Space news topic and space related news

Started by Tsanten Eywa 'eveng, September 23, 2011, 03:31:21 PM

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Toliman

What Does the Milky Way Weigh? Hubble and Gaia Investigate

We can't put the whole Milky Way on a scale, but astronomers have been able to come up with one of the most accurate measurements yet of our galaxy's mass, using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Gaia satellite.

The Milky Way weighs in at about 1.5 trillion solar masses (one solar mass is the mass of our Sun), according to the latest measurements. Only a few percent of this is contributed by the approximately 200 billion stars in the Milky Way and includes a 4-million-solar-mass supermassive black hole at the center. Most of the rest of the mass is locked up in dark matter, an invisible and mysterious substance that acts like scaffolding throughout the universe and keeps the stars in their galaxies.

Earlier research dating back several decades used a variety of observational techniques that provided estimates for our galaxy's mass ranging between 500 billion to 3 trillion solar masses. The improved measurement is near the middle of this range. ...

More here:
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-16

Toliman

Hubble Watches Spun-up Asteroid Coming Apart

Astronomers once thought asteroids were boring, wayward space rocks that simply orbit around the Sun. These objects were dramatically presented only in science fiction movies.

But recent observations show that asteroids are anything but dull. In reality they are dynamic, active worlds that can ultimately disintegrate due to the long-term subtle effects of sunlight, which can slowly spin them up until they begin to shed material.

Several telescopes, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, have caught the gradual self-destruction of the asteroid (6478) Gault. Images from Hubble show two narrow, comet-like tails of dusty debris streaming from the diminutive asteroid.

For Gault, a mass of rubble a few miles across, mere sunlight set the stage for its gradual demise. The force of sunlight, in concert with Gault's own asymmetrical shape, speeded up the asteroid's rotation over a period of more than 100 million years. The estimated spin-up rate is 1 second every 10,000 years.

Today, the asteroid is rotating once every two hours, a speed so fast that it can no longer hold its surface material. The slightest disturbance — perhaps the impact of a pebble, or just a failure of the stressed material — may have set off a collapse. The dust left the asteroid's surface in gentle, short bursts, perhaps due to landslides lasting anywhere from a few hours to a few days. The particles are drifting away from Gault's surface at the speed of a strolling human. The gentle process is like scattering flour into the air, where wind — or sunlight, in the case of Gault — stretches the debris into a long streamer.

Astronomers will monitor the asteroid for future events. About 800,000 known asteroids reside between Mars and Jupiter, and they may fly apart at the rate of roughly one per year.

More here:
http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-22

Vawmataw

I remember watching live the pictures of Comet Ison emerging from its perihelion dead.
Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Toliman


Toliman

Hubble Celebrates 29th Anniversary with a Colorful Look at the Southern Crab Nebula

In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured this festive, colorful look at the tentacled Southern Crab Nebula.

The nebula, officially known as Hen 2-104, is located several thousand light-years from Earth in the southern hemisphere constellation of Centaurus. It appears to have two nested hourglass-shaped structures that were sculpted by a whirling pair of stars in a binary system. The duo consists of an aging red giant star and a burned-out star, a white dwarf. The red giant is shedding its outer layers. Some of this ejected material is attracted by the gravity of the companion white dwarf.

The result is that both stars are embedded in a flat disk of gas stretching between them. This belt of material constricts the outflow of gas so that it only speeds away above and below the disk. The result is an hourglass-shaped nebula.

The bubbles of gas and dust appear brightest at the edges, giving the illusion of crab leg structures. These "legs" are likely to be the places where the outflow slams into surrounding interstellar gas and dust, or possibly material which was earlier lost by the red giant star.

http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-15



Eìrä

Oe tsun pivlltxe nìNa'vi nìteng ma eylan! Oel ayngati kameie nìwotx! 'Rrta lu oeyä kelku!

