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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Scientists Weigh the Balance of Matter in Galaxy Clusters

    July 7, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Fig. 3
    Odds that the stellar–LX correlation is positive as a function of the minimum imposed stellar mass scatter. The blue dashed and green dotted lines shows the odds for stellar mass proxies of LK and Î», respectively. The red solid line shows the odds of having a positive correlation coefficient for both stellar mass proxies and LX. The light gray, gray, and dark gray shaded regions show respectively the regions with <5%, <1%, and <0.5% odds of having a positive or zero correlation

    A method of weighing the quantities of matter in galaxy clusters – the largest objects in our universe – has shown a balance between the amounts of hot gas, stars and other materials...

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    Astronomers Help Wage War on Cancer

    July 5, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    A model showing light (red/yellow) penetrating the surface of the human breast (white triangles). Credit: T. Harries

    A model showing light (red/yellow) penetrating the surface of the human breast (white triangles). Credit: T. Harries

    Techniques developed by astronomers could help in the fight against breast and skin cancer. A large part of astronomy depends on the detection and analysis of light. For example, scientists study the light scattered, absorbed and re-emitted in clouds of gas and dust, obtaining information on their interior.

    Despite the vast differences in scale, the processes that light undergoes when travelling through the human body are very similar to those seen in space. And when things go wrong – when tissue becomes cancerous – that change should show up.

    In the UK, nearly 60,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year, and 12,000 die...

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    Atmosphere of Midsize Planet revealed by Hubble, Spitzer

    July 4, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist’s illustration shows the theoretical internal structure of the exoplanet GJ 3470 b. It is unlike any planet found in the Solar System. Weighing in at 12.6 Earth masses the planet is more massive than Earth but less massive than Neptune. Unlike Neptune, which is 3 billion miles from the Sun, GJ 3470 b may have formed very close to its red dwarf star as a dry, rocky object. It then gravitationally pulled in hydrogen and helium gas from a circumstellar disk to build up a thick atmosphere. The disk dissipated many billions of years ago, and the planet stopped growing. The bottom illustration shows the disk as the system may have looked long ago...
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    Space Station Mold Survives High Doses of Ionizing Radiation

    July 2, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Mold grows on the International Space Station on a panel where exercise clothes were hung to dry.
    Credit: NASA

    New research presented at the 2019 Astrobiology Science Conference in Bellevue, Wa. The International Space Station, like all human habitats in space, has a nagging mold problem. Astronauts on the ISS spend hours every week cleaning the inside of the station’s walls to prevent mold from becoming a health problem. New research finds mold spores may also survive on the outside walls of spacecraft.

    Spores of the two most common types of mold on the ISS, Aspergillus and Pennicillium, survive X-ray exposure at 200 times the dose that would kill a human, according to Marta Cortesão, a microbiologist at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne, who will present the new resear...

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