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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Meteorite Bombardment likely to have Created the Earth’s Oldest Rocks

    August 17, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Oldest rock on Earth: Acasta River gneiss (stock image). Credit: © Xenomanes / Fotolia

    Oldest rock on Earth: Acasta River gneiss (stock image). Credit: © Xenomanes / Fotolia

    Scientists have found that 4.02-billion-year-old silica-rich felsic rocks from the Acasta River, Canada – the oldest rock formation known on Earth – probably formed at high temperatures and at a surprisingly shallow depth of the planet’s nascent crust. The high temperatures needed to melt the shallow crust were likely caused by a meteorite bombardment around half a billion years after the planet formed. This melted the iron-rich crust and formed the granites we see today. These results are presented for the first time at the Goldschmidt conference in Boston (14 August), following publication in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience.

    The felsic rocks (rocks rich in silica/quartz) found at the Acast...

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    Iron and Titanium in the Atmosphere of an Exoplanet

    August 16, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist's view of a sunset over KELT-9b. The nearby warm blue star covers 35° in the planet's sky, about 70 times the apparent size of the sun in the Earth's sky. Under this scorching sun, the planet's atmosphere is warm enough to shine in reddish-orange tones and vaporize heavy metals such as iron and titanium. Credit: Denis Bajram Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-iron-titanium-atmosphere-exoplanet.html#jCp

    Artist’s view of a sunset over KELT-9b. The nearby warm blue star covers 35° in the planet’s sky, about 70 times the apparent size of the sun in the Earth’s sky. Under this scorching sun, the planet’s atmosphere is warm enough to shine in reddish-orange tones and vaporize heavy metals such as iron and titanium. Credit: Denis Bajram Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-08-iron-titanium-atmosphere-exoplanet.html#jCp

    Metal vapors have been detected in the atmosphere of an ‘ultra-hot Jupiter’ by a team of astronomers. Exoplanets, planets in other solar systems, can orbit very close to their host star. When, in addition to this, the host star is much hotter than our Sun, then the exoplanet becomes as hot as a star...

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    Early Opaque Universe Linked to Galaxy Scarcity

    August 16, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Computer simulation of a region of the universe wherein a low-density "void" (dark blue region at top center) is surrounded by denser structures containing numerous galaxies (orange/white). The research done by Becker and his team suggests that early in cosmic history, these void regions would have been the murkiest places in the universe even though they contained the least amount of dark matter and gas. Credit: TNG Collaboration.

    Computer simulation of a region of the universe wherein a low-density “void” (dark blue region at top center) is surrounded by denser structures containing numerous galaxies (orange/white). The research done by Becker and his team suggests that early in cosmic history, these void regions would have been the murkiest places in the universe even though they contained the least amount of dark matter and gas.
    Credit: TNG Collaboration.

    A team of astronomers led by George Becker at the University of California, Riverside, has made a surprising discovery: 12.5 billion years ago, the most opaque place in the universe contained relatively little matter. It has long been known that the universe is filled with a web-like network of dark matter and gas...

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    Unraveling the Nature of ‘Whistlers’ from Space in the Lab

    August 15, 2018, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as "whistlers" -- very low frequency packets of radio waves that race along magnetic field lines. Appearing in the Physics of Plasmas, the study provides new insights into the nature of whistlers and space plasmas and could one day aid in the development of practical plasma technologies with magnetic fields, including spacecraft thrusters that use charged particles as fuel. This image shows the growth of a whistler mode with circular phase front and cross-field propagation.

    Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles present research on a curious cosmic phenomenon known as “whistlers” — very low frequency packets of radio waves that race along magnetic field lines. Appearing in the Physics of Plasmas, the study provides new insights into the nature of whistlers and space plasmas and could one day aid in the development of practical plasma technologies with magnetic fields, including spacecraft thrusters that use charged particles as fuel. This image shows the growth of a whistler mode with circular phase front and cross-field propagation.

    A new study sheds light on how ultralow frequency radio waves and plasmas interact...

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