Category Astronomy/Space

An artist’s conception of an exoplanet courtesy of NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

Planet-hunting is an ongoing process that’s resulting in the discovery of more and more planets orbiting distant stars. New work reports on a technological upgrade for one method of finding planets or confirming other planetary detections. One of the most-popular and successful techniques for finding and confirming planets the radial velocity method. It takes advantage of the fact that the planet’s gravity also affects the star in return. As a result, astronomers are able to detect the tiny wobbles the planet induces as its gravity tugs on the star. Using this method, astronomers have detected hundreds of exoplanets.

For certain kinds of low-mass stars, however, there are limitations to ...

An image of the deep radio map covering the ELAIS-N1 region, with aligned galaxy jets. The image on the left has white circles around the aligned galaxies; the image on the right is without the circles. Credit: Prof Russ Taylor

Deep radio imaging by researchers in the Uni of Cape Town and Uni of the Western Cape, in S Africa revealed supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction – most likely a result of primordial mass fluctuations in the early universe. The new result is the discovery – for the first time – of an alignment of the jets of galaxies over a large volume of space, via a 3yr deep radio imaging survey of the radio waves coming from a region called ELAIS-N1 using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT).

The ...

Based on a culmination of ten years of research work, the new method to estimate more accurate distances between planetary nebulae and the Earth developed by HKU astronomers promises a new era in scientists’ ability to study and understand the fascinating if brief period in the final stages of the lives of low- and mid-mass stars. Credit: The University of Hong Kong

A way of estimating more accurate distances to the thousands of “planetary nebulae” has just been announced by 3 astronomers at Uni of Hong Kong (HKU): Dr David Frew, Professor Quentin Parker and Dr Ivan Bojicic, based on 10 yrs of research work. With this technique, “planetary nebulae” finally get a more meaningful physical presence.

Ghostly and beautiful planetary nebulae” have nothing to do with planets but acquired this nam...

The High Resolution Channel of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured this view of HD 44179 and the surrounding Red Rectangle nebula — the sharpest view so far. Red light from glowing Hydrogen was captured through the F658N filter and colored red. Orange-red light over a wider range of wavelengths through a F625W filter was colored blue. The field of view is about 25 by 20 arcseconds. Text credit: European Space Agency Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA

The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker because of its shape and its apparent color when seen in early images from Earth...