Astronomy Archives

July 9, 2020July 10, 2020 by Matt Williams

A Giant Galaxy Seen Lighting Up the Universe Shortly After the Big Bang

An illustration of cosmic expansion. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

About 370,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe experienced a period that cosmologists refer to as the “Cosmic Dark Ages.” During this period, the Universe was obscured by pervasive neutral gas that obscured all visible light, making it invisible to astronomers. As the first stars and galaxies formed over the next few hundred millions of years, the radiation they emitted ionized this plasma, making the Universe transparent.

One of the biggest cosmological mysteries right now is when “cosmic reionization” began. To find out, astronomers have been looking deeper into the cosmos (and farther back in time) to spot the first visible galaxies. Thanks to new research by a team of astronomers from University College London (UCL), a luminous galaxy has been observed that was reionizing the intergalactic medium 13 billion years ago.

July 8, 2020July 9, 2020 by Matt Williams

Languages Will Change Significantly on Interstellar Flights

Artist's concept of an interstellar craft. Credit and Copyright: Mark Rademaker

It’s a captivating idea: build an interstellar ark, fill it with people, flora, and fauna of every kind, and set your course for a distant star! The concept is not only science fiction gold, its been the subject of many scientific studies and proposals. By building a ship that can accommodate multiple generations of human beings (aka. a Generation Ship), humans could colonize the known Universe.

But of course, there are downsides to this imaginative proposal. During such a long voyage, multiple generations of people will be born and raised inside a closed environment. This could lead to all kinds of biological issues or mutations that we simply can’t foresee. But according to a new study by a team of linguistics professors, there’s something else that will be subject to mutation during such a voyage – language itself!

July 8, 2020July 8, 2020 by Evan Gough

What Telescope Will Be Needed to See the First Stars in the Universe? The Ultimately Large Telescope

New results from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope suggest the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe took place sooner than previously thought. A European team of astronomers have found no evidence of the first generation of stars, known as Population III stars, when the Universe was less than one billion years old. This artist’s impression presents the early Universe. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser.

The oldest stars in the Universe are cloaked in darkness. Their redshift is so high, we can only wonder about them. The James Webb Space Telescope will be our most effective telescope for observing the very early Universe, and should observe out to z = 15. But even it has limitations.

To observe the Universe’s very first stars, we need a bigger telescope. The Ultimately Large Telescope.

July 8, 2020July 8, 2020 by Evan Gough

Detecting the Neutrinos From a Supernova That’s About to Explode

A composite image of SN 1987A from Hubble, Chandra, and ALMA. Image Credit: By ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/A. Angelich. Visible light image: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. X-Ray image: The NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory - http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1401a/, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30512379

Neutrinos are puzzling things. They’re tiny particles, almost massless, with no electrical charge. They’re notoriously difficult to detect, too, and scientists have gone to great lengths to detect them. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, for instance, tries to detect neutrinos with strings of detectors buried down to a depth of 2450 meters (8000 ft.) in the dark Antarctic ice.

How’s that for commitment.

July 8, 2020 by David Dickinson

Dawn Patrol: Jupiter and Saturn at Opposition 2020

Missing the planets in the first half of 2020? That’s all about to change, as the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn reach opposition in rapid succession this month, heralding a return to the dusk sky.

July 7, 2020 by Andy Tomaswick

A Tabletop-sized Experiment Could Help in the Search for Dark Matter

A computer simulation of the distribution of matter in the universe. Orange regions host galaxies; blue structures are gas and dark matter. Credit: TNG Collaboration

Dark matter is one of the least understood aspects in physics. The evidence for dark matter is from its gravitational influence on galactic scales which cannot be explained by the presence of conventional matter. Despite its large gravitational interactions, it is notoriously difficult to learn about dark matter as it does not interact with electromagnetic fields, hence the name of “dark” matter.

But just because it is difficult to get it to interact with anything on the electromagnetic spectrum does not mean it is impossible to detect other feeble interactions it may have. A team of theoretical physicists from Caltech have recently proposed a novel type of experiment that may just hold the key to understanding dark matter with specific types of interactions.

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Evan Gough

The Corona Australis Molecular Cloud. Normally this Looks Like a Dark Blob in the Sky. But in Infrared, it Looks Like This.

A composite image of the Corona Australis molecular cloud from the ESA's Herschel and Planck Space Observatories. Image Credit: ESA/Herschel/Planck; J. D. Soler, MPIA

The Corona Australis is a constellation in the southern hemisphere. It’s name literally means “southern crown.” One of its features is the Corona Australis molecular cloud, home to a star-forming region containing young stars and proto-stars. It’s one of the closest star-forming regions to us, only about 430 light years away.

The ESA has given us a new composite image of the cloud with data from the Herschel Space Observatory and the Planck Space Observatory.

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Evan Gough

The Moon Might Be More Metal-Rich Than We Thought

The Moon contains more metal than previously thought, according to a new study. Is it time to re-think the giant impact hypothesis? Image Credit: NASA / GSFC / Arizona State University

A new study shows that the Moon is more metal-rich than previously thought. That has some far-reaching implications for our understanding of the Moon’s formation. If their results are solid, it means that we may need to re-think the giant impact hypothesis for the formation of the Moon.

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 by Evan Gough

Betelgeuse Probably Dimmed Because of Enormous Starspots

An artist's impression of Betelgeuse. Its surface is covered by large star spots, which reduce its brightness. During their pulsations, such stars regularly release gas into their surroundings, which condenses into dust. Image Credit: MPIA graphics department

A few months ago we all watched as Betelgeuse dimmed. Between October 2019 and 22nd of February 2020 the star’s brightness dropped by a factor of about three. It went from magnitude 0.5, and from being the tenth-brightest star in the sky, to magnitude 1.7.

Naturally, we all wondered what was happening. Would it go supernova? Even though that was extremely unlikely, how could we help but wonder?

July 6, 2020February 17, 2023 by Matt Williams

There’s a Black Hole With 34 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun, Eating Roughly a Star Every Day

Close-up of star near a supermassive black hole (artist’s impression). Credit: ESA/Hubble, ESO, M. Kornmesser

In the 1960s, astronomers began theorizing that there might be black holes in the Universe that are so massive – supermassive black holes (SMBHs) – they could power the nuclei of active galaxies (aka. quasars). A decade later, astronomers discovered that an SMBH existed at the center of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A*); and by the 1990s, it became clear that most large galaxies in the Universe are likely to have one.

Since that time, astronomers have been hunting for the largest SMBH they can find in the hopes that they can see just how massive these things can get! And thanks to new research led by astronomers from the Australian National University, the latest undisputed heavy-weight contender has been found! With roughly 34 billion times the mass of our Sun, this SMBH (J2157) is the fastest-growing black hole and largest quasar observed to date.