Space and astronomy news
A supermassive black hole in the heart of a galaxy is the ultimate 800-pound gorilla of astrophysics. Not only do the most active ones suck in material and hide it away, but their accretion disks also blast strong quasar winds out to space. Those winds push things around, and in the process, they sometimes shut down star formation.
Continue reading “Black Hole Bullies Shut Down Star Formation in Their Galaxies”
Deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) is one of humanity’s most critical long-term efforts to ensure we don’t suffer the fate of the dinosaurs. There are plenty of suggested mission architectures to move a PHA out of the way, the most famous of which was the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which successfully changed the orbit of Dimorphos, a harmless small asteroid. That proof of concept bodes well for our chances of deflecting any future PHAs as long as they are discovered in time. But when it comes to the safety of the planet, we can’t be too careful, so developing more ways to deflect a PHA is better, and a paper from researchers at Beihang University details a methodology that is gaining some traction lately – using an asteroid’s regolith as a propellant.
Continue reading “Can We Use An Asteroid’s Own Dust to Deflect It?”
It turns out that you don’t need the Men in Black to spot unidentified anomalous phenomena, which are also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs. Researchers have shown how the task of detecting aerial objects in motion could be done by analyzing Earth imagery from commercial satellites.
They say they demonstrated the technique using one of the most notorious UAP incidents of recent times: last year’s flight of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S., which ended in a shootdown by an Air Force fighter jet above the Atlantic Ocean. They also analyzed imagery of a different spy balloon that passed over Colombia at about the same time.
“Our proposed method appears to be successful and allows the measurement of the apparent velocity of moving objects,” the researchers report.
Continue reading “How Commercial Satellites Could Track Spy Balloons and Other UFOs”
Earth releases about as much energy out into space as it absorbs, arriving at a thermal equilibrium. This means it will reach an average temperature as is the case with most planets. Saturn however, is a little different as recent observations show the planet’s energy is out of balance. It seems that in addition to the energy it receives from the Sun, there must also be an internal source of heat, perhaps driven by its highly elliptical orbit.
Continue reading “Saturn’s Energy is Out of Balance”
The quest to understand dark matter has taken many twists and turns. It’s a scientific tale but also a human one. We know there’s a missing mass problem, but astrophysicists and cosmologists can’t figure out what the missing matter is. One of the most interesting potential solutions is primordial black holes (PBHs).
However, new research suggests that PBHs can only make up a small portion of dark matter if any at all.
Continue reading “Another Strike Against Primordial Black Holes as an Explanation for Dark Matter”
If the Sun has a stellar neighbourhood, it can be usefully defined as a 20 parsec (65 light-years) sphere centred on our star. Astronomers have been actively cataloguing the stellar population in the neighbourhood for decades, but it hasn’t been easy since many stars are small and dim.
Even with all of the challenges inherent in the effort, astronomers have made steady progress. Do we now have a complete catalogue?
Continue reading “Do We Now Have an Accurate Map of Nearby Stars?”
Collecting material from an asteroid seems like a simple task. In reality, it isn’t. Low gravity, high rotational speeds, lack of air, and other constraints make collecting material from any asteroid difficult. But that won’t stop engineers from trying. A team from Beijing Spacecrafts and the Guangdong University of Technology recently published a paper that described a novel system for doing so – using an ultrasonic drill and gas “conveyor belt.”
Continue reading “A Combination Drill and Gas Conveyor Could Simplify Asteroid Extraction”
Three weeks after it lifted off from the far side of the moon, China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft dropped off a capsule containing first-of-its-kind lunar samples for retrieval from the plains of Inner Mongolia.
The gumdrop-shaped sample return capsule floated down to the ground on the end of a parachute, with the descent tracked on live television. After today’s touchdown, at 2:07 p.m. local time (0607 GMT), members of the mission’s recovery team checked the capsule and unfurled a Chinese flag nearby.
Chang’e-6, which was launched in early May, is the first robotic mission to land and lift off again from the moon’s far side — the side that always faces away from Earth. It’s also the first mission to bring dirt and rocks from the far side back to Earth.
“The Chang’e-6 lunar exploration mission achieved complete success,” Zhang Kejian, director of the China National Space Administration, said from mission control. Chinese President Xi Jinping extended congratulations to the mission team, the state-run Xinhua news service reported.
Continue reading “China’s Chang’e-6 Probe Drops Off Samples From Moon’s Far Side”
When stars reach the end of their life cycle, they shed their outer layers in a supernova. What is left behind is a neutron star, a stellar remnant that is incredibly dense despite being relatively small and cold. When this happens in binary systems, the resulting neutron stars will eventually spiral inward and collide. When they finally merge, the process triggers the release of gravitational waves and can lead to the formation of a black hole. But what happens as the neutron stars begin merging, right down to the quantum level, is something scientists are eager to learn more about.
When the stars begin to merge, very high temperatures are generated, creating “hot neutrinos” that remain out of equilibrium with the cold cores of the merging stars. Ordinarily, these tiny, massless particles only interact with normal matter via weak nuclear forces and possibly gravity. However, according to new simulations led by Penn State University (PSU) physicists, these neutrinos can weakly interact with normal matter during this time. These findings could lead to new insights into these powerful events.
Continue reading “Simulating the Last Moments Before Neutron Stars Merge”
First looks would tell most observers that supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and very young stars have nothing in common. But that’s not true. Astronomers have detected a supermassive black hole (SMBH) whose growth is regulated the same way a baby star’s is: by magnetic winds.
Continue reading “Growing Black Holes Have Much in Common With Baby Stars”