Space and astronomy news
Few scientists doubt that Mars was once warm and wet. The evidence for a warm, watery past keeps accumulating, and even healthy skepticism can’t dismiss it. All this evidence begs the next question: what happened to it?
Continue reading “One Step Closer to Solving the Mystery of Mars’ Lost Water”
Understanding the star formation rate (SFR) in a galaxy is critical to understanding the galaxy itself. Some galaxies are starburst galaxies with extremely high SFRs, some are quenched or quiescent galaxies with very low SFRs, and some are in the middle. Researchers used the JWST to observe a pair of galaxies at Cosmic Noon that are just beginning to merge to see how SFRs vary in different regions of both galaxies.
Continue reading “JWST Reveals Star Formation at Cosmic Noon”
Just outside the Milky Way Galaxy, roughly 210,000 light-years from Earth, there is the dwarf galaxy known as the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Measuring about 18,900 light-years in diameter and containing roughly 3 billion stars, the SMC and its counterpart – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) – orbit the Milky Way as satellite galaxies. Scientists are particularly interested in these satellites because of what they can teach us about star formation and the process where galaxies evolve through mergers, which is something the Milky Way will do with these two galaxies someday.
Another interesting feature of the SMC is the spectacular star cluster known as NGC 346, located near the center of the brightest star-forming region in the SMC, the hydrogen-rich nebula designated N66. Yesterday, NASA released a new image of this star cluster acquired by the venerable Hubble Space Telescope, which provides a unique and breathtaking view of this star cluster. These images were made possible thanks to Hubble’s sharp resolution and unique ability to make sensitive ultraviolet observations.
Continue reading “Massive Stars Shine in This Ultraviolet View From Hubble”
While black holes are known as the most destructive objects in the universe, their evolution is largely shrouded in mystery. This is because while astronomers are familiar with supermassive black holes that exist at the center of galaxies like our own and black holes whose masses are less than 100 times the size of our Sun, the notion of intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) have largely eluded discovery. However, this might change with the recent discovery of a black hole candidate that could exist within the globular cluster, Omega Centauri, and holds the potential to be the “missing link” in scientists better understanding black hole evolution.
Continue reading “Finally! Astronomers Find the Missing Link Between Stellar and Supermassive Black Holes”
Dark matter is curious stuff! As the name suggests, it’s dark making it notoriously difficult to study. Although it’s is invisible, it influences stars in a galaxy through gravity. Now, a team of astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to chart the movements of stars within the Draco dwarf galaxy to detect the subtle gravitational pull of its surrounding dark matter halo. This 3D map required studying nearly two decades of archival data from the Draco galaxy. They found that dark matter piles up more in the centre, as predicted by cosmological models.
Continue reading “Mapping the Stars in a Dwarf Galaxy to Reveal its Dark Matter”
I remember April 1995 very well. It was the month that the stunning and iconic image that has been called ‘Pillars of Creation’ was released. It was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope but now the James Webb Telescope is getting in on the act. Webb snapped images of the Eagle Nebula (home to the ‘pillars’) early on but now astronomers have combined the data form Hubble and Webb to create an amazing 3D animation flight through the nebula.
Continue reading “Fly Through the Pillars of Creation in this New Visualisation Made from Webb and Hubble Data”
The Hubble Space Telescope has experienced ongoing problems with one of its three remaining gyroscopes, so NASA has decided to shift the telescope into single gyro mode. While the venerable space telescope has now returned to daily science operations, single gyro mode means Hubble will only use one gyro to maintain a lock on its target. This will slow its slew time and decrease some of its scientific output. But this plan increases the overall lifetime of the 34-year-old telescope, keeping one gyro in reserve. NASA is also troubleshooting the malfunctioning gyro, hoping to return it online.
Continue reading “Hubble's Back, but Only Using One Gyro”
NASA are planning on building a telescope to hunt for habitable worlds. The imaginatively named ‘Habitable Worlds Observatory’ is at least a decade away but NASA have started to develop the underlying technology needed. The contracts have been awarded to three companies to research the next-generation optics, mission designs and telescope features at a cost of $17.5 million. Work should begin late summer 2024.
Continue reading “Research Work Begins on the Habitable Worlds Observatory”
In a world that seems to be switching focus from the Hubble Space Telescope to the James Webb Space Telescope, Hubble still reminds us it’s there. Another amazing image has been released that shows the triple star system HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3. The stars in this wonderful system are young, HP Tau for example is so young that it hasn’t started to fuse hydrogen yet and is only 10 million years old!
Continue reading “Hubble Sees a Brand New Triple Star System”
The world was much different in 1990 when NASA astronauts removed the Hubble Space Telescope from Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay and placed it into orbit. The Cold War was ending, there were only 5.3 billion humans, and the World Wide Web had just come online.
Continue reading “The Venerable Hubble Space Telescope Keeps Delivering”