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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Turbulent Convection at the Heart of Stellar Activity

    March 17, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A look into the interior of the Sun and a more evolved giant star.
    © MPS / Aalto University / hormesdesign.de

    Different stars can exhibit different levels of activity. The Sun’s signs of solar activity are rather feeble on an astronomical scale. Other stars are up to ten times more active. While researchers have identified the magnetic fields generated in the interior of stars in a dynamo process as drivers of activity, the exact workings of this dynamo are unclear. Scientists now find that a common, turbulence-dependent dynamo mechanism plays a crucial role for stellar activity in all stages of stellar evolution.

    In their interiors, stars are structured in a layered, onion-like fashion. In those with solar-like temperatures, the core is followed by the radiation zone...

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    ‘Strange’ Glimpse into Neutron Stars and Symmetry Violation

    March 13, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Inner vertex components of the STAR detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (righthand view) allow scientists to trace tracks from triplets of decay particles picked up in the detector’s outer regions (left) to their origin in a rare “antihypertriton” particle that decays just outside the collision zone. Measurements of the momentum and known mass of the decay products (a pi+ meson, antiproton, and antideuteron) can then be used to calculate the mass and binding energy of the parent particle. Doing the same for the hypertriton (which decays into different “daughter” particles) allows precision comparisons of these matter and antimatter varieties.

    New results from precision particle detectors at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) offer a fresh glimpse of the particle...

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    Exoplanet where it Rains Iron discovered

    March 12, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

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    Artist’s impression of the night side of WASP-76b

    Researchers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have observed an extreme planet where they suspect it rains iron. The ultra-hot giant exoplanet has a day side where temperatures climb above 2400 degrees Celsius, high enough to vaporise metals. Strong winds carry iron vapour to the cooler night side where it condenses into iron droplets.

    “One could say that this planet gets rainy in the evening, except it rains iron,” says David Ehrenreich, a professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He led a study, published today in the journal Nature, of this exotic exoplanet. Known as WASP-76b, it is located some 640 light-years away in the constellation of Pisces.

    This strange phenomenon happens because the ‘iron rain’ plane...

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    Astronomers use Slime Mold Model to reveal Dark Threads of the Cosmic Web

    March 12, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This intricate filamentary network (above) is a reconstruction of the cosmic web created by feeding data on the locations and masses of 37,000 galaxies into an algorithm based on the growth patterns of a slime mold. The images below are expanded views of small regions, showing the underlying galaxies on the left and, on the right, the filaments of the cosmic web superimposed on the galaxies.

    The problem-solving prowess of a simple slime mold has been harnessed to trace the large-scale structure of the universe. A computational approach inspired by the growth patterns of a bright yellow slime mold has enabled a team of astronomers and computer scientists at UC Santa Cruz to trace the filaments of the cosmic web that connects galaxies throughout the universe.

    Their results, publishe...

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