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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Hunting for Giant Planet Analogs in our own backyard

    March 2, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Caption: An artist’s conception of a free-floating planet analog courtesy of NASA/JPL.

    Caption: An artist’s conception of a free-floating planet analog courtesy of NASA/JPL.

    There may be a large number of undetected bright, substellar objects similar to giant exoplanets in our own solar neighborhood, according to new work from a team led by Carnegie’s Jonathan Gagné and including researchers from the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx) at Université de Montréal. Similarly-aged stars moving through space together in a group, ie an association – are of great interest to researchers, as they are considered a prime target to hunt for brown dwarfs and free-floating planet-like objects.

    Recent studies of an association of stars called TW Hya have revealed some of the first known isolated giant planet-sized objects in the neighborhood of our own Sun, ~100 light years a...

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    First Solar Images from NOAA’s GOES-16 Satellite

    March 2, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These images of the sun were captured at the same time on Jan. 29, 2017 by the six channels on the SUVI instrument on board GOES-16 and show a large coronal hole in the sun's southern hemisphere. Each channel observes the sun at a different wavelength, allowing scientists to detect a wide range of solar phenomena important for space weather forecasting. Credit: NOAA

    These images of the sun were captured at the same time on Jan. 29, 2017 by the six channels on the SUVI instrument on board GOES-16 and show a large coronal hole in the sun’s southern hemisphere. Each channel observes the sun at a different wavelength, allowing scientists to detect a wide range of solar phenomena important for space weather forecasting. Credit: NOAA

    The first images from the Solar Ultraviolet Imager or SUVI instrument aboard NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite have been successful, capturing a large coronal hole on Jan. 29, 2017...

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    Scientists reach Back in Time to discover some of the most Power-packed Galaxies

    March 1, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    In the heart of an active galaxy, matter falling toward a supermassive black hole generates jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

    In the heart of an active galaxy, matter falling toward a supermassive black hole generates jets of particles traveling near the speed of light. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

    When the universe was young, a supermassive black hole – bloated to the bursting point with stupendous power – heaved out a jet of particle-infused energy that raced through the vastness of space at nearly the speed of light. Billions of years later, a trio of Clemson University scientists, led by College of Science astrophysicist Marco Ajello, has identified this black hole and 4 others similar to it that range in age from 1.4 billion to 1.9 billion years old...

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    Spontaneous ‘Dust Traps:’ Astronomers discover a missing link in planet formation

    March 1, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    1. Stages of the formation mechanism for dust traps. The central star is depicted as yellow, surrounded by the protoplanetary disk, here shown in blue. The dust grains make up the band running through the disk. In the first stage, the dust grains grown in size, and move inwards towards the central star. The now pebble-sized larger grains (in the second panel) then pile up and slow down, and in the third stage the gas is pushed outwards by the back-reaction, creating regions where dust accumulates, the so-called dust traps. The traps then allow the pebbles to aggregate to form planetesimals, and eventually planet-sized worlds. Credit: © Volker Schurbert. Click for a full size image 2. An image of a protoplanetary disk, made using results from the new model, after the formation of a spontaneous dust trap, visible as a bright dust ring. Gas is depicted in blue and dust in red. Credit: Jean-Francois Gonzalez. Click for a full size image

    1. Stages of the formation mechanism for dust traps. The central star is depicted as yellow, surrounded by the protoplanetary disk, here shown in blue. The dust grains make up the band running through the disk. In the first stage, the dust grains grown in size, and move inwards towards the central star. The now pebble-sized larger grains (in the second panel) then pile up and slow down, and in the third stage the gas is pushed outwards by the back-reaction, creating regions where dust accumulates, the so-called dust traps. The traps then allow the pebbles to aggregate to form planetesimals, and eventually planet-sized worlds. Credit: © Volker Schurbert. Click for a full size image
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