Space: Structures and Features
Published

Full 3-D view of binary star-planet system      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers using the VLBA have produced a full, 3-D view of a binary star system with a planet orbiting one of the stars. Their achievement promises important new insights into the process of planet formation.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

ALMA witnesses deadly star-slinging tug-of-war between merging galaxies      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

While observing a newly-dormant galaxy, scientists discovered that it had stopped forming stars not because it had used up all of its gas but because most of its star-forming fuel had been thrown out of the system as it merged with another galaxy. What's more, if proven common, the results could change the way scientists think about galaxy mergers and deaths.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

ALMA discovers birth cry from a baby star in the Small Magellanic Cloud      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have observed 'baby stars' in the Small Magellanic Cloud, having an environment similar to the early universe. Toward one of the baby stars, they found molecular outflow, which has similar properties to those seen in the Milky Way galaxy, giving a new perspective on the birth of stars.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Discovery of the oldest visible planetary Nebula hosted by a 500-million-year-old Galactic cluster -- a rare beauty with a hot blue heart      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered a rare celestial jewel -- a so-called Planetary Nebula (PN) inside a 500 million-year-old Galactic Open Cluster (OC) called M37 (also known as NGC2099). This is a very rare finding of high astrophysical value.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

X-shaped radio galaxies might form more simply than expected      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using new simulations, astrophysicists implemented simple conditions to model the feeding of a supermassive black hole and the organic formation of its jets and accretion disk. When the researchers ran the simulation, the simple conditions organically and unexpectedly led to the formation of an X-shaped radio galaxy. Surprisingly, the researchers found that the galaxy's characteristic X-shape resulted from the interaction between the jets and the gas falling into the black hole.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Quantum heat pump: A new measuring tool for physicists      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Physicists have built a quantum scale heat pump made from particles of light. This device brings scientists closer to the quantum limit of measuring radio frequency signals, useful in for example the hunt for dark matter.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA's Webb detects carbon dioxide in exoplanet atmosphere      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. This observation of a gas giant planet orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet. The finding offers evidence that in the future Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

An extrasolar world covered in water?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exoplanet that could be completely covered in water.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Wave created by Tonga volcano eruption reached 90 meters -- nine times taller than 2011 Japan tsunami      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research reveals more about the magnitude of January eruption, as researchers call for better preparedness The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January created an initial wave 90 meters high -- almost the height of the Statue of Liberty (93m). Tsunami expert calls for better warning systems to detect volcanic eruptions, saying systems are '30 years behind' comparable earthquake detection tools.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Risk of volcano catastrophe 'a roll of the dice'      (via sciencedaily.com) 

While funding is pumped into preventing low-probability scenarios such as asteroid collision, the far more likely threat of a large volcanic eruption is close to ignored -- despite much that could be done to reduce the risks, say researchers.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

ESO telescope images a spectacular cosmic dance      (via sciencedaily.com) 

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has imaged the result of a spectacular cosmic collision -- the galaxy NGC 7727. This giant was born from the merger of two galaxies, an event that started around a billion years ago. At its center lies the closest pair of supermassive black holes ever found, two objects that are destined to coalesce into an even more massive black hole.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Risk of volcano catastrophe 'a roll of the dice', say experts      (via sciencedaily.com) 

While funding is pumped into preventing low-probability scenarios such as asteroid collision, the far more likely threat of a large volcanic eruption is close to ignored -- despite much that could be done to reduce the risks, say researchers.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Black hole collisions could help us measure how fast the universe is expanding      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astrophysicists have laid out a method for how to use pairs of colliding black holes to measure how fast our universe is expanding -- and thus help illuminate how the universe evolved, what it is made out of, and where it's going.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ready for its close-up: New technology sharpens images of black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using new computational algorithms, scientists have measured a sharp ring of light predicted to originate from photons whipping around the back of a supermassive black hole.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers confirm star wreck as source of extreme cosmic particles      (via sciencedaily.com) 

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope confirms one supernova remnant as a launch site for some of our galaxy's highest-energy protons.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

First stars and black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Just milliseconds after the universe's Big Bang, chaos reigned. Atomic nuclei fused and broke apart in hot, frenzied motion. Incredibly strong pressure waves built up and squeezed matter so tightly together that black holes formed, which astrophysicists call primordial black holes. Did primordial black holes help or hinder formation of the universe's first stars, eventually born about 100 million years later?

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Stars determine their own masses      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using new simulations, astrophysicists discovered that star formation is a self-regulatory process. In other words, stars themselves set their own masses. This helps explain why stars formed in disparate environments still have similar masses.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Planet formation: ALMA detects gas in a circumplanetary disk      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study planet formation have made the first-ever detection of gas in a circumplanetary disk. What's more, the detection also suggests the presence of a very young exoplanet.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Signs of disturbance in nearby dwarf galaxies indicate an alternative gravity theory      (via sciencedaily.com) 

According to the standard model of cosmology, the vast majority of galaxies are surrounded by a halo of dark matter particles. This halo is invisible, but its mass exerts a strong gravitational pull on galaxies in the vicinity. A new study challenges this view of the Universe. The results suggest that the dwarf galaxies of Earth's second closest galaxy cluster -- known as the Fornax Cluster -- are free of such dark matter halos.

Geoscience: Volcanoes
Published

Volcanic super eruptions are millions of years in the making -- followed by swift surge      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have discovered that super-eruptions occur when huge accumulations of magma deep in the Earth's crust, formed over millions of years, move rapidly to the surface disrupting pre-existing rock.