Astrophysics
Closest Sun-like star may have planets
December 19, 2012 10:40 am | News | CommentsAn international team of scientists has discovered that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may have five planets. The surprise finding was the result of combining more than 6,000 observations from three different instruments and applying intensive modeling to the data. New techniques allowed the scientists to find signals half the size previously thought possible.
Team gets closer to solving iron ion mystery
December 18, 2012 8:48 am | News | CommentsBlack holes, stellar coronae, and supernovae are all composed of hot plasma at several million degrees Celsius. The gases in these objects are powerful emitters of X-ray, but theoretical astrophysical have not yet been able to explain the observed intensities of these X-rays for the most prominent species, iron ions. A team has now successfully used an X-ray laser to perform spectroscopy on highly ionized iron ions, obtaining new insights not granted by previous methods and potentially leading to a solution to this 40-year-old puzzle.
Team confirms “gusty winds” in space turbulence
December 17, 2012 3:53 pm | by Gary Galluzzo, University of Iowa | News | CommentsIn much the same way that a plane is jolted back and forth by invisible gusts of wind, turbulence is common in space, where chaotic motions affect the movements of ionized gas, or plasma. A research team led by the University of Iowa reports to have directly measured this turbulence for the first time in the laboratory.
Physicists make strides in understanding quantum entanglement
December 14, 2012 3:36 pm | News | CommentsWhile some theoretical physicists make predictions about astrophysics and the behavior of stars and galaxies, others work in the realm of the very small, which includes quantum physics. Such is the case at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where theoretical physicists at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics cover the range of questions in physics. Recently, they have made important strides in studying a concept in quantum physics called quantum entanglement, in which electron spins are entangled with each other.
Twin NASA spacecraft prepare to crash into moon
December 13, 2012 4:38 pm | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsOn Friday, engineers are turning off the science instruments in preparation for Monday's big finale. After nearly a year circling the moon, NASA's Ebb and Flow will meet their demise when they crash—on purpose—into the lunar surface. Just don't expect to see celestial fireworks as it will happen on the dark side of the moon.
Black branes and blackfolds: Revealing new study on black holes
December 11, 2012 11:25 am | News | CommentsBlack holes are surrounded by many mysteries, but now researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute, among others, have come up with new groundbreaking theories that can explain several of their properties. The research shows that black holes have properties that resemble the dynamics of both solids and liquids.
Researchers reveal structure of carbon's "Hoyle state"
December 10, 2012 12:07 pm | News | CommentsA North Carolina State University researcher has taken a "snapshot" of the way particles combine to form carbon-12, the element that makes all life on Earth possible. And the picture looks like a bent arm.
X-ray vision can reveal the moment of birth of violent supernovae
December 7, 2012 11:31 am | News | CommentsA team of astronomers led by the University of Leicester in the U.K.has uncovered new evidence that suggests that X-ray detectors in space could be the first to witness new supernovae that signal the death of massive stars. The possibility stems from the finding that gamma-ray bursts from the largest supernovae are accompanied unique thermal X-ray signatures that can be observed by detectors now in place.
Below surface, moon reveals a "shattered" history
December 6, 2012 12:07 pm | by Alicia Chang, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsResults presented Wednesday at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco show that the moon took a beating in its early days, far more than previously believed. Detailed gravity mapping by NASA’s Ebb and Flow spacecraft show the extent to which the moon was broken up and shattered from bombardment by asteroids and comets.
When the first stars blinked on
December 6, 2012 7:53 am | by Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office | News | CommentsAs far back in time as astronomers have been able to see, the universe has had some trace of heavy elements, such as carbon and oxygen. These elements, originally churned from the explosion of massive stars, formed the building blocks for planetary bodies, and eventually for life on Earth. Now, researchers have peered far back in time, to the era of the first stars and galaxies, and found matter with no discernible trace of heavy elements.
Cosmic radio waves mimic chirping of “alien birds”
December 5, 2012 10:20 am | by Marcia Dunn, AP Aerospace Writer | News | CommentsNASA's Van Allen Probes have been exploring the hostile radiation belts surrounding Earth for just three months. But already measurements in unprecedented detail have been taken. Scientists said Tuesday these waves can provide an energy boost to radiation belt particles, somewhat like ocean waves can propel a surfer on Earth. What's more, these so-called chorus waves operate in the same frequency as human hearing so they can be heard.
Paradigm shift offers a new look at the beginning of time
November 29, 2012 1:50 pm | News | CommentsA new paradigm for understanding the earliest eras in the history of the universe has been developed by scientists at Penn State University. Using techniques from an area of modern physics called loop quantum cosmology, developed at Penn State, the scientists now have extended analyses that include quantum physics farther back in time than ever before.
Discovery of “super Jupiter” sheds new light on planet birth
November 20, 2012 10:52 am | News | CommentsCapturing an image of extrasolar planets is difficult, and they exist for very few of the almost 850 exoplanets which are known. A team of researchers has recently obtained an image of a “super Jupiter” about 13 times the mass of Jupiter, circling a star 2.5 times the mass of our own sun. The similarity of this planet to ordinary, lower-mass planets makes it an important test case for current models of how planets are born.
