Category Astronomy/Space

Assembly of the Majorana Demonstrator Module 1 detectors. Twenty-nine detectors are arranged in seven strings and mounted in an ultra-low-radioactivity copper cryostat. The array is assembled inside a nitrogen-purged glovebox to avoid exposure to naturally occurring radon in the air. Credit: Image courtesy of Sanford Underground Research Facility

In 2014, the Majorana Demonstrator started its search for neutrinoless double beta decay. Observation of this decay would have profound implications for our understanding of physics, including providing hints as to how the Big Bang produced more matter than it did antimatter. The 1st of 2 modules, with >22 kg of high purity germanium detectors, has been turned on.

The Majorana experiment will search for neutrinoless double beta (0νββ) decay in ger...

Astronomers have created a way to compare and rank exoplanets to help prioritize which of the thousands discovered warrant close inspection in the search for life beyond Earth. The Kepler Space Telescope has enabled astronomers to detect thousands of exoplanets, those beyond our solar system. The James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in 2018, will be the first able to actually measure the atmospheric composition of a rocky, possibly Earthlike planet far off in space, and so vastly enhance the search for life.

Astronomers detect some planets when the worlds “transit” or pass in front of their host star, thus blocking some of the light. The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, is scheduled to launch in 2017 and will find many more worlds in this way...

>> highly magnetized rotating neutron stars formed from the remains of massive stars after they explode into supernovae. Until now, scientists have determined the mass of stars, planets and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using the gravitational pull between the two as the basis for their calculations. However, in the case of young pulsars, mathematicians have now found a new way to measure their mass, even if a star exists on its own in space.

Until now, scientists have determined the mass of stars, planets and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using gravitational pull between the 2 as the basis for calculations...

The team modeled the lensing effects and corrected for them to reveal the distribution of huge stellar cradles in the monstrous galaxy shown in the image above. As a bonus, the same model indicates, for the first time, the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of the foreground galaxy.

Researchers have depicted a monstrous galaxy near the edge of the charted Universe with unprecedented detail using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) with the assistance of a ‘natural telescope’ ie gravitational lens.

The galaxy is seen at a time when the Universe was 15% of its current age, only 2.4 billion years after Big Bang. The light has taken over twice the age of the Earth to reach us (11...