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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Webb Image Reveals Dusty Disk Like Never Seen Before

    January 13, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These two images are of the dusty debris disk around AU Mic, a red dwarf star located 32 light-years away in the southern constellation Microscopium. Scientists used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to study AU Mic. NIRCam’s coronagraph, which blocked the intense light of the central star, allowed the team to study the region very close to the star. The location of the star, which is masked out, is marked by a white, graphical representation at the center of each image. The region blocked by the coronagraph is shown by a dashed circle.
    Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and K. Lawson (Goddard Space Flight Center). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI)

    NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has imaged the inner workings of a dusty disk surrounding a nearby red dwarf star...

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    Ultracool Dwarf Binary Stars Break Records

    January 12, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: Adam Burgasser/University of California San Diego

    Northwestern University and the University of California San Diego (UC San Diego) astrophysicists have discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary system ever observed.

    The two stars are so close that it takes them less than one Earth day to revolve around each other. In other words, each star’s “year” lasts just 20.5 hours.

    The newly discovered system, named LP 413-53AB, is composed of a pair of ultracool dwarfs, a class of very low-mass stars that are so cool that they emit their light primarily in the infrared, making them completely invisible to the human eye. They are nonetheless one of the most common types of stars in the universe.

    Previously, astronomers had only detected three short-period ultracool dwarf bi...

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    Scientists find evidence for Magnetic Reconnection between Ganymede and Jupiter

    January 11, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Colorful arrows and dashed lines of data characterizing the magnetic topology and electron flow direction for two different reconnection scenarios at Danymede's magnetopause
    In June 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection. An SwRI-led team used Juno data to characterize the magnetic topology and electron flow direction for two different reconnection scenarios at Ganymede’s magnetopause. The yellow dashed line indicates Juno’s trajectory. Courtesy of SwRI/Jia et al. (2008)

    Juno spacecraft discovered magnetospheric fireworks as magnetic field lines merge and snap between the gas giant and its largest moon. In June 2021, NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew close to Ganymede, Jupiter’s largest moon, observing evidence of magnetic reconnection...

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    Scientists find Pair of Black Holes Dining Together in Nearby Galaxy Merger

    January 11, 2023, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. Weiss (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

    While studying a nearby pair of merging galaxies using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) – an international observatory co-operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) – scientists discovered two supermassive black holes growing simultaneously near the center of the newly coalescing galaxy. These super-hungry giants are the closest together that scientists have ever observed in multiple wavelengths. What’s more, the new research reveals that binary black holes and the galaxy mergers that create them may be surprisingly commonplace in the Universe...

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