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    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA Spaceship Zooms toward Farthest World ever Photographed

    January 1, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's illustration obtained from NASA on December 21, 2018 shows the New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 – ni

    This artist’s illustration obtained from NASA on December 21, 2018 shows the New Horizons spacecraft encountering 2014 MU69 – nicknamed “Ultima Thule” – a Kuiper Belt object that orbits one billion miles beyond Pluto

    A NASA spaceship is zooming toward the farthest, and quite possibly the oldest, cosmic body ever photographed by humankind, a tiny, distant world called Ultima Thule some 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometers) away. The US space agency rang in the New Year with a live online broadcast to mark historic flyby of the mysterious object in a dark and frigid region of space known as the Kuiper Belt at 12:33 am January 1 (0533 GMT Tuesday).

    A guitar anthem recorded by legendary Queen guitarist Brian May—who also holds an advanced degree in astrophysics—was released just aft...

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    New Insights into Pion Condensation and the Formation of Neutron Stars

    December 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space


    A schematic view of the experimental setup around the hydrogen target (a). A PID plot produced with the SAMURAI spectrometer associated with the 132Sn incoming beam (b).

    Performing studies on a doubly magic isotope of tin, researchers have shown that the pion condensation should occur at around two times normal nuclear density, which can be realized in a neutron star with a mass of 1.4 times that of the Sun.

    In 1973, Russian physicist A.B. Migdal predicted the phenomenon of pion condensation above a critical, extremely high – several times higher than that for normal matter – nuclear density. Although this condensation has never been observed, it is expected to play a key role in the rapid cooling process of the core of neutron stars...

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    Our universe: An expanding bubble in an extra dimension

    December 30, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In their article, the scientists propose a new model with dark energy and our Universe riding on an expanding bubble in an extra dimension. The whole Universe is accommodated on the edge of this expanding bubble.
    Credit: Suvendu Giri

    Uppsala University researchers have devised a new model for the Universe – one that may solve the enigma of dark energy. Their new article, published in Physical Review Letters, proposes a new structural concept, including dark energy, for a universe that rides on an expanding bubble in an additional dimension.

    We have known for the past 20 years that the Universe is expanding at an ever accelerating rate. The explanation is the “dark energy” that permeates it throughout, pushing it to expand...

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    New Source of very high energy Gamma-ray emission detected in the neighborhood of the Supernova Remnant G24.7+0.6

    December 28, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    New source of very high energy gamma-ray emission detected in the neighborhood of the supernova remnant G24.7+0.6

    1◦ × 1◦ significance map of the region obtained with MAGIC. MAGIC J1835–069 is marked with a blue line. Credit: Acciari et al., 2018.

    Using MAGIC telescopes and NASA’s Fermi spacecraft, an international team of astronomers has discovered a new source of very high energy gamma-ray emission around the supernova remnant (SNR) G24.7+0.6.

    Supernova remnants are basically leftovers of massive stars that ended their lives in huge explosions called supernovae. Astronomers generally distinguish three types of SNRs, one of which is the composite SNR—these having rapidly expanding shells from the supernova blast wave accompanied by wind nebulae powered by young pulsars formed in the explosions.

    Observations show that composite SNRs are known to accelerate particles to very high e...

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