Category Astronomy/Space

Melt inclusions are tiny dots of magma frozen within olivine crystals. The crystals lock in volatile elements that may have otherwise escaped from the magma. Researchers have shown that melt inclusions within volcanic glasses from the Moon contain carbon. They conclude that gas-phase carbon likely drive the “fire fountain” eruptions the produced the glass. Credit: Saal Lab / Brow University

Scientists have found traces of carbon in volcanic glass collected from the Apollo missions to the Moon. The finding may not only explain the driving force behind ancient ‘fire fountain’ eruptions on the Moon but also suggest that some volatile elements on the Moon and Earth have a common origin.

Fire fountains, a type of eruption that occurs frequently in Hawaii, require the presence of volatiles mixed...

For reference, an image of the entire Sun taken by SDO/AIA in extreme ultra-violet light (false color). (Right) An image of a solar prominence at the limb of the Sun taken by Hinode/SOT in visible light (Ca II H line, false color). As shown in the image, a prominence is composed of long, thin structures called threads. A scale model of the Earth is shown on the right for reference. Credit: Image courtesy of National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Solar physicists have captured the 1st direct observational signatures of resonant absorption, thought to play an important role in solving the ‘coronal heating problem’ which has defied explanation for over 70 years...

Variety of fracture networks on comet 67P/C-G. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Extreme thermal stresses experienced by a comet as it orbits around the Sun could explain the extensive fracturing thought to drive its long-term surface erosion, say Rosetta scientists analysing high-resolution images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s surface.

M. Ramy El-Maarry and his team identified 3 distinct settings in which the fractures occur: networks of long narrow fractures, fractures on cliffs and fractured boulders...

This is one of the highest-energy neutrino events from a survey of the northern sky superimposed on a view of the IceCube Lab at the South Pole. Credit: IceCube Collaboration

Researchers using the IceCube Neutrino Observatory have sorted through the billions of subatomic particles that zip through its frozen cubic-kilometer-sized detector each year to gather powerful new evidence in support of 2013 observations confirming the existence of cosmic neutrinos.

It heralds a new form of astronomy using neutrinos, the nearly massless high-energy particles generated in nature’s accelerators: black holes, massive exploding stars and the energetic cores of galaxies...