Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    Giant Planets Cast a Deadly Pall

    November 3, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Giant exoplanet in transit
    Artist rendering of a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. (ESA/C. Carreau/NASA)

    How they can prevent life in other planetary systems. Giant gas planets can be agents of chaos, ensuring nothing lives on their Earth-like neighbors around other stars. New studies show, in some planetary systems, the giants tend to kick smaller planets out of orbit and wreak havoc on their climates.

    Jupiter, by far the biggest planet in our solar system, plays an important protective role. Its enormous gravitational field deflects comets and asteroids that might otherwise hit Earth, helping create a stable environment for life. However, giant planets elsewhere in the universe do not necessarily protect life on their smaller, rocky planet neighbors.

    A new Astronomical Journal p...

    Read More

    The Crab Nebula seen in New Light by NASA’s Webb

    November 1, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Exquisite, never-before-seen details help unravel the supernova remnant’s puzzling history. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has gazed at the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Since the recording of this energetic event in 1054 CE by 11th-century astronomers, the Crab Nebula has continued to draw attention and additional study as scientists seek to understand the conditions, behavior, and after-effects of supernovae through thorough study of the Crab, a relatively nearby example.

    Using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), a team led by Tea Temim at Princeton University is searching for answers about the Crab Nebula’s origins.

    “Webb’s sensitivity and spatial resolution allow us to accu...

    Read More

    Deep Learning Speeds up Galactic Calculations

    November 1, 2023, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Four square images showing dark backgrounds with stars and galaxies
    Divide and conquer. The upper images show a wide area of a galaxy being simulated. The time resolution is very low, in which each “step” of the simulation is around 100,000 years. The lower images show the specific area affected by a supernova explosion and have a finer time resolution where each step is under 10,000 years. These regions are combined with the more general simulation to improve the overall accuracy and efficiency of the simulation. ©2023 Hirashima et al., NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO/R. Hunt/Hubble/L. Calçada CC-BY-ND

    A new way to simulate supernovae may help shed light on our cosmic origins. Supernovae, exploding stars, play a critical role in the formation and evolution of galaxies...

    Read More

    Data from NASA’s WISE used to preview Lucy Mission’s Asteroid Dinkinesh

    November 1, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Two artist’s concepts show the WISE spacecraft, left, in front of an image of the infrared sky it observed during its prime mission, and NASA’s Lucy mission, right, during its Nov. 1 encounter with asteroid Dinkinesh.
    NASA/JPL-Caltech and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    NASA’s Lucy mission will soon have its first asteroid encounter as the spacecraft travels through deep space en route to Jupiter’s orbit. But before the spacecraft passes 265 miles (425 kilometers) from the surface of the small asteroid Dinkinesh, researchers have used 13-year-old infrared data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) to support the mission’s flyby...

    Read More