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    Category Astronomy/Space

    The Dark side of Extrasolar planets share surprisingly Similar Temperatures

    August 29, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Schematic of clouds on the night side of a hot Jupiter exoplanet. The underlying atmosphere is over 800 C, hot enough to vaporize rocks. Atmospheric motion from the deep atmosphere or from the hotter dayside bring the rock vapour to cooler regions, where it condenses into clouds, and possibly rains down into the atmosphere below. These clouds of condensed rock block outgoing thermal radiation, making the planet’s nightside appear relatively cool from space.

    New study suggests that the nightsides of hot Jupiters share clouds made of minerals...

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    Astrophysicists link Brightening of Pulsar Wind Nebula to Pulsar Spin-down Rate Transition

    August 27, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An illustration of the pulsar and pulsar wind nebula (PWN) system (not to scale). The relativistic wind from the central pulsar is terminated by a shock at a radius of about one light-year and starts to radiate. The typical size of a PWN is a few light-years. The image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy shown in the lower left was taken by YE Ziyi . Credit: Institute of High Energy Physics

    Astrophysicists have discovered that the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) surrounding the famous pulsar B0540-69 brightened gradually after the pulsar experienced a sudden spin-down rate transition (SRT)...

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    HADES Experiment simulates Colliding and Merging Neutron Stars

    August 25, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Illustration of two merging neutron stars. Gravitational waves travel out from the collision, seconds later a burst of gamma rays is shot out. The merging stars eject swirling clouds of material.
    Illustration of two merging neutron stars. Gravitational waves travel out from the collision, seconds later a burst of gamma rays is shot out. The merging stars eject swirling clouds of material.Image: National Science Foundation/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet

    Temperatures of 800 billion degrees in the cosmic kitchen. It is among the most spectacular events in the universe: a merger of neutron stars. An international team of researchers with strong representation from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has completed the first laboratory measurements of thermal electromagnetic radiation arising in such collisions. The resulting data enabled them to calculate the prevailing temperature when such stars merge.

    When two neutron stars collide, the matter at their core en...

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    Storms on Jupiter are disturbing the Planet’s Colorful Belts

    August 23, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ALMA’s view of Jupiter at radio wavelengths (top) and the Hubble Space Telescope’s view in visible light (bottom). The eruption in the South Equatorial Belt is visible in both images: a dark spot in radio, a bright spot in visible. (ALMA image by Imke de Pater and S. Dagnello; Hubble image courtesy of NASA)

    Radio, IR and optical observations show evolution of plumes and their impact on belts and zones. Storm clouds rooted deep in Jupiter’s atmosphere are affecting the planet’s white zones and colorful belts, creating disturbances in their flow and even changing their color.

    Thanks to coordinated observations of the planet in January 2017 by six ground-based optical and radio telescopes and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, a University of California, Berkeley, astronomer and her ...

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