Category Astronomy/Space

Artist’s conception of a loosely tethered binary planetoid pair like those studied by Fraser et al. in this work which led to the conclusion that Neptune’s shepherding of them to the Kuiper Belt as gradual and gentle in nature. Credit: Gemini Observatory/AURA, artwork by Joy Pollard

Dr Wes Fraser from Queen’s led an international project ‘Colours of the Outer Solar Systems Origins Survey’ Col-OSSOS, which uses data collected from the Frederick C. Gillett Gemini North Telescope and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) both on Maunakea in Hawaii. By simultaneously using two world class telescopes, Dr Fraser’s team was able to produce unique research with a global impact.

The study focused on the Kuiper Belt – a region of space beyond the gas giant Neptune...

The distribution of galaxies in the proto-supercluster region 11.5 billion years ago (top left), and the Subaru Telescope Suprime-Cam image used in this work (right, larger image). Neutral hydrogen gas distribution is superposed on the Subaru image. The red color indicates denser regions of the neutral hydrogen gas. Cyan squares correspond to member galaxies in the proto-supercluster, while objects without cyan squares are foreground galaxies and stars. The distribution of neutral hydrogen gas does not align perfectly with the galaxies. Credit: Osaka Sangyo University / NAOJ

Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope to create the most-extensive map of neutral hydrogen gas in the early universe...

Left: The paths traced by the known Martian Trojans around L4 or L5 (crosses) relative to Mars (red disk) and the Sun (yellow disk). The dotted circle indicates the average Sun-Mars distance. Right: Enlargement of inset (dashed rectangle) showing the paths of the 8 L5 Trojans: 1998 VF31 (marked as “VF31” – blue), Eureka (red) and the 6 objects identified as family members (amber). The filled disks indicate the relative sizes of the asteroids. Eureka, the largest member, is about 2 km across. Credit: Apostolos Christou

Mars shares its orbit with the Trojans, a handful of small asteroids. Now an international team using the Very Large Telescope have found that most of these objects share a common composition; they are likely the remains of a mini-planet destroyed by a collision long ago...

Space X’s Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on March 30, 2017

SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk said he wants to go further in the reuse of his rockets after successfully launching the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that was recycled from a previous flight. Musk tweeted on Friday that he is looking into a test to bring home the second stage of the company’s new Falcon 9 Heavy rocket for reuse when the rocket debuts late in the summer. SpaceX blasted off the recycled first stage, or booster, of a Falcon 9 rocket for the first time on Thursday, a feat that could dramatically lower the cost of space travel.

The Falcon 9 Heavy has a first stage composed of 3 Falcon 9 engine cores and “will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of 2,” according...