Astronomy Archives

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Matt Williams

New Report Details What Happened to the Arecibo Observatory

The Arecibo Radio Telescope. Though it's decommissioned now, Arecibo Data may explain 1977's mysterious Wow! Signal. Image Credit: UCF

In 1963, the Arecibo Observatory became operational on the island of Puerto Rico. Measuring 305 meters (~1000 ft) in diameter, Arecibo’s spherical reflector dish was the largest radio telescope in the world at the time – a record it maintained until 2016 with the construction of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China. In December 2020, Arecibo’s reflector dish collapsed after some of its support cables snapped, leading the National Science Foundation (NSF) to decommission the Observatory.

Shortly thereafter, the NSF and the University of Central Florida launched investigations to determine what caused the collapse. After nearly four years, the Committee on Analysis of Causes of Failure and Collapse of the 305-Meter Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory released an official report that details their findings. According to the report, the collapse was due to weakened infrastructure caused by long-term zinc creep-induced failure in the telescope’s cable sockets and previous damage caused by Hurricane Maria.

November 3, 2024November 3, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Future Space Telescopes Could be Made From Thin Membranes, Unrolled in Space to Enormous Size

Illustration of an array of membrane mirror telescopes. Credit: Sebastian Rabien, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics

Space-based telescopes are remarkable. Their view isn’t obscured by the weather in our atmosphere, and so they can capture incredibly detailed images of the heavens. Unfortunately, they are quite limited in mirror size. As amazing as the James Webb Space Telescope is, its primary mirror is only 6.5 meters in diameter. Even then, the mirror had to have foldable components to fit into the launch rocket. In contrast, the Extremely Large Telescope currently under construction in northern Chile will have a mirror more than 39 meters across. If only we could launch such a large mirror into space! A new study looks at how that might be done.

November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio

Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay back in 1977. I would have been 4 years old then! It’s an incredible achievement that technology that was built THAT long ago is still working. Yet here we are in 2024, Voyager 1 and 2 are getting older. Earlier this week, NASA had to turn off one of the radio transmitters on Voyager 1. This forced communication to rely upon the low-power radio. Alas technology around 50 years old does sometimes glitch and this was the result of a command to turn on a heater. The result was that Voyager 1 tripped into fault protection mode and switch communications! Oops.

November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Aftermath of a Neutron Star Collision Resembles the Conditions in the Early Universe

This artist's illustration shows a neutron star collision leaving behind a rapidly expanding cloud of radioactive material. The conditions in the cloud are similar to the conditions in the early Universe, shortly after the Big Bang. Image Credit: NASA GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER, CI LAB

Neutron stars are extraordinarily dense objects, the densest in the Universe. They pack a lot of matter into a small space and can squeeze several solar masses into a radius of 20 km. When two neutron stars collide, they release an enormous amount of energy as a kilonova.

That energy tears atoms apart into a plasma of detached electrons and atomic nuclei, reminiscent of the early Universe after the Big Bang.

October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by David Dickinson

Amazing Reader Views of Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS From Around the World

Comet T-ATLAS — Comet A3 Tsuchinshan- ATLAS on September 28th, over the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. Credit: Rob Sparks.

Comet C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS survived perihelion to become a fine dusk object for northern hemisphere observers.

It was an amazing month for astronomy. Not only were we treated to an amazing second solar storm for 2024 that sent aurorae as far south as the Caribbean, but we had a fine naked eye comet: C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024 by Matt Williams

Astronomers Discover Potential New Building Block of Organic Matter in Interstellar Space

A new study expands on the classical theory of panspermia, addressing whether or not life could be distributed on a galactic scale. Credit: NASA

Carbon is the building block for all life on Earth and accounts for approximately 45–50% of all dry biomass. When bonded with elements like hydrogen, it produces the organic molecules known as hydrocarbons. When bonded with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and phosphorus, it produces pyrimidines and purines, the very basis for DNA. The carbon cycle, where carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and back again, is also integral to maintaining life on Earth over time.

As a result, scientists believe that carbon should be easy to find in space, but this is not always the case. While it has been observed in many places, astronomers have not found it in the volumes they would expect to. However, a new study by an international team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) has revealed a new type of complex molecule in interstellar space. Known as 1-cyanoprene, this discovery could reveal where the building blocks of life can be found and how they evolve.

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024 by David Dickinson

Death of a Comet: S1 Didn’t Survive its Sungrazing Plummet

Jaeger Comet — Comet S1 ATLAS from October 19th. Credit: Michael Jaeger and Gerald Rhemann.

Sungrazer C/2024 S1 ATLAS broke apart at perihelion.

Alas, a ‘Great Halloween Comet’ was not to be. The Universe teased us just a bit this month, with the potential promise of a second naked eye comet in October: C/2024 S1 ATLAS. Discovered on the night of September 27th by the Asteroid Terrestrial Last-alert impact System (ATLAS) all-sky survey, this inbound comet was surprisingly bright and active for its relative distance from the Sun at the time of discovery. This gave the comet the potential to do what few sungrazers have done: survive a blisteringly close perihelion passage near the Sun.

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 by Evan Gough

Did Some of Earth’s Water Come from the Solar Wind?

The Sun releases a steady stream of charged particles called the Solar Wind. When it strikes unprotected surfaces like asteroids or the Moon, it can change the chemistry and even create water molecules. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

The source of Earth’s water is an enduring mystery that extends to exoplanets and the notion of habitability. In broad terms, Earth’s water was either part of the planet from the beginning of its formation in the solar nebula or delivered later, maybe by asteroids and comets.

New research suggests that the Sun’s relentless solar wind could’ve played a role.

October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Building Bricks out of Lunar Regolith

Samples of the lunar bricks. /China Media Group

It was 1969 that humans first set foot on the Moon. Now, over 50 years later we are setting sights on building lunar bases. The ability to complete that goal is dependent on either transporting significant amounts of material to the Moon to construct bases or somehow utilising raw lunar materials. A team of Chinese researchers have developed a technique to create bricks from material that is very similar to the soil found on the Moon. The hope is that the lunar soil can in the future, be used to build bricks on the Moon.

October 23, 2024October 23, 2024 by Evan Gough

The Webb Discovers a Rich Population of Brown Dwarfs Outside the Milky Way

Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy roughly 200 000 light-years from Earth, lies the young star cluster NGC 602, which is featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. This image includes data from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument). Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Zeidler, E. Sabbi, A. Nota, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)

This stunning image of a star cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is more than just a pretty picture. It’s part of a scientific effort to understand star formation in an environment different from ours. The young star cluster is called NGC 602, and it’s very young, only about 2 or 3 million years old.