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    Category Astronomy/Space

    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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    Hubble Peers at a distinctly disorganized Dwarf Galaxy

    April 4, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Hubble peers at a distinctly disorganized dwarf galaxy

    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...

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