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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Map of Rocky Exoplanet Reveals a Lava World

    March 31, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an illustration of 55 Cancri e. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This is an illustration of 55 Cancri e. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    The most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid ‘cool’ side. Conditions on the hot side of the planet are so extreme that it may have caused the atmosphere to evaporate, with the result that conditions on the 2 sides of the planet vary widely: temperatures on the hot side can reach 2500C, while temperatures on the cool side are around 1100C.

    Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, the researchers examined a planet known as 55 Cancri e, which orbits a sun-like star located 40 light years away in the Cancer constellation, and have mapped how conditions on the planet change throughout a complete orbit, the first time this...

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    Earth-Space Telescope produces Hot Surprise

    March 30, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artistic view of the 10-meter space radio telescope on the Russian satellite Spektr-R comprising the space-borne component of the RadioAstron mission. Credit: © Astro Space Center of Lebedev Physical Institute

    Artistic view of the 10-meter space radio telescope on the Russian satellite Spektr-R comprising the space-borne component of the RadioAstron mission. Credit: © Astro Space Center of Lebedev Physical Institute

    Super high resolution reveals new details of Quasar and Milky Way. Astronomers using an orbiting radio telescope in conjunction with 4 ground-based radio telescopes have achieved the highest resolution, or ability to discern fine detail, of any astronomical observation ever made. Their achievement produced a pair of scientific surprises that promise to advance the understanding of quasars, supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies.

    The scientists combined Russian RadioAstron satellite with the ground-based telescopes to produce a virtual radio telescope more than 100,000 mil...

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    Computer Model Explains Sustained Eruptions on Icy Moon of Saturn

    March 30, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This enhanced color view of Enceladus shows much of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Scientists at the University of Chicago and Princeton University have published a new study describing the process that drives and sustains this moon of Saturn's long-lived geysers. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

    This enhanced color view of Enceladus shows much of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Scientists at the University of Chicago and Princeton University have published a new study describing the process that drives and sustains this moon of Saturn’s long-lived geysers. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

    The Cassini spacecraft has observed geysers erupting on Saturn’s moon Enceladus since 2005, but the process that drives and sustains these eruptions has remained a mystery. Now, scientists at the Uni of Chicago and Princeton University have pinpointed a mechanism by which cyclical tidal stresses exerted by Saturn can drive Enceladus’s long-lived eruptions.

    Enceladus, which probably has an ocean underlying its icy surface, has someho...

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    Fog on Titan detected by Huygens lander

    March 29, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Fog on Titan detected by Huygens lander

    Credit: arXiv:1603.04413 [astro-ph.EP]

    Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, with its thick, dense atmosphere, is of special interest for scientists studying atmospheric features on other worlds. While the presence of fog on Titan was revealed in 2009 thanks to data provided by NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft, a new study shows that this phenomenon is also visible from ground observations conducted by the ESA Huygens lander.

    Huygens was released by the Cassini spacecraft and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005. It gathered crucial scientific data while descending through the nitrogen-dominated atmosphere for 2.5 hours and transmitted a signal for about 70 minutes after touchdown before contact was lost...

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