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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers dissect the Anatomy of Planetary Nebulae using Hubble Space Telescope images

    January 20, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    side-by-side images of the Jewel Bug Nebula using different colors to highlight different areas.
    STScI, Alyssa Pagan; P. Moraga (RIT) et al.
    On the left is an image of the Jewel Bug Nebula (NGC 7027) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2019 and released in 2020. Further analysis by researchers produced the RGB image on the right, which shows extinction due to dust, as inferred from the relative strength of two hydrogen emission lines, as red; emission from sulfur, relative to hydrogen, as green; and emission from iron as blue.

    Researchers shed new light on nebula formation processes. Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are revealing new information about how they develop their dramatic features...

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    A ‘Super-Puff’ Planet like no other

    January 19, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artistic rendition of the exoplanet WASP-107b and its star, WASP-107. Some of the star’s light streams through the exoplanet’s extended gas layer.
    CREDIT: ESA/HUBBLE, NASA, M. KORNMESSER

    The core mass of the giant exoplanet WASP-107b is much lower than what was thought necessary to build up the immense gas envelope surrounding giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, astronomers at Université de Montréal have found.

    This intriguing discovery by Ph.D. student Caroline Piaulet of UdeM’s Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) suggests that gas-giant planets form a lot more easily than previously believed.

    Piaulet is part of the groundbreaking research team of UdeM astrophysics professor Björn Benneke that in 2019 announced the first detection of water on an exoplanet located in ...

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    Galaxies hit single, doubles, and triple (growing black holes)

    January 19, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    J1027 and J1708: Two of seven triple galaxy mergers that are located between 370 million and one billion light years away from Earth.

    Caption: This pair of objects comes from a study of seven triple galaxy mergers. By using Chandra and other telescopes, astronomers determined what happened to the supermassive black holes at thecenters of the galaxies after the collision of three galaxies. The results show a range of outcomes: a single growing supermassive black hole, four doubles, a triple, and one system where no black holes are rapidly pulling in matter. Two of the doubles are shown here in X-rays (Chandra) and optical light (SDSS and Hubble). This information tells astronomers more about how galaxies and the giant black holes in their centers grow over cosmic time...
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    X-Rays surrounding ‘Magnificent 7’ may be Traces of Sought-after Particle

    January 16, 2021, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artistic rendering of the XMM-Newton (X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission) space telescope. A study of archival data from the XMM-Newton and the Chandra X-ray space telescopes found evidence of high levels of X-ray emission from the nearby Magnificent Seven neutron stars, which may arise from the hypothetical particles known as axions. (Credits: D. Ducros, ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)

    Researchers say they may have found proof of theorized axions, and possibly dark matter, around group of neutron stars. A new study, led by a theoretical physicist at the U.S...

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