Category Astronomy/Space

This is an artist’s rendering of KELT-11b, a ‘styrofoam’-density exoplanet orbiting a bright star in the southern hemisphere. Credit: Image by Walter Robinson/Lehigh University

Highly inflated gas giant orbits bright southern star. Researchers at Lehigh University have discovered a new planet orbiting a star 320 light years from Earth that has the density of styrofoam. This “puffy planet” outside our solar system may hold opportunities for testing atmospheres that will be useful when assessing future planets for signs of life.

“It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40% larger, making it about as dense as styrofoam, with an extraordinarily large atmosphere,” said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of physics at Lehigh Unive...

An artist’s impression of the surface of Proxima B. Image courtesy of ESO/M. Kornmesser

The quest to discover whether a planet orbiting our closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri (4.2 light years or 25 trillion miles from Earth), has the potential to support life has taken a new, exhilarating twist. The planet was only discovered in August 2016, and is thought to be of similar size to Earth, creating the possibility that it could have an `Earth-like’ atmosphere. Scientists from the University of Exeter have embarked on their first, tentative steps to explore the potential climate of the exoplanet, known as Proxima B.

Early studies have suggested that the planet is in the habitable zone of its star Proxima Centauri...

This graphic shows the route that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove in its final approach to “Perseverance Valley” on the western rim of Endeavour Crater during spring 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/NMMNH

NASA’s Rover Opportunity has reached the main destination of its 2 year extended mission – an ancient fluid-carved valley incised on the inner slope of a vast crater’s rim. As the rover approached the upper end of “Perseverance Valley” in early May, images from its cameras began showing parts of the area in greater resolution than what can be seen in images taken from orbit above Mars...

Qingdi Wang et al, How the huge energy of quantum vacuum gravitates to drive the slow accelerating expansion of the Universe, Physical Review D (2017). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.95.103504

UBC physicists may have solved one of nature’s great puzzles: what causes the accelerating expansion of our universe? PhD student Qingdi Wang has tackled this question in a new study that tries to resolve a major incompatibility issue between two of the most successful theories that explain how our universe works: quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The study suggests that if we zoomed in-way in-on the universe, we would realize it’s made up of constantly fluctuating space and time.

“Space-time is not as static as it appears, it’s constantly moving,” said Wang...