Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ultraprecise atomic clock poised for new physics discoveries      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Physicists have made one of the highest performance atomic clocks ever. ­­ Their instrument, known as an optical lattice atomic clock, can measure differences in time to a precision equivalent to losing just one second every 300 billion years and is the first example of a 'multiplexed' optical clock, where six separate clocks can exist in the same environment. Its design allows the team to test ways to search for gravitational waves, attempt to detect dark matter, and discover new physics with clocks.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

How galaxies can exist without dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astrophysicists report how, when tiny galaxies collide with bigger ones, the bigger galaxies can strip the smaller galaxies of their dark matter -- matter that we can't see directly, but which astrophysicists think must exist because, without its gravitational effects, they couldn't explain things like the motions of a galaxy's stars.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Distant galaxies and the true nature of dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

In conflict with the current prevailing theory used to describe the universe, a new study suggests the existence of a direct interaction between the elementary particles that make up the dark matter halo and those that make up ordinary matter.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Debris from disintegrating planets hurtling into white dwarfs across the galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The moment that debris from destroyed planets impacts the surface of a white dwarf star has been observed. Astronomers saw X-rays from planetary debris heated to a million degrees as it fell onto the dead core of its host star.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Too many disk galaxies than theory allows      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The Standard Model of Cosmology describes how the universe came into being according to the view of most physicists. Researchers have now studied the evolution of galaxies within this model, finding considerable discrepancies with actual observations.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Shadow of cosmic water cloud reveals the temperature of the young universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found a new and original method for measuring the cosmic microwave background's temperature when the Universe was still in its infancy. They confirm in their new study the early cooling of our Universe shortly after the Big Bang and open up new perspectives on the elusive dark energy.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Assessing and optimizing the quality of sensor networks      (via sciencedaily.com) 

When building sensor networks, it can be extremely challenging for researchers to determine how the sensors should be arranged to obtain optimal results. New research proposes a new way to quantify the quality of sensor networks, and uses this method to suggest improvements to existing Dark Matter experiments.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Scientists explain mysterious finger-like features in solar flares      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have presented a new explanation for the mysterious downward-moving dark voids seen in some solar flares.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Worldwide coordinated search for dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of researchers has published comprehensive data on the search for dark matter using a worldwide network of optical magnetometers. According to the scientists, dark matter fields should produce a characteristic signal pattern that can be detected  by correlated measurements at multiple stations of the GNOME network.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

New treasure trove of globular clusters holds clues about galaxy evolution      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using observations of Centaurus A, a nearby elliptical galaxy, obtained with the Gaia space telescope and ground-based instruments under the PISCeS survey, a team of astronomers presents an unprecedented number of globular cluster candidates in the outer regions of the galaxy. The findings provide astronomers with an even more detailed picture of galactic architecture and history of collisions and mergers.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Twelve for dinner: The Milky Way’s feeding habits shine a light on dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers are one step closer to revealing the properties of dark matter enveloping our Milky Way galaxy, thanks to a new map of twelve streams of stars orbiting within our galactic halo.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Are black holes and dark matter the same?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astrophysicists suggest that primordial black holes account for all dark matter in the universe.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Secret embraces of stars revealed by Alma      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Unlike our Sun, most stars live with a companion. Sometimes, two come so close that one engulfs the other -- with far-reaching consequences. When astronomers used the telescope Alma to study 15 unusual stars, they were surprised to find that they all recently underwent this phase. The discovery promises new insight on the sky's most dramatic phenomena -- and on life, death and rebirth among the stars.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Infant stars identified at the center of our galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A cosmic object originally classified as a gas and dust cloud actually consists of three stars and could resolve a controversy among astronomers.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Optical cavities could be key to next generation interferometers      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new concept has been developed that has the potential to assist new instruments in the investigation of fundamental science topics such as gravitational waves and dark matter.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Evidence emerges for dark-matter free galaxies      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found no trace of dark matter in the galaxy AGC 114905, despite taking detailed measurements over a course of forty hours with state-of-the-art telescopes.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers discover strangely massive black hole in Milky Way satellite galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered an unusually massive black hole at the heart of one of the Milky Way's dwarf satellite galaxies, called Leo I. Almost as massive as the black hole in our own galaxy, the finding could redefine our understanding of how all galaxies -- the building blocks of the universe -- evolve.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Hubble witnesses shock wave of colliding gases in Running Man Nebula      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Mounded, luminous clouds of gas and dust glow in this Hubble image of a Herbig-Haro object known as HH 45. Herbig-Haro objects are a rarely seen type of nebula that occurs when hot gas ejected by a newborn star collides with the gas and dust around it at hundreds of miles per second, creating bright shock waves. In this image, blue indicates ionized oxygen (O II) and purple shows ionized magnesium (Mg II). Researchers were particularly interested in these elements because they can be used to identify shocks and ionization fronts. This object is located in the nebula NGC 1977, which itself is part of a complex of three nebulae called The Running Man. NGC 1977 -- like its companions NGC 1975 and NGC 1973 -- is a reflection nebula, which means that it doesn't emit light on its own, but reflects light from nearby stars, like a streetlight illuminating fog. Hubble observed this region to look for stellar jets and planet-forming disks around young stars, and examine how their environment affects the evolution of such disks.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Amount of information in visible universe quantified      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have long suspected a connection between information and the physical universe, with various paradoxes and thought experiments used to explore how or why information could be encoded in physical matter. A researcher attempts to shed light on exactly how much of this information is out there and presents a numerical estimate for the amount of encoded information in all the visible matter in the universe -- approximately 6 times 10 to the power of 80 bits of information.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Part of the Universe’s missing matter found      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Galaxies can receive and exchange matter with their external environment thanks to the galactic winds created by stellar explosions. An international research team has now mapped a galactic wind for the first time. This unique observation helped to reveal where some of the Universe's missing matter is located and to observe the formation of a nebula around a galaxy.