Space: Structures and Features
Published

Scientists on the hunt for planetary formation fossils reveal unexpected eccentricities in nearby debris disk      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have imaged the debris disk of the nearby star HD 53143 at millimeter wavelengths for the first time, and it looks nothing like they expected. Based on early coronagraphic data, scientists expected ALMA to confirm the debris disk as a face-on ring peppered with clumps of dust. Instead, the observations took a surprise turn, revealing the most complicated and eccentric debris disk observed to date.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers discover a multiplanet system nearby      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers discovered a multiplanet system just 33 light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest known multiplanet systems. The system likely hosts at least two terrestrial, Earth-sized planets.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

The tarantula's cosmic web: Astronomers map violent star formation in nebula outside our galaxy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have unveiled intricate details of the star-forming region 30 Doradus, also known as the Tarantula Nebula, using new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Now we can see the nebula in a new light, with wispy gas clouds that provide insight into how massive stars shape this region.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

To find a planet, look for the signatures of planet formation      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Finding forming planets is a tough but important job for astronomers: Only three planets have ever been discovered caught in the process of forming, and the most recent of these was found just weeks ago.

Geoscience: Landslides
Published

Study explores uncertainties in flood risk estimates      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Flood frequency analysis is a technique used to estimate flood risk, providing statistics such as the '100-year flood' or '500-year flood' that are critical to infrastructure design, dam safety analysis, and flood mapping in flood-prone areas. But the method used to calculate these flood frequencies is due for an update, according to a new study.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Wandering star disrupts stellar nursery      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New study finds star-forming cloud's magnetic field is curiously twisted. Researchers believe a newborn star moved into another young star's stellar envelope to form a binary star system. The interloper shifted the cloud's dynamics, twisting its magnetic field. The new findings provide insight into binary star formation and how magnetic fields influence the earliest stages of developing stars.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Simulations reveal hydrodynamics of planetary engulfment by expanding star      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A new study using hydrodynamical simulations reveals the forces acting on a planet when it is swallowed by an expanding star. The results show that the interactions of a substellar body (a planet or brown dwarf) with the hot gas in the outer envelope of a sun-like star can lead to a range of outcomes depending on the size of the engulfed object and the stage of the star's evolution. The dynamics and possible outcomes of planetary engulfment are poorly understood, but it is thought to be a relatively common fate for planetary systems.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers may have detected a 'dark' free-floating black hole      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have discovered what may be a free-floating black hole by observing the brightening of a more distant star as its light was distorted by the object's strong gravitational field -- so-called gravitational microlensing.

Space: Exploration Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ground-breaking number of brown dwarfs discovered      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Brown dwarfs, mysterious objects that straddle the line between stars and planets, are essential to our understanding of both stellar and planetary populations. However, only 40 brown dwarfs could be imaged around stars in almost three decades of searches. An international team has directly imaged a remarkable four new brown dwarfs thanks to a new innovative search method.

Space: Structures and Features Space: The Solar System
Published

Particle accelerator region revealed inside a solar flare      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study offers direct evidence showing where near-light speed particle acceleration occurs inside the largest explosion known in the solar system, the solar flare.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Yoyo stars responsible for off-center bubbles      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have developed a new code to simulate the formation of a cluster of baby stars. Comparison with the well-known real case of the Orion Nebula shows that its off-center bubble of ionized gas was caused by a massive star that was pushed out of the newborn cluster but is now falling back in.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Detecting new particles around black holes with gravitational waves      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Clouds of ultralight particles can form around rotating black holes. A team of physicists now show that these clouds would leave a characteristic imprint on the gravitational waves emitted by binary black holes.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Colossal collisions linked to solar system science      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A new study shows a deep connection between some of the largest, most energetic events in the universe and much smaller, weaker ones powered by our own Sun.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Supermassive black holes inside of dying galaxies detected in early universe      (via sciencedaily.com) 

An international team of astronomers used a database combining observations from the best telescopes in the world, including the Subaru Telescope, to detect the signal from the active supermassive black holes of dying galaxies in the early Universe. The appearance of these active supermassive black holes correlates with changes in the host galaxy, suggesting that a black hole could have far reaching effects on the evolution of its host galaxy.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Why haven't we discovered co-orbital exoplanets? Could tides offer a possible answer?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

So far, we haven't discovered any exoplanets with co-orbital objects. A new study suggests tides could be causing oscillations that remove co-orbitals before we can find them.

Mathematics: General Space: Structures and Features
Published

AI reveals unsuspected math underlying search for exoplanets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The astronomers' goal: find an artificial intelligence algorithm to interpret microlensing events captured by the upcoming Roman Space Telescope and speed detection of exoplanets around other stars. They achieved that, but the AI told them something unexpected and deep: the theory used to infer stellar and exoplanetary masses and orbits from observations was incomplete. Digging into the mathematics, they uncovered a theory that explains all types of microlensing events and possible ambiguities in interpreting them.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Astronomers find hidden trove of massive black holes      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have found a previously overlooked treasure trove of massive black holes in dwarf galaxies. The newly discovered black holes offer a glimpse into the life story of the supermassive black hole at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Ghostly 'mirror world' might be cause of cosmic controversy      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New research suggests an unseen 'mirror world' of particles that interacts with our world only via gravity that might be the key to solving a major puzzle in cosmology today -- the Hubble constant problem. The Hubble constant is the rate of expansion of the universe today. Predictions for this rate are significantly slower than the rate found by our most precise local measurements. This discrepancy is one that many cosmologists have been trying to solve by changing our current cosmological model.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

Extraterrestrial stone brings first supernova clues to Earth      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The extraterrestrial Hypatia stone found in Egypt could be the first tangible evidence on Earth of a supernova type Ia explosion. These rare supernovas are some of the most energetic events in the universe. If the hypothesis is correct, Hypatia would be a 'forensic' clue of an epic cosmic story started sometime in the early formation of our solar system.

Space: Structures and Features
Published

In a pair of merging supermassive black holes, a new method for measuring the void      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers have devised a potentially easier way of gazing into the abyss. Their imaging technique could allow astronomers to study black holes smaller than M87's, a monster with a mass of 6.5 billion suns, harbored in galaxies more distant than M87, which at 55 million light-years away, is still relatively close to our own Milky Way.