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    Category Astronomy/Space

    New Light on Complex Nature of ‘Hot Jupiter’ Atmospheres

    September 2, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of international researchers used state-of-the-art modelling techniques to extensively study the atmosphere of a ‘hot Jupiter’ found 150 lightyears from Earth. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-09-complex-nature-hot-jupiter-atmospheres.html#jCp

    A team of international researchers used state-of-the-art modelling techniques to extensively study the atmosphere of a ‘hot Jupiter’ found 150 lightyears from Earth.

     
    A team of international researchers from University of Exeter, Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, used state-of -the-art modelling techniques to extensively study the atmosphere of a ‘hot Jupiter’ found 150 lightyears from Earth. They adapted computer model used by the Met Office to study the Earth’s atmosphere to perform #simulations of these exotic distant worlds that are the size of Jupiter, but orbiting more closely to their parent star than Mercury does to the Sun.
     
    The results were compared to observations carried out using the powerful #Spitzer Space Telescope, probing...
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    Sulfur, SO2 and Graphitized Carbon observed on Asteroid for first time

    September 2, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Sulfur, sulfur dioxide and graphitized carbon observed on asteroid for first time

    Images of Ceres made using combined Dawn and 2005 HST ultraviolet-visible wavelength images. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/Philip Stooke/Ian Regan

    Hubble observations of the dwarf planet Ceres have discovered the first evidence of sulfur, sulfur dioxide and graphitized carbon found on an asteroid. The sulfur species are likely associated with regions of recent activity, reports Planetary Science Institute Senior Scientist Amanda Hendrix. The discoveries were made by comparing Ceres’ UV-visible spectra to laboratory measurements. The new HST observations are complementary to observations being made by instrument on the Dawn spacecraft in orbit at Ceres, covering additional wavelengths.

    The presence of graphitized carbon is consistent with weathering of carbonaceous material on t...

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    2 new Fast X-ray Transients discovered in the Galactic Plane

    September 1, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Two new Fast X-ray Transients discovered in the Galactic plane

    IBIS/ISGRI ScW image sequence (22–60 keV) from number 25 to 27 (revolution 1614) of the newly discovered transient source IGR J20344+3913 (encircled). Credit: Sguera et al., 2016.

    Astronomers have identified two new X-ray sources in the galactic plane with short outbursts and very fast rise times, a category known as fast X-ray transients (FXTs). The newly detected FXTs were found in the archival data of ESA’s INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (NTEGRAL) spacecraft. FXTs are very difficult to detect because they occur at unpredictable locations and times and their activity is very brief. INTEGRAL is one of the space observatories capable of detecting such elusive X-ray sources...

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    Discovery One-ups Tatooine, finds Twin Stars hosting 3 Giant Exoplanets

    September 1, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an illustration of this highly unusual system, which features the smallest-separation binary stars that both host planets ever discovered. Only six other metal-poor binary star systems with exoplanets have ever been found. Credit: Illustration is courtesy of Timothy Rodigas.

    This is an illustration of this highly unusual system, which features the smallest-separation binary stars that both host planets ever discovered. Only six other metal-poor binary star systems with exoplanets have ever been found. Credit: Illustration is courtesy of Timothy Rodigas.

    Carnegie scientists have discovered three giant planets in a binary star system composed of stellar ”twins” that are also effectively siblings of our Sun. One star hosts two planets and the other hosts the third. The system represents the smallest-separation binary in which both stars host planets that has ever been observed. The findings, which may help explain the influence that giant planets like Jupiter have over a solar system’s architecture, have been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.

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