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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers detect Large Amounts of Oxygen in Ancient Star’s Atmosphere

    January 26, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ARTISTIC IMAGE OF THE SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS OF THE FIRST MASSIVE STARS THAT FORMED IN THE MILKY WAY. THE STAR J0815+4729 WAS FORMED FROM THE MATERIAL EJECTED BY THESE FIRST SUPERNOVAE. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC)
    Artistic image of the supernova explosions of the first massive stars that formed in the Milky Way. The star JO815+4729 was formed from the material ejected by these first supernovae. Credit: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC)

    An international team of astronomers from the University of California San Diego, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the University of Cambridge have detected large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere of one of the oldest and most elementally depleted stars known – a “primitive star” scientists call J0815+4729.

    This new finding, which was made using W. M...

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    Mars’ Water was Mineral-Rich and Salty

    January 25, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Methodology to reconstruct water chemistry One of the clay minerals, smectite, can trap ions in water through ion exchanges in the presence of water. Even after loss of water, smectite records ion compositions within interlayers of its structure. Credit: Nature Communications
    Methodology to reconstruct water chemistry
    One of the clay minerals, smectite, can trap ions in water through ion exchanges in the presence of water. Even after loss of water, smectite records ion compositions within interlayers of its structure.
    Credit: Nature Communications

    New study finds surface waters on early Mars may have been habitable for microbial life. Presently, Earth is the only known location where life exists in the Universe. This year the Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to three astronomers who proved, almost 20 years ago, that planets are common around stars beyond the solar system...

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    Inner Complexity of Saturn Moon, Enceladus, revealed

    January 24, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artistic representation of Enceladus's core with plumes coming from the bottom of the planet
    Courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech Using new geochemical models, SwRI scientists found that CO2 in Enceladus’ ocean may be controlled by chemical reactions at the seafloor. Integrating this finding with previous discoveries of H2 and silica suggests geochemically diverse environments in the rocky core. This diversity has the potential to create energy sources that could support life.

    Enceladus’ subsurface ocean composition hints at habitable conditions. A Southwest Research Institute team developed a new geochemical model that reveals that carbon dioxide (CO2) from within Enceladus, an ocean-harboring moon of Saturn, may be controlled by chemical reactions at its seafloor...

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    The Salt of the Comet

    January 22, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    A plume of dust from Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, seen by the OSIRIS Wide Angle Camera on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft on 3 July 2016. The shadow of the plume is cast across the basin, which is in the Imhotep region. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

    More than 30 years ago, the European comet mission Giotto flew past Halley’s comet. The Bernese ion mass spectrometer IMS, led by Prof. em. Hans Balsiger, was on board. A key finding from the measurements taken by this instrument was that there appeared to be a lack of nitrogen in Halley’s coma – the nebulous covering of comets which forms when a comet passes close to the sun...

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