Category Astronomy/Space

This is a picture of the Northern Lights. Credit: University of Bath

University of Bath researchers have gained new understanding of the Northern Lights, providing an opportunity to develop better satellite technology that can negate outages caused by this natural phenomenon. Previous research has shown that the Northern Lights aka Aurora Borealis interfere with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals which are heavily relied upon in the transport and civil aviation industries. The plasma turbulence within the Northern Lights was traditionally deemed responsible for causing GNSS inaccuracies. However, this latest research found that turbulence does not exist, suggesting new, unknown mechanisms are actually responsible for outages on GNSS signals.

The team observed the Northern L...

The massive black hole shown at left in this drawing is able to rapidly grow as intense radiation from a galaxy nearby shuts down star-formation in its host galaxy.
Credit: John Wise, Georgia Tech

Modeling supports one view of massive black-hole creation in early universe. The appearance of supermassive black holes at the dawn of the universe has puzzled astronomers since their discovery more than a decade ago. A supermassive black hole is thought to form over billions of years, but more than 2 dozen of these behemoths have been sighted within 800 million years of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

In a new study a team of researchers add evidence to one theory of how these ancient black holes, about a billion times heavier than our sun, may have formed and quickly put on weight...

Artist’s concept of a terraformed Mars (left) and an O’Neill Cylinder. Credit: Ittiz/Wikimedia Commons (left)/Rick Guidice/NASA Ames Research Center (right)

The idea of terraforming Mars – aka “Earth’s Twin” – is a fascinating idea. Between melting the polar ice caps, slowly creating an atmosphere, and then engineering the environment to have foliage, rivers, and standing bodies of water, there’s enough there to inspire just about anyone! But just how long would such an endeavor take, what would it cost us, and is it really an effective use of our time and energy? Such were the questions dealt with by two papers presented at NASA’s “Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop”...

This artist’s impression shows the free-floating planet CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/P. Delorme/R. Saito/VVV Consortium.

CFBDSIR J214947.2-040308.9 (CFBDSIR 2149-0403 for short) is being investigated by a team in order to reveal its true nature. The object is assumed to be a young isolated planetary-mass object or a high-metallicity low-mass brown dwarf. The results could help distinguish between these two classes. CFBDSIR 2149-0403 was detected in 2012 by Philippe Delorme’s team of Grenoble Alpes University in France as a possible member of the AB Doradus moving group. After its discovery, it was classified by the researchers as a unique T-type isolated planetary-mass candidate...