Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

[publiusr]

Space in the news

New study examines the links between science fiction and astronomy

"Today's science fiction is tomorrow's science fact." This quote, attributed to Isaac Asimov, captures science's intricate relationship with science fiction. And it is hardly a one-way relationship.

phys.org

Can meteor showers be dangerous to spacecraft?

We've all read the advice that during a meteor shower there is no equipment needed. All you need to do is lay back and wonder at one of the most spectacular sights the universe has to offer. That's about it though and while you lay back on a lounger and watch, it really can be a wonderfully...

phys.org

Are Andromeda and the Milky Way doomed to collide? Maybe not

Scientists discovered the Andromeda galaxy, known as M31, hundreds of years ago, and around a century ago, we realized that it had negative radial velocity toward the Milky Way. In other words, eventually, the two galaxies would merge spectacularly. That has been common knowledge for astronomers...

phys.org

Good thing we found this Earth-sized planet now—it's about to be destroyed

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of exoplanets with extremely small orbits around their stars. But what about exoplanets that get close enough to be devoured by their star, and what if it's an Earth-sized exoplanet?

phys.org

Scientists pinpoint dino-killing asteroid's origin: past Jupiter

An intense debate surrounding the cosmic rock that killed the dinosaurs has stirred scientists for decades, but a new study has revealed some important—and far-out—data about the impactor's origin story.

phys.org

Researchers develop a test bed for separating valuable material on the moon

It's often better to flesh out technologies fully on Earth's surface before they're used in space. That is doubly true if that technology is part of the critical infrastructure keeping astronauts alive on the moon.

phys.org

What time is it on the moon? Researchers develop a plan for precise timekeeping

For decades, the moon's subtle gravitational pull has posed a vexing challenge—atomic clocks on its surface would tick faster than those on Earth by about 56 microseconds per day. This extremely small difference doesn't seem like much, but it could disrupt the precise timing needed for important...

phys.org

International astronomy group joins calls for a lunar clock to keep time on the moon

Time moves a tad faster on the moon. Now an international group of astronomers has joined calls to give the moon its own clock so that future space missions can keep track of minutes on the celestial body.

phys.org

Scientist performs the first nonlinear study of black hole mimickers

In recent research, a scientist from Princeton University has performed the first nonlinear study of the merger of a black hole mimicker, aiming to understand the nature of gravitational wave signals emitted by these objects, which could potentially help to identify black holes more accurately.

phys.org

NASA telescopes work out black hole's feeding schedule

By using new data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory as well as ESA's XMM-Newton, a team of researchers has made important headway in understanding how—and when—a supermassive black hole obtains and then consumes material.

phys.org

A galactic 'comet' called Terzan 5 illuminates a 100-year-old puzzle about cosmic rays

When my colleagues and I set to work on a century-old cosmic mystery, we found an unexpected celestial laboratory in Terzan 5, a dense star cluster currently plunging through our galaxy at breakneck speed.

phys.org

Novel anemometer tracks sound travel for speedier, more precise wind speed calculations on Mars

Mars has a notoriously inhospitable environment, with temperatures that fluctuate dramatically over the course of a Martian day and average minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Its surface is mostly covered in red dust, with terrain typified by craters, canyons, and volcanoes. And its atmosphere is...

phys.org

Scientists find oceans of water on Mars. It's just too deep to tap.

Using seismic activity to probe the interior of Mars, geophysicists have found evidence for a large underground reservoir of liquid water—enough to fill oceans on the planet's surface.

phys.org

Research team releases a 76 m-per-pixel global color image dataset and map of Mars

Remote-sensing images of Mars contain rich information about its surface morphology, topography, and geological structure. These data are fundamental for scientific research and exploration missions of Mars. Prior to China's first Mars exploration mission, data from six advanced optical imaging...

phys.org

Study reports dim odds for finding alien civilizations

Are there any advanced alien civilizations elsewhere in our galaxy? We don't know. All we do know is that there is at least one. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic about finding others?

phys.org

Astronomers, satellite internet provider develop new system to share the sky

Astronomers learn about the universe by pointing their telescopes to the sky. But what happens when a satellite comes between them and the cosmological objects they hope to study?

phys.org

An alternative to the Euler equation of rigid body rotational dynamics

SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) Professor of Physics Dr. Amir Fariborz recently published research titled, "An alternative to the Euler equation of rigid body rotational dynamics," in the European Journal of Physics.

phys.org

 

[Flyaway]

Dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid formed in Solar System’s outer reaches

The object that smashed into Earth and kick-started the extinction that wiped out almost all dinosaurs 66 million years ago was an asteroid that originally formed beyond the orbit of Jupiter, according to geochemical evidence from the impact site in Chicxulub, Mexico.

The findings, published on 15 August in Science1, suggest that the mass extinction was the result of a train of events that began during the birth of the Solar System. Scientists had long suspected that the Chicxulub impactor, as it is known, was an asteroid from the outer Solar System, and these observations bolster the case.

…

Fischer-Gödde’s team found that the ruthenium isotopes in the Chicxulub impactor were a good match for a carbonaceous asteroid from the outer Solar System, and did not match siliceous asteroids from the inner Solar System.

Dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid formed in Solar System’s outer reaches

Rock samples hold clues to origin of impactor that sparked a mass extinction 66 million years ago.

www.nature.com

Related paper:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4868

 

[NMaude]

Chixulub Impactor sounds like the name of an edgy hard rock band.

 

[publiusr]

I thought KT was known by a layer of Iridium--a platinum group metal.

Recent findings

NASA's DART impact permanently changed the shape and orbit of asteroid moon, new study shows

When NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft collided with an asteroid moon called Dimorphos in 2022, the moon was significantly deformed—creating a large crater and reshaping it so dramatically that the moon derailed from its original evolutionary progression—according to a...

phys.org

Debris from DART could hit Earth and Mars within a decade, say scientists

On Sept. 26th, 2022, NASA's Double Asteroids Redirect Test (DART) collided with Dimorphos, the small moonlet orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. In so doing, the mission successfully demonstrated a proposed strategy for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs)—the kinetic impact method.

phys.org

Researchers identify effective materials for protecting astronauts from harmful cosmic radiation on Mars

Researchers have identified specific materials, including certain plastics, rubber, and synthetic fibers, as well as Martian soil (regolith), which would effectively protect astronauts by blocking harmful space radiation on Mars. These findings could inform the design of protective habitats and...

phys.org

Mapping Martian meteorites: Tracing origins on the red planet

Researchers have identified the specific locations from which most of the approximately 200 Martian meteorites originate. They've traced the meteorites to five impact craters within two volcanic regions on the red planet called Tharsis and Elysium. Their study was published recently in the...

phys.org

Specialized materials could passively control the internal temperature of space habitats

Areas of space have wildly different temperatures depending on whether they are directly in sunlight or not. For example, temperatures on the moon can range from 121 °C during the lunar "day" (which lasts for two weeks), then drop down to -133 °C at night, encompassing a 250 °C swing.

phys.org

Astrobiologist explores likelihood of life originating on Earth

Florida Tech astrobiologist Manasvi Lingam has asked life's biggest questions from a young age. Though he can't recall his exact queries, he says his interests were perfectly consistent with those of other children: dinosaurs and aliens.

phys.org

Astrophysical simulations predict new detectable gravitational wave source from collapsing stars

The death of a massive, rapidly spinning star can shake the universe. And the resulting ripples—known as gravitational waves—could be felt by instruments on Earth, according to new research published August 22 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. These new sources of gravitational waves just...

phys.org

The evolution of the Trappist-1 planetary system

Planets are bodies that orbit a star and have sufficient gravitational mass that they form themselves into roughly spherical shapes that, in turn, exert gravitational force on smaller objects around them, such as asteroids and moons.

phys.org

Astronomers discover spectacular increase in the deuterium to hydrogen ratio in Venus's atmosphere

Thanks to observations by the Solar Occultation in the Infrared (SOIR) instrument on the Venus Express space probe of the European Space Agency (ESA), researchers have discovered an unexpected increase in the abundances of two water molecule variants—H2O and HDO—and their ratio HDO/H2O in...

phys.org

Novel strategy proposed for massive water production on the moon

Water plays a crucial role in human survival on the lunar surface, thus attracting extensive research attention. Prof. Wang Junqiang's team at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering (NIMTE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has recently developed a new method of...

phys.org

Physicians work to help prevent vision loss associated with space travel

Physicians at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are working with Polaris Dawn, the first of the Polaris Program's three human spaceflight missions, to better understand the eye changes many astronauts experience during spaceflight that can leave them with a wide range of...

phys.org

New simulations shed light on stellar destruction by supermassive black holes

Monash University astronomers have contributed to a breakthrough in understanding the dramatic fate of stars that wander too close to supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies.

phys.org

Supercomputer simulations offer explanation for X-ray radiation from black holes

Researchers at the University of Helsinki have succeeded in something that has been pursued since the 1970s: explaining the X-ray radiation from black hole surroundings. The radiation originates from the combined effect of the chaotic movements of magnetic fields and turbulent plasma gas.

phys.org

A galactic 'conspiracy' disproven: Dark matter and stars not interacting as previously thought

A longstanding 'conspiracy' in astronomy—that stars and dark matter are interacting in inexplicable ways—has been overturned by an international team of astronomers, in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

phys.org

New view of North Star reveals spotted surface

Researchers using Georgia State University's Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have identified new details about the size and appearance of the North Star, also known as Polaris. The new research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

phys.org

Corrected sunspot records show the Maunder minimum did not end abruptly

How accurate are past records of sunspots? In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal, a team of multinational researchers examined the historical record and found that after the unusual period of almost no sunspots, a period called the Maunder minimum, the transition to a more normal...

phys.org

Extraterrestrial chemistry with earthbound possibilities

Who are we? Why are we here? As the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song suggests, we are stardust, the result of chemistry occurring throughout vast clouds of interstellar gas and dust. To better understand how that chemistry could create prebiotic molecules—the seeds of life on Earth and possibly...

phys.org

Exoplanets may contain more water than previously thought

We know that the Earth has an iron core surrounded by a mantle of silicate bedrock and water (oceans) on its surface. Science has used this simple planet model until today for investigating exoplanets—planets that orbit another star outside our solar system.

phys.org

From sun to Earth: A new network for comprehensive space weather monitoring

There's a lot going on between Earth's atmosphere and the sun. Accurately forecasting conditions in this area of space is challenging but critical to the safety of astronauts, satellites, and even ground-based systems such as power grids. Doing so requires using a combination of monitoring...

phys.org

Lessons from industry can inform satellite and spacecraft management in orbit

Most space mission systems historically have used one spacecraft designed to complete an entire mission independently. Whether it was a weather satellite or a human-crewed module like Apollo, nearly every spacecraft was deployed and performed its one-off mission completely on its own.

phys.org

 

[NMaude]

I thought KT was known by a layer of Iridium--a platinum group metal.

It is.

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has this new video out concerning the "Handedness" of certain biologically important molecules and this no doubt has major implications for extra-terrestrial life:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about new solutions to the mysteries of chirality of life
Links:
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.11...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ent/10.1101/2024.04.23.590732v2&v=UMJYVYX1VPg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalido...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ia.org/wiki/Thalidomide_scandal&v=UMJYVYX1VPg
Previous videos: • Major Breakthrough On Origins of Life...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1wkR-92Rys&t=0s
• Puzzle Solved! Cosmic Rays Caused DNA... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1wkR-92Rys&t=0s
#chirality #originoflife #earth

0:00 Mystery of origins of life: chirality
1:35 Questions
2:08 Pasteur's discovery
2:40 Why this is important
4:55 New explanations - accidental discovery
6:15 Results from the study
7:50 Could membranes also be chiral though?
8:30 Conclusions

 

[NMaude]

A new video by Anton Petrov concerning a new ultra short period planet:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a discovery of a planet that may help us understand what happens to ice giants when they get close to stars
Links:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.21167https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2407.21167&v=idohfn-EceY
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03303https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/1803.03303&v=idohfn-EceY
Previous videos:
• Did our Sun swallow a GIANT super Ear...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHfKj5I2_E8&t=0s
• Chthonian Planets - What/Why/How - Un... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHfKj5I2_E8&t=0s

#chthonian #planet #astronomy

0:00 Weird planets called USPs
0:50 New unusual Earth like planet
2:30 Similar planets and how they relate to stars
3:30 Planetary properties and comparisons to Hot Jupiters
4:50 Differences and similarities
6:05 Types of stars containing these planets
6:50 Mini neptune remnants?
7:30 Conclusions

 

[Flyaway]

Possible natural explanation for the Wow signal based on new work done at Arecibo. He’ll be interviewing one of the people behind this new work later in the week. It involves large hydrogen clouds in the Galaxy, flares from Magnetars, and it’s important to remember, and this isn’t often covered that the signal was blue shifted, and that the signal was not actually at the hydrogen line but just above it.

View: https://youtu.be/YqI5HtDFL4I?si=K9msoU9uqanew8wo

 

[Flyaway]

Follow up interview with Professor Abel Mendez:

View: https://youtu.be/mCKuA8P9HOw?si=ABR7cvJnJIAvqxlM


Related paper:

[2408.08513] Arecibo Wow! I: An Astrophysical Explanation for the Wow! Signal

 

[Flyaway]

New observations by the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that an icy moon around Uranus may have an underground liquid ocean.

NASA’s Webb Telescope Finds Evidence For An Ocean World Around Uranus

NASA's Webb Telescope finds evidence for an underground ocean on Uranus moon Ariel, raising interest in future missions to explore the seventh planet and its moons.

www.forbes.com

Related paper:

Radware Bot Manager Captcha

 

[Flyaway]

Ancient ocean of magma found on Moon south pole

The Moon’s south pole was once covered in an ocean of liquid molten rock, according to scientists.

…

Remnants of the ocean were found by India’s historic Chandrayaan-3 mission that landed on the south pole last August.

India's Chandrayaan-3 finds ancient magma ocean on Moon south pole

The findings are from India's historic Chandrayaan-3 mission that landed on the Moon's south pole.

www.bbc.com

 

[Flyaway]

Researchers using Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have identified new details about the size and appearance of the North Star, also known as Polaris. The new research is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

…

The team successfully tracked the orbit of the close companion and measured changes in the size of the Cepheid as it pulsated. The orbital motion showed that Polaris has a mass five times larger than that of the Sun. The images of Polaris showed that it has a diameter 46 times the size of the Sun.

The biggest surprise was the appearance of Polaris in close-up images. The CHARA observations provided the first glimpse of what the surface of a Cepheid variable looks like.

https://news.gsu.edu/2024/08/20/new-view-of-north-star-reveals-spotted-surface-new-view-of-north-star-reveals-spotted-surface/

Related paper:

Radware Bot Manager Captcha

 

[Flyaway]

Strange system as they’ve already found one hot Jupiter planet very close to the host star and now they have found a sub-Neptune planet even closer in. The two planets are in a nearly 2:1 resonance. They believe there may be a third planet further out in the system but they haven’t definitely discovered that one yet.

”Both TOI-1408 b and TOI-1408 c are incredibly close to their parent star compared to the planets in our solar system," research lead author Judith Korth of Lund University told Space.com. "Imagine our solar system, but instead, Jupiter is orbiting very close to the sun nearly every four days, one-twentieth of the period of Mercury.

"This is already very close to the star, and still, we detected another planet even closer to the star that interacts strongly with its big neighbor, causing their orbits to wobble in ways we've never seen before."

…

"The system’s dynamics are finely tuned, likely as a result of its formation history. The planets' orbits are near a 2:1 period ratio, meaning for every two orbits of TOI-1408c, TOI-1408b orbits the star once," Korth said. "This might help stabilize their orbits despite their proximity to each other and the star."

Giant exoplanet the size of 2 Jupiters has a hidden companion disturbing its orbit

"We detected another planet even closer to the star that interacts strongly with its big neighbor, causing their orbits to wobble in ways we've never seen before."

www.space.com

Related paper:

[2407.17798] TOI-1408: Discovery and Photodynamical Modeling of a Small Inner Companion to a Hot Jupiter Revealed by TTVs

 

[Flyaway]

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed a nearby spiral galaxy known as NGC 891. Results of the observational campaign, published August 15 on the preprint server arXiv, provide more insights into the nature of this galaxy and its circumgalactic medium.

Astronomers explore the nature of galaxy NGC 891 with JWST

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an international team of astronomers has observed a nearby spiral galaxy known as NGC 891. Results of the observational campaign, published August 15 on the preprint server arXiv, provide more insights into the nature of this galaxy and its...

phys.org

Related paper:

[2408.08026] JWST MIRI and NIRCam observations of NGC 891 and its circumgalactic medium

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has a video about how the Higgs Boson should've destroyed the Universe:

On another note Astrum has a video out about something to Neptune's cloud:

 

[NMaude]

Astrum has put out this video about Voyager 1 and 2 and what they detected at the Solar System's boundaries:

 

[publiusr]

Missions to Europa may be easier than thought?

New data on radiation show missions to Jupiter's moon Europa are possible

Scientists from NASA's Juno mission have developed the first complete 3D radiation map of the Jupiter system, including characterizing the intensity of the high-energy particles near the orbit of the icy moon Europa, and how the radiation environment is sculpted by the smaller Jovian moons...

phys.org

A European lander could return an ice core for a fraction of the cost of Europa Clipper

Cost is a major driving factor in the development of space exploration missions. Any new technology or trick that could lower the cost of a mission makes it much more appealing for mission planners. Therefore, much of NASA's research goes into those technologies that enable cheaper missions.

phys.org

sailcraft

Project Helianthus—a solar-sail-driven geomagnetic storm tracker

Solar storms captured the imagination of much of the American public earlier this year when auroras were visible well south of their typical northern areas. As the sun ramps into another solar cycle, those storms will become more and more common, and the dangers they present to Earth's...

phys.org

 

[NMaude]

Another video from Anton Petrov concerning Alpha Origins (Which appears to have eaten a lower mass companion star):

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a new study on Betelgeuse that suggests it's a binary star

Links:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...iop.org/article/10.1086/3821232&v=2PYG_upOxUc
Betelgeuse videos: • Potential Evidence That Betelgeuse Ma...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4oBP-cqwCA&t=0s
• Major Updates About Supernova of the ...

• Betelgeuse Is Being Strange Again! Bu... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2WPVThTklo&t=0s

#betelgeuse #supernova #astronomy

0:00 Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse
1:20 When will it go supernova?
2:20 Variable star and why it matters
3:05 LSP - Long Secondary Pulsations
4:40 What the longer cycle means for predicting the supernova
5:35 Two major propositions
6:10 Best explanation so far - a buddy
8:20 So what's going on here?
9:20 Conclusions and implications

 

[NMaude]

Here's an interesting geology video from Rachel aka GEO GIRL about how exploring Earth's geology would a useful primer for astrophysicists and astronomers for understanding extra-solar terrestrial planets:

0:00 Reason for video
2:32 How we study Earth’s past
3:42 Physical features in Earth rocks
6:31 Physical features in Mars rocks
8:23 Physical features on icy moon, Europa
14:30 Chemistry of Earth rocks
18:49 Chemistry of Enceladus & Titan rocks
22:09 Habitability vs origin of life events
23:40 Biology of Earth rocks
25:13 Possible biology of other planets & moons

