Category Astronomy/Space

This rendering of data from the Eris computer simulation shows that all stars in the galaxy are concentrated around the galactic center, but older stars and dark matter are more spherically distributed around the Milky Way, while younger stars are more concentrated within the disk of the galaxy. Photo courtesy of the researchers

How an international team is constraining the speed of dark matter. Just how quickly is the dark matter near Earth zipping around? The speed of dark matter has far-reaching consequences for modern astrophysical research, but this fundamental property has eluded researchers for years. In a paper published Jan...

Future telescopes like the James Webb Space Telescope (right) will observe the atmospheres of distant planets to seek evidence of life. Earth (top left) has several gases in its atmosphere that reveal the presence of life, primarily oxygen and ozone. The new study finds that for the early Earth (bottom left), the combination of abundant methane and carbon dioxide would provide an alternative sign of life. Credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons/Joshua Krissansen-Totton

A new study has found a simple approach to look for life that might be more promising than just looking for oxygen. As NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and other new giant telescopes come online they will need novel strategies to look for evidence of life on other planets...

An artist’s impression of a gamma ray burst in space(Credit: ESO/A. Roquette)

A Queen’s University Belfast scientist has recreated the first ever mini version of a GRB in a laboratory, opening up a whole new way to investigate their properties and potentially unlocking some of the mysteries around alien civilisation. Gamma ray bursts are intense explosions of light and are among some of the brightest events that have ever been observed in the universe. However, because they occur in short bursts and originate in distant galaxies scientists have not been able to exactly pinpoint what causes them.

Some might even suggest they may be messages from advanced alien civilisations but many experts have predicted that the bursts are emitted when jets of particles are thrown out by massive astrophys...

This is the giant star, π1Gruis. Credit European Southern Observatory

An international team has produced the first detailed images of the surface of a giant star outside our solar system, revealing a nearly circular, dust-free atmosphere with complex areas of moving material, known as convection cells or granules, according to a recent study. The giant star, named π1Gruis, is one of the stars in the constellation Grus (Latin for the crane, a type of bird), which can be observed in the southern hemisphere. An evolved star in the last major phase of life, π1Gruis is 350 times larger than the Sun and resembles what our Sun will become at the end of its life in five billion years. Studying this star gives scientists insight about the future activity, characteristics and appearance of the Sun...