jezero Crater. It’s in a region called “Yori Pass”, which is part of an ancient river delta. Perseverance will take rock samples there for the upcoming Sample Return Mission. They should tell more about what happened with water in this region. And maybe they’ll show evidence of life.

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Gamma-ray Bursts Don’t Always Signal the Birth of a Black Hole, Sometimes It’s Just a New Neutron Star

gamma-ray burst from neutron star merger — Artist rendering of colliding neutron stars. Credit: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science

Way out in the universe, a long time ago, a proto-magnetar was born. The birth was heralded by a gamma-ray burst (GRB), followed by a blast of strange emissions. Astronomers once assumed that GRBs like this came from black hole births. However, observations of the new object by astronomers in England show there’s more than one way to cause a GRB. And, there’s more than one type of GRB.

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Divers Have Found a Piece of the Space Shuttle Challenger Off the Coast of Florida

Space Shuttle Challenger memorial poster — A memorial poster of space shuttle Challenger's orbiter tribute, or OV-099, which hangs in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Courtesy NASA.

Nearly 37 years ago the world watched in stunned horror as an explosion destroyed the space shuttle Challenger. The accident occurred 73 seconds after liftoff and killed seven astronauts. Memories of shuttle pieces falling into the sea remain with everyone who witnessed the catastrophe.

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hubble saw the Same Supernova at Three Different Times Thanks to Gravitational Lensing

As cosmic events go, supernova explosions epitomize the saying, “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.” They’re the deaths of stars so massive that they tear through their fuel in a short time. Then, they explode and create gorgeous scenes of stellar destruction. These seminal events enrich the universe with chemical elements for new generations of stars and planets.

November 7, 2022November 7, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hydrothermal Vents Under the Arctic Ice are Perfect Places to Practice Exploring Europa

This illustration of Europa (foreground), Jupiter (right) and Io (middle) is an artist's concept showing possible oceanic volcanoes under its icy surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Someday on Europa, there’ll be a robotic explorer diving beneath its icy surface to find volcanoes. Yes, even though it’s an ice world, Europa shows signs of internal activity. Planetary scientists think volcanic features, similar to hydrothermal vents here on Earth, exist on Europa’s ocean floor. But, how to understand them?

November 4, 2022November 4, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Can Plants be Adapted to Thrive in Space?

plants in space — A view into NASA's Kennedy Space Center’s Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) during experiment verification testing for the Plant Habitat-03 investigation. The image shows the Arabidopsis plants growing in the APH just before the four seed bags are installed. The plants are just beginning to develop flower stalks. Image courtesy of Dr. Anna-Lisa Paul.

Humans in space have to eat. In the early days of space exploration, they got to eat paste and drink Tang (or so the legends tell us). That’s hardly a great long-term diet. Plants should be in there, too. And, astronauts aboard the ISS have been growing gardens in space for years.

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

In a New Hubble Image, Dark Matter Anchors the Giant Galaxy Cluster Abell 611

abell 611 and its galaxies and dark matter — Hubble Space Telescope offers a cosmic cobweb of galaxies and invisible dark matter in the cluster Abell 611. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, P. Kelly, M. Postman, J. Richard, S. Allen

Dark matter. It’s secret. It’s dark because it doesn’t give off any light. We can’t see it, taste it, touch it, smell it, or even feel it. But, astronomers can measure this dark secret of the universe. How? By looking at galaxies and galaxy clusters. Dark matter exerts a gravitational influence on those regions, and that CAN be measured.

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Good News! The Ozone Hole is Continuing to Shrink

earth's atmosphere has an ozone hole (not seen here) — Earth’s atmosphere seen from space. The top layer of the stratosphere is the ozone layer, which protects us from harmful solar UV. Scientists are tracking the ozone hole over the Antarctic. Credit: NASA

Most of us don’t think about ozone as we go about our daily lives. Yet, this pale blue gas plays a huge role in keeping our planet habitable. There’s a layer of it in Earth’s stratosphere, and it absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation streaming from the Sun. Without the ozone layer, the UV would cause severe damage to most life on Earth. What would happen if we had an ozone hole?