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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Astrochemistry: How Life may have Begun in Space

    April 10, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Chemistry/Nanotechnology, Biology/Biotechnology

    How researchers replicate space radiation in the lab: a light source stimulates hydrogen and thus creates energy-rich ultraviolet radiation. Credit: © RUB, Damian Gorczany

    How researchers replicate space radiation in the lab: a light source stimulates hydrogen and thus creates energy-rich ultraviolet radiation. Credit: © RUB, Damian Gorczany

    What chemical processes in space could have created the building blocks of life is being researched by chemists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum in Prof Dr Wolfram Sander’s team. In their experiments, they are simulating the conditions in space to understand in detail how certain chemical reactions occur. One theory says that the building blocks of life were not created on Earth. Cometary impacts may have brought amino acids to our planet. How such complex molecules could have formed in space is a question being investigated by Sander’s team. The scientists are interested in processes in a condensed phase, i.e...

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    Asteroid to Fly Safely Past Earth on April 19

    April 9, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This computer-generated image depicts the flyby of asteroid 2014 JO25. The asteroid will safely fly past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or about 4.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This computer-generated image depicts the flyby of asteroid 2014 JO25. The asteroid will safely fly past Earth on April 19 at a distance of about 1.1 million miles (1.8 million kilometers), or about 4.6 times the distance between Earth and the moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    A relatively large near-Earth asteroid discovered nearly 3 years ago will fly safely past Earth on April 19 at ~1.1 million miles or ~4.6 times the distance from Earth to the moon. Although there is no possibility for the asteroid to collide with our planet, this will be a very close approach for an asteroid of this size...

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    Dramatic Stellar fireworks of Star Birth

    April 8, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains of a 500-year-old explosion as they explored the firework-like debris from the birth of a group of massive stars, demonstrating that star formation can be a violent and explosive process too. The colors in the ALMA data represent the relative Doppler shifting of the millimeter-wavelength light emitted by carbon monoxide gas. The blue color in the ALMA data represents gas approaching at the highest speeds; the red color is from gas moving toward us more slowly. The background image includes optical and near-infrared imaging from both the Gemini South and ESO Very Large Telescope. The famous Trapezium Cluster of hot young stars appears towards the bottom of this image. The ALMA data do not cover the full image shown here. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), J. Bally/H. Drass et al

    Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains of a 500-year-old explosion as they explored the firework-like debris from the birth of a group of massive stars, demonstrating that star formation can be a violent and explosive process too. The colors in the ALMA data represent the relative Doppler shifting of the millimeter-wavelength light emitted by carbon monoxide gas. The blue color in the ALMA data represents gas approaching at the highest speeds; the red color is from gas moving toward us more slowly. The background image includes optical and near-infrared imaging from both the Gemini South and ESO Very Large Telescope. The famous Trapezium Cluster of hot young stars appears towards the bottom of this image. The ALMA data do not cover the full image shown here...

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    1st time Atmosphere Spotted on Nearly Earth-Size Exoplanet

    April 7, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Researchers have detected an atmosphere around a near-Earth-size planet, GJ 1132b, located 39 light-years away, depicted here in an artist's impression. Credit: MPIA

    Researchers have detected an atmosphere around a near-Earth-size planet, GJ 1132b, located 39 light-years away, depicted here in an artist’s impression. Credit: MPIA

    The exoplanet GJ 1132b, which orbits the dwarf star GJ 1132, is located about 39 light-years away from Earth. It has a radius about 1.4 times that of Earth and is 1.6 times Earth’s mass, according to the new study. When the planet was first discovered, researchers called it a potential Venus twin because it’s a rocky world with a very high surface temperature — and now, they’ve found that the planet and Venus might have a thick atmosphere in common, too (although it would have a different composition).

    While observers have pinpointed atmospheres around much larger, Jupiter-like gas giants orbiting other stars — and a larger ...

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