Universe Today

January 14, 2019January 14, 2019 by Matt Williams

Habitable Planets Around Red Dwarf Stars Might not get Enough Photons to Support Plant Life

Artist’s impression of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The double star Alpha Centauri AB is visible to the upper right of Proxima itself. Credit: ESO

In recent years, the number of extra-solar planets discovered around nearby M-type (red dwarf stars) has grown considerably. In many cases, these confirmed planets have been “Earth-like“, meaning that they are terrestrial (aka. rocky) and comparable in size to Earth. These finds have been especially exciting since red dwarf stars are the most common in the Universe – accounting for 85% of stars in the Milky Way alone.

Unfortunately, numerous studies have been conducted of late that indicate that these planets may not have the necessary conditions to support life. The latest comes from Harvard University, where postdoctoral researcher Manasvi Lingam and Professor Abraham Loeb demonstrate that planets around M-type stars may not get enough radiation from their stars for photosynthesis to occur.

January 14, 2019December 2, 2019 by Tammy Plotner

Messier 76 – the NGC 650/651 Planetary Nebula

Little Dumbbell Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy. Credit: Wikisky

Welcome back to Messier Monday! Today, we continue in our tribute to our dear friend, Tammy Plotner, by looking at the “little dumbbell” itself, the planetary nebula known as Messier 76!

During the 18th century, famed French astronomer Charles Messier noticed the presence of several “nebulous objects” while surveying the night sky. Originally mistaking these objects for comets, he began to catalog them so that others would not make the same mistake. Today, the resulting list (known as the Messier Catalog) includes over 100 objects and is one of the most influential catalogs of Deep Space Objects.

One of these objects is the Messier 76 (aka. the Little Dumbbell Nebula, the Barbell Nebula, or the Cork Nebula) a planetary nebula located about 2,500 light years away in the Perseus Constellation. While it is easy to find because of its proximity to the Cassiopeia Constellation (located just south of it), the faintness of this nebula makes it one of the more difficult Messier Objects to observe. Continue reading “Messier 76 – the NGC 650/651 Planetary Nebula”

January 14, 2019January 14, 2019 by Evan Gough

Astronomers See the Exact Moment a Supernova Turned into a Black Hole (or Neutron Star)

A look at The Cow (approximately 80 days after explosion) from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Maunakea, Hawaii. The Cow is nestled in the CGCG 137-068 galaxy, 200 million light years from Earth. Image Credit:Raffaella Margutti/Northwestern University

On June 17th 2018, the ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey’s twin telescopes spotted something extraordinarily bright in the sky. The source was 200 million light years away in the constellation Hercules. The object was given the name AT2018cow or “The Cow.” The Cow flared up quickly, and then just as quickly it was gone.

What was it?

January 14, 2019January 21, 2019 by Susie Murph

Astronomy Cast Ep. 513: Stellar Fusion

The Sun. It’s a big ball of fire, right? Apparently not. In fact, what’s going on inside of the Sun took us some time and knowledge of physics to finally figure out: stellar fusion. Let’s talk about the different kinds of fusion, and how we’re trying to adapt it to generate power here on Earth.

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January 14, 2019January 14, 2019 by nextbigfuture

Neutrino Telescopes Look Deep in the Earth and Deep into Space

IceCube generation 2 is a project to build a ten cubic kilometer neutrino telescope at the South Pole. A one cubic kilometer detector, called IceCube was completed in 2010. Neutrino telescopes are another kind of telescope to go alongside telescopes for visible light, x-rays, infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, radio, gamma ray and gravity waves.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Evan Gough

Giant Streak Structure Found in Venus’ Cloudtops

The large-scale streak structures discovered in Venus' atmosphere. Credit: Japanese Space Agency.

A team of researchers in Japan has discovered a gigantic streak structure in the cloud tops of Venus. The discovery is based on observations of Venus by the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki. The findings were published in January 9th in the journal Nature Communications.

Venus is unlike any other planet in the Solar System. The entire planet is shrouded in thick clouds of sulfuric acid between altitudes of 45 km to 70 km. This thick shroud has prevented scientists from studying Earth’s so-called “sister planet” in detail. But Japanese researchers are making progress.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Matt Williams

In the far Future our Sun will Turn Into a Solid Crystalline White Dwarf. Here’s How it’ll Happen

An artist’s impression of crystallization in a white dwarf star. The twho known white dwarf pulsars may have interiors like this. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

About fifty years ago, astronomers predicted what the ultimate fate of our Sun will be. According to the theory, the Sun will exhaust its hydrogen fuel billions of years from now and expand to become a Red Giant, followed by it shedding it’s outer layers and becoming a white dwarf. After a few more billion years of cooling, the interior will crystallize and become solid.

Until recently, astronomers had little evidence to back up this theory. But thanks to the ESA’s Gaia Observatory, astronomers are now able to observe hundreds of thousands of white dwarf stars with immense precision – gauging their distance, brightness and color. This in turn has allowed them to study what the future holds for our Sun when it is no longer the warm, yellow star that we know and love today.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Evan Gough

Uh oh, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 is Down

On January 8, 2019, the Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope suspended operations due to a hardware problem. Image Credit: NASA/STScI.

On January 8th, an important piece of equipment on the Hubble Space Telescope went down. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) suspended its operations because of a hardware. The Hubble team is investigating the anomaly, and during this time the space telescope’s other instruments are working normally and continuing their science operations.

The WFC3 was installed on the Hubble in 2009. It replaced the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The WFC3 is the most technologically advanced instrument on the Hubble, and it has captured some of the most stunning and famous images ever captured.

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 by Evan Gough

Canadian Telescope Finds 13 More Fast Radio Bursts Including the Second One Ever Seen Repeating

CHIME consists of four metal "half-pipes", each one 100 meters long. Image Credit: CHIME/Andre Renard, Dunlap Institute.

Canadian scientists using the CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) have detected 13 FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts), including the second-ever repeating one. And they think they’ll find even more.

CHIME is an innovative radio telescope in the Okanagan Valley region in British Columbia, Canada. It was completed in 2017, and its mission is to act as a kind of time machine. CHIME will help astronomers understand the shape, structure, and fate of the universe by measuring the composition of dark energy.

CHIME’s unique design also makes it well-suited for detecting fast radio bursts.

January 11, 2019January 28, 2019 by David Dickinson

Our Complete Guide to the January 21st Total Lunar Eclipse

Total Eclipse — The Moon just a few minutes from the end of totality on October 8th. 2014. Credit and Copyright: Alan Dyer.

By now, you’ve heard the news. One of the top astronomy events for 2019 is coming right up on the night of January 20^th into the morning of the 21^st with a total eclipse of the Moon. There’s lots of hype circulating around this one, as it assumes the meme of the “SuperBloodWolf Moon eclipse” ’round ye ole web.