Born-again star foreshadows fate of solar system
November 15, 2012 1:35 pm | News | CommentsAstronomers have found evidence for a dying sun-like star coming briefly back to life after casting its gassy shells out into space, mimicking the possible fate our own solar system faces in a few billion years. This new picture of the planetary nebula Abell 30, located 5,500 light-years from Earth, is a composite of visible images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and X-ray data from ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra space telescopes.
BOSS uses quasars to probe dark energy in early universe
November 13, 2012 7:51 am | News | CommentsBy collecting tens of thousands of quasar spectra, the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) has measured the large-scale structure of the early universe for the first time. Like backlights in the fog, the quasars illuminate clouds of hydrogen gas along the line of sight. No other technique can reach back over 10 billion years to probe structure at a time when the expansion of the universe was still decelerating and dark energy was yet to turn on.
Comet collisions every six seconds explain 17-year-old stellar mystery
November 9, 2012 1:04 pm | News | CommentsEvery six seconds, for millions of years, comets have been colliding with one another near a star in the constellation Cetus called 49 CETI, which is visible to the naked eye. Over the past three decades, astronomers have discovered hundreds of dusty disks around stars, but only two—49 CETI is one—have been found that also have large amounts of gas orbiting them. Until now, the answer was unclear as to why.
Chile's ALMA probes for origins of universe
October 29, 2012 11:08 am | by Luis Andres Henao, Associated Press | News | CommentsEarth's largest radio telescope is growing more powerful by the day on this remote plateau high above Chile's Atacama desert, where visitors often feel like they're planting the first human footprints on the red crust of Mars. So far, 43 of the 66 radio antennas have been set up and point skyward like 100-ton white mushrooms. When fully assembled, its vision will be up to ten times sharper than NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Satellite data reveals power of solar wind
October 25, 2012 12:28 pm | by Karen C. Fox, NASA | News | CommentsA new study based on data from European Space Agency’s Cluster mission shows that it is easier for the solar wind to penetrate Earth’s magnetic environment, the magnetosphere, than had previously been thought. Scientists have, for the first time, directly observed the presence of certain waves that show Earth’s atmosphere behaving more like a sieve than a barrier.
VISTA creates largest ever catalogue of center of our galaxy
October 24, 2012 11:41 am | News | CommentsA new image of the Milky Way created by the survey telescope at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory incorporates more than ten times more stars—84 million—than previous studies. The new 9-billion pixel image is so large it would be 7 by 9 m if printed.
Atom optics to help detect the imperceptible
October 22, 2012 8:43 am | by Lori Keesey | News | CommentsPredicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, the waves occur when massive celestial objects move and disrupt the fabric of space-time. But by the time these waves reach Earth, they are so weak that the planet expands and contracts less than an atom in response. No instrument or observatory has ever directly detected them. A pioneering technology capable of atomic-level precision is now being developed to detect what so far has remained imperceptible.
Earth-sized planet found just outside solar system
October 17, 2012 3:20 pm | by Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | News | CommentsA medium-sized planet that has recently been located by astronomers at Geneva Observatory in Europe is just four light-years away, which is about the closest an extra-solar planet can get to Earth. It is the type of planet they've been searching for across the Milky Way galaxy and they found it circling Alpha Centauri B, a star right next door.
Dark matter filament studied in 3D for the first time
October 17, 2012 8:29 am | News | CommentsExtending 60 million light-years from one of the most massive galaxy clusters known, the filament of dark matter examined recently by the Hubble Space Telescope is part of the cosmic web that constitutes the large-scale structure of the Universe, and is a leftover of the very first moments after the Big Bang. If the high mass measured for the filament is representative of the rest of the Universe, then these structures may contain more than half of all the mass in the Universe.
Solar wind particles likely source of water locked inside lunar soils
October 15, 2012 11:12 am | News | CommentsThe most likely source of the water locked inside soils on the moon's surface is the constant stream of charged particles from the sun known as the solar wind, a University of Michigan researcher and his colleagues have concluded. Over the last five years, spacecraft observations and new laboratory measurements of Apollo lunar samples have overturned the long-held belief that the moon is bone-dry.
Nearby super-Earth likely a diamond planet
October 11, 2012 11:58 am | News | CommentsLocated by Yale University researchers, a new planet—called 55 Cancri e—has a radius twice Earth’s, and a mass eight times greater, making it a “super-Earth.” Forty light-years away, the placement and chemical signature suggest to planetary scientists that it is composed primarily of carbon, iron, silicon carbide, and silicates. Much of that carbon would in the form of graphite or diamond.
Physicist may have solved the Pioneer anomaly
October 10, 2012 10:30 am | News | CommentsThe Pioneer spacecraft, two probes launched into space by NASA in the early 70s, seemed to violate the Newtonian law of gravity by decelerating anomalously as they traveled. Nothing in physics was able to explain this effect, but a physicist in Missouri believes the confusion can be readily explained by the effect of the expansion of the universe.