FÌTSENGE LU AWNGEYÄ!
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Feel Free To Correct My Na'vi Writing If I Did Mistakes!
 Oe lu numeyu numtsengä alu LearnNa'vi! Irayo nìtxan ta ma oeyä Ayeylan ulte ta ma Tìtstewan!
Nìolo' Pxoeng Seykxel Ma Eylan!

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Ta:Eìrä :-*

Toliman


Toliman

ALMA Discovers Aluminum around a Young Star

Researchers using ALMA data discovered an aluminum-bearing molecule for the first time around a young star. Aluminum-rich inclusions found in meteorites are some of the oldest solid objects formed in the Solar System, but their formation process and stage is still poorly linked to star and planet formation. The discovery of aluminum oxide around a young star provides a crucial chance to study the initial formation process of meteorites and planets like the Earth.

Disks of gas surround young stars. Some of the gas condenses into dust grains which then stick together to form more substantial objects, building up to form meteors, planetesimals, and eventually planets. Understanding the formation of these first solid objects is essential for understanding everything which follows.

Shogo Tachibana, a professor at the University of Tokyo/Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and his team analyzed the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) data for Orion KL Source I, a massive young protostar, and found distinctive radio emissions from aluminum oxide (AlO) molecules. This is the first unambiguous detection of AlO around a young star.

"Aluminum oxide played a significant role in the formation of the oldest material in the Solar System," says Tachibana "Our discovery will contribute to the understanding of material evolution in the early Solar System."


https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-release/alma-discovers-aluminum-around-a-young-star/


Eìrä

Oe tsun pivlltxe nìNa'vi nìteng ma eylan! Oel ayngati kameie nìwotx! 'Rrta lu oeyä kelku!

FÌTSENGE LU AWNGEYÄ!
LN Community - Second Family and Home!

Feel Free To Correct My Na'vi Writing If I Did Mistakes!
 Oe lu numeyu numtsengä alu LearnNa'vi! Irayo nìtxan ta ma oeyä Ayeylan ulte ta ma Tìtstewan!
Nìolo' Pxoeng Seykxel Ma Eylan!

KEMÌRI A NGARU PRRTE' KE LU, TSAKEM RÄ'Ä SIVI AYLAHERU!

Ta:Eìrä :-*

Toliman

NASA's Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field

NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter made the first definitive detection beyond our world of an internal magnetic field that changes over time, a phenomenon called secular variation. Juno determined the gas giant's secular variation is most likely driven by the planet's deep atmospheric winds.

The discovery will help scientists further understand Jupiter's interior structure — including atmospheric dynamics — as well as changes in Earth's magnetic field. A paper on the discovery was published today in the journal Nature Astronomy.

"Secular variation has been on the wish list of planetary scientists for decades," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. "This discovery could only take place due to Juno's extremely accurate science instruments and the unique nature of Juno's orbit, which carries it low over the planet as it travels from pole to pole."

Characterizing the magnetic field of a planet requires close-up measurements. Juno scientists compared data from NASA's past missions to Jupiter (Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and Ulysses) to a new model of Jupiter's magnetic field (called JRM09). The new model was based on data collected during Juno's first eight science passes of Jupiter using its magnetometer, an instrument capable of generating a detailed three-dimensional map of the magnetic field.


https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-finds-changes-in-jupiters-magnetic-field



Eìrä

This is awesome! And strange!
How can magnetic fields change? ???
Oe tsun pivlltxe nìNa'vi nìteng ma eylan! Oel ayngati kameie nìwotx! 'Rrta lu oeyä kelku!

FÌTSENGE LU AWNGEYÄ!
LN Community - Second Family and Home!

Feel Free To Correct My Na'vi Writing If I Did Mistakes!
 Oe lu numeyu numtsengä alu LearnNa'vi! Irayo nìtxan ta ma oeyä Ayeylan ulte ta ma Tìtstewan!
Nìolo' Pxoeng Seykxel Ma Eylan!

KEMÌRI A NGARU PRRTE' KE LU, TSAKEM RÄ'Ä SIVI AYLAHERU!

