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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Sticky, Stony and Sizzling Science launching to ISS

    March 10, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is a small handheld gecko grippers and associated test hardware. Credit: NASA

    This is a small handheld gecko grippers and associated test hardware. Credit: NASA

    Orbital ATK CRS-6 will deliver investigations to the space station to study fire, meteors, regolith, adhesion, and 3-D printing in microgravity. NASA’s commercial partner plans to launch its Cygnus spacecraft into orbit on March 22, 2016 atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for its fifth contracted resupply mission to the International Space Station. The Spacecraft Fire Experiment-I (Saffire-I) intentionally lights a large-scale fire inside an empty Cygnus resupply vehicle after it leaves the space station and before it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere.

    In the decades of research into combustion and fire processes in reduced gravity, few experiments have directly studied spacecraft fire safety under lo...

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    Dark Matter Satellites Trigger Massive Birth of Stars

    March 10, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is a dwarf galaxy with a starburst. Credit: UC Riverside

    This is a dwarf galaxy with a starburst. Credit: UC Riverside

    Astronomers use computer simulations based on theoretical models to explain massive star formation observed in dwarf galaxies. One of the main predictions of the current model of the creation of structures in the universe, known at the Lambda Cold Dark Mattermodel, is that galaxies are embedded in very extended and massive halos of dark matter surrounded by many thousands of smaller sub-halos also made from dark matter.

    Around large galaxies, eg Milky Way, these dark matter sub-halos are large enough to host enough gas and dust to form small galaxies on their own, and some of these galactic companions, known as satellite galaxies, can be observed...

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    Rosetta: Type of Ice Reveals the Age of Comets

    March 9, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Comet Churi's nucleus observed by the Rosetta probe. Credit: Image courtesy of CNRS

    Comet Churi’s nucleus observed by the Rosetta probe. Credit: Image courtesy of CNRS

    The ice buried inside comet 67P/ Churyumov-Gerasimenko is mainly found in crystalline form, which implies that it originated in the protosolar nebula and is therefore the same age as the Solar System. This discovery was made by an international team led by a researcher at the LAM1 (CNRS/Aix Marseille Université) and also including scientists from the Laboratoire J.-L. Lagrange, Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CNRS/ Université de Lorraine), with support from CNES. Their findings were obtained by analyzing data from the Rosina2 instrument, placed on board ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft.

    Little by little, the Rosetta mission is uncovering the secrets of comets, and has now succeeded in sett...

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    Sharpest View ever of Dusty Disc around Aging Star

    March 9, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Very Large Telescope Interferometer at ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile has obtained the sharpest view ever of the dusty disc around the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431. For the first time such discs can be compared to the discs around young stars -- and they look surprisingly similar. It is even possible that a disc appearing at the end of a star's life might also create a second generation of planets. The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image, with the brighter central star removed. The background view shows the surroundings of this star in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

    The Very Large Telescope Interferometer at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile has obtained the sharpest view ever of the dusty disc around the close pair of aging stars IRAS 08544-4431. For the first time such discs can be compared to the discs around young stars — and they look surprisingly similar. It is even possible that a disc appearing at the end of a star’s life might also create a second generation of planets. The inset shows the VLTI reconstructed image, with the brighter central star removed. The background view shows the surroundings of this star in the constellation of Vela (The Sails). Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin

    As they approach the ends of their lives many stars develop stable discs of gas and dust around them...

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