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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Squeezed by Neighbors, Planet Glows with Molten Lava

    May 11, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Volcanic exoplanet illustration. (Arkadiusz Warguła/iStock/Getty)

    Extreme conditions on rocky planet surprise scientists. UC Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane had to double check his calculations. He wasn’t sure the planet he was studying could be as extreme as it seemed.

    Kane never expected to learn that a planet in this faraway star system is covered with so many active volcanoes that seen from a distance it would take on a fiery, glowing-red hue.

    “It was one of those discovery moments that you think, ‘wow, it’s amazing this can actually exist,” Kane said. A paper detailing the discovery has been published in The Astronomical Journal.

    Launched in 2018, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, searches for exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — tha...

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    Webb presents Best Evidence to date for Rocky Exoplanet Atmosphere

    May 9, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Hints of a possible atmosphere around a rocky exoplanet
    A thermal emission spectrum captured by JWST’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in November 2022, and MIRI (MidInfrared Instrument) in March 2023, shows the brightness (y-axis) of different wavelengths of infrared light (x-axis) emitted by the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e. The spectrum shows that the planet may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide and other volatiles, not just vaporized rock. The graph compares data collected by NIRCam (orange dots) and MIRI (purple dots) to two different models. Model A, in red, shows what the emission spectrum of 55 Cancri e should look like if it has an atmosphere made of vaporized rock...
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    Iron Fingerprints in Nearby Active Galaxy

    May 9, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A XRISM spectrum of NGC 4151 with a multiwavelength snapshot of the galaxy in the background.
    The Resolve instrument aboard XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) captured data from the center of galaxy NGC 4151, where a supermassive black hole is slowly consuming material from the surrounding accretion disk. The resulting spectrum reveals the presence of iron in the peak around 6.5 keV and the dips around 7 keV, light thousands of times more energetic that what our eyes can see. Background: An image of NGC 4151 constructed from a combination of X-ray, optical, and radio light.
    Spectrum: JAXA/NASA/XRISM Resolve. Background: X-rays, NASA/CXC/CfA/J.Wang et al.; optical, Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma/Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope; radio, NSF/NRAO/VLA

    After starting science operations in February, Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) studied the ...

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    How NASA’s Roman Mission will Hunt for Primordial Black Holes

    May 8, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Stephen Hawking theorized that black holes can slowly shrink as radiation escapes. The slow leak of what’s now known as Hawking radiation would, over time, cause the black hole to simply evaporate. This infographic shows the estimated lifetimes and event horizon –– the point past which infalling objects can’t escape a black hole’s gravitational grip –– diameters for black holes of various small masses.
    NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    Astronomers have discovered black holes ranging from a few times the sun’s mass to tens of billions. Now a group of scientists has predicted that NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could find a class of “featherweight” black holes that has so far eluded detection.

    Today, black holes form either when a massive star collapses or wh...

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