Category Astronomy/Space

An illustration of the MAVEN spacecraft. Image courtesy NASA.

Solar wind and radiation are responsible for stripping the Martian atmosphere, transforming Mars from a planet that could have supported life billions of years ago into a frigid desert world, according to new results from NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) spacecraft led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

“We’ve determined that most of the gas ever present in the Mars atmosphere has been lost to space,” said Bruce Jakosky, LASP Prof, principal investigator for MAVEN. “The team made this determination from the latest result, which reveals that about 65% of the argon that was ever in the atmosphere has been lost to space.”

MAVEN team members had previously announced measurements showing that atmosphe...

Recent images captured by NJIT’s 1.6-meter New Solar Telescope at Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) have revealed the emergence of small-scale magnetic fields in the lower reaches of the corona the researchers say may be linked to the onset of a main flare. Credit: NJIT

Scientists from NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research are providing some of the first detailed views of the mechanisms that may trigger solar flares, colossal releases of magnetic energy in the Sun’s corona that dispatch energized particles capable of penetrating Earth’s atmosphere within an hour and disrupting orbiting satellites and electronic communications on the ground.

Recent images captured by the university’s 1...

1. A relief image (red and yellow indicate higher elevation) shows Ina’s volcanic mounds rising from the caldera floor. Credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU 2. The feature known as Ina, as seen by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, was likely formed by an eruption of fluffy ‘magmatic foam,’ new research shows.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/ASU
3. An eruption at Kilauea Iki in 1959 was probably similar to the eruption that formed Ina on the Moon. Credit: USGS

A young-looking volcanic caldera on the Moon has been interpreted by some as evidence of relatively recent lunar volcanic activity, but new research suggests it’s not so young after all...

Artist’s impression of stars born in winds from supermassive black holes. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

MUSE and X-shooter instruments on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile have been used to study an ongoing collision between two galaxies, known collectively as IRAS F23128-5919, 600 million light-years from Earth. The group observed the outflows – that originate near the supermassive black hole at the heart of the pair’s southern galaxy, and have found the first clear evidence that stars are being born within them. The discovery has many consequences for understanding galaxy properties and evolution.

Such galactic outflows are driven by the huge energy output from the active and turbulent centres of galaxies...