Category Astronomy/Space

This is a view of the jets of the elliptical galaxy in Cygnus A. Credit: X-ray image: NASA/CXC/SAO; visible light image: NASA/STScI; radio waves image: NSF/NRAO/AUI/VLA.

This is the first time polarimetric observations in the middle infrared region have been made of an active galaxy nucleus with CanariCam instrument on the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS. Cygnus A is an elliptical galaxy at around 600 million light years from the Earth, which has a supermassive black hole at its centre. It is one of the brightest sources of radio waves in the sky and featured in Contact, the famous science fiction novel by Carl Sagan which was made into a film. It has an active galactic nucleus which means that the black hole is “swallowing” material from its surroundings...

Our Milky Way galaxy and its small companions are surrounded by a giant halo of million-degree gas (seen in blue in this artists’ rendition) that is only visible to X-ray telescopes in space. University of Michigan astronomers discovered that this massive hot halo spins in the same direction as the Milky Way disk and at a comparable speed. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss/Ohio State/A Gupta et al

Astronomers have surprisingly found the hot gas in the halo of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning in the same direction and at comparable speed as the galaxy’s disk, which contains our stars, planets, gas, and dust. This new knowledge sheds light on how individual atoms have assembled into stars, planets, galaxies like our own, and what the future holds for these galaxies...

This is a global map of Mars sulfur concentration (as percentage by mass) derived from the 2001: Mars Odyssey Gamma Ray Spectrometer spectra. Overlay shows qualitatively what types of hydrated sulfates are consistent with the variations seen in sulfur and water across the latitudes. Upright triangles indicate peaks in possible sulfate type abundance while the inverted triangles show less prominent values. Credit: Nicole Button, LSU Planetary Science Lab

New findings on the chemical composition of hydrated soil at regional scales. Previous observations of soil observed along crater slopes on Mars showed a significant amount of perchlorate salts, which tend to be associated with brines with a moderate pH level...

Scientists have directly measured the air that was breathed by Earth’s first animals for the first time

The discovery of an atmospheric time capsule has allowed scientists to directly measure the air breathed by the first animals. A team of international researchers, including geologists from the University of Aberdeen, made the discovery while analysing samples of halite ie rock salt – dated 815 million years old. The halite was found to contain traces of trapped atmospheric gas, from which measurements of oxygen were taken. The analysis found that the percentage of oxygen present in the atmosphere 815 million years ago was enough for animals to flourish. Some studies have suggested that the required level of oxygen would only have been present much later in the Earth’s history.

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