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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Solar System: New Insights into Ring system

    April 29, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Visualization was constructed from simulation of Chariklo's double ring. Credit: Shugo Michikoshi, Eiichiro Kokubo, Hirotaka Nakayama, 4D2U Project, NAOJ

    Visualization was constructed from simulation of Chariklo’s double ring. Credit: Shugo Michikoshi, Eiichiro Kokubo, Hirotaka Nakayama, 4D2U Project, NAOJ

    A team in Japan modeled the 2 rings around Chariklo, the smallest body in the Solar System known to have rings. This is the first time an entire ring system has been simulated using realistic sizes for the ring particles while also taking into account collisions and gravitational interactions between the particles. The team’s simulation revealed information about the size and density of the particles in the rings. By considering both the detailed structure and the global picture for the first time, the team found that Chariklo’s inner ring should be unstable without help...

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    Intergalactic Gas and Ripples in the Cosmic Web

    April 28, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This schematic representation illustrates the technique used to probe the small-scale structure of the cosmic web using light from a rare quasar pair. Credit: J. Onorbe / MPIA

    This schematic representation illustrates the technique used to probe the small-scale structure of the cosmic web using light from a rare quasar pair.
    Credit: J. Onorbe / MPIA

    A team of astronomers have made the first measurements of small-scale ripples in this primeval hydrogen gas using rare double quasars. Although the regions of cosmic web they studied lie nearly 11 billion light years away, they were able to measure variations in its structure on scales 100,000 times smaller, comparable to the size of a single galaxy.

    Intergalactic gas is so tenuous that it emits no light of its own. Instead astronomers study it indirectly by observing how it selectively absorbs the light coming from faraway sources known as quasars...

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    Engineers investigate a simple, no-Bake Recipe to make Bricks from Martian Soil

    April 28, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    1.(A) A photo of solid Mars-1a beam quasi-statically compacted with rigid boundary condition. The curved ends show the boundaries of the steel mold. The width of the sample is ~1 cm. (B) Flexural strength of compacted Mars-1a as a function of the initial average particle size. 2. (A) SEM image of a solid Mars-1a fracture surface. The inset displays a TEM image of several basaltic grains bonded together; fuzzy and diffuse areas on the exterior of each particle are indicative of npOx, and the contact suggests npOx binding. The material had the initial particle size of 25–45 μm, and was compressed under 360 MPa quasi-statically with flexible boundary condition; the compression pressure was oriented horizontally in the SEM image. (B) Typical XRD curves of reference Mars-1a and solid Mars-1a compressed to 360 MPa with flexible boundary condition. Asterisks indicate the two main peaks of the bottom curve.

    1.(A) A photo of solid Mars-1a beam quasi-statically compacted with rigid boundary condition. The curved ends show the boundaries of the steel mold. The width of the sample is ~1 cm. (B) Flexural strength of compacted Mars-1a as a function of the initial average particle size.
    2. (A) SEM image of a solid Mars-1a fracture surface. The inset displays a TEM image of several basaltic grains bonded together; fuzzy and diffuse areas on the exterior of each particle are indicative of npOx, and the contact suggests npOx binding. The material had the initial particle size of 25–45 μm, and was compressed under 360 MPa quasi-statically with flexible boundary condition; the compression pressure was oriented horizontally in the SEM image...

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    Scientists propose Mechanism to describe Solar Eruptions of all Sizes

    April 27, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A long filament erupted on the sun on Aug. 31, 2012, shown here in imagery captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

    A long filament erupted on the sun on Aug. 31, 2012, shown here in imagery captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/SDO

    From long, tapered jets to massive explosions of solar material and energy, eruptions on the sun come in many shapes and sizes. Since they erupt at such vastly different scales, jets and the massive clouds – called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs – were previously thought to be driven by different processes. Scientists from Durham University, UK and NASA now propose that a universal mechanism can explain the whole spectrum of solar eruptions...

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