Ta:Eìrä :-*

Toliman

A Pair of Fledgling Planets Directly Seen Growing Around a Young Star

Gas giants are carving a gap within a planet-forming disk

In order to grow to Jupiter size or larger, a gas giant planet must slurp large quantities of hydrogen and other gases from the disk in which it forms. Astronomers have looked for evidence of this process, but direct observations are challenging because planets become lost in the glare of their star. A team has succeeded in making ground-based observations of two planets accreting matter from a disk. It represents only the second multi-planet system to be directly imaged.


http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-26

Toliman

Cool, Nebulous Ring around Milky Way's Supermassive Black Hole

New observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal a never-before-seen disk of cold, interstellar gas wrapped around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. This nebulous disk gives astronomers new insights into the workings of accretion: the siphoning of material onto the surface of a black hole. The results are published in the journal Nature.

Through decades of study, astronomers have developed a clearer picture of the chaotic and crowded neighborhood surrounding the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Our galactic center is approximately 26,000 light-years from Earth and the supermassive black hole there, known as Sagittarius A* (A "star"), is 4 million times the mass of our Sun. We now know that this region is brimming with roving stars, interstellar dust clouds, and a large reservoir of both phenomenally hot and comparatively colder gases. These gases are expected to orbit the black hole in a vast accretion disk that extends a few tenths of a light-year from the black hole's event horizon.


https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-release/cool-nebulous-ring-around-milky-ways-supermassive-black-hole/

Eìrä

Wouuuuu! That's awesome! :D i like it a lot!
Irayo nìtxan ma Toliman!
Oe tsun pivlltxe nìNa'vi nìteng ma eylan! Oel ayngati kameie nìwotx! 'Rrta lu oeyä kelku!

FÌTSENGE LU AWNGEYÄ!
LN Community - Second Family and Home!

Feel Free To Correct My Na'vi Writing If I Did Mistakes!
 Oe lu numeyu numtsengä alu LearnNa'vi! Irayo nìtxan ta ma oeyä Ayeylan ulte ta ma Tìtstewan!
Nìolo' Pxoeng Seykxel Ma Eylan!

KEMÌRI A NGARU PRRTE' KE LU, TSAKEM RÄ'Ä SIVI AYLAHERU!

Ta:Eìrä :-*

Toliman

Table Salt Compound Spotted on Europa

Astronomers detect sodium chloride on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa.

Finding common table salt — sodium chloride — on the surface of a moon is more than just a scientific curiosity when that moon is Europa, a potential abode of life.

If the salt came from the briny subsurface ocean of Europa, a satellite of Jupiter, that ocean may chemically resemble Earth's oceans more than previously thought. Because Europa's solid, icy crust is geologically young it has been suspected that whatever salts exist on the surface may come from the ocean below, which might host microorganisms.

Using visible-light spectral analysis, planetary scientists at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory discovered that the yellow color visible on portions of the surface of Europa is sodium chloride. They reached this conclusion with spectroscopic data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Researchers were able to identify a distinct absorption in the visible spectrum which matches how salt would look when irradiated by the Sun.

Tara Regio is the yellowish area to left of center, in this NASA Galileo image of Europa's surface. This region of geologic chaos is the area researchers identified an abundance of sodium chloride.


http://hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2019-37

Vawmataw

Fmawn Ta 'Rrta - News IN NA'VI ONLY (Discord)
Traducteur francophone de Kelutral.org, dict-navi et Reykunyu

Toliman


Toliman

New ALMA Image Reveals Migrating Planet in Protoplanetary Disk

A new high-resolution image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) features a protoplanetary disk with an isolated outer region composed of an intricate system of thin rings and gaps, instead of the wide and smooth ring expected for these disks. The isolation of this never seen before structures allowed a research team to explain it with a straightforward interpretation: a single, migrating planet ten times the mass of Earth sculpting the dust particles into multiple narrow rings.

