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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Supermassive Black Holes may be lurking everywhere in the universe

    April 7, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A sky survey image of the massive galaxy NGC 1600, and a Hubble Space Telescope closeup of the bright center of the galaxy where the 17-billion-solar-mass black hole -- or binary black hole -- resides. Credit: ESA/Hubble image courtesy of STScI.

    A sky survey image of the massive galaxy NGC 1600, and a Hubble Space Telescope closeup of the bright center of the galaxy where the 17-billion-solar-mass black hole — or binary black hole — resides. Credit: ESA/Hubble image courtesy of STScI.

    A near-record 17-billion-sun supermassive black hole discovered in a sparse area of the local universe indicates these monster objects may be more common than once thought. Until now, the biggest supermassive black holes – those with masses ~10 billion times that of our sun – have been found at the cores of very large galaxies in regions loaded with other large galaxies. The current record holder, discovered in the Coma Cluster tips the scale at 21 billion solar masses and is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

    The newly discovered black ho...

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    Multitasking New Horizons observed Solar Wind changes on journey to Pluto

    April 6, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the solar system. This visualization is one example of such a model: It shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Drawn over the model is the path of New Horizons up to 2015, as well as the current direction of the two Voyager spacecraft – which are currently at three or four times New Horizons’ distance from the sun. The solar wind that New Horizons encountered will reach the Voyager spacecraft about a year later. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, the Space Weather Research Center (SWRC) and the Community-Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC), Enlil and Dusan Odstrcil (GMU)

    Space environment data collected by New Horizons over a billion miles of its journey to Pluto will play a key role in testing and improving models of the space environment throughout the solar system. This visualization is one example of such a model: It shows the simulated space environment out to Pluto a few months before New Horizons’ closest approach. Drawn over the model is the path of New Horizons up to 2015, as well as the current direction of the two Voyager spacecraft – which are currently at three or four times New Horizons’ distance from the sun. The solar wind that New Horizons encountered will reach the Voyager spacecraft about a year later...

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    ‘Topsy Turvy’ Ocean circulation seen on Distant Planets

    April 5, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The salt levels of oceans on distant Earth-like planets could have a major effect on their climates, according to new research. Credit: © Ig0rZh / Fotolia

    The salt levels of oceans on distant Earth-like planets could have a major effect on their climates, according to new research. Credit: © Ig0rZh / Fotolia

    The salt levels of oceans on distant Earth-like planets could have a major effect on their climates – according to new research from the Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of East Anglia. A study published today reveals that the circulation in extremely salty or fresh water extra-terrestrial seas would influence their temperatures – and could in fact make for more habitable conditions for alien life.

    Until recently, computer simulations of habitable climates on Earth-like planets have mainly focused on their atmospheres...

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    Fast Radio Burst ‘Afterglow’ was actually a Flickering Black Hole

    April 5, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Observations by the NSF's Jansky Very Large Array, pictured here, show that a suspected fast radio burst afterglow is actually radio emission from an active galactic nucleus. Credit: NRAO

    Observations by the NSF’s Jansky Very Large Array, pictured here, show that a suspected fast radio burst afterglow is actually radio emission from an active galactic nucleus. Credit: NRAO

    Last Feb a team of astronomers reported detecting an afterglow from a mysterious event called a fast radio burst, which would pinpoint the precise position of the burst’s origin, a longstanding goal in studies of these mysterious events. These findings were quickly called into question by follow-up observations. New research by Harvard astronomers Peter Williams and Edo Berger shows that the radio emission believed to be an afterglow actually originated from a distant galaxy’s core and was unassociated with the fast radio burst.

    “Part of the scientific process is investigating findings to see if they hold...

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