Category Astronomy/Space

Brazilian researchers dated the families using a numerical simulation method to process current data to go back in time to the asteroid formation era (image: NASA)

Researchers dated the families using a numerical simulation method to process current data to go back in time to the asteroid formation era. Four families of extremely young asteroids have been identified by researchers affiliated with São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Guaratinguetá, Brazil. An article on the discovery has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

“We identified the new families by means of numerical simulation using the backward integration method (BIM), which is much more precise than other methods for dating asteroid families...

New research shows that ancient Mars likely had ample chemical energy to support the kinds of underground microbial colonies that exist on Earth.
Credit: NASA / JPL

A new study shows evidence that ancient Mars probably had an ample supply of chemical energy for microbes to thrive underground. “We showed, based on basic physics and chemistry calculations, that the ancient Martian subsurface likely had enough dissolved hydrogen to power a global subsurface biosphere,” said Jesse Tarnas, a graduate student at Brown University and lead author of a study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. “Conditions in this habitable zone would have been similar to places on Earth where underground life exists.”

Earth is home to what are known as subsurface lithotrophic microbial ecosystems – Sli...

Sun-like stars rotate differentially, with the equator rotating faster than the higher latitudes. The blue arrows in the figure represent rotation speed. Differential rotation is thought to be an essential ingredient for generating magnetic activity and starspots. Credit: MPI for Solar System Research/MarkGarlick.com

Equators of Sun-like stars rotate up to two and a half times as fast as higher latitudes. Scientists have measured the differential rotation on Sun-like stars for the first time, and their findings challenge current science on how stars rotate. Until now, little was known about the precise rotational patterns of Sun-like stars, only that the equator spins faster than at higher latitudes, similar to the Sun.

Scientists at the NYU Abu Dhabi Center for Space Science used observat...

Artist’s impression of a perturbation in the velocities of stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, that was revealed by ESA’s star mapping mission, Gaia. Credit: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

ESA’s star mapping mission, Gaia, has shown our Milky Way galaxy is still enduring the effects of a near collision that set millions of stars moving like ripples on a pond. The close encounter likely took place sometime in the past 300-900 million years. It was discovered because of the pattern of movement it has given to stars in the Milky Way disc – one of the major components of our Galaxy.

The pattern was revealed because Gaia not only accurately measures the positions of more than a billion stars but also precisely measures their velocities on the plane of the sky...