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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Scientists Solve Mystery of Unexplained ‘Bright nights’

    June 21, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The different layers of Earth’s airglow can be seen from the International Space Station as it orbits Earth. The very thin green layer above the bottom of the window occurs 95 kilometers (59 miles) above Earth’s surface; the red region above is a different type of airglow. The rectangle represents the portion of the airglow measured in a single WINDII image. Credit: American Geophysical Union

    The different layers of Earth’s airglow can be seen from the International Space Station as it orbits Earth. The very thin green layer above the bottom of the window occurs 95 kilometers (59 miles) above Earth’s surface; the red region above is a different type of airglow. The rectangle represents the portion of the airglow measured in a single WINDII image. Credit: American Geophysical Union

    Dating back to the first century, scientists, philosophers and reporters have noted the occasional occurrence of “bright nights,” when an unexplained glow in the night sky lets observers see distant mountains, read a newspaper or check their watch. A new study uses satellite data to present a possible explanation for these puzzling historical phenomena.
    The authors suggest that when waves in the u...

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    Star’s Birth may have Triggered another Star Birth, astronomers say

    June 21, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Protostar FIR 3 (HOPS 370) with outflow that may have triggered the formation of younger protostar FIR 4 (HOPS 108, location marked with red dot), in the Orion star-forming region. (au = astronomical unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, about 93 million miles.) Credit: Osorio et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF

    Protostar FIR 3 (HOPS 370) with outflow that may have triggered the formation of younger protostar FIR 4 (HOPS 108, location marked with red dot), in the Orion star-forming region. (au = astronomical unit, the distance from the Earth to the Sun, about 93 million miles.)
    Credit: Osorio et al., NRAO/AUI/NSF

    Youngerstar is in path of outflow from older. Astronomers using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have found new evidence suggesting that a jet of fast-moving material ejected from one young star may have triggered the formation of another, younger protostar. “The orientation of the jet, the speed of its material, and the distance all are right for this scenario,” said Mayra Osorio, of the Astrophysical Institute of Andalucia (IAA-CSIC) in Spain.

    The scientists studied a giant clo...

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    New Branch in Family Tree of Exoplanets discovered

    June 20, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    1. How planets are assembled and sorted into two distinct size classes. First, the rocky cores of planets are formed from smaller pieces. Then, the gravity of the planets attracts hydrogen and helium gas. Finally, the planets are "baked" by the starlight and lose some gas. At a certain mass threshold, planets retain the gas and become gaseous mini-Neptunes; below this threshold, the planets lose all their gas, becoming rocky super-Earths.<br /> Credit: NASA/Kepler/Caltech (R. Hurt)<br /> 2. Researchers using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA's Kepler mission have discovered a gap in the distribution of planet sizes, indicating that most planets discovered by Kepler so far fall into two distinct size classes: the rocky Earths and super-Earths (similar to Kepler-452b), and the mini-Neptunes (similar to Kepler-22b). This histogram shows the number of planets per 100 stars as a function of planet size relative to Earth.<br /> Credit: NASA/Ames/Caltech/University of Hawaii (B. J. Fulton)<br /> 3. This sketch illustrates a family tree of exoplanets. Planets are born out of swirling disks of gas and dust called protoplanetary disks. The disks give rise to giant planets like Jupiter as well as smaller planets mostly between the sizes of Earth and Neptune. Researchers using data from the W. M. Keck Observatory and NASA's Kepler mission discovered that the smaller planets can be cleanly divided into two size groups: the rocky Earth-like planets and super-Earths, and the gaseous mini-Neptunes. Credit: NASA/Kepler/Caltech (T. Pyle)

    1. How planets are assembled and sorted into two distinct size classes. First, the rocky cores of planets are formed from smaller pieces. Then, the gravity of the planets attracts hydrogen and helium gas. Finally, the planets are “baked” by the starlight and lose some gas. At a certain mass threshold, planets retain the gas and become gaseous mini-Neptunes; below this threshold, the planets lose all their gas, becoming rocky super-Earths.
    Credit: NASA/Kepler/Caltech (R. Hurt)
    2. Researchers using data from the W. M...

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    Astronomers discover Bubble-like structure associated with the pulsar PSR J1015−5719

    June 20, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ATCA radio intensity maps zoomed in at J1015 and the nebula G283.1−0.59 at 16, 6, and 3 cm. The 16 cm image is obtained from the off-pulse phase bins with the pulsar binning data. The crosses mark the pulsar positionand the beam sizes are shown in the lower left. Credit: Ng et al., 2017.

    ATCA radio intensity maps zoomed in at J1015 and the nebula G283.1−0.59 at 16, 6, and 3 cm. The 16 cm image is obtained from the off-pulse phase bins with the pulsar binning data. The crosses mark the pulsar positionand the beam sizes are shown in the lower left. Credit: Ng et al., 2017.

    Astronomers have recently identified a peculiar bubble-like structure associated with an energetic pulsar known as PSR J1015−5719. The newly found feature, designated G283.1−0.59, is most likely a polar wind nebula. Located some 16,600 light years away from the Earth, PSR J1015−5719 is an energetic pulsar with a spin period of 0.14 seconds and an estimated age of about 39,000 years. The pulsar was detected in 2003 by the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey...

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