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Categories: Space: Cosmology, Space: Exploration
Published New radar technique lets scientists probe invisible ice sheet region on Earth and icy worlds
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new radar technique developed by a graduate student allows imaging of the upper few feet of ice sheets on Earth and icy worlds. The technique uses instruments on airplanes or satellites to survey large regions quickly. The upper few feet of ice sheets are important for measuring melt on Earth or looking for habitable environments on icy worlds. Previous airborne or satellite techniques could not image this narrow region in detail.
Published Training robots how to learn, make decisions on the fly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Mars rovers have teams of human experts on Earth telling them what to do. But robots on lander missions to moons orbiting Saturn or Jupiter are too far away to receive timely commands from Earth. Researchers developed a novel learning-based method so robots on extraterrestrial bodies can make decisions on their own about where and how to scoop up terrain samples.
Published Satellite security lags decades behind the state of the art
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have tested the software of three satellites. And they found many standard security mechanisms missing.
Published Reinventing cosmology: New research puts age of universe at 26.7 -- not 13.7 -- billion years
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Our universe could be twice as old as current estimates, according to a new study that challenges the dominant cosmological model and sheds new light on the so-called 'impossible early galaxy problem.'
Published Gauging the strength of ancient and active rivers beyond Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new technique allows scientists to see how intensely rivers used to flow on Mars, and how they currently flow on Titan. The method uses satellite observations to estimate the rate at which rivers move fluid and sediment downstream.
Published Webb Telescope detects most distant active supermassive black hole
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered the most distant active supermassive black hole to date with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The galaxy, CEERS 1019, existed about 570 million years after the big bang, and its black hole is less massive than any other yet identified in the early universe.
Published Webb locates dust reservoirs in two supernovae
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have made major strides in confirming the source of dust in early galaxies. Observations of two Type II supernovae, Supernova 2004et (SN 2004et) and Supernova 2017eaw (SN 2017eaw), have revealed large amounts of dust within the ejecta of each of these objects. The mass found by researchers supports the theory that supernovae played a key role in supplying dust to the early universe.
Published Large sub-surface granite formation signals ancient volcanic activity on Moon's dark side
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A large formation of granite discovered below the lunar surface likely was formed from the cooling of molten lava that fed a volcano or volcanoes that erupted early in the Moon's history -- as long as 3.5 billion years ago.
Published Quasar 'clocks' show Universe was five times slower soon after the Big Bang
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Quasars are the supermassive black holes at the centres of early galaxies. Scientists have unlocked their secrets to use them as 'clocks' to measure time near the beginning of the universe.
Published New image from James Webb Space Telescope reveals astonishing Saturn and its rings
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Saturn's iconic rings seem to glow eerily in this incredible infrared picture, which also unveils unexpected features in Saturn's atmosphere. This image serves as context for an observing program that will test the telescope's capacity to detect faint moons around the planet and its bright rings. Any newly discovered moons could help scientists put together a more complete picture of the current system of Saturn, as well as its past.
Published Astrophysicists propose a new way of measuring cosmic expansion: Lensed gravitational waves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The universe is expanding; we've had evidence of that for about a century. But just how quickly celestial objects are receding from each other is still up for debate.
Published First 'ghost particle' image of Milky Way
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have revealed a uniquely different image of our galaxy by determining the galactic origin of thousands of neutrinos -- invisible 'ghost particles' which exist in great quantities but normally pass straight through Earth undetected. The neutrino-based image of the Milky Way is the first of its kind: a galactic portrait made with particles of matter rather than electromagnetic energy.
Published Gullies on Mars could have been formed by recent periods of liquid meltwater, study suggests
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A study offers new insights into how water from melting ice could have played a recent role in the formation of ravine-like channels that cut down the sides of impact craters on Mars.
Published Earliest strands of the cosmic web
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Galaxies are not scattered randomly across the universe. They gather together not only into clusters, but into vast interconnected filamentary structures with gigantic barren voids in between. This 'cosmic web' started out tenuous and became more distinct over time as gravity drew matter together.
Published Gravitational waves from colossal black holes found using 'cosmic clocks'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source You can't see or feel it, but everything around you -- including your own body -- is slowly shrinking and expanding. It's the weird, spacetime-warping effect of gravitational waves passing through our galaxy. New results are the first evidence of the gravitational wave background -- a sort of soup of spacetime distortions pervading the entire universe and long predicted to exist by scientists.
Published Life after death: Astronomers find a planet that shouldn't exist
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The star would have inflated up to 1.5 times the planet's orbital distance -- engulfing the planet in the process -- before shrinking to its current size at only one-tenth of that distance.
Published Starlight and the first black holes: researchers detect the host galaxies of quasars in the early universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For the first time, the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed starlight from two massive galaxies hosting actively growing black holes -- quasars -- seen less than a billion years after the Big Bang.
Published First detection of crucial carbon molecule
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists detect a new carbon compound in space for the first time. Known as methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) (CH3+), the molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules. Methyl cation was detected in a young star system, with a protoplanetary disk, known as d203-506, which is located about 1,350 light-years away in the Orion Nebula.
Published Einstein and Euler put to the test at the edge of the Universe
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The cosmos is a unique laboratory for testing the laws of physics, in particular those of Euler and Einstein. Euler described the movements of celestial objects, while Einstein described the way in which celestial objects distort the Universe. Since the discovery of dark matter and the acceleration of the Universe's expansion, the validity of their equations has been put to the test: are they capable of explaining these mysterious phenomena? A team has developed the first method to find out. It considers a never-before-used measure: time distortion.
Published Never-before-seen way to annihilate a star
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers studying a powerful gamma-ray burst, may have detected a never-before-seen way to destroy a star. Unlike most GRBs, which are caused by exploding massive stars or the chance mergers of neutron stars, astronomers have concluded that this GRB came instead from the collision of stars or stellar remnants in the jam-packed environment surrounding a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy.