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    Microscopic ‘Clocks’ time distance to source of Galactic Cosmic Rays

    April 22, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Vast bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way visible from the Southern Hemisphere, was formed by the explosive death of one or more of the cluster of massive stars inside the bubble. Cosmic rays reaching Earth are created and accelerated by similar explosions. Credit: Gemini South Telescope in Chile. Composite by Travis Rector of the University of Alaska Anchorage

    Vast bubble in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way visible from the Southern Hemisphere, was formed by the explosive death of one or more of the cluster of massive stars inside the bubble. Cosmic rays reaching Earth are created and accelerated by similar explosions. Credit: Gemini South Telescope in Chile. Composite by Travis Rector of the University of Alaska Anchorage

    Supernova exploded in our ‘galactic neighborhood’ within the last few million years Most of the cosmic rays arriving at Earth from our galaxy come from nearby clusters of massive stars, according to new observations from the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS), an instrument aboard NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) spacecraft...

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    Supernova Iron found on the Moon

    April 15, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Since the moon generally provides a better cosmic record than Earth, the scientists were also able to specify for the first time an upper limit for the flow of 60Fe that must have reached the moon. Credit: © SkyLine / Fotolia

    Since the moon generally provides a better cosmic record than Earth, the scientists were also able to specify for the first time an upper limit for the flow of 60Fe that must have reached the moon. Credit: © SkyLine / Fotolia

    Confirmation of supernova explosion in the neighborhood of our solar system. ~2 million yrs ago a star exploded in a supernova close to our solar system: Its traces can still be found today in the form of an iron isotope found on the ocean floor. Now scientists have found increased concentrations of this supernova-iron in lunar samples as well. They believe both discoveries to originate from the same stellar explosion.

    Estimation of the local fluence of Fe60 on the Moon’s surface. The dashed curves represent two different integration scenarios.

    Estimation of the local fluence of Fe60 on the Moon’s surface. The dashed curves represent two different integration scenarios.

    Increased concentrat...

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    Astronomers Closer to Explaining Mysterious Radio Pulses from Space

    December 3, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist impression of a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) reaching Earth. The colors represent the burst arriving at different radio wavelengths, with long wavelengths (red) arriving several seconds after short wavelengths (blue). This delay is called dispersion and occurs when radio waves travel through cosmic plasma. Credit: Jingchuan Yu, Beijing Planetarium

    Artist impression of a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) reaching Earth. The colors represent the burst arriving at different radio wavelengths, with long wavelengths (red) arriving several seconds after short wavelengths (blue). This delay is called dispersion and occurs when radio waves travel through cosmic plasma. Credit: Jingchuan Yu, Beijing Planetarium

    Origin of a Fast Radio Burst has been tied to to a highly magnetized, gas-filled region of space, providing a new hint in the decade-long quest to explain the mysterious radio pulses. “We now know that the energy from this particular burst passed through a dense magnetized field shortly after it formed,” says Kiyoshi Masui...

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    Observed Cosmic Rays may have come from 2-million-year-old Supernova

    November 7, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    supernova cosmic rays

    This illustration of the region surrounding our Solar System shows the estimated location of the two-million-year-old supernova, lying close to the galactic magnetic field, that may have been the source for some high-energy cosmic rays observed today. Credit: Michael Kachelrieß, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

    High-energy protons, nuclei, and other particles are constantly showering down on Earth’s atmosphere from space, but the origins of these cosmic rays is unknown. One possibility is that the cosmic rays come from supernovae, although the evidence for this claim is limited...

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