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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Plasma from Lasers can Shed Light on Cosmic Rays, Solar Eruptions

    November 12, 2017, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    (Photo by Elle Starkman) PPPL physicist Will Fox

    (Photo by Elle Starkman) PPPL physicist Will Fox

    Lasers that generate plasma can provide insight into bursts of subatomic particles that occur in deep space, scientists have found. Such findings could help scientists understand cosmic rays, solar flares and solar eruptions – emissions from the sun that can disrupt cell phone service and knock out power grids on Earth.

    Physicists have long observed that particles like electrons and atomic nuclei can accelerate to extremely high speeds in space. Researchers believe that processes associated with plasma, the hot fourth state of matter in which electrons have separated from atomic nuclei, might be responsible...

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    Winds Blowing off a Dying Star

    November 10, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    High spatial-resolution image of AlO and SiO molecules around AGB star W Hydrae, observed using ALMA, with AlO molecule emissions in red and those from SiO molecules and the star in yellow.
    Credit: ALMA [ESO/NAOJ/NRAO], Takigawa et al, Kyoto University

    Scientists use ALMA to explain aluminum oxide enrichment around AGB stars. Stars like our Sun eject large amounts of gas and dust into space, containing various elements and compounds. Asymptotic giant branch – AGB – phase stars, near their end of life, are particularly significant sources of such substances in our galaxy. Formation of dust around AGB stars has been considered to play an important role in triggering acceleration of stellar wind, but the detailed mechanism of this acceleration has not been well explained.

    And there is yet anoth...

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    Expanding Light Echo Spotted around Supernova

    November 10, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Light from a supernova explosion in the nearby starburst galaxy M82 is reverberating off a huge dust cloud in interstellar space. The supernova, called SN 2014J, occurred at the upper right of M82, and is marked by an "X." The supernova was discovered on Jan. 21, 2014. The inset images at top reveal an expanding shell of light from the stellar explosion sweeping through interstellar space, called a "light echo." The images were taken 10 months to nearly two years after the violent event (Nov. 6, 2014 to Oct. 12, 2016). The light is bouncing off a giant dust cloud that extends 300 to 1,600 light-years from the supernova and is being reflected toward Earth. SN 2014J is classified as a Type Ia supernova and is the closest such blast in at least four decades. A Type Ia supernova occurs in a binary star system consisting of a burned-out white dwarf and a companion star. The white dwarf explodes after the companion dumps too much material onto it. Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Yang (Texas A&M University and Weizmann Institute of Science); Acknowledgment: M. Mountain (AURA) and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

    Light from a supernova explosion in the nearby starburst galaxy M82 is reverberating off a huge dust cloud in interstellar space. The supernova, called SN 2014J, occurred at the upper right of M82, and is marked by an “X.” The supernova was discovered on Jan. 21, 2014. The inset images at top reveal an expanding shell of light from the stellar explosion sweeping through interstellar space, called a “light echo.” The images were taken 10 months to nearly two years after the violent event (Nov. 6, 2014 to Oct. 12, 2016). The light is bouncing off a giant dust cloud that extends 300 to 1,600 light-years from the supernova and is being reflected toward Earth. SN 2014J is classified as a Type Ia supernova and is the closest such blast in at least four decades...

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    Cosmos Code helps Probe Space Oddities

    November 9, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Shown here is a multi-physics simulation of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) jet colliding with and triggering star formation within an intergalactic gas cloud (red indicates jet material, blue is neutral Hydrogen [H I] gas, and green is cold, molecular Hydrogen [H_2] gas. Credit: Chris Fragile

    Shown here is a multi-physics simulation of an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) jet colliding with and triggering star formation within an intergalactic gas cloud (red indicates jet material, blue is neutral Hydrogen [H I] gas, and green is cold, molecular Hydrogen [H_2] gas. Credit: Chris Fragile

    XSEDE ECSS program helps optimize astrophysics code for Knights Landing processors on Stampede2 supercomputer. Black holes make for a great space mystery. They’re so massive that nothing, not even light, can escape a black hole once it gets close enough. A great mystery for scientists is that there’s evidence of powerful jets of electrons and protons that shoot out of the top and bottom of some black holes. Yet no one knows how these jets form.

    Computer code called Cosmos now fuels supercomputer simu...

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