Universe Today

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Why are Some Quasars So Lonely?

This image, taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, shows an ancient quasar (circled in red) with fewer than expected neighboring galaxies (bright spheres), challenging physicists’ understanding of how the first quasars and supermassive black holes formed. Credits:Credit: Christina Eilers/EIGER team

At the centre of most galaxies are supermassive black holes. When they are ‘feeding’ they blast out jets of material with associated radiation that can outshine the rest of the galaxy. These are known as quasars and they are usually found in regions where huge quantities of gas exist. However, a recent study found a higher than expected number of quasars that are alone in the Universe. These loners are not surrounded by galaxies nor a supply of gas. The question therefore remains, how are they shining so brightly.

November 13, 2024November 14, 2024 by Alan Boyle

Congressional Hearing Fuels Fresh Debate About UFOs

Tic Tac object on infrared sensor image — Infrared imagery captured by a Navy fighter jet in 2004 shows an anomalous "Tic Tac" object, highlighted by a red circle. (U.S. Navy Video)

An 11-page document that’s attributed to a Pentagon whistleblower has provided new cases in the controversy over unidentified anomalous phenomena — also known as UAPs, unidentified flying objects or UFOs.

The document, released today in conjunction with a House subcommittee hearing on UAPs, lays out details about what’s said to be a special access program called Immaculate Constellation. It accuses officials in the federal government’s executive branch of a “criminal conspiracy” that has been managing issues surrounding UAPs and evidence for non-human intelligence “without congressional knowledge, oversight or authorization for some time, quite possibly decades.”

Over the past few years, the Department of Defense has become more open to discussing UAP reports publicly, while insisting that there have been no substantiated reports of alien visitations. During today’s hearing, lawmakers called on the Pentagon to be more transparent in its investigations.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Matt Williams

New Study Examines How Extraterrestrial Civilizations Could Become “Stellarvores.”

Artist's impression of accretion in a binary system. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

One of the most challenging aspects of astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is anticipating what life and extraterrestrial civilizations will look like. Invariably, we have only one example of a planet that supports life (Earth) and one example of a technologically advanced civilization (humanity) upon which to base our theories. As for more advanced civilizations, which statistically seems more likely, scientists are limited to projections of our own development. However, these same projections offer constraints on what SETI researchers should search for and provide hints about our future development.

In a series of papers led by the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS), a team of researchers examines what Earth’s level of technological development (aka. “technosphere”) will look like in the future. In the most recent installment, they offer a reinterpretation of the Kardashev Scale, which suggests that civilizations expand to harness greater levels of energy (planet, host star, and galaxy). Instead, they suggest that the Kardashev Scale establishes upper limits on the amount of stellar energy a civilization can harness (a “luminosity limit”) and that civilizations might circumvent this by harnessing stellar mass directly.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A Screw-Driven Robot Could Autonomously Mine Rocky Worlds

Navigating the harsh terrain of other rocky worlds has consistently been challenging. The Free Spirit campaign unfortunately failed in its goal to will the plucky Martian rover out of the morass it found itself in, despite two years of continual effort from some of the world’s best engineers. To combat this difficulty, other engineers have turned to alternative propulsion methods, and a team of researchers in the EU have done just that for their work on an autonomous mining robot. They decided to use an Archimedes screw as their primary propulsion method.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Mark Thompson

How Life Could Live Under the Ice on Mars

Water ice in a Martian gully. This image, showing part of a region called Dao Vallis, was captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2009. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Mars has been a fascination to us for centuries. Early observations falsely gave impressions of an intelligent civilisation but early visiting probes revealed a stark, desolate world. Underneath the surface is a few metres of water ice and a recent study by NASA suggests sunlight could reach the layer. If it does, it may allow photosynthesis in the meltwater. On Earth this actually happened and biologists have found similar pools teeming with life.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Nancy Atkinson

NASA’s JPL Lays Off Another 325 People

NASA's JPL announced a reduction in its workforce for the second time in 2024. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab has announced a second round of layoffs for 2024, this time laying off 325 people – about 5% of its workforce. The announcement was made on Nov. 12 in a memo sent to employees, which notes the layoffs could have been even larger. The last cut was made this past February, when 530 employees were let go. Part of the issues which forced the layoffs comes from the the possible cancelation of the Mars Sample Return mission. With the October 2024 launch of Europa Clipper, JPL doesn’t have a flagship mission in the pipeline right now.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Evan Gough

Lessons From Ancient Earth’s Atmosphere: From Hostile to Hospitable

Earth's ancient atmosphere was much different than now. How did it transition from hostile to hospitable? If scientists can figure that out, they'll be better able to understand exoplanets and their atmospheres. Image Credit: Tohoku University

Will we ever understand how life got started on Earth? We’ve learned much about Earth’s long, multi-billion-year history, but a detailed understanding of how the planet’s atmospheric chemistry evolved still eludes us. At one time, Earth was atmospherically hostile, and its transition from that state to a planet teeming with life followed a complex path.

November 13, 2024November 13, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Astronomers Defy the Zone of Avoidance to Find Hundreds of New Galaxies

A rendered image of the Milky Way based on the Gaia EDR3 dataset. Credit: Wikipedia user Kevinmloch

There is a region of the sky where astronomers fear to look. Filled with dark clouds of dust, it hides an unseen mass. A mass so large it is pulling the Milky Way and other galaxies toward it…

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Evan Gough

An Otherworldly Cloud Over New Zealand

Landsat 8’s Operational Land Imager captured this unique lenticular cloud that forms over the Otago region of New Zealand’s South Island. Image Credit: NASA/Lauren Dauphin; USGS

Filmmakers love New Zealand. Its landscapes evoke other worlds, which explains why so much of The Lord of the Rings was filmed there. The country has everything from long, subtropical sandy beaches to active volcanoes.

The country’s otherworldliness extends into its atmosphere, where a cloud nicknamed the “Taieri Pet” forms when conditions are right.

November 12, 2024November 12, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Early Black Holes Fed 40x Faster than Should Be Possible

This artist’s illustration shows a red, early-Universe dwarf galaxy that hosts a rapidly feeding black hole at its center. Using data from NASA's JWST and Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team of U.S. National Science Foundation NOIRLab astronomers have discovered this low-mass supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. It is accreting matter at a phenomenal rate — over 40 times the theoretical limit. While short lived, this black hole’s ‘feast’ could help astronomers explain how supermassive black holes grew so quickly in the early Universe.

The theory goes that black holes accrete material, often from nearby stars. However the theory also suggests there is a limit to how big a black hole can grow due to accretion and certainly shouldn’t be as large as they are seen to be in the early Universe. Black holes it seems, are fighting back and don’t care about those limits! A recent study shows that supermassive black holes are growing at rates that defy the limits of current theory. Astronomers just need to figure out how they’re doing it!