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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Fluorescent Glow may Reveal Hidden Life in the Cosmos

    August 18, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    biofluorescence illustration
    llustration by Wendy Kenigsberg/Matt Fondeur/Cornell University

    Astronomers have uncovered a new way of searching for life in the cosmos. Harsh ultraviolet radiation flares from red suns, once thought to destroy surface life on planets, might help uncover hidden biospheres. Their radiation could trigger a protective glow from life on exoplanets called biofluorescence, according to new Cornell University research.

    “Biofluorescent Worlds II: Biological Fluorescence Induced by Stellar UV Flares, a New Temporal Biosignature,” was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

    “This is a completely novel way to search for life in the universe...

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    Moon Glows Brighter than Sun in Images from NASA’s Fermi

    August 18, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These images show the steadily improving view of the Moon’s gamma-ray glow from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Each 5-by-5-degree image is centered on the Moon and shows gamma rays with energies above 31 million electron volts, or tens of millions of times that of visible light. At these energies, the Moon is actually brighter than the Sun. Brighter colors indicate greater numbers of gamma rays. This image sequence shows how longer exposure, ranging from two to 128 months (10.7 years), improved the view.
    Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

    If our eyes could see high-energy radiation called gamma rays, the Moon would appear brighter than the Sun! That’s how NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has seen our neighbor in space for the past decade...

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    Young Jupiter was Smacked Head-on by massive Newborn Planet

    August 17, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A rendering shows the effect of a major impact on the core of a young Jupiter, as suggested by scientists at Rice and Sun Yat-sen universities. They say the collision about 4.5 billion years ago could explain surprising readings from NASA’s Juno spacecraft. Illustration by Shang-Fei Liu/Sun Yat-sen University

    Jupiter’s core may still be reeling from collision 4.5 billion years ago. A colossal, head-on collision between Jupiter and a still-forming planet in the early solar system, about 4.5 billion years ago, could explain surprising readings from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, according to a study this week in the journal Nature.

    Astronomers from Rice University and China’s Sun Yat-sen University say their head-on impact scenario can explain Juno’s previously puzzling gravitational rea...

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    How many Earth-like Planets are around Sun-like Stars?

    August 16, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Exoplanets concept illustration (stock image).
    Credit: © Dimitar Marinov / Adobe Stock

    A new study provides the most accurate estimate of the frequency that planets that are similar to Earth in size and in distance from their host star occur around stars similar to our Sun. Knowing the rate that these potentially habitable planets occur will be important for designing future astronomical missions to characterize nearby rocky planets around sun-like stars that could support life.

    Thousands of planets have been discovered by NASA’s Kepler space telescope...

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