Universe Today

May 30, 2024May 30, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Hot Gas is Being Vented Away from the Center of the Milky Way

X-Ray Data Revealing Jets at the Center of the Milky Way Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Chicago/S.C. Mackey et al.; Radio: NRF/SARAO/MeerKAT; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

Studying gas in the Universe is no easy task. We often look to ‘non-visible’ wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum such as X-rays. The Chandra X-Ray observatory has been observing a vent of hot gas blowing away from the centre of the Milky Way. Located about 26,000 light years away, the jet extends for hundreds of light years and is perpendicular to the disk of the Galaxy. It is now thought the gas has been forced away from the centre of the Milky Way because of a collision with cooler gas lying in its path and creating shockwaves.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

How Much Water Would a Self-Sustaining Moonbase Need?

Artist rendition of a future lunar base. (Credit: ESA - P. Carril)

As humanity returns to the Moon in the next few years, they’re going to need water to survive. While resupplies from Earth would work for a time, eventually the lunar base would have to become self-sustaining? So, how much water would be required to make this happen? This is what a recently submitted study hopes to address as a team of researchers from Baylor University explored water management scenarios for a self-sustaining moonbase, including the appropriate location of the base and how the water would be extracted and treated for safe consumption using appropriate personnel.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Black Holes: Why study them? What makes them so fascinating?

Simulation of a black hole. (Credit: NASA/ESA/Gaia/DPAC)

Over the last few months, Universe Today has explored a plethora of scientific fields, including impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, planetary geophysics, cosmochemistry, meteorites, radio astronomy, extremophiles, and organic chemistry, and how these various disciplines help scientists and the public better understand our place in the cosmos.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Mark Thompson

There’s Another, More Boring Explanation for those Dyson Sphere Candidate Stars

Dyson Spheres have been a tantalising digression in the hunt for alien intelligence. Just recently seven stars have been identified as potential candidates with most of their radiation given off in the infrared wavelengths. Potentially this is the signature of heat from a matrix of spacecraft around the star but alas, a new paper has another slightly less exciting explanation; dust obscured galaxies.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Hundreds of Massive Stars Have Simply Disappeared

This artist’s impression shows a possible seed for the formation of a supermassive black hole. Two of these possible seeds were discovered by an Italian team, using three space telescopes: the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope.

The lifecycle of a star is regularly articulated as formation taking place inside vast clouds of gas and dust and then ending either as a planetary nebula or supernova explosion. In the last 70 years however, there seems to be a number of massive stars that are just disappearing! According to stellar evolution models, they should be exploding as supernova but instead, they just seem to vanish. A team of researchers have studied the behaviour of star VFTS 243 – a main sequence star with a black hole companion – and now believe it, like the others, have just collapsed, imploding into a black hole!

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Evan Gough

What’s Under This Hole on the Surface of Mars?

The HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this image to determine if any underlying voids or associated faults can be observed in this part of Arsia Mons. Pits like this can be caused by recent geologically-recent volcanic or tectonic activity. If there are caves under the pit, they could one day act as shelter for astronauts. The caves could also be targets for future robotic exploration. The pit is only a few meters across. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona

Human visitors to Mars need somewhere to shelter from the radiation, temperature swings, and dust storms that plague the planet. If the planet is anything like Earth or the Moon, it may have large underground lava tubes that could house shelters. Collapsed sections of lava tubes, called skylights, could provide access to these subterranean refuges.

Does this hole on Mars lead to a larger underground cavern?

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Evan Gough

Sorry Spock, But “Vulcan” Isn’t a Planet After All

This artist's illustration shows the exoplanet Eridani b, aka Vulcan, home of Star Trek's Commander Spock. Unfortunately, evidence is mounting that the planet isn't really there. Image Credit: JPL-Caltech

In 2018, astronomers detected an exoplanet around the star 40 Eridani. It’s about 16 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. The discovery generated a wave of interest for a couple of reasons. Not only is it the closest Super-Earth around a star similar to our Sun, but the star system is the fictional home of Star Trek’s Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock.

It’s always fun when a real science discovery lines up with science fiction.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Andy Tomaswick

A Mini-Neptune in the Habitable Zone in a Binary Star System

Sometimes, it seems like habitable worlds can pop up almost anywhere in the universe. A recent paper from a team of citizen scientists led by researchers at the Flatiron Institute might have found an excellent candidate to look for one – on a moon orbiting a mini-Neptune orbiting a star that is also orbited by another star.

May 29, 2024May 29, 2024 by Evan Gough

Astronomy Generates Mountains of Data. That’s Perfect for AI

A drone's view of the Rubin Observatory under construction in 2023. The 8.4-meter telescope is getting closer to completion and first light in 2025. The telescope will create a vast amount of data that will require special resources to manage, including AI. Image Credit: Rubin Observatory/NSF/AURA/A. Pizarro D

Consumer-grade AI is finding its way into people’s daily lives with its ability to generate text and images and automate tasks. But astronomers need much more powerful, specialized AI. The vast amounts of observational data generated by modern telescopes and observatories defies astronomers’ efforts to extract all of its meaning.

May 28, 2024May 28, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Sun’s Magnetic Field Might Only Be Skin Deep

A new study suggests sunspots and solar flares could be generated my a magnetic field within the Sun's outermost layers. This shows the Sun's magnetic fields overlaying an image from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. NASA/SDO/AIA/LMSAL

It’s coming back! Sunspot AR3664 gave us an amazing display of northern lights in mid-May and it’s now rotating back into view. That means another great display if this sunspot continues to flare out. It’s all part of solar maximum—the peak of an 11-year cycle of solar active and quiet times. This cycle is the result of something inside the Sun—the solar dynamo. A team of scientists suggests that this big generator lies not far beneath the solar surface. It creates a magnetic field and spurs flares and sunspots.