References:
Sedimentary Structures video (and references therein): • The Ultimate Guide to Sedimentary Str... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmQXGT2oUno&t=0s
Europa Geology video (and referernces therein)- • Is Europa Geologically Active?- Europ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UI4LKOuAOU&t=0s
Europa Interior video (and referernces therein)- • Europa's Core, Mantle, & Water Shell-... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-biPZG8Jw&t=0s
Potential for Life on Enceladus video (and referernces therein)- • Probability of Life on Enceladus- The... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WX_RAPFSSg&t=0s
Enceladus Analogs video (and referernces therein)- • How We Study Aliens from Earth & Dete...

 

[NMaude]

I just stumbled across this interesting Astrum video (Uploaded three months ago) about the ESA's BepiColombo mission to Mercury (It made its' third Mercury flyby in June 2023 and will be making its' fourth flyby on September 5, 2024):

What the BepiColombo space probe has discovered so far.

References :
Constructional volcanic edifices on Mercury - https://bit.ly/3wJD9lEhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmM3bW5Sd0djb0c4aUZIaEtlZWlPd1MzRmtKd3xBQ3Jtc0tuSVlaTjFyc3ZDYVZlZHhpM1I0eUJqR1g2VzF5aHJlN0pkbmJLOHRaV0hyT3pQVk5GVzg3eDlvaVlXWFZpMVFWOTFQbFdPUGVWQTJDd2QwUDB5UXRYZmJPOUg0NXVlMUpWSHhBSWJPbTR3a2tycndUbw&q=https://bit.ly/3wJD9lE&v=t5tzbu_Hvts
The BepiColombo Planetary Magnetometer MPO-MAG: What Can We Learn from the Hermean Magnetic Field? - https://bit.ly/3V6MlKqhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbjVHcGpoSlNScGNER2VCVWpnMFdUbTNmZzdMUXxBQ3Jtc0trWUgzNF9jRU0yckRZNjVVZ25pYVJ5b3ZkQjNIRXR1U3AwcUxwZkpuQTA1cEhNYzBOcGhKN3FfbEg2NGxJNzd3dlNsUTRUMGQ1ZTlwcWJDUEs3S1haMVcydzNlcUUzcnl6ekk0blBkQVUzcFczNzFWOA&q=https://bit.ly/3V6MlKq&v=t5tzbu_Hvts

Images/Video:
Caloris Basin - https://go.nasa.gov/3V5GftAhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbVZvUG5VOVhDdUNpaWhiOFNkN19Ya1E0TnlDZ3xBQ3Jtc0trcFN4a1ZZOEZzV2szb1ZGUHBMQlFqUWNBeTdUZzlmb3NlLWMwam8tNkJPVDhrcmhfdENDenhWU1ZmVXhCWmhhaWJIaEo1bzNCWmYwR3I0Z1k2SUVBQXBZTllPZFBWVXlYUERqc3JwWl8yQVo3bVZTdw&q=https://go.nasa.gov/3V5GftA&v=t5tzbu_Hvts
BepiColombo’s second Mercury flyby - https://bit.ly/3ytn2t0https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqazFQY0twZUxkRjNiYnJMQkFjRlBwYTdxeWVWZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttc0xYYXZFOV9Qd2N0VmMwajBJSlRYbnpUYmQ5Y1E4cVNDblBUWEJBdEhKZ040MnFDdW9ZektPcjdxOEFXWVNXdEVyZmQ2cHJzc3hoNU8zUFZGaHozenZ3RUlSTDhKS0FNVllxNTQ3YmNrQmtSb0hLcw&q=https://bit.ly/3ytn2t0&v=t5tzbu_Hvts
BepiColombo's first views of Mercury - https://bit.ly/3WVbadHhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnpYSWZsQm1LQ3VTMF85a0FVYnVDRlhfbHV5Z3xBQ3Jtc0ttLVBRQ2t4MWlxWFVjOVE5YzhRVzVOeHl1OWlkMnVfNW85d0h0VXlRTHdvaUdkV3FGR0d5bTY0dUxLOVBzYzVST2ROb1Fwc2x2YWVmQ2RQc1ZtNkpWYmNsNkRsZHdQNW01WEtadGNYVzktQTUyTVl3RQ&q=https://bit.ly/3WVbadH&v=t5tzbu_Hvts
ESA - BepiColombo’s first tastes of Mercury science - https://bit.ly/3V9FwYzhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbmU4ck9MbkFwX2dPWXR1d0Q4bjVrcl81Nmc0d3xBQ3Jtc0tsYjNCRE40ekpldlVjZzVSX28zRnBJYjFna3BOczd2emctQmNPTGdMUU1ZSlhWZkstcVhVS1pBR2JvdG5FN1BYaS1nUlNHcXp1NkZ2NlZNNVJPTThFaHpKdTNvR2RraXlxQXdJbTVHYUJMalhrTzI2cw&q=https://bit.ly/3V9FwYz&v=t5tzbu_Hvts
ESA - A trio of images highlight BepiColombo’s third Mercury flyby - https://bit.ly/4bMSSPW

