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.

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.

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.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Out with a bang: Explosive neutron star merger captured for the first time in millimeter light      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have recorded millimeter-wavelength light from a fiery explosion caused by the merger of a neutron star with another star. The team also confirmed this flash of light to be one of the most energetic short-duration gamma-ray bursts ever observed, leaving behind one of the most luminous afterglows on record.

Geoscience: Landslides
Published

We need to change how we think about soil      (via sciencedaily.com) 

With record temperatures this summer along with dry conditions, ongoing concerns about food security, wildlife habitats and biodiversity, having a healthy soil system is more vital and challenging than ever before. But what does the term 'soil health' mean and how should we measure it? New research says that how we think about, measure and study soil must be changed to give a better understanding of how to manage this resource effectively, with academics proposing an entirely new approach for assessing soil health.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Scientists reveal distribution of dark matter around galaxies 12 billion years ago -- further back in time than ever before      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Using Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation instead of visible light allows scientists to determine the distribution of dark matter several billion years earlier than previously possible.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Super-Earth skimming habitable zone of red dwarf      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A super-Earth planet has been found near the habitable zone of a red dwarf star only 37 light-years from the Earth. This is the first discovery by a new instrument on the Subaru Telescope and offers a chance to investigate the possibility of life on planets around nearby stars. With such a successful first result, we can expect that the Subaru Telescope will discover more, potentially even better, candidates for habitable planets around red dwarfs.

Geoscience: Landslides
Published

How charred detritus dispersed from Goleta Beach in wake of 2018 Montecito, California, debris flow      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The catastrophic debris flow that affected Montecito, Calif., in early January, 2018 was the result of a rare confluence of severe events. The Thomas Fire had been raging for weeks in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and an unusually strong winter storm dumped half an inch of rain in five minutes on the newly-charred hills above the suburban enclave. With the tough vegetation that holds the hillsides in place burned off by the fire, tons of water, silt, burnt plant matter and rocks roared down the slopes and engulfed the community below, causing massive damage and the death of 23 residents.

Environmental: Wildfires Geoscience: Landslides
Published

New model developed to predict landslides along wildfire burn scars      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have augmented a physics-based numerical model to investigate and predict areas susceptible to debris flows. This augmented model eventually could be used in an early warning system for people living in high-risk areas, enabling them to evacuate before it's too late. Information from model simulations also could be used to design new infrastructure -- such as diversion bars that deflect fast-moving water away from homes and roads -- for high hazard zones.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Space study offers clearest understanding yet of the life cycle of supermassive black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Supermassive black holes with varying light signatures are actually in different stages of the life cycle.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Heaviest neutron star to date is a 'black widow' eating its mate      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Millisecond pulsars spin far more rapidly than expected for a collapsed star. The best chance to study these neutron stars is to find a black widow system where the pulsar has evaporated and eaten much of its companion star. The Keck I telescope was just able to capture spectra of one such companion, allowing astronomers to weigh its pulsar. It's the heaviest found to date, and perhaps near the upper limit for a neutron star.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Halos and dark matter: A recipe for discovery      (via sciencedaily.com) 

About three years ago, a team of astronomers went looking for the universe's missing mass, better known as dark matter, in the heart of an atom. Their expedition didn't lead them to dark matter, but they still found something that had never been seen before, something that defied explanation. Well, at least an explanation that everyone could agree on.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Measuring the universe with star-shattering explosions      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have analyzed archive data for powerful cosmic explosions from the deaths of stars and found a new way to measure distances in the distant Universe.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers develop novel way to 'see' the first stars through the fog of the early Universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A team of astronomers has developed a method that will allow them to 'see' through the fog of the early Universe and detect light from the first stars and galaxies.