Category 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 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...

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...

Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Despite being less famous than their elliptical and spiral galactic cousins, irregular dwarf galaxies, such as the one captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image, are actually one of the most common types of galaxy in the universe. Known as UGC 4459, this dwarf galaxy is located 11 million light-years away in constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear), a constellation that is also home to the Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), the Owl Nebula (M97), Messier 81, Messier 82 and several other galaxies all part of the M81 group.

UGC 4459’s diffused and disorganized appearance is characteristic of an irregular dwarf galaxy...

The amazing stereo view combines 2 images from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) taken about 14 minutes apart on July 14, 2015. The first was taken when New Horizons was 16,000 miles away from Pluto, the second when the spacecraft was 10,000 miles away. Best resolution is approximately 1,000 feet Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

One of the strangest landforms spotted by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft when it flew past Pluto last July was the “bladed” terrain just east of Tombaugh Regio, the informal name given to Pluto’s large heart-shaped surface feature.

The blades are the dominant feature of a broad area informally named Tartarus Dorsa. They align from north to south, reach hundreds of feet high and are typically spaced a few miles apart...