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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Reseachers find out why a Supermassive Black Hole appears to Move

    August 26, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Credit: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

    Credit: Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

    Researchers often assume that massive galaxies host supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in their nuclei. In recent years, observers have sought galaxies that might contain an SMBH that is displaced from its equilibrium position. Among the scenarios that could cause such a displacement are the merger of two SMBHs or the existence of a binary pair of SMBHs, and finding an example would give astronomers information about the evolution of galaxies and the frequency of the formation and mergers of this type of object.

    One of the candidates for a displaced SMBH is the giant elliptical galaxy M87, which contains one of the nearest and most studied galactic nuclei (AGN). Previous studies on the displacement of the SMBH of M87 produced conflicting results...

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    NASA’s OSIRIS-REx begins Asteroid operations campaign

    August 26, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This cropped set of five images was obtained by the PolyCam camera over the course of an hour for calibration purposes and in order to assist the mission's navigation team with optical navigation efforts. Bennu is visible as a moving object against the stars in the constellation Serpens. Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

    On Aug. 17, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft obtained the first images of its target asteroid Bennu from a distance of 1.4 million miles (2.2 million km), or almost six times the distance between the Earth and Moon. This cropped set of five images was obtained by the PolyCam camera over the course of an hour for calibration purposes and in order to assist the mission’s navigation team with optical navigation efforts. Bennu is visible as a moving object against the stars in the constellation Serpens.
    Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

    After an almost two-year journey, NASA’s asteroid sampling spacecraft, the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx), caught its first glimpse of asteroid Bennu last week and began the final approach tow...

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    Crystalline Silica in Meteorite brings Scientists closer to understanding Solar Evolution

    August 25, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of the solar protoplanetary nebula. The image on the left is the structure of crystalline silica, and on the right is an electron micrograph of the amoeboid olivine aggregate the research team found in the primitive meteorite, Yamato-793261. (©NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    Image of the solar protoplanetary nebula. The image on the left is the structure of crystalline silica, and on the right is an electron micrograph of the amoeboid olivine aggregate the research team found in the primitive meteorite, Yamato-793261. (©NASA/JPL-Caltech)

    Scientists discovered silica mineral quartz in a primitive meteorite, becoming the first in the world to present direct evidence of silica condensation within the solar protoplanetary disk. They also found ultrarefractory scandium- and zirconium-bearing minerals in the meteorite, which implies that the minerals condensed from nebular gas over a wide temperature range...

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    Stars Memorize Rebirth of our Home Galaxy

    August 22, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Schematic diagram showing two stages of star formation in the Milky Way galaxy according to Noguchi. In upper illustration, blue (cold) and red (hot) indicate gas. The color map in bottom panel shows distribution of the elemental composition of stars calculated by Noguchi’s model with the purple line indicating how the elemental composition of the gas changes over time (Credit: M. Noguchi, courtesy of Nature). Overlaid contours show the distribution of solar neighborhood stars observed by APOGEE, a spectroscopic device attached to the 2.5 m telescope of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico (Credit: M. Haywood et al. A&A, 589, 66 (2016), reproduced with permission © ESO).

    The Milky Way galaxy has died once before and we are now in what is considered its ...

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