Category Astronomy/Space

This Dec. 18, 2015, view of the downwind face of “Namib Dune” on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Dramatic closeup views of a dune’s steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune’s windward slope. Researchers are using Curiosity to examine examples of the Bagnold Dunes, a band of dark sand dunes lining the northwestern flank of Mt. Sharp, the layered mountain the rover is climbing.

A characteristic that sets true dunes apart from other wind-shaped bodies of sand, such as drifts and ripples previously visited by Mars rovers, is a steep, downwind slope known as the slip face...

Stars like the Sun puff up and become red giants towards the end of their lives. The red giants (‘old’ Suns) of the same mass as the Sun do not show strong magnetic fields in their interior, but for stars slightly more massive, up to 60 percent host strong magnetic fields. Credit: University of Sydney

Finding to impact understanding of stellar evolution and potentially lead to a better understanding of the sun’s 22-year magnetic cycle – known to affect communication systems and cloud cover on Earth. Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, the team found that stars only slightly more massive than the Sun have internal magnetic fields up to 10 million times that of Earth, with important implications for evolution and the ultimate fate of stars.

“This is tremendously exciting, and totally unex...

New work may have implications for our own Solar System, as they indicate that our own sun might be on the cusp of a transition in its magnetic field. Credit: © kevron2001 / Fotolia

A recently developed method for determining a star’s age needs to be recalibrated for stars older than our sun. This is due to new information about the way older stars spin, as spin rate is one of the few windows into stellar ages Findings indicate sun might be on cusp of a transition in its magnetic field.

Just like planets, stars rotate around an axis. As stars age, this spin slows down due to the star’s magnetic field acting on its stellar wind, ie flow of gas moving away from the star...

The view from above in the furnace interior shows the glass beads which are produced by the Fraunhofer ISC and which are used for experiments in space research. Credit: © Fraunhofer ISC

How are asteroids and planets formed from stony particles? Fraunhofer researchers have developed beads made of a special type of glass. They form the composition of the rock particles as naturally as possible on a small scale. Earth is 4.57Byo. To understand how the blue planet was first formed long ago, scientists are analyzing fragments of asteroids etc that have arrived on Earth as meteorites after space collisions.

According to current knowledge, many planetary bodies were formed through the merger of chondrules – silicate beads 0.1 – 3 mm wide...