Universe Today

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 by Matt Williams

Hubble Sees a Spiral Galaxy With a Supermassive Black Hole Feasting at its Center

The galaxy NGC 1961 unfurls its gorgeous spiral arms in this newly released image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA/J. Dalcanton/R. Foley/G. Kober

Even after thirty years, and with next-generation telescopes (like the James Webb) hogging all the attention, the Hubble Space Telescope still manages to inspire. Recently, Hubble acquired a breathtaking image of NGC 1961, an intermediate spiral galaxy measuring 220,000 light years in diameter and located about 180 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis. Intermediate spiral galaxies are so-named because they are between “barred” and “unbarred” spiral galaxies, which means they don’t have a well-defined bar of stars at their centers.

The data used to create this image came from two sources, the first being a study of previously-unobserved objects belonging to the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (or “Arp galaxies,” named after astronomer Halton Arp). The second source consisted of observations made of the progenitors and explosions of a variety of supernovae. Between 1998 and 2021, four supernovae were observed in NGC 1961 (SN 1998eb, SN 2001is, SN 2013cc, and SN 2021vaz), making it a high-value target for study.

The resulting image captures the dusty spiral arms, bright, hot star-forming regions of NGC 1961 and the galaxy’s glowing center that manages to outshine all the stars in its disk. This is an example of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), where the central region emits tremendous amounts of energy because it contains a supermassive black hole (SMBH) that feeds on the surrounding dust, gas, and stars in the core region.

Many AGNs have been observed emitting bright jets of hot dust and gas that are accelerated to relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). These jets can be seen millions of light-years away and play an important role in a galaxy’s evolution. NGC 1961 is a fairly common type of AGN that shines brightly but emits low-energy-charged particles. It just goes to show that the old workhorses never lose their mojo! They just keep on delivering well into their later years!

Further Reading: NASA

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Without Water and Life, Geology on Mars is Driven by the Wind

Murray formation: rocks laid down by water and sculpted by wind — Finely layered rocks within the "Murray formation" layer of lower Mount Sharp on Mars. Credit: NASA

On Earth, we all know what changes our landscapes: water and wind erosion, tectonic activity, and volcanism. Today on Mars, wind-driven erosion is hard at work. Wind is an inexorable sculptor everywhere. And, it might have created places where planetary scientists and astrobiologists hunt for traces of primordial Martian life today.

September 16, 2022September 16, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Space Tourists Have Booked Their Next Private Mission to the International Space Station

In April of this year, the first all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station was successfully conducted when Axiom Space sent four non-NASA astronauts to space during the 17-day Axiom-1 Mission (Ax-1). Based on the endeavor’s success, NASA and Axiom Space have signed an agreement for the second such mission to the ISS, which will take place in the second quarter of 2023.

September 15, 2022September 15, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

Perseverance Has Collected Samples from One of the Best Places to Search for Ancient Life on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Perseverance gathered an important sample of sedimentary rock here. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover said today that the rover has collected several “tantalizing” organic rock samples from an ancient river delta on the Red Planet. These samples have now been stowed for a planned future mission that hopes to retrieve the specimens and bring them back to Earth for the first-ever sample return from Mars.

September 15, 2022September 15, 2022 by Matt Williams

A Galaxy With Ten Times the Mass of the Milky Way is Preparing to Become a Quasar

The massive, hyper-luminous galaxy W0410-0913 and its surroundings, seen 12 billion years back in time. Credit: M. Ginolfi & G. Jones / VLT / ESO.

One of the fundamental questions in astronomy is how galaxies formed over 13 billion years ago and have evolved ever since. A common feature that astronomers have noted is that most galaxies appear to have supermassive black holes (SMBHs) at their center – like Sagittarius A*, the ~4 million solar mass SMBH at the center of the Milky Way. These monster black holes occasionally swallow up nearby gas, dust, and stars and emit excess energy as powerful relativistic jets. This phenomenon, where the center of a galaxy outshines the stars in the disk, is known as an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) or quasar.

In a recent study, an international team of astronomers led by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) discovered a galaxy in the early Universe that could reveal more about this evolution. Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, they observed a swarm of galaxies orbiting a very bright and vigorously star-forming galaxy in the early Universe. These observations provide fresh insight into how exceptionally bright galaxies grow and evolve into quasars and emit powerful jets of light across the observable Universe.

September 15, 2022September 12, 2022 by Paul M. Sutter

Galactic Superwinds From Supernovae and Newly-Forming Stars Shape a Galaxy’s Early Development

This illustration shows a messy, chaotic galaxy undergoing bursts of star formation. This star formation is intense; it was known that it affects its host galaxy, but this new research shows it has an even greater effect than first thought. The winds created by these star formation processes stream out of the galaxy, ionising gas at distances of up to 650 000 light-years from the galactic centre. Credit: ESA, NASA, L. Calçada

Astronomers have long believed that supernovae and stellar winds drive outflows from galaxies known as superwinds. New research suggests that they may instead be due to a ring of nuclear fire.

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022 by Matt Williams

There Could be as Many Water Worlds as Earths in the Milky Way

Artist’s impression of the strange landscape of a water world. Credit: Pilar Montañés

On July 12th, 2022, NASA released the first images acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope, which were taken during its first six months of operation. Among its many scientific objectives, Webb will search for smaller, rocky planets that orbit closer to their suns – especially dimmer M-type (red dwarf) stars, the most common in the Universe. This will help astronomers complete the census of exoplanets and gain a better understanding of the types of worlds that exist out there. In particular, astronomers are curious about how many terrestrial planets in our galaxy are actually “water worlds.”

These are rocky planets that are larger than Earth but have a lower density, which suggests that volatiles like water make up a significant amount (up to half) of their mass-fraction. According to a recent study by researchers from the University of Chicago and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), water worlds may be just as common as “Earth-like” rocky planets. These findings bolster the case for exoplanets that are similar to icy moons in the Solar System (like Europa) and could have significant implications for future exoplanet studies and the search for life in our Universe.

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022 by Matt Williams

Mars did Have Moving Glaciers, but They Behaved Differently in the Planet's Lower Gravity

Glacial landscapes on Axel Heiberg Island (Canadian Arctic Archipelago) showing typical (glaciers) and atypical (subglacial channels, bottom right) glacial landscapes. Credit: A. Grau Galofre

On Earth, shifts in our climate have caused glaciers to advance and recede throughout our geological history (known as glacial and inter-glacial periods). The movement of these glaciers has carved features on the surface, including U-shaped valleys, hanging valleys, and fjords. These features are missing on Mars, leading scientists to conclude that any glaciers on its surface in the distant past were stationary. However, new research by a team of U.S. and French planetary scientists suggests that Martian glaciers did move more slowly than those on Earth.

September 14, 2022September 12, 2022 by Paul M. Sutter

The Tonga Eruption Produced a 90-Meter Tsunami

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 gigantic underwater Tonga volcano eruption event captured the world’s attention in January of this year. People from around the world marveled at the satellite imagery of this awesome demonstration of nature’s destructive capability. But only now are we learning that the volcano triggered something else – a tsunami wave up to 90m tall, nine times higher than the tsunamis generated by earthquakes.

September 14, 2022September 14, 2022 by David Dickinson

Meet the New Vespera Telescope From Vaonis

The Vespera telescope offers power and portability in a small deep-sky imaging package.

A great new telescope just got smaller and more portable. The French-based company Vaonis released its newest addition to their ‘smartscope’ family this week: the Vespera telescope. The small pill-shaped instrument joins the Stellina and the (forthcoming) Hyperia line, offering a lower price point and backpack portability without a compromise in quality.