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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers find unexpected, Dust-obscured Star Formation in Distant Galaxy

    March 25, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Hubble Space Telescope image of the field containing a massive foreground galaxy cluster, MACSJ0717.5+3745. Pope and colleagues' dusty galaxy is denoted by the red squares which show three images of the same gravitationally lensed background galaxy. A zoom in of each multiple image is shown in the right panels. Credit: Original image by NASA, European Space Agency and the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields team. Color composite from Wikimedia Commons/Judy Schmidt; annotations and zoom panels added by A. Montana.

    Hubble Space Telescope image of the field containing a massive foreground galaxy cluster, MACSJ0717.5+3745. Pope and colleagues’ dusty galaxy is denoted by the red squares which show three images of the same gravitationally lensed background galaxy. A zoom in of each multiple image is shown in the right panels. Credit: Original image by NASA, European Space Agency and the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields team. Color composite from Wikimedia Commons/Judy Schmidt; annotations and zoom panels added by A. Montana.

    Pushing the limits of the largest single-aperture millimeter telescope in the world, and coupling it with gravitational lensing, University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Alexandra Pope and colleagues report that they have detected a surprising rate of star formation, 4X...

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    Astronomers Identify Purest, most Massive Brown Dwarf

    March 25, 2017, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Astronomy/Space

    An artist's impression of the new pure and massive brown dwarf. Credit: John Pinfield

    An artist’s impression of the new pure and massive brown dwarf. Credit: John Pinfield

    An international team has identified a record breaking brown dwarf (a star too small for nuclear fusion) with the ‘purest’ composition and the highest mass yet known. The object, SDSS J0104+1535, is a member of the so-called halo – the outermost reaches – of our Galaxy, made up of the most ancient stars. Brown dwarfs are intermediate between planets and fully-fledged stars. Their mass is too small for full nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium (with a consequent release of energy) to take place, but they are usually significantly more massive than planets.

    Located 750 light years away in the constellation of Pisces, SDSS J0104+1535 is made of gas that is around 250 times purer than the Sun, so consists of ...

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    Tracing Aromatic Molecules in the early Universe

    March 24, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    In this study, astronomers used data from the Keck and Spitzer telescopes to trace the star forming and dusty regions of galaxies at about 10 billion years ago. The picture in the background shows the GOODS field, one of the five regions in the sky that was observed for this study. Credit: Mario De Leo-Winkler with images from the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage team.

    In this study, astronomers used data from the Keck and Spitzer telescopes to trace the star forming and dusty regions of galaxies at about 10 billion years ago. The picture in the background shows the GOODS field, one of the five regions in the sky that was observed for this study. Credit: Mario De Leo-Winkler with images from the Spitzer Space Telescope, NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage team.

    A molecule found in car engine exhaust fumes that is thought to have contributed to the origin of life on Earth has made astronomers heavily underestimate the amount of stars that were forming in the early Universe, a University of California, Riverside-led study has found. That molecule is called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH). On Earth it is also found in coal and tar...

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    Upper Part of Earth’s Magnetic field reveals details of a dramatic past

    March 24, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Magetic field model/Magnetic anomaly. Credit: ESA

    Magetic field model/Magnetic anomaly. Credit: ESA

    Satellites have been mapping the upper part of the Earth magnetic field by collecting data for 3 years and found some amazing features about the Earth’s crust. The result is the release of highest resolution map of this field seen from space to date. This ‘lithospheric magnetic field’ is very weak and therefore difficult to detect and map from space. But with the Swarm satellites it has been possible. “By combining Swarm measurements with historical data from the German CHAMP satellite, and using a new modelling technique, it was possible to extract the tiny magnetic signals of crustal magnetization with unprecedented accuracy,” said professor Nils Olsen from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

    Most of the Earth magnetic field is gen...

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