Finding direct connections between the gaps seen in protoplanetary disks and the properties of planets opens a new window to investigate a population of young planets that are exceedingly difficult to detect with any other method.

ALMA has seen a plethora of rings and gaps in almost all protoplanetary disks it has observed at high resolution, yet the origins of these structures remain a matter of intense debate. As the quality of the observations increases, the ringed structures grow in number and complexity, challenging a simple interpretation based on planetary origins. The new ALMA observations of HD169142, a protoplanetary disk 370 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius, allowed a team led by Sebastian Perez, from University of Santiago (Chile) to explain the seemingly complex architecture of protoplanetary ring systems with the presence of a single low-mass planet.

Even though it was designed to avoid disks with evidence of deep gaps and holes, the DSHARP ALMA Large Program unveiled, less than a year ago, several new ring systems. In the absence of a clear gap that separates an outer region, the superposition of multiple rings due to several planets hampers simple and clear explanations such as that found for HD169142. This particular ring system thus allows a proof of concept to interpret the detailed architecture of the outer region of protoplanetary disks, with low mass planet formation of mini-Neptune's size. The fact that the middle ring is closer to the inner ring is the first evidence for planetary migration in disk observations. The planet moves closer to the star, shrinking its orbit, while shepherding the middle ring with it.

"The high-fidelity of ALMA helped us reveal unexpected substructure in the outer ring of a system thought to have no narrow rings" explains Sebastian Pérez, from Universidad de Santiago, and lead author of this research. "The community has made great progress on interpreting these sharp rings seen in young planetary systems. Here, one small planet interacting with tiny dust particles can reproduce these rings in isolation, revealing its properties in an indirect way. This one and other similar experiments open new possibilities of characterization of super young extra-solar planets."


https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/audiences/new-alma-image-reveals-migrating-planet-in-protoplanetary-disk/



Toliman

ALMA Finds Earliest Example of Merging Galaxies

Researchers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observed the earliest combined signals of oxygen, carbon, and dust from a galaxy in the Universe, 13 billion years ago. By comparing the different signals, the team determined that the galaxy is, in fact, two merging galaxies, making it the earliest example of merging galaxies yet discovered.

Takuya Hashimoto at Waseda University, Japan, and his team used ALMA to observe B14-65666, an object located 13 billion light-years away in the constellation Sextans. Because of the finite speed of light, the signals we receive from B14-65666 today had to travel for 13 billion years to reach us. In other words, they show us the image of what the galaxy looked like 13 billion years ago, less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang.


https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/press-release/alma-finds-earliest-example-of-merging-galaxies/

Toliman

MYSTERIOUS WORLD IS UNLIKE ANYTHING FOUND IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

Our solar system contains two major classes of planets. Earth is a rocky terrestrial planet, as are Mercury, Venus, and Mars. At about the distance of the asteroid belt, there is a "frost line" where space is so cold more volatile material, like water, can remain frozen. Out here live the gas giants–Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune–which have bulked up on hydrogen and helium and other volatiles.

Astronomers are curious about a new class of planet not found in the Solar System. Weighing in at 12.6 Earth masses the planet is more massive than Earth, but less massive than Neptune (hence, intermediate between the rocky and gaseous planets in the Solar System). What's more, the planet, GJ 3470 b, is so close to its red dwarf star that it completes one orbit in just three days! As odd as it seems, planets in this mass range are likely the most abundant throughout the galaxy, based on surveys by NASA's Kepler space telescope. But they are not found in our own solar system.

Astronomers enlisted the combined multi-wavelength capabilities of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes to assemble for the first time a "fingerprint" of the chemical composition of GJ 3470 b's atmosphere, which turns out to be mostly hydrogen and helium, and surprisingly, largely lacking heavier elements. One possible explanation is that the planet formed as a 10-Earth-mass rocky core that then accumulated hydrogen very close to its star, rather than migrated in which is the conventional wisdom for star-hugging planets.

More.
https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2019/news-2019-38