Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Cosmological Constraints on the Nature of Dark Matter

    September 10, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Dark matter fluctuations in the lens system MG J0414+0534. The whitish blue color represents the gravitationally lensed images observed by ALMA. The calculated distribution of dark matter is shown in orange; brighter regions indicate higher concentrations of dark matter and dark orange regions indicate lower concentrations. (Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), K. T. Inoue et al.）

    New research has revealed the distribution of dark matter in never before seen detail, down to a scale of 30,000 light-years. The observed distribution fluctuations provide better constraints on the nature of dark matter.

    Mysterious dark matter accounts for most of the matter in the Universe. Dark matter is invisible and makes itself know only through its gravitational effects...

    Read More

    Hot Jupiter Blows its Top

    September 7, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The planet HAT-P-32b is losing so much of its atmospheric helium that the trailing gas tails are among the largest structures yet known any planet outside our solar system. Simulation ‘slice’ through the orbital plane approximating the HAT-P-32 A + b system. Credit: Zhang et al., Sci. Adv. 9, eadf8736 (2023).

    A planet about 950 light years from Earth could be the Looney Tunes’ Yosemite Sam equivalent of planets, blowing its atmospheric ‘top’ in spectacular fashion.

    The planet called HAT-P-32b is losing so much of its atmospheric helium that the trailing gas tails are among the largest structures yet known of an exoplanet, a planet outside our solar system, according to observations by astronomers.

    Three-dimensional (3D) simulations on the Stampede2 supercomputer of the Texas ...

    Read More

    Furthest Ever Detection of a Galaxy’s Magnetic Field

    September 6, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Located centrally on a dark background is an electric blue donut-shaped blob, showing the orientation of the magnetic field of the distant galaxy. The bright donut is not complete, and there are only two main features. The lines of the magnetic field give it an almost furry texture. The right-hand side of the donut forms a bright, curved banana-like shape. Instead, on the left-hand side, there is another bright region, circular in shape.
    Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

    Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy so far away that its light has taken more than 11 billion years to reach us: we see it as it was when the Universe was just 2.5 billion years old. The result provides astronomers with vital clues about how the magnetic fields of galaxies like our own Milky Way came to be.

    Lots of...

    Read More

    Webb reveals New Structures within Ionic Supernova

    September 5, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A pale red ring made up of small white circles surrounds a bright blue spot in the center. Three bright spots are on the outside of the ring, all against a black background speckled with stars.
    Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A). At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings. In this image blue represents light at 1.5 microns (F150W), cyan 1.64 and 2.0 microns (F164N, F200W), yellow 3.23 microns (F323N), orange 4.05 microns (F405N), and red 4.44 microns (F444W).
    Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Matsuura (Cardiff University), R. Arendt (NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center & University of Maryland, Baltimore County), C...
    Read More