Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    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...

    Read More

    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...

    Read More

    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...

    Read More

    New Light shed on Intelligent Life existing across the Galaxy

    June 16, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Is there anyone out there? This is an age-old question that researchers have now shed new light on with a study that calculates there could be more than 30 intelligent civilizations throughout our Galaxy. This is an enormous advance over previous estimates which spanned from zero to billions.

    One of the biggest and longest-standing questions in the history of human thought is whether there are other intelligent life forms within our Universe. Obtaining good estimates of the number of possible extraterrestrial civilizations has however been very challenging.

    A new study led by the University of Nottingham and published today in The Astrophysical Journal has taken a new approach to this problem...

    Read More