Universe Today

June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Mind-Blowing Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions

A map of carbon dioxide in atmosphere from various sources during 2021. CourtesyNASA's Scientific Visualization Studio — A map of carbon dioxide in atmosphere over North America from various sources during 2021. CourtesyNASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

It’s a strange, eerie-looking place. Carbon dioxide gas appears… and disappears in cycles and bursts throughout the year. It’s how our planet would look if we could detect carbon dioxide (CO₂) with our eyes. Scientists at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office made computer animations of its presence in our atmosphere. Those videos show an almost-alien view of Earth under the influence of this gas.

June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

The Earth’s Rotational Pole has Shifted from All the Groundwater We’ve Pumped Out

Earth is, in many ways, a water world. Around two-thirds of its surface is covered in water, and the oceans that provide that cover make up over 96% of all water on Earth, according to the US Geological Survey. Glaciers and ice caps make up another 1.74%, but groundwater is the third most plentiful source at 1.69% of all water available on Earth. That’s an astonishing 23.4 million cubic kilometers of the stuff, dwarfing the mere 176,000 cubic kilometers contained in all the lakes in the world. But that does not mean the total amount of groundwater is unlimited, and removing it can have a lasting impact on more than just the people who use it for bathing and drinking. A new study points to how humans pumping out groundwater impacts Earth’s rotation.

June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

Nancy Grace Roman Could Detect Supermassive Dark Stars

Artist view dark neutron star. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

The first stars of the universe were very different than the stars we see today. They were made purely of hydrogen and helium, without heavier elements to help them generate energy in their core. As a result, they were likely hundreds of times more massive than the Sun. But some of the first stars may have been even stranger. In the early universe, dark matter could have been more concentrated than it is now, and it may have powered strange stellar objects known as dark stars.

June 22, 2023June 22, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

A Brown Dwarf is Getting Hit With So Much Radiation it's Hotter Than the Sun

Artist view of a hot Jupiter closely orbiting its star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (IPAC)

Hot Jupiters are large gas planets that orbit their star closely. Unlike our Jupiter, which radiates more heat than it gets from the Sun, hot Jupiters get more heat from their star than from their interior. As a result, they can have a surface temperature of 1,000 K rather than the 160 K that Jupiter has. They are one of the more common types of exoplanets and the easiest type of exoplanet to discover.

June 22, 2023June 22, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

BepiColumbo Makes its Third Flyby of Mercury, Seeing the Planet's Night Side

Several geological features are visible in this image of Mercury taken by the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission on June 19, 2023 as the spacecraft sped by for its third of three gravity assist maneuvers at the planet. Credit: ESA/BepiColumbo/MTM.

ESA’s BepiColumbo continues its journey to Mercury by making another flyby … of Mercury! This is the third of six planned flybys of its destination planet, each of which gives the spacecraft a gravitational deceleration. Eventually, it’ll slow down enough to go into its final operational orbit.

In the most recent flyby on June 19, 2023, the spacecraft sped past the planet’s night side and took a series of images from 236 km (145 miles) above Mercury’s surface. From these 217 images, the BepiColumbo team created a movie of the flyby, which includes a 3D scene.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Matt Williams

Bringing the Gift of Hope to Ukrainian Kids through Astronomy

Earthlings Hub is bringing education and counseling services to orphans and refugees in Ukraine, Credit: Earthlings Hub

The war in Ukraine has taken a terrible toll, and the damage extends far from the shifting battle lines. In addition to the many soldiers and civilians who’ve died, over 2.5 million children have been displaced within the country. The war has also exacerbated the problems of orphaned children, who are especially vulnerable in urban areas where the fighting has been most intense. Ensuring these children and their families can get adequate food and medical care is always challenging. Ensuring they have access to education and counseling services so their lives are not severely interrupted is even more so.

But there’s also the need for inspiration and hope for the future, which becomes all the more important in times of war and displacement. This is the purpose of Earthlings Hub, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing astronomy and science education to refugee and orphan children in Ukraine. Founded in 2022 by members of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS), Earthlings Hub is made up of scientists, teachers, and psychologists working to provide students with access to scientific research, equipment, and an inquiry-based educational program that goes beyond the standard school curriculum.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.

Imagery from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and Chandra X-ray Observatory have been combined to show X-ray data of the area around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way galaxy. The lower panel combines IXPE data, in orange, with Chandra data in blue. The upper panel depicts a much wider field-of-view of the center of the Milky Way, courtesy of Chandra. The thin white lines layered onto the top panel frame the highlighted area, and indicate that the perspective in the bottom panel has been rotated approximately 45 degrees to the right. The combination of IXPE and Chandra data helped researchers determine that the X-ray light identified in the molecular clouds originated from Sagittarius A* during an outburst approximately 200 years ago. Credits: IXPE: NASA/MSFC/F. Marin et al; Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO; Image Processing: L.Frattare, J.Major & K.Arcand

We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr A*. It’s not loud and bright like an active galactic nucleus. It appears to be active for brief periods before going to sleep. Two hundred years ago, it “woke up” for about a year and a half and had a bite to eat.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

The Most Intense Lightning Ever Seen Came From Last Year's Tonga Volcano Eruption

The Tonga Hunga volcanic eruption sent a tsunami across the Pacific. Air pressure disturbances from the tsunami distorted GPS signals. GOES imagery courtesy NOAA,NESDIS. — The Tonga Hunga volcanic eruption as seen by a GOES satellite. Credit: NOAA,NESDIS.

The enormous undersea volcano that erupted in Tonga last year was record-breaking in many regards. It generated the highest-ever recorded volcanic plume, it triggered a sonic boom that circled the globe twice, and was the most powerful natural explosion in more than a century.

Now, scientists studying the eruption say the volcanic plume created record-breaking amounts of volcanic lightning, the most intense lightning rates ever documented in Earth’s atmosphere. While the ash obscured the view, satellites and ground-based radio antennas with specialized instrument could peer through the ash and see every stage of the unfolding eruption. Over 200,000 lightning flashes were detected in the volcanic plume, more than 2,600 flashes every minute.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Brian Koberlein

Parker Solar Probe Makes a Surprising Discovery About the Source of the Geminid Meteor Shower

The Geminid meteor shower in the Northern Hemisphere. Credit: Asim Patel

If you’ve ever seen a meteor shower, you know it can be an amazing sight. You watch the skies as every few moments there’s a streak of light. Sometimes bright and in your field of vision. Sometimes starting just out of the corner of your eye. Although a meteor can occur at any time, they tend to appear at certain times of the year, such as the Perseids of August, or the Orionids of October.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Andy Tomaswick

A New Mission Will Grab Dead Satellites and Push Them Into the Atmosphere to Burn Up

Plenty of news stories have focused on the danger posed by Kessler syndrome. In this condition, space is made inaccessible by a cloud of debris surrounding our planet that would destroy any further attempts to get into orbit. Therefore, plenty of companies have sprung up that problem to take care of the problem, from blasting derelict satellites with lasers to helping to refuel them; lots of business models have been created to capture this opportunity. One of the farthest along is Astroscale. This British start-up is tackling the problem with one of the more conventional techniques – linking up with an existing satellite to deorbit it. And recently, they released a promotional video for their new project – the ELSA-M.