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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Dark Matter may be Hitting the Right Note in Small Galaxies

    March 1, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers observed that the dark matter does not seem to clump very much in small galaxies, but their density peaks sharply in bigger systems such as clusters of galaxies. It has been a puzzle why different systems behave differently.
    Credit: Kavli IPMU – Kavli IPMU modified this figure based on the image credited by NASA, STScI

    Dark matter may scatter against each other only when they hit the right energy, say researchers in Japan, Germany, and Austria in a new study. Their idea helps explain why galaxies from the smallest to the biggest have the shapes they do.

    Dark matter is a mysterious and unknown form of matter that comprises more than 80 per cent of matter in the Universe today...

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    Anemic Galaxy reveals Deficiencies in Ultra-Diffuse Galaxy Formation theory

    February 28, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    DGSAT I (left), an ultra-diffuse galaxy (UDG), is shown next to a normal spiral galaxy (right) for comparison. Both are similar in size, but UDGs like DGSAT I have so few stars, you can see right through them, to the galaxies in the background.
    Credit: A. ROMANOWSKY/UCO/D. MARTINEZ-DELGADO/ARI

    Strange features of a newly discovered ghostly galaxy deepen mystery of how ultra-diffuse galaxies are born. A team of astronomers led by the University of California Observatories (UCO) have studied in great detail a galaxy so faint and in such pristine condition it has acted as a time capsule, sealed shortly after the dawn of our universe only to be opened by the newest technology at W. M. Keck Observatory.

    Using the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), the team discovered a bizarre, solitary ultra-d...

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    ALMA Differentiates 2 Birth Cries from a Single Star

    February 27, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The protostar is located at the center and the gas streams are ejected to the east and west (left and right). The slow outflow is shown in orange and the fast jet is shown in blue. It is obvious that the axes of the outflow and jet are misaligned.
    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Matsushita et al.

    Strong evidence of independent origins for 2 gas flows.
    Astronomers have unveiled the enigmatic origins of two different gas streams from a baby star. Using ALMA, they found that the slow outflow and the high speed jet from a protostar have misaligned axes and that the former started to be ejected earlier than the latter...

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    Old Stars Live Longer than we thought

    February 25, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    Thanks to new observations from the ALMA telescope in Chile, it became clear that the stellar wind of this red giant forms a spiral. This is an indirect indication that the star is not alone, but part of a binary star.
    Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/L. Decin et al.

    Towards the end of their lives some 95% of stars evolve into red giants which lose their mass via a “stellar wind.” Eventually they end up as planetary nebulae, ionized gas with a central hot star, a white dwarf. Researchers form 14 European scientific institutions, among them the IAC, have detected the existence of a binary interaction which had not been noticed by the scientific community...

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