Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Insights on How Galaxies are Formed

    March 4, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An image from the simulation
    Part of the simulated universe. In the center, a galaxy is born through gas that later transforms into stars. The whole process takes billions of years but is simulated in just a few months by supercomputers (Photo: The AGORA Collaboration)

    New insights on how galaxies are formed
    Astronomers can use supercomputers to simulate the formation of galaxies from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago to the present day. But there are a number of sources of error. An international research team, led by researchers in Lund, has spent a hundred million computer hours over eight years trying to correct these.

    The last decade has seen major advances in computer simulations that can realistically calculate how galaxies form...

    Read More

    Ice Shell Thickness reveals Water Temperature on Ocean Worlds

    March 3, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Encedalus
    The frozen ocean world of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn.

    Cornell University astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures of distant worlds based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from space.

    Available data showing ice thickness variation already allows a prediction for the upper ocean of Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, and a NASA mission’s planned orbital survey of Europa’s ice shell should do the same for the much larger Jovian moon, enhancing the mission’s findings about whether it could support life.

    The researchers propose that a process called “ice pumping,” which they’ve observed below Antarctic ice shelves, likely shapes the undersides of Europa’s and Enceladus’ ice shells, but should also operate at Ganymede a...

    Read More

    Gas on the run – ALMA spots the Shadow of a Molecular Outflow from a Quasar when the Universe was less than one billion years old

    February 7, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The molecular gas outflow from the quasar includes hydroxyl (OH) (top). Due to the motion of the molecular gas toward the observer, the OH peak in the absorption spectrum (bottom, dashed blue line) appears at a shorter wavelength (solid blue line), a phenomenon known as the Doppler effect. (Illustration: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) modified from Dragan Salak, et al. The Astrophysical Journal. February 1, 2024)
    The molecular gas outflow from the quasar includes hydroxyl (OH) (top). Due to the motion of the molecular gas toward the observer, the OH peak in the absorption spectrum (bottom, dashed blue line) appears at a shorter wavelength (solid blue line), a phenomenon known as the Doppler effect. (Illustration: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) modified from Dragan Salak, et al. The Astrophysical Journal. February 1, 2024)

    Theoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

    A quasar is a compact region powered by a supermassive black hole located in the center of a massive galaxy.

    They are extremely luminous, with a point-like appearance similar to stars, and are extremely distant from Earth...

    Read More

    Team of Astronomers discovers Galaxy that Shouldn’t Exist

    February 6, 2024, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of outer space.
    A color-composite image of PEARLSDG made with JWST NIRCAM data. Individual stars are visible as small points of light in the image. Its somewhat dull color and lack of many bright stars is consistent with its old age and lack of ongoing star formation. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Jake Summers (ASU), Jordan C. J. D’Silva (UWA), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Aaron Robotham (UWA) and Rogier Windhorst (ASU)

    A team of astronomers, led by Arizona State University Assistant Research Scientist Tim Carleton, has discovered a dwarf galaxy that appeared in James Webb Space Telescope imaging that wasn’t the primary observation target.

    Galaxies are bound together by gravity and made up of stars and planets, with vast clouds of dust and gas as well as dark matter...

    Read More