Category Astronomy/Space

Upper right: This is a Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy NGC 1277. Background: The galaxy lives near the center of the Perseus cluster of over 1,000 galaxies, located 240 million light-years away from Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Beasley (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias), and P. Kehusmaa

Astronomers have put NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on an Indiana Jones-type quest to uncover an ancient “relic galaxy” in our own cosmic backyard. The very rare and odd assemblage of stars has remained essentially unchanged for the past 10 billion years. This wayward stellar island provides valuable new insights into the origin and evolution of galaxies billions of years ago...

A precession driven flow is supposed to power magnetic field self-excitation in a planned liquid metal dynamo experiment at HZDR. Credit: HZDR

Precession sufficient to generate a magnetic field. Flows of molten metal can generate magnetic fields. This dynamo effect creates cosmic magnetic fields, like those found on planets, moons and even asteroids. Over the coming years, a globally unique experiment, in which a steel drum containing several tons of liquid sodium rotates around two axes, is intended to demonstrate this effect. It will be carried out in the new DRESDYN facility at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), an independent German research laboratory.

Similarly to how a bicycle dynamo converts motion into electricity, moving conductive fluids can generate magnetic field...

Using data from three different satellites, scientists have developed new models that recreate, in 3-D, CMEs and shocks, separately. Credit: Image courtesy of NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists have developed new models to see how shocks associated with coronal mass ejections, or CMEs, propagate from the Sun – an effort made possible only by combining data from three NASA satellites to produce a much more robust mapping of a CME than any one could do alone. CMEs set off interplanetary shocks when they erupt from the Sun at extreme speeds, propelling a wave of high-energy particles. These particles can spark space weather events around Earth, endangering spacecraft and astronauts...

Conceptual illustration. A key outcome from the current studies was that planets orbiting red dwarfs may have remarkably similar characteristics to planets orbiting solar-type stars. Credit: Tokyo Institute of Technology

A new planet near the habitable zone around a bright cool star. Scientists report the existence of 15 new planets – including one ‘super-Earth’ that could harbor liquid water – orbiting small, cool stars near our solar system. These stars, known as red dwarfs, are of enormous interest for studies of planetary formation and evolution. One of the brightest red dwarfs, K2-155 that is around 200 light years away from Earth, has 3 transiting super-Earths, which are slightly bigger than our own planet. Of those 3 super-Earths, the outermost planet, K2-155d, with a radius 1...