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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS returns spectacular images

    March 17, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The image shows a panchromatic channel image of the InSight landing site on Mars. The image shows an area of about 2.25 km x 2.25 km in the Elysium Planitia region. The original image had a scale of about 4.5 m per pixel, and has been stretched by a factor of two for display purposes. The resulting resolution of this image is 5-6 m/pixel. The positions of the InSight lander itself, the blast marks from the retro rockets used during landing, the heatshield and the backshell of the entry descent and landing system are marked. The original image had a scale of about 4.5 m per pixel, and has been expanded to 2.25 m/pixel for display purposes.
    Credit: © ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS

    3 years ago, on March 14 2016, the Bernese Mars camera CaSSIS started its journey to Mars with the ‘ExoMars Trace Ga...

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    ALMA observes the Formation Sites of Solar-system-like planets

    March 17, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ALMA image of the dusty disk around the young star DM Tau
    ALMA image of the dusty disk around the young star DM Tau. You can see two concentric rings where planets may be forming. 
    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Kudo et al.

    Researchers have spotted the formation sites of planets around a young star resembling our Sun. Two rings of dust around the star, at distances comparable to the asteroid belt and the orbit of Neptune in our Solar System, suggest that we are witnessing the formation of a planetary system similar to our own.

    The Solar System is thought to have formed from a cloud of cosmic gas and dust 4.6 billion years ago. By studying young planetary systems forming around other stars, astronomers hope to learn more about our own origins.

    Tomoyuki Kudo, an astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), and his ...

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    Astronomers discover 83 Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe

    March 15, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University have discovered 83 quasars powered by supermassive black holes in the distant universe, from a time when the universe was less than 10 percent of its present age. In this photograph taken by the Hyper-Suprime Camera on the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, light shines from one of the most distant quasars known, powered by a supermassive black hole lying 13.05 billion light-years away from Earth. The other objects in the field are mostly stars in our Milky Way or galaxies along the line of sight.
    Credit: Image courtesy of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan

    Subaru Telescope spots 13-billion-year-old quasars powered by black holes...

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    What Scientists found after Sifting through Dust in the Solar System

    March 13, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In this illustration, several dust rings circle the sun. These rings form when planets’ gravities tug dust grains into orbit around the sun. Recently, scientists have detected a dust ring at Mercury’s orbit. Others hypothesize the source of Venus’ dust ring is a group of never-before-detected co-orbital asteroids.
    Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

    Two recent studies report discoveries of dust rings in the inner solar system: a dust ring at Mercury’s orbit, and a group of never-before-detected asteroids co-orbiting with Venus, supplying the dust in Venus’ orbit. Just as dust gathers in corners and along bookshelves in our homes, dust piles up in space too. But when the dust settles in the solar system, it’s often in rings...

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