Category Astronomy/Space

New images from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope are revealing the dusty discs surrounding nearby young stars in greater detail than previously achieved. They show a bizarre variety of shapes, sizes and structures, including the likely effects of planets still in the process of forming. Credit: ESO/H. Avenhaus et al./E. Sissa et al./DARTT-S and SHINE collaborations

The SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile allows astronomers to suppress the brilliant light of nearby stars in order to obtain a better view of the regions surrounding them. This collection of new SPHERE images is just a sample of the wide variety of dusty discs being found around young stars...

A snapshot of a simulation showing a binary black hole formed in the center of a dense star cluster. Credit: Northwestern Visualization/Carl Rodriguez

When LIGO’s twin detectors first picked up faint wobbles in their respective, identical mirrors, the signal didn’t just provide first direct detection of gravitational waves—it also confirmed the existence of stellar binary black holes, which gave rise to the signal in the first place. Stellar binary black holes are formed when two black holes, created out of the remnants of massive stars, begin to orbit each other. Eventually, the black holes merge in a spectacular collision that, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity, should release a huge amount of energy in the form of gravitational waves.

Now, an international team led ...

A Chandra X-ray Observatory image of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. The image is about ten light-years across, and shows many cataclysmic variables (CVs), white dwarf stars that accrete from a companion star. Astronomers have discovered twenty-two new CVs in the cluster, and used the statistics to argue that, unlike many clusters which have bright, recently formed CVs, the ones here are older or even primordial. Credit: NASA/CXC/Michigan State/A.Steiner et al. 2014

Cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) are white dwarf stars that are accreting from an orbiting, low mass binary companion star. The accretion is facilitated by the proximity of the stars; typical orbital periods range from about 1 to 10 hours...

Meteorites such as these carbonaceous chondrites are thought to have delivered water to the Earth–but an outstanding question is when. A new study points to the early incorporation of water in the growing Earth. Credit: Image courtesy Nicolas Dauphas

New measurements of lunar rocks suggest different story about Earth’s early days. Cosmo-chemists have performed the largest study to date of oxygen isotopes in lunar rocks, and found a small but measurable difference in the makeup of the moon and Earth. The research proposes that Earth acquired the majority of its water during the main stage of its growth – which counters a popular theory.

The most widely accepted theory of the origin of the Moon speculates that a giant object smashed into the proto-Earth at just enough velocity that part of b...