Astronomy Archives

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 by Evan Gough

WFIRST Passes an Important Milestone, it’s Time to Begin Development and Testing

This graphic shows a simulation of a WFIRST observation of M31, also known as the Andromeda galaxy. Hubble used more than 650 hours to image areas outlined in blue. Using WFIRST, covering the entire galaxy would take only three hours. Credits: DSS, R. Gendle, NASA, GSFC, ASU, STScI, B. F. Williams

Soon, astronomers and astrophysicists will have more observing power than they know what to do with. Not only will the James Webb Space Telescope one day, sometime in the next couple years, we hope, if all goes well, and if the coronavirus doesn’t delay it again, launch and begin operations. But another powerful NASA space telescope called WFIRST has passed an important stage, and is one step closer to reality.

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 by Matt Williams

The First Artemis Launch has Been Delayed Until Mid-to-Late 2021

Artist's impression of the SLS taking off. Credit: NASA

Since December of 2017, NASA has been working towards the goal of sending “the next man and first woman” to the Moon by 2024, which will be the first crewed lunar mission since the Apollo Program. As part of this mission, known as Project Artemis, NASA has been developing both the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion spacecraft, which will allow the astronauts to make the journey.

Originally, it was hoped that the first uncrewed flight of the SLS and Orion (Artemis I) would take place later this year. But according to recent statements by Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk, this inaugural launch will most likely take place “mid to late” in 2021. This is the latest in a series of delays for the high-profile project, which has been making impressive progress nevertheless.

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by Evan Gough

Are Low Density “Cotton Candy” Exoplanets Actually Just Regular Planets With Rings?

An artist’s conception of Piro and Vissapragada’s model of a ringed planet transiting in front of its host star. They used these models to constrain which of the known super-puffs could be explained by rings. Illustration is by Robin Dienel and courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

There’s a type of exoplanet that astronomers sometimes refer to as cotton candy planets, or super-puffs. They’re mysterious, because their masses don’t match up with their extremely large radii. The two characteristics imply a planet with an extremely low density.

In our Solar System, there’s nothing like them, and finding them in distant solar systems has been puzzling. Now a pair of astronomers might have figured it out.

March 4, 2020March 4, 2020 by Evan Gough

Two White Dwarfs Merged Together Into a Single “Ultramassive” White Dwarf

An artist’s impression of two white dwarfs in the process of merging. Depending on the combined mass, the system may explode in a thermonuclear supernova, or coalesce into a single heavy white dwarf, as with WDJ0551+4135. This image is free for use if used in direct connection with this story but image copyright and credit must be University of Warwick/Mark Garlick

Astronomers have found a white dwarf that was once two white dwarfs. The pair of stars merged into one about 1.3 billion years ago. The resulting star, named WDJ0551+4135, is about 150 light years away.

March 3, 2020June 1, 2021 by David Dickinson

Introducing Analog Sky’s 3D-Printed Giant Binoculars

Sky scanner — A set of Analog Sky binoculars, set up for a night's worth of observing. Credit: Analog Sky.

Update: we’re happy to announce that Analog Sky is making a special offer just for Universe Today readers for its new giant binoculars.

A unique, crowd-sourced, 3D-printed telescope is poised to revolutionize how we look at the sky.

Late last year, we announced Oregon-based innovator and amateur astronomer Robert Asumendi’s plans to release the Analog Sky telescope system, featuring a set of giant space binoculars. Now, we’re happy to announce that Robert has officially launched the project as a crowd-funded campaign on Indiegogo.

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 by Evan Gough

Astronomers Have Recorded the Biggest Explosion Ever Seen in the Universe

Hundreds of millions of light years away, a supermassive black hole sits in the center of a galaxy cluster named Ophiuchus. Though black holes are renowned for sucking in surrounding material, they sometimes expel material in jets. This black hole is the site of an almost unimaginably powerful explosion, created when an enormous amount of material was expelled.

March 2, 2020March 2, 2020 by Evan Gough

Here’s a New Planetary Nebula for Your Collection: CVMP 1

The international Gemini Observatory composite color image of the planetary nebula CVMP 1 imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile. Credit: The international Gemini Observatory/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA

Some stars die a beautiful death, ejecting their outer layers of gas into space, then lighting it all up with their waning energy. When that happens, we get a nebula. Astronomers working with the Gemini Observatory just shared a new image of one of these spectacular objects.

March 1, 2020March 1, 2020 by Matt Williams

What is the Steady State Hypothesis?

Artist's impression of the Milky Way Galaxy. Credit: ESO

When it comes to our cosmic origins, a number of theories have been advanced throughout the course of history. Literally every culture that’s ever existed has had its own mythological tradition, which naturally included a creation story. With the birth of the scientific tradition, scientists began to understand the Universe in terms of physical laws that could be tested and proven.

With the dawn of the Space Age, scientists began testing cosmological theories in terms of observable phenomena. From all of this, a number of theories emerged by the latter half of the 20th century that attempted to explain how all matter and the physical laws governing it came to be. Of these, the Big Bang Theory remains the most widely accepted while the Steady-State Hypothesis has historically been its greatest challenger.

March 1, 2020September 1, 2022 by Matt Williams

What is a Generation Ship?

The dream of traveling to another star and planting the seed of humanity on a distant planet… It is no exaggeration to say that it has captivated the imaginations of human beings for centuries. With the birth of modern astronomy and the Space Age, scientific proposals have even been made as to how it could be done. But of course, living in a relativistic Universe presents many challenges for which there are no simple solutions.

Of these challenges, one of the greatest has to do with the sheer amount of energy necessary to get humans to another star within their own lifetimes. Hence why some proponents of interstellar travel recommend sending spacecraft that are essentially miniaturized worlds that can accommodate travelers for centuries or longer. These “Generation Ships” (aka. worldships or Interstellar Arks) are spacecraft that are built for the truly long haul.

February 28, 2020February 29, 2020 by Matt Williams

Riding the Wave of a Supernova to Go Interstellar

An artist's illustration of a light-sail powered by a radio beam (red) generated on the surface of a planet. The leakage from such beams as they sweep across the sky would appear as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), similar to the new population of sources that was discovered recently at cosmological distances. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

When it comes to the challenges posed by interstellar travel, there are no easy answers. The distances are immense, the amount of energy needed to make the journey is tremendous, and the time scales involved are (no pun!) astronomical. But what if there was a way to travel between stars using ships that take advantage of natural phenomena to reach relativistic velocities (a fraction of the speed of light).

Already, scientists have identified situations where objects in our Universe are able to do this – including hypervelocity stars and meteors accelerated by supernovae explosions. Delving into this further, Harvard professors Manasvi Lingam and Abraham Loeb recently explored how interstellar spacecraft could harness the waves produced by a supernova explosion in the same way that sailing ships harness the wind.