Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    A Distant Galaxy Ate All of its Friends. Now It’s All Alone

    March 15, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Composite image of a lonely galaxy containing a supermassive black hole, two jets, and an X-ray hotspot, all surrounded by hot gas. Credit: NASA MSFC/SAO/Chandra

    Over 13 billion years ago, the first galaxies in the universe formed. They were elliptical, with intermediate black holes (IMBHs) at their centers surrounded by a halo of stars, gas, and dust. Over time, these galaxies evolved by flattening out into disks with a large bulge in the middle. They were then drawn together by mutual gravitational attraction to form galaxy clusters, massive collections that comprise the large-scale cosmic structure. This force of attraction also led to mergers, where galaxies and their central black holes came together to create larger spiral galaxies with central supermassive black holes (SMBHs).

    ...Read More

    A Helicopter is going to Titan. Could an Airplane be next?

    March 14, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A helicopter is going to Titan—could an airplane be next?
    This colorized mosaic from NASA’s Cassini mission shows the most complete view yet of Titan’s northern land of lakes and seas. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Agenzia Spaziale Italiana / USGS

    What are the hydrocarbon seas on Titan really like? While the upcoming Dragonfly helicopter mission to Saturn’s hazy and frigid moon should arrive by 2034 to explore Titan’s atmosphere, the need remains for a mission that could study the moon’s mysterious seas and lakes, filled with liquid hydrocarbons.

    But how about an aircraft that could study both the seas and skies of Titan?

    A new mission concept that received funding from NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program is called “TitanAir,” and features a flying boat, known as a laker...

    Read More

    Researchers Capture Early Stages of Star Formation from JWST data

    March 13, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Galaxy captured by the James Webb Space Telescope
    Researchers are getting their first glimpses inside distant spiral galaxies to see how stars formed and how they change over time, thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope’s ability to pierce the veil of dust and gas clouds. (Photo: NASA/Space Telescope Science Institute)

    A team of researchers has been able to see inside faraway spiral galaxies for the first time to study how they formed and how they change over time, thanks to the powerful capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope.

    “We’re studying 19 of our closest analogs to our own galaxy. In our own galaxy we can’t make a lot of these discoveries because we’re stuck inside it,” says Erik Rosolowsky, professor in the Department of Physics and co-author on a recent paper analyzing data from the James Webb telescope.

    Unli...

    Read More

    ALMA traces History of Water in Planet Formation back to the Interstellar Medium

    March 9, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

    Scientists studying a nearby protostar have detected the presence of water in its circumstellar disk. The new observations made with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) mark the first detection of water being inherited into a protoplanetary disk without significant changes to its composition. These results further suggest that the water in our Solar System formed billions of years before the Sun. The new observations are published today in Nature.

    V883 Orionis is a protostar located roughly 1,305 light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion...

    Read More