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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Exiled Exoplanet likely Kicked out of Star’s Neighborhood

    December 2, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    These are two direct images of the cometary dust and exoplanet surrounding the young star HD 106906. The wider field in blue shows Hubble Space Telescope data where the star's blinding light is artificially eclipsed (gray circular mask). The point to the upper right is an 11 Jupiter mass planet located over 650 times the Earth-Sun distance. A new discovery in these Hubble observations is an extremely asymmetric nebulosity indicating a dynamically disturbed system of comets. Surprisingly, the planet is located 21 degrees above the plane of the nebulosity. The circular orange inset shows a region much closer to the star that can only be detected using advanced adaptive optics from the ground-based Gemini Observatory. Using the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI), researchers found a narrow loop of nebulosity suggesting that a planetary system formed close to the star, but somehow the architecture of the outer regions is severely disrupted. The investigators also find that the planet HD 106906b may have a dusty ring system of its own, motivating future work with Hubble and ground-based astronomical observatories. Credit: Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley

    These are two direct images of the cometary dust and exoplanet surrounding the young star HD 106906. The wider field in blue shows Hubble Space Telescope data where the star’s blinding light is artificially eclipsed (gray circular mask). The point to the upper right is an 11 Jupiter mass planet located over 650 times the Earth-Sun distance. A new discovery in these Hubble observations is an extremely asymmetric nebulosity indicating a dynamically disturbed system of comets. Surprisingly, the planet is located 21 degrees above the plane of the nebulosity. The circular orange inset shows a region much closer to the star that can only be detected using advanced adaptive optics from the ground-based Gemini Observatory...

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    1st direct evidence for Explosive releases of Energy in Saturn’s Magnetic Bubble using data from Cassini

    December 1, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artist’s concept of Saturn’s Magnetosphere based on data from the Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

    An artist’s concept of Saturn’s magnetosphere based on data from the Cassini spacecraft. Image credit: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL

    These “explosions” are produced in a process known as magnetic reconnection, something well studied at Earth and is an important part of Space Weather, involved in energising the radiation belts and producing displays of the Northern lights. Space Physicists led by Lancaster University used data to show that Cassini had passed through the region at Saturn where magnetic reconnection was occurring, which has never before been observed.

    One of the mysteries this gives us clues to answering is how Saturn’s magnetic bubble, known as its magnetosphere, gets rid of gas from Saturn’s tiny icy moon Enceladus...

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    Simulating Jet Streams and Anticyclones of Jupiter and Saturn

    December 1, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image of Jupiter (L) and Simulation of Jupiter's Deep Atmospheric Flow (R). On the left side is a NASA image of Jupiter taken from Hubble Space Telescope. On the ride side is results of a 3-D simulation of Jupiter's deep atmospheric flow. The image gives global views of the axial vorticity (curl of the fluid velocity) at the outer boundary, the interior boundary, and in a meridional cut. Blue spots are anticyclones, which are predominant on Jupiter and rotate in the direction opposite Earth's cyclonic storms. In the simulation, the anticyclones are ringed by cyclonic filaments, which have also been observed on Jupiter. The image also reveals the vorticity of the zonal shear, which is much weaker than that of vortices. The interior flow is seen in the meridional cut to be strongly shaped by global rotation. Credit: Moritz Heimpel, University of Alberta

    Image of Jupiter (L) and Simulation of Jupiter’s Deep Atmospheric Flow (R). On the left side is a NASA image of Jupiter taken from Hubble Space Telescope. On the ride side is results of a 3-D simulation of Jupiter’s deep atmospheric flow. The image gives global views of the axial vorticity (curl of the fluid velocity) at the outer boundary, the interior boundary, and in a meridional cut. Blue spots are anticyclones, which are predominant on Jupiter and rotate in the direction opposite Earth’s cyclonic storms. In the simulation, the anticyclones are ringed by cyclonic filaments, which have also been observed on Jupiter. The image also reveals the vorticity of the zonal shear, which is much weaker than that of vortices...

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    Missing Link found between Turbulence in Collapsing Star and Hypernova, Gamma-ray burst

    November 30, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A visualization of the strong, ordered magnetic field built up by dynamo action in the core of a rapidly rotating, collapsed star. Credit: Moesta et al./Nature

    A visualization of the strong, ordered magnetic field built up by dynamo action in the core of a rapidly rotating, collapsed star. Credit: Moesta et al./Nature

    A supercomputer simulation of just 10ms in the collapse of a massive star into a neutron star proves that these catastrophic events, often called hypernovae, can generate the enormous magnetic fields needed to explode the star and fire off bursts of gamma rays visible halfway across the universe.

    The simulation demonstrates that as a rotating star collapses, the star and its attached magnetic field spin faster and faster, forming a dynamo that revs the magnetic field to a million billion times the magnetic field of Earth...

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