Edit: Here's the much longer Webinar that GEO GIRL abbreviated into her new video.

Title: Tracing Our Terrestrial Roots: A Roadmap to Discovering Extraterrestrial Life – 03-01-2024
Guest Speaker: Dr. Rachel Phillips, University of South Carolina.
Summary: In this talk, Dr. Phillips discusses how studying Earth’s past helps us search for alien life. It’s all about the rocks! Rocks preserve ‘proxies’ or physical, chemical, and biological signatures that help scientists reconstruct ancient climate and oceanic conditions. Studying the earth’s past helps us understand current climate trends and predict future ones. These same studies can help scientists understand the geological structure of planets like Mars.

Another example is for studying Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, which has a liquid water ocean covered by ice crust. Europa has many tectonic features similar to features found on Earth. By studying the proxies in the rocks on these planets/moons, scientists can determine if there might be life there.
If you are interested in how scientists seek the conditions for life on planets and moons in our solar system, this video is for you! We hope you enjoy it

!iTelescope

iTelescope https://www.itelescope.nethttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...A&q=https://www.itelescope.net/&v=IwgMlYXNmzQ
Dr. Phillips YouTube Channel / @geogirl https://www.youtube.com/@GEOGIRL
Dr. Phillips website https://www.geogirlscience.comhttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...https://www.geogirlscience.com/&v=IwgMlYXNmzQ

Chapters
0:00 Introduction
2:29 Outline of Presentation
3:01 How we study Earth’s past
3:55 Proxy-based reconstruction
5:00 Three types of proxies: Physical, Chemical, Biological
5:23 Physical Proxies
14:07 Chemical Proxies
27:11 Poll question: Is methane on Enceladus biotic or abiotic?
32:00 Second poll question:
33:35 Biological Proxies
39:37 Questions and Answers

#iTelescope
#astrophotography
#deepsky
#astro
#astronomy
#cosmology

 

[Flyaway]

Webb Finds Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All

When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found what appeared to be a bevy of Olympic bodybuilders. Some galaxies appeared to have grown so massive, so quickly, that simulations couldn’t account for them. Some researchers suggested this meant that something might be wrong with the theory that explains what the universe is made of and how it has evolved since the big bang, known as the standard model of cosmology.

According to a new study in the Astronomical Journal led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Katherine Chworowsky, some of those early galaxies are in fact much less massive than they first appeared. Black holes in some of these galaxies make them appear much brighter and bigger than they really are.

…

Although they’ve settled the main dilemma, a less thorny problem remains: There are still roughly twice as many massive galaxies in Webb’s data of the early universe than expected from the standard model. One possible reason might be that stars formed more quickly in the early universe than they do today.

“Maybe in the early universe, galaxies were better at turning gas into stars,” Chworowsky said.

