Category Astronomy/Space

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, consists of more than 100 billion stars. New stars are formed in so-called molecular clouds, where most of the gas is in the form of molecules, and is very cold. In the Milky Way there are many different varieties of molecular clouds, with for example masses ranging from a few hundred to several million times the mass of the Sun. Photo: NASA

Star formation: 3 scientists at Niels Bohr Institute (NBI), University of Copenhagen, have carried out extensive computer simulations related to star formation. They conclude that the present idealized models are lacking when it comes to describing details in the star formation process. “Hopefully our results can also help shed more light on planet formation,” says Michael Küffmeier, astrophysicist.

In order to explain t...

Artists impressions of a habitable planet around M-dwarfs (left) and primordial Earth (right). The surface of M-dwarf planet is illuminated by visible light. On the other hand, similar light conditions are expected underwater, since only blue-green light can penetrate meters of water. Credit: Copyright Astrobiology Center

Researchers at the Astrobiology Center (ABC) of National Institutes of Natural Science (NINS) in Japan and their colleagues have proposed a prediction that red-edge could be observed as on the Earth even on exoplanets around M-dwarfs. They pointed out that the first oxgenic photorophs are most likely to have evolved underwater to utilize visible light just like what had happened in the primordial ocean on the Earth...

An artists impression of GJ 436b can be seen in the background in this image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Astronomers have discovered a comet-like exoplanet that trails a huge, Rapunzel-like hair made of gas behind it. The research team focused the Hubble Space Telescope on an exoplanet that had already been seen losing its atmosphere, which forms an enormous cloud of hydrogen, giving the planet the appearance of a giant comet. During earlier observations in 2015, it was not possible to cover the whole cloud, whose shape was predicted by numerical simulations. Thanks to these new observations, however, the scientists have finally been able to confirm the initial predictions.

Exoplanet GJ 436b is similar in size to Neptune (i.e. about four times larger than Earth)...

The building blocks of DNA could have come from space

Researchers at the University of York have shown that molecules brought to earth in meteorite strikes could potentially be converted into the building blocks of DNA. They found that organic compounds, amino nitriles, the molecular precursors to amino acids, were able to use molecules present in interstellar ice to trigger the formation of the backbone molecule, 2-deoxy-D-ribose, of DNA. It has long been assumed that amino acids were present on earth before DNA, and may have been responsible for the formation of one of the building blocks of DNA, but this new research throws fresh doubt on this theory.

Dr Paul Clarke, from the University of York’s Department of Chemistry, said: “The origin of important biological molecules is one of the ...