Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology Physics: Optics
Published

Fiber optic cables detect and characterize earthquakes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

The same fiber optic networks that provide internet can simultaneously act as earthquake sensors, as demonstrated in a new study.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Oceanography Geoscience: Severe Weather
Published

California's winter waves may be increasing under climate change      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study uses nearly a century of data to show that the average heights of winter waves along the California coast have increased as climate change has heated up the planet.

Geoscience: Earthquakes
Published

How to distinguish slow and fast earthquakes      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Slow earthquakes are slow-slip phenomena that last many days or months, and you barely notice them. In 2007, researchers proposed how the magnitude and duration of earthquakes vary, which can help differentiate slow and fast earthquakes. Seismologists now bolster the proposed relation with more data. They suggest the presence of a speed limit to slow earthquakes and reveal physical processes that differentiate slow and fast earthquakes. Since slow earthquakes could indicate future fast earthquakes, monitoring and understanding them helps accurately forecast devastating earthquakes and tsunamis.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Hubble sees evaporating planet getting the hiccups      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A young planet whirling around a petulant red dwarf star is changing in unpredictable ways orbit-by-orbit. It is so close to its parent star that it experiences a consistent, torrential blast of energy, which evaporates its hydrogen atmosphere -- causing it to puff off the planet.

Offbeat: Space Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Listen to a star 'twinkle'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Many people know that stars appear to twinkle because our atmosphere bends starlight as it travels to Earth. But stars also have an innate 'twinkle' -- caused by rippling waves of gas on their surfaces -- that is imperceptible to current Earth-bound telescopes. In a new study, researchers developed the first 3D simulations of energy rippling from a massive star's core to its outer surface. Using these new models, the researchers determined, for the first time, how much stars should innately twinkle.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Using cosmic weather to study which worlds could support life      (via sciencedaily.com) 

As the next generation of giant, high-powered observatories begin to come online, a new study suggests that their instruments may offer scientists an unparalleled opportunity to discern what weather may be like on far-away exoplanets.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb snaps highly detailed infrared image of actively forming stars      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Young stars are rambunctious! NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the 'antics' of a pair of actively forming young stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. To find them, trace the bright pink and red diffraction spikes until you hit the center: The stars are within the orange-white splotch. They are buried deeply in a disk of gas and dust that feeds their growth as they continue to gain mass. The disk is not visible, but its shadow can be seen in the two dark, conical regions surrounding the central stars.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

New planetary formation findings      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered new evidence of how planets as massive as Jupiter can form.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers reveal new features of galactic black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of scientists, including astrophysicists, report on a dedicated observational campaign on the Galactic microquasar dubbed GRS 1915+105. The team revealed features of a microquasar system that have never before been seen. Using the massive Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in China, astronomers discovered a quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) signal in the radio band for the first time from any microquasar systems.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Dark energy camera captures galaxies in lopsided tug of war, a prelude to merger      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The spiral galaxy NGC 1532, also known as Haley's Coronet, is caught in a lopsided tug of war with its smaller neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 1531.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

New image reveals secrets of planet birth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have gained new clues about how planets as massive as Jupiter could form. Researchers have detected large dusty clumps, close to a young star, that could collapse to create giant planets.

Geoscience: Earthquakes Geoscience: Geology
Published

What can central Utah's earthquake 'swarms' reveal about the West's seismicity?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Much of central Utah's seismic activity comes in groups of small earthquakes. A study by seismologists examines 2,300 quakes occurring 40 'swarms' dating back to 1981, opening a window into Earth's crust in a geothermally active area.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Webb detects water vapor in rocky planet-forming zone      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Water is essential for life as we know it. However, scientists debate how it reached the Earth and whether the same processes could seed rocky exoplanets orbiting distant stars. New insights may come from the planetary system PDS 70, located 370 light-years away. The star hosts both an inner disk and outer disk of gas and dust, separated by a 5 billion-mile-wide (8 billion kilometer) gap, and within that gap are two known gas-giant planets.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

To stick or to bounce: Size determines the stickiness of cosmic dust aggregates      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Current evidence suggests that microparticles of cosmic dust collide and stick together to form larger dust aggregates that may eventually combine and develop into planets. Numerical models that accurately characterize the conditions required for colliding microparticle aggregates to stick together, rather than bounce apart, are therefore paramount to understanding the evolution of planets. Recent modeling suggests that dust aggregates are less likely to stick together after a collision as the size of the aggregates increases.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Galaxy J1135 reveals its water map      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers look at water in galaxies, its distribution and in particular its changes of state from ice to vapor, as important markers indicating areas of increased energy, in which black holes and stars are formed. A new study has now revealed the distribution of water within the J1135 galaxy, which is 12 billion light years away and formed when the Universe was a 'teenager', 1.8 billion years after the Big Bang . This water map, with unprecedented resolution, is the first ever to be obtained for such a remote galaxy. The map can help scientists to understand the physical processes taking place within J1135 and shed light on the dynamics, still partially unclear, surrounding the formation of stars, black holes and galaxies themselves.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Does this exoplanet have a sibling sharing the same orbit?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found the possible 'sibling' of a planet orbiting a distant star. The team has detected a cloud of debris that might be sharing this planet's orbit and which, they believe, could be the building blocks of a new planet or the remnants of one already formed. If confirmed, this discovery would be the strongest evidence yet that two exoplanets can share one orbit.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Cosmology Space: Structures and Features
Published

The puzzle of the galaxy with no dark matter      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research has found the first evidence of a massive galaxy with no dark matter. The result is a challenge to the current standard model of cosmology.

Offbeat: Space Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Unusual white dwarf star is made of hydrogen on one side and helium on the other      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In a first for white dwarfs, the burnt-out cores of dead stars, astronomers have discovered that at least one member of this cosmic family is two faced. One side of the white dwarf is composed of hydrogen, while the other is made up of helium.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

VERA unveils surroundings of rapidly growing black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers used the state-of-the-art capability of VERA, a Japanese network of radio telescopes, to uncover valuable clues about how rapidly growing 'young' supermassive black holes form, grow, and possibly evolve into more powerful quasars.

Space: Astronomy Space: Astrophysics Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Astronomers discover striking evidence of 'unusual' stellar evolution      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found evidence that some stars boast unexpectedly strong surface magnetic fields, a discovery that challenges current models of how they evolve.