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    Category Astronomy/Space

    First look at Ryugu Asteroid Sample reveals it is Organic-rich

    February 24, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This conceptual image illustrates the types of organic molecules found in the sample of asteroid Ryugu collected by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Organics are the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life and consist of a wide variety of compounds made of carbon combined with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other atoms. However, organic molecules can also be created by non-living processes, such as chemical reactions in asteroids.
    Credits: NASA/JAXA/Dan Gallagher

    Asteroid Ryugu has a rich complement of organic molecules, according to a NASA and international team’s initial analysis of a sample from the asteroid’s surface delivered to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft...

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    Researchers Discover Mysterious Source of ‘Heartbeat-Like’ Radio Bursts in a Solar Flare

    February 23, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An illustration showing EOVSA capturing a pulsating radio burst from a solar flare. Image Credit: Sijie Yu of NJIT/CSTR; Yuankun Kou of NJU; NASA SDO/AIA

    A solar radio burst with a signal pattern, akin to that of a heartbeat, has been pinpointed in the Sun’s atmosphere, according to a new study.

    In findings published in the journal Nature Communications, an international team of researchers has reported uncovering the source location of a radio signal coming from within a C-class solar flare more than 5,000 kilometers above the Sun’s surface.

    Researchers say the study’s findings could help scientists better understand the physical processes behind the energy release of solar flares – the solar system’s most powerful explosions.

    “The discovery is unexpected,” said Sijie Yu, the...

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    The Swan Song of a Cloud Approaching the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

    February 22, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    KECK OBSERVATORY NIRC2 AND ADAPTIVE OPTICS IMAGE TAKEN IN SUMMER 2021 SHOWING THE GAS AND DUST STRUCTURES IN THE GALACTIC CENTER, INCLUDING G OBJECTS AND X7.
    Credit: A. Ciurlo et al./UCLA GCOI/W. M. Keck Observatory

    Two decades of monitoring from W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaiʻi reveals a peculiar cloud dubbed X7 being pulled apart as it accelerates toward the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.

    Astronomers from the UCLA Galactic Center Orbits Initiative (GCOI) and Keck Observatory have been tracking the evolution of this dusty gas filament since 2002; high-angular resolution near-infrared images captured with Keck Observatory’s powerful adaptive optics system show X7 has become so elongated that it now has a length of 3,000 times the distanc...

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    Unknown Class of Water-Rich Asteroids Identified

    February 22, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Unknown of water-rich asteroids identified
    Implantation of planetesimals into the asteroid belt during the planets’ growth and dynamical evolution. Credit: Nature Astronomy (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-023-01898-x

    New astronomical measurements in the infrared range have led to the identification of a heretofore unknown class of asteroids. An international research team including geoscientists from Heidelberg University has succeeded in characterizing these small planets using infrared spectroscopy.

    They are located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and are—similar to the dwarf planet Ceres—rich in water. According to computer models, complex dynamic processes shifted these asteroids from the outer regions of our solar system into today’s asteroid belt shortly after their creation.

    With an equatorial diame...

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