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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Long-term Liquid Water also on Non-Earth-like Planets?

    June 28, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Low-mass planets with a primordial atmosphere of hydrogen and helium might have the temperatures and pressures that allow water in the liquid phase. The presence of liquid water is favorable for life, so that these planets potentially harbour exotic habitats for billions of years. © (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) – Thibaut Roger – Universität Bern – Universität Zürich

    Liquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers from the University of Bern, the University of Zurich and the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centred idea of potentially habitable planets into question.

    Life on ...

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    Curiosity Captures Stunning Views of a Changing Mars Landscape

    June 24, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Curiosity’s Mastcam Views Flaky, Streambed Rocks
    NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured this view of layered, flaky rocks believed to have formed in an ancient streambed or small pond. The six images that make up this mosaic were captured using Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 2, 2022, the 3,492nd Martian day, or sol, of the mission.
    Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    For the past year, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traveling through a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate. While the science team targeted the clay-rich region and the sulfate-laden one for evidence each can offer about Mars’ watery past, the transition zone is proving to be scientifically fascinating as well...

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    Flicker from the Dark: Reading between the lines to Model our Galaxy’s Central Black Hole

    June 24, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Researchers have shown in a single model the full story of how gas travels in the center of the Milky Way — from being blown off by stars to falling into the black hole.

    Looks can be deceiving. The light from an incandescent bulb seems steady, but it flickers 120 times per second. Because the brain only perceives an average of the information it receives, this flickering is blurred and the perception of constant illumination is a mere illusion.

    While light cannot escape a black hole, the bright glow of rapidly orbiting gas (recall the images of M87’s black hole and Sgr A) has its own unique flicker. In a recent paper, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, Lena Murchikova, William D...

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    Scientists Map Sulfur Residue on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa

    June 23, 2022, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Composite image of the surface of Jupiter’s fourth largest moon Europa
    Courtesy of NASA SwRI scientists used Hubble Space Telescope to image the surface of Jupiter’s fourth largest moon Europa (shown lower right in this composite image) in the ultraviolet, mapping concentrations of sulfur dioxide on its surface that likely came from Io (above), Jupiter’s ultra-volcanic moon.

    Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet data fills gap in observations. A Southwest Research Institute-led team used the Hubble Space Telescope to observe Jupiter’s moon, Europa, at ultraviolet wavelengths, filling in a “gap” in the various wavelengths used to observe this icy water world. The team’s near-global UV maps show concentrations of sulfur dioxide on Europa’s trailing side.

    SwRI will further these studies using the Europa Ultraviolet Spectrograph (Europa-UVS), which will o...

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