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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Recreating Interstellar Ions with Lasers

    July 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    1. Mechanisms and time-resolved dynamics for trihydrogen cation (H3 ) formation from organic molecules in strong laser fields. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04666-w 2. MSU's Marcos Dantus has recreated interstellar ions with lasers. Credit: Courtesy of MSU

    1. Mechanisms and time-resolved dynamics for trihydrogen cation (H3 ) formation from organic molecules in strong laser fields. Scientific Reports, 2017; 7 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04666-w
    2. MSU’s Marcos Dantus has recreated interstellar ions with lasers.
    Credit: Courtesy of MSU

    Trihydrogen, H3+, is called the molecule that made the universe, where it plays a greater role in astrochemistry than any other molecule. While H3+ is astronomically abundant, no scientist understood the mechanisms that form it from organic molecules. Until now. Using lasers, Michigan State University scientists have unlocked the secret and published their results in the current issue of Scientific Reports...

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    Fastest Stars in the Milky Way are ‘Runaways’ from another tiny galaxy

    July 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Fastest Stars in the Milky Way are '#Runaways' from another tiny galaxy

    Fastest Stars in the Milky Way are ‘Runaways’ from another tiny galaxy

     
    The fastest-moving stars in our galaxy – which are travelling so fast that they can escape the Milky Way – are in fact runaways from a much smaller galaxy in orbit around our own. The researchers, from University of Cambridge, used data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and computer simulations to demonstrate that these stellar sprinters originated in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy in orbit around the Milky Way.
     
    These fast-moving stars, known as hypervelocity stars, were able to escape their original home when the explosion of one star in a binary system caused the other to fly off with such speed that it was able to escape the gravity of the LMC and get absorbed into the Milky Way...
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    Dazzling Spiral with an Active Heart: Barred spiral galaxy Messier 77

    July 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy's beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes -- but it fails to betray Messier 77's turbulent nature. Credit: ESO

    ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.
    Credit: ESO

     
    ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes – but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature. This picturesque spiral galaxy appears to be tranquil, but there is more to it than meets the eye...
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    Surprise methanol detection points to evolving story of Saturn’s moon Enceladus’s plumes

    July 5, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA image of Enceladus within the E-ring in orbit around Saturn, where it is possible that the methanol detection could originate further out in the E-ring. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Click for a larger image

    NASA image of Enceladus within the E-ring in orbit around Saturn, where it is possible that the methanol detection could originate further out in the E-ring. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute. Click for a larger image

     
    A serendipitous detection of the organic molecule methanol around an intriguing moon of Saturn suggests that material spewed from Enceladus undertakes a complex chemical journey once vented into space. This is the first time that a molecule from Enceladus has been detected with a ground-based telescope. Dr Emily Drabek-Maunder, of Cardiff University, will present the results on Tuesday 4th July at the National Astronomy Meeting at the University of Hull.
     
    Enceladus’s plumes are thought to originate in water escaping from a subsurface ocean t...
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