Universe Today

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 by Evan Gough

Two Stars Orbiting Each Other Every 51 Minutes. This Can’t End Well

An artist’s illustration shows a white dwarf (right) circling a larger, sun-like star (left) in an ultra-short orbit, forming a “cataclysmic” binary system. Credits:Credit: M.Weiss/Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian

We don’t have to worry too much about our Sun. It can burn our skin, and it can emit potent doses of charged material—called Solar storms—that can damage electrical systems. But the Sun is alone up there, making things simpler and more predictable.

Other stars are locked in relationships with one another as binary pairs. A new study found a binary pair of stars that are so close to each other they orbit every 51 minutes, the shortest orbit ever seen in a binary system. Their proximity to one another spells trouble.

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

A Migrating Moon Might Have Turned Uranus Over on its Side

There are plenty of interesting things about Uranus. Its season lasts as long as its day, it’s the second least-dense planet, and it has a collection of 27 moons. But maybe the most puzzling fact about Uranus is that it is the only planet that lines on its side – relative to its orbital plane, at least. The most common suggestion for why the planet is tilted 98 degrees on its axis is that it was struck by a series of large impacts early in the solar system’s formation. However, new studies from a team at the Sorbonne point to a potential alternative explanation – Uranus used to have another, larger moon that pulled it onto its side and then impacted the planet itself.

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 by David Dickinson

China Launches First Solar Observatory ASO-S

China launches ASO-S, its first mission to explore the Sun.

One thing’s certain in modern astronomy: you can’t have too many missions exploring our host star. This is especially true in 2022, as Solar Cycle #25 gets underway in earnest, and heads towards its peak in 2025. China entered the quest to explore our Sun this past weekend, with the launch of its new Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S).

October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission is Finally out of Fuel After 8 Years of Science Operations

Scientists and engineers seem to have difficulty coming up with estimated mission timelines for their space exploration projects. Most don’t even reach the first day after succumbing to one form or another of technical failure, sometimes resulting in a dramatic fireball. Others have missions that extend orders of magnitude longer than they were originally designed for. Such is the case for India’s first mission to the Red Planet, which finally seems to have run out of fuel eight years into its original six-month mission.

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 by Matt Williams

The Pacific Ocean Will be Gone in 300 Million Years as the World's Continents Drift and Combine

Earth, seen from space, above the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA

Today, the Earth’s seven continents are distributed across the surface, with North and South America occupying one hemisphere, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia occupying the other, and Antarctica sitting alone around the South Pole. However, these continents were arranged in entirely different configurations throughout Earth’s history. On occasion, they formed supercontinents like Gondwana (ca. 550 to 180 million) and Pangaea (ca. 335 to 200 million years ago) that were surrounded by “superoceans.”

Eventually, the Earth’s tectonic plates will come together again to form the world’s next supercontinent. According to new research led by Curtin University in Bentley, Australia, this will happen roughly 200 to 300 million years from now. As they determined through a series of simulations, this will involve the Americas drifting westward until they collide with Australia and Asia (eliminating the Pacific Ocean) and Antarctica moving north to join them. This will give rise to the new supercontinent they have named “Amasia,” which will also have profound implications for life on Earth.

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 by Andy Tomaswick

Thanks to Hayabusa 2’s Samples, Scientists can Track the History of Ryugu Earlier in the History of the Solar System

When Huyabusa2 returned a sample of Ryugu, a Near Earth Asteroid, to Earth in December 2020, it was sure to light a bonfire of material science research. We’re starting to see the beginning of that, and a new study led by a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found a particular grain in the sample Huyabusa2 collected that shows how the asteroid formed.

October 10, 2022October 10, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Check out This Amazing Fly-through of a Futuristic Space Habitat

Interior view of a Stanford Torus space habitat. Illustration, credit and copyright Mark Garlick.

Space settlement proponents and science fiction fans are likely familiar with the Stanford Torus, a gigantic donut-shaped spinning space habitat that could provide Earth-like gravity and climate for as many as 140,000 people.

But you’ve never seen it like this.

October 9, 2022October 9, 2022 by Matt Williams

The Dark Energy Camera has Captured a Million Images, an Eighth of the Entire sky. Here are Some of its Best Pictures so far

Ten areas in the sky were selected as “deep fields” that the Dark Energy Camera imaged several times during the survey, providing a glimpse of distant galaxies and helping determine their 3D distribution in the cosmos. Credit: NSF/DES/NOIRLab/DOE/FNAL/AURA/University of Alaska Anchorage/

In August 2013, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) began its six-year mission to map thousands of galaxies, supernovae, and patterns in the cosmic structure. This international collaborative effort is dedicated to investigating the mysterious phenomenon known as Dark Energy. This theoretical force counter-acts gravity and accounts for 70% of the Universe’s energy-mass density. Their primary instrument in this mission is the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam), mounted on the Victor M. Blanco 5-meter (16.4 ft) telescope at the Cerro Tlelolo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.

Between 2013 and 2019, the DECam took over one million exposures of the southern night sky and photographed around 2.5 billion astronomical objects – including galaxies, galaxy clusters, stars, comets, asteroids, dwarf planets, and supernovae. For our viewing pleasure, the Dark Energy Survey recently released fifteen spectacular images taken by the DECam during the six-year campaign. These images showcase the capabilities of the DECam, the types of objects it observed, and the sheer beauty of the Universe!

October 8, 2022October 8, 2022 by Anton Pozdnyakov

Ads Taking Over Night Sky, DART Aftermath, Best JWST Image

Dimorphos grows a tail. More Europa pictures from Juno. The horrifying possibility of ads in the night sky. Why Jupiter’s atmosphere is surprisingly hot.

October 8, 2022October 8, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

The Methane Released From the Damaged Nord Stream Pipeline is Visible From Space

On September 20, 2022 a GHGSat satellite observed the area of the Nordstream pipeline break, and saw an estimated emission rate of methane of 79,000 kg per hour – making it the largest methane leak ever detected by GHGSat from a single point-source. Credit: GHGSat and ESA.

On September 26, 2022, leaks were discovered in the underwater Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, located near Denmark and Sweden. Both pipelines are owned by Russia and were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Officials have said the leaks were caused by deliberate action, not accidents, and were likely intentional sabotage. While accusations have abounded, the motives behind the damage are not yet known.

Seismic disturbances in the Baltic Sea were detected, and officials said that while neither pipeline was transporting gas at the time of the blasts, they still contained pressurized methane, which is the main component of natural gas. The methane has now spewed out, producing a wide stream of bubbles on the sea surface which are visible from various satellites in Earth orbit.