Space: Structures and Features
Published

Mysterious ripples in the Milky Way were caused by a passing dwarf galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Using data from the Gaia space telescope, a team has shown that large parts of the Milky Way's outer disk vibrate. The ripples are caused by a dwarf galaxy, now seen in the constellation Sagittarius, that shook our galaxy as it passed by hundreds of millions of years ago.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

It's a planet: New evidence of baby planet in the making      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have developed a new technique to identify small planets hidden in protoplanetary disks.

Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Where do high-energy particles that endanger satellites, astronauts and airplanes come from?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astrophysicists show how and when specific particles form and offers clues to questions that have troubled scientists since the 1940s.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomy: Is over-eating to blame for bulges in Milky Way bar?      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new simulation conducted on the world's most powerful supercomputer dedicated to astronomy has produced a testable scenario to explain the appearance of the bar of the Milky Way. Comparing this scenario to data from current and future space telescopes will help clarify the evolution of our home Galaxy.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Could more of Earth's surface host life?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Of all known planets, Earth is as friendly to life as any planet could possibly be -- or is it? If Jupiter's orbit changes, a new study shows Earth could be more hospitable than it is today.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Physicists invoke the cosmological collider to explain why matter, and not antimatter, dominates the universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Early in its history, shortly after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with equal amounts of matter and 'antimatter' -- particles that are matter counterparts but with opposite charge. But then, as space expanded, the universe cooled. Today's universe is full of galaxies and stars which are made of matter. Where did the antimatter go, and how did matter come to dominate the universe? This cosmic origin of matter continues to puzzle scientists. Physicists have now opened a new pathway for probing the cosmic origin of matter by invoking the 'cosmological collider.'

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Hubble finds spiraling stars, providing window into early universe      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Stars are the machines that sculpt the universe, yet scientists don't fully know how they form. To understand the frenzied 'baby boom' of star birth that occurred early in the universe's history, researchers turned to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. This nearby galaxy has a simpler chemical composition than the Milky Way, making it similar to the galaxies found in the younger universe, when heavier elements were more scarce. This allows it to serve as a proxy for the early universe. Two separate studies -- the first with the Hubble Space Telescope, and the second with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope -- recently came to the same conclusion. Using different methods, the independent teams found young stars spiraling into the center of a massive star cluster called NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud. This river-like motion of gas and stars is an efficient way to fuel star birth, researchers say. The teams' results show that the process of star formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud is similar to that in our own Milky Way.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Surprise finding suggests 'water worlds' are more common than we thought      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study suggests that many more planets may have large amounts of water than previously thought--as much as half water and half rock. The catch? All that water is probably embedded in the rock, rather than flowing as oceans or rivers on the surface.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Two new temperate rocky worlds discovered      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have just announced the discovery of two 'super-Earth' planets orbiting LP 890-9, a small, cool star located about 100 light-years from Earth.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Planetary heist: Astronomers show massive stars can steal Jupiter-sized planets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Jupiter-sized planets can be stolen or captured by massive stars in the densely populated stellar nurseries where most stars are born, a new study has found.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Gamma rays from neighboring galaxy related to millisecond pulsars      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Physicists and astronomers have studied gamma rays caused by the Sagittarius Dwarf, a small neighboring galaxy of our Milky Way. They showed that all the observed gamma radiation can be explained by millisecond pulsars, and can therefore not be interpreted as a smoking gun signature for the presence of dark matter.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

NASA's Webb takes its first-ever direct image of distant world      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and could not be habitable. The image shows how Webb's powerful infrared gaze can easily capture worlds beyond our solar system, pointing the way to future observations that will reveal more information than ever before about exoplanets.

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.

Geoscience: Landslides
Published

Ancient landslide destroyed area size of Cincinnati      (via sciencedaily.com) 

University of Cincinnati geologists reconstructed a massive landslide in Nevada that wiped out an area the size of a small city more than 5 million years ago. Researchers pieced together details of the Blue Diamond landslide, a natural disaster that sent rocks and boulders tumbling more than 6 miles across what is now a desert outside Las Vegas. The landslide in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area had such mass and force that it propelled fragmented rock 2 miles uphill, cresting the enormous Blue Diamond Hill, and flattened an area larger than downtown Cincinnati. Rubble from the landslide stretches over an area of more than 7 square miles.

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.