Category Astronomy/Space

This simulation shows how bubbles form over the course of 4.7 million years from the intense stellar winds off a massive star. UChicago scientists postulated how our own solar system could have formed in the dense shell of such a bubble. Credit: V. Dwarkadas/D. Rosenberg

Scientists with the University of Chicago have laid out a comprehensive theory for how our solar system could have formed in the wind-blown bubbles around a giant, long-dead star. The study addresses a nagging cosmic mystery about the abundance of two elements in our solar system compared to the rest of the galaxy.

The general prevailing theory is that our solar system formed billions of years ago near a supernova...

This is image shows modern Mars (left) dry and barren, compared with the same scene over 3.5 billion years ago covered in water (right). The rocks of the surface were slowly reacting with the water, sequestering it into the Martian mantle leading to the dry, inhospitable scene shown on the left.
Credit: Jon Wade

Water on Mars absorbed like a sponge, new research suggests. 2 new articles have shed light on why there is, presumably, no life on Mars.  IAlthough today’s Martian surface is barren, frozen and uninhabitable, a trail of evidence points to a once warmer, wetter planet, where water flowed freely – and life may have thrived. The conundrum of what happened to this water is long standing and unsolved. However, new research suggests that this water is now locked in the Martian rocks.

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This illustration shows a “disrupted planet” slowly broken up into a cloud of gas and dust as it orbits the star RZ Piscium about 550 light years from Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

Astronomers have discovered that a distant star, RZ Picseum, 550 light years from Earth, in the constellation Pisces is crushing one or more planets into its orbit into a vast cloud of gas and dust. The discovery may shed light on a brief but volatile period in the history of many solar systems, including our own.

“We know it’s not uncommon for planets to migrate inward in young solar systems since we’ve found so many solar systems with ‘hot Jupiters’ – gaseous planets similar in size to Jupiter but orbiting very close to their stars,” said Pilachowski, who is the Daniel Kirkwood Chair...

A hidden or ‘choked’ jet (white) powering a radio-emitting ‘cocoon’ (pink) is the best explanation for the radio waves, gamma rays and X-rays the astronomers observed. Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF: D. Berr

Data distinguish between different theoretical models. 3 months of observations with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have allowed astronomers to zero in on the most likely explanation for what happened in the aftermath of the violent collision of a pair of neutron stars in a galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth. What they learned means that astronomers will be able to see and study many more such collisions.

On August 17, 2017, the LIGO and VIRGO gravitational-wave observatories combined to locate the faint ripples in spacetime caused by the merger of two superdense neutron stars...