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    Category Astronomy/Space

    “Unexpected” Events have been Detected at the world’s most Sensitive Dark Matter Experiment.

    June 19, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Unusual behaviour could require new physics to be explained

    Researchers do not claim to have found dark matter, but they say that there is an as yet unexplained and unexpected rate of events found in data from the experiment, and that they do not know the source.

    The new breakthrough could be a sign of an entirely newly discovered kind of particle, or unpredicted behaviour that may require us to fundamentally change our understanding of physics.

    The results come from the XENON collaboration, which brought together researchers from across the world who were attempting to detect dark matter. It did so using an experiment known as XENON1T, which was located deep underground in Italy.

    Seeing evidence of dark matter would be one of the biggest possible breakthroughs in science...

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    Astronomers detect Regular Rhythm of Radio Waves, with origins unknown

    June 18, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    CHIME, pictured here, consists of four large antennas, each about the size and shape of a snowboarding half-pipe, and is designed with no moving parts. Rather than swiveling to focus on different parts of the sky, CHIME stares fixedly at the entire sky, looking for fast radio burst sources across the universe.
    Image: CHIME Collaboration

    Signal from 500 million light years away is the first periodic pattern of radio bursts detected. A team of astronomers, including researchers at MIT, has picked up on a curious, repeating rhythm of fast radio bursts emanating from an unknown source outside our galaxy, 500 million light years away.

    Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are short, intense flashes of radio waves that are thought to be the product of small, distant, extremely dense objects, though exac...

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    ExoMars spots Unique Green Glow at the Red Planet

    June 17, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Airglow in Earth's atmosphere observed from the International Space Station
    Airglow occurs in Earth’s atmospheres as sunlight interacts with atoms and molecules within the atmosphere.
    In this image, taken by astronauts aboard the ISS in 2011, a green band of oxygen glow is visible over Earth’s curve. On the surface, portions of northern Africa are visible, with evening lights shining along the Nile river and its delta.

    ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has detected glowing green oxygen in Mars’ atmosphere—the first time that this emission has been seen around a planet other than Earth.

    On Earth, glowing oxygen is produced during polar auroras when energetic electrons from interplanetary space hit the upper atmosphere. This oxygen-driven emission of light gives polar auroras their beautiful and characteristic green hue.

    The aurora, however, is just one way...

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    Electrically charged Dust Storms drive Martian Chlorine Cycle

    June 16, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Martian dust storm. (Courtesy: NASA)

    How’s the weather on Mars? Tough on rovers, but very good for generating and moving highly reactive chlorine compounds. New research from Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientists shows that Martian dust storms, like the one that eventually shut down the Opportunity rover, drive the cycle of chlorine from surface to atmosphere and may shed light on the potential for finding life on Mars.

    Recent research from Alian Wang, research professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in Arts & Sciences, and collaborators at WashU, Stony Brook University, Shandong University, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center builds on a previous examination of Martian dust storms as an essential factor in the chemical evolution of the red p...

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