Webb Finds Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All - NASA Science

It got called the crisis in cosmology. But now astronomers can explain some surprising recent discoveries. When astronomers got their first glimpses of galaxies in the early universe from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they were expecting to find galactic pipsqueaks, but instead they found...

science.nasa.gov

Related paper:

Radware Bot Manager Captcha

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has just put out a video about several stars that have been tidally disrupted and eaten by by supermassive blackholes:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about most unusual tidal disruption events discovered in the last few months
Links:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.10895https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2405.10895&v=iGwX-pVGE5s
https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05490https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2401.05490&v=iGwX-pVGE5s
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rticle/10.3847/1538-4357/ad18bb&v=iGwX-pVGE5s

Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKI1q8OkxVg&t=0s
• Tidal Disruption Event Updates: Stran...

• Major Updates About a Bizarre Explosi... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpBT-yGEgm8&t=0s

0:00 TDE discoveries
1:00 How tidal disruptions usually happen
1:50 May 2024 discovery
2:30 Bright TDE very far away
3:20 Closest TDEs found
4:05 TDEs in other frequencies
4:25 Most powerful even so far
5:36 An unusual star and a rare event
6:40 Connection to extreme events
7:30 Conclusions

#tde #tidaldisruptionevent #scarybarbie

 

[Flyaway]

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new hyperluminous quasar. The newfound quasar, which received the designation eFEDSJ0828–0139, has a high star-formation rate and its black hole is accreting mass at a super-Eddington rate. The discovery was detailed in a research paper published August 16 on the preprint server arXiv.

…

Summing up the findings, the authors of the paper noted that eFEDSJ0828−0139 is likely in a particular phase in which SMBH and its host galaxy are actively growing in the framework of galaxy-SMBH co-evolution.

"We may be witnessing the growing phase of both SMBH and its host galaxy in the course of the galaxy–SMBH coevolution, as expected by the numerical simulation," the researchers concluded.

New hyperluminous quasar discovered

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a new hyperluminous quasar. The newfound quasar, which received the designation eFEDSJ0828–0139, has a high star-formation rate and its black hole is accreting mass at a super-Eddington rate. The discovery was detailed in a research...

phys.org

Related paper:

[2408.08498] Discovery of a hyperluminous quasar at z = 1.62 with Eddington ratio > 3 in the eFEDS field confirmed by KOOLS-IFU on Seimei Telescope

 

[Flyaway]

In the quest to understand the universe’s many mysteries, astronomers are looking for potentially trillions of elusive space objects called rogue worlds. These stellar objects blur the lines between planet and star–to better understand the cosmic processes that form both.

A team of astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) recently spotted six new rogue worlds in a young nebula. The findings are detailed in a study published August 27 in The Astronomical Journal and indicate that rogue worlds may help create celestial objects that are even bigger than the planet Jupiter. These newly discovered worlds may even be gas giants 5 to 10 times bigger than our solar system’s biggest planet.

JWST spots six new 'rogue worlds,' neither planet nor star

'We are probing the very limits of the star forming process.'

www.popsci.com

The link to the related paper in the article doesn’t work.

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has a new video out concerning the origin of the Chixulub-impactor that caused the KT-extinction event ending the Cretaceous period:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs once again

Links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4868&v=9A_jOMVFTpw
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev....org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adp0114&v=9A_jOMVFTpw
Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw5ZHPWRUOg&t=0s
• What Really Happened on The Day Dinos...

• Evidence Shows We Don't Really Know W...

• Unexpected Discovery of Another Crate...

• Wow, Dinosaur DNA Remnants May Have B...

• Where Exactly Did the Dinosaur Killin...

• Ripples From Megatsunami That Killed ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrGNYkIYio0&t=0s

0:00 K-Pg event and dinosaurs
1:40 Exact time when this event most likely happened
2:40 Bird DNA and evolution
3:20 Where this asteroid came from - new study
4:00 How this study was conducted - ruthenium
5:10 C-type asteroids and their origins
7:10 Definitive evidence
7:35 Why this matters - water
8:15 How likely will this happen again?
9:00 Largest dangerous asteroid