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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers find Fastest-Growing Black Hole known in Space

    May 17, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Computer-simulated image of a supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI) [link]

    Computer-simulated image of a supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Coe, J. Anderson, and R. van der Marel (STScI) [link]

    Astronomers at ANU have found the fastest-growing black hole known in the Universe, describing it as a monster that devours a mass equivalent to our sun every two days. The astronomers have looked back more than 12 billion years to the early dark ages of the Universe, when this supermassive black hole was estimated to be the size of about 20 billion suns with a 1% growth rate every one million years.

    “This black hole is growing so rapidly that it’s shining thousands of times more brightly than an entire galaxy, due to all of the gases it sucks in daily that cause lots of friction and heat,” said Dr Wolf from the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophys...

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    Unusual Laser Emission from the Ant Nebula

    May 17, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Ant Nebula, as imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, resembles the head and body of a garden ant. In reality, it's the result of a dying sun-like star and complex interactions of material at its heart. Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

    The Ant Nebula, as imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, resembles the head and body of a garden ant. In reality, it’s the result of a dying sun-like star and complex interactions of material at its heart. Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

    An international team of astronomers have discovered an unusual laser emission that suggests the presence of a double star system hidden at the heart of the “spectacular” Ant Nebula. The extremely rare phenomenon is connected to the death of a star and was discovered in observations made by European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel space observatory.

    When low- to middleweight stars like our Sun approach the end of their lives they eventually become dense, white dwarf stars...

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    Orbital Variations can Trigger ‘Snowball’ states in Habitable Zones around Sunlike Stars

    May 16, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Environment/Geology

    A NASA artist’s impression of Earth as a frigid “‘snowball” planet. New research from the University of Washington indicates that aspects of an otherwise habitable-seeming exoplanet planet’s axial tilt or orbit could trigger such a snowball state, where oceans freeze and surface life is likely impossible. Credit: NASA

    A NASA artist’s impression of Earth as a frigid “‘snowball” planet. New research from the University of Washington indicates that aspects of an otherwise habitable-seeming exoplanet planet’s axial tilt or orbit could trigger such a snowball state, where oceans freeze and surface life is likely impossible. Credit: NASA

    Aspects of an otherwise Earthlike planet’s tilt and orbital dynamics can severely affect its potential habitability – even triggering abrupt “snowball states” where oceans freeze and surface life is impossible, according to new research from astronomers at the University of Washington...

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    Water Plumes on Jupiter’s Moon Europa? Old data reveal new evidence

    May 15, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist's illustration of Jupiter and Europa (in the foreground) with the Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa's surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Michigan

    Artist’s illustration of Jupiter and Europa (in the foreground) with the Galileo spacecraft after its pass through a plume erupting from Europa’s surface. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Michigan

    Scientists re-examining data from an old mission bring new insights to the tantalizing question of whether Jupiter’s moon Europa has the ingredients to support life. The data provide independent evidence that the moon’s subsurface liquid water reservoir may be venting plumes of water vapor above its icy shell.

    Data collected by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in 1997 were put through new and advanced computer models to untangle a mystery – a brief, localized bend in themagnetic field – that had gone unexplained until now...

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