Category Astronomy/Space

New Leicester space research has revealed, for the first time, a complex ‘tug-of-war’ lights up aurorae in Jupiter’s upper atmosphere, using a combination of data from NASA’s Juno probe and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The study, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, describes the delicate current cycle driven by Jupiter’s rapid rotation and the release of sulphur and oxygen from volcanoes on its moon, Io.

Researchers from the University of Leicester’s School of Physics and Astronomy used data from Juno’s Magnetic Field Investigation (MAG), which measures Jupiter’s magnetic field from orbit around the gas giant, and observations from the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph carried by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Their research provides the strongest ...

Planets are usually not much older than the stars around which they revolve. Take the Sun: it was born 4.6 billion years ago, and not long after that, Earth came into the world. But KU Leuven astronomers have discovered that a completely different scenario is also possible. Even if they are near death, some types of stars can possibly still form planets. If this is confirmed, theories on planet formation will need to be adjusted.

Planets such as Earth, and all other planets in our solar system, were formed not long after the Sun. Our Sun started to burn 4.6 billion years ago, and in the next million years, the matter around it clumped into protoplanets...

Even though Earth’s magnetic field shields us from solar wind and space weather, it doesn’t always offer complete protection. Researchers have discovered a new mechanism in Earth’s space environment that can allow solar particles to slip through the planet’s first line of defense.

The constant interaction between Earth’s magnetic field and the sun’s supersonic particles sometimes results in small-scale plasma jets that can weaken the barrier’s protection against space weather effects, which not only produce glorious aurorae, but can also cause disruption of power grids and satellite communicatio...

The subject of this image is a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. They were imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, using both its Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. The two galaxies in the upper right of the image appear to be interacting with one another. The long trails of stars and gas extending from them give the impression that they have both just been struck at great speed, thrown into disarray by the bowling-ball-shaped galaxy to the lower left of the image.

In reality, interactions between galaxies happen over very long time periods, and galaxies rarely collide head-on with one another...