Universe Today

February 8, 2023February 8, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

New Discoveries Puts Jupiter at 92 Known Moons

A top-down overhead view of the orbits of Jupiter's 92 moons. Credit: Scott Sheppard.

The moon hunter strikes again.

A team of astronomers led by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution has found and confirmed 12 new moons orbiting Jupiter, bringing the total of moons at the giant planet to 92. The new moons were quietly announced on the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center website last week, and the new discoveries puts Jupiter in the lead in a recent back-and-forth moon battle with Saturn.

Jupiter was solidly in the lead with Sheppard and team’s announcement of 12 new moons back in 2018, but then in 2019, Sheppard and colleagues found a whopping 20 new moons orbiting Saturn, bringing the ringed planet’s total number of moons to 82. But now this latest addition moves Jupiter back in the lead.

With Sheppard around, we may never know the final count.

February 7, 2023February 8, 2023 by Matt Williams

The World's Largest Radio Telescope Just Scanned 33 Exoplanets for a Signal From Aliens

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) has just finished construction in the southwestern province of Guizhou. Credit: FAST

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), located in China, is currently the world’s largest and most sophisticated radio observatory. While its primary purpose is to conduct large-scale neutral hydrogen surveys (the most common element in the Universe), study pulsars, and detect Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), scientists have planned to use the array in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Integral to this field of study is the search for technosignatures, signs of technological activity that indicate the presence of an advanced civilization.

While many potential technosignatures have been proposed since the first surveys began in the 1960s, radio transmissions are still considered the most likely and remain the most studied. In a recent survey, an international team of SETI researchers conducted a targeted search of 33 exoplanet systems using a new method they call the “MBCM blind search mode.” While the team detected two “special signals” using this mode, they dismissed the idea that they were transmissions from an advanced species. Nevertheless, their survey demonstrated the effectiveness of this new blind mode and could lead to plausible candidate signals in the future.

February 7, 2023February 7, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers Make a New Map of all the Matter (and Dark Matter) in the Universe

A composite model of matter distribution (with dark matter overlay) in a galaxy formation simulation made by the TNG Collaboration.

There’s a lot of matter in the Universe, but not all of it is visible to us. Matter is, essentially, anything that has mass and takes up space. That includes us, the planets, stars, nebulae, and galaxies. It also includes dark matter. It’s all spread out through space.

February 7, 2023February 7, 2023 by Evan Gough

This Exoplanet Orbits Around its Star’s Poles

Astronomers have found another hot Jupiter in a polar orbit around its star. This illustration shows the exoplanet WASP-79 b following a polar orbit around its star. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC

In 1992, humanity’s effort to understand the Universe took a significant step forward. That’s when astronomers discovered the first exoplanets. They’re named Poltergeist (Noisy Ghost) and Phobetor (Frightener), and they orbit a pulsar about 2300 light-years away.

Even though we thought there must be other planets around other stars, and entire science fiction franchises were built on the idea, we didn’t know for sure and couldn’t just assume it to be true. A quick glance at human history shows how wrong our assumptions about nature can be.

February 7, 2023February 8, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Sierra Space Tests Another Inflatable Space Station Module … to Destruction

The moment of boom for Sierra Space's LIFE Habitat during a Accelerated Systematic Creep Test. Credit: Sierra Space.

Oops! They’ve done it again. Sierra Space blew up their space habitat for the third time – intentionally — all in the name of testing.

The commercial space company conducted a new duration test called an Accelerated Systematic Creep Test for their LIFE Habitat (Large Integrated Flexible Environment), putting a 1/3 size scale model of the space module under gradually increasing excess pressure until it failed. The habitat burst after more than 150 hours of constant pressure, exceeding NASA’s certification target of 100 hours.

Sierra Space told Universe Today that the results of the test indicate that the test article exceeded the pressure shell on orbit lifetime performance requirement of 15 years with margin. That means astronauts could live and work in a full-size version of the inflatable habitat for up to 60 years in space.

The video below shows the impressive explosion:

February 7, 2023February 7, 2023 by David Dickinson

Check Out This Great View of Comet 96P Machholz, Courtesy of SOHO

Now’s the time to catch periodic Comet 96P Machholz on its encore dawn performance, before it slides out of view.

So, have you been following the touted ‘green comet,’ E3 ZTF? To be sure, it’s nothing more than a fuzzy patch, a binocular comet sliding through the constellation Auriga looking like a globular cluster that refuses to resolve into focus. Though E3 ZTF may not live up to the hype, it does have one thing going for it: it is currently well-placed for northern hemisphere viewers. It also put on a great show for astrophotographers as it recently completed an orbital plane-crossing, as seen from our Earthly vantage point.

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Evan Gough

Earth-Sized Planet Found At One of the Lightest Red Dwarfs

Artist’s conception of a rocky Earth-mass exoplanet like Wolf 1069 b orbiting a red dwarf star. If the planet has retained its atmosphere, chances are high that it would feature liquid water and habitable conditions over a wide area of its dayside. Image Credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter

Astronomers have found another Earth-sized planet. It’s about 31 light-years away and orbits in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star. It’s probably tidally locked, which can be a problem around red dwarf stars. But the team that found it is optimistic about its potential habitability.

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Evan Gough

Hubble’s New View of the Tarantula Nebula

A snapshot of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is the most recent Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray, E. Sabbi; Acknowledgment: Y. -H. Chu

The Tarantula Nebula, also called 30 Doradus, is the brightest star-forming region in our part of the galaxy. It’s in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and contains the most massive and hottest stars we know of. The Tarantula Nebula has been a repeat target for the Hubble since the telescope’s early years.

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Face-on View of Galaxy NGC 4303 Reveals its Arms are Filled with Active Star Formation

NGC 4303, a galaxy rich in star formation. It lies about 55 million light-years away in the Virgo Cluster. This view shows both visible-light and millimeter-wavelength views of the galaxy. Credit: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/PHANGS

Galaxies fill a lot of roles in the universe. The most obvious one is star formation factories. Without that activity, the cosmos would be a very different place. The European Southern Observatory and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array recently zeroed in on the galaxy NGC 4303. Their goal: to take a multi-wavelength view of its star formation activity.

February 6, 2023February 6, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

JWST Unexpectedly Finds a Small Asteroid During ‘Failed’ Observations

Illustration of Asteroid (Artist’s Impression). Credit: N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb), ESO/M. Kornmesser and S. Brunier, N. Risinger

While astronomers and engineers were trying to calibrate one of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments last summer, they serendipitously found a previously unknown small 100–200-meter (300-600 ft) asteroid in the main asteroid belt. Originally, the astronomers deemed the calibrations as a failed attempt because of technical glitches. But they noticed the asteroid while going through their data from the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), and ended up finding what is likely the smallest object observed to date by JWST. It is also one of the smallest objects ever detected in our Solar System’s main belt of asteroids.

“We — completely unexpectedly — detected a small asteroid in publicly available MIRI calibration observations,” explained Thomas Müller, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany, in a press release. “The measurements are some of the first MIRI measurements targeting the ecliptic plane and our work suggests that many, new objects will be detected with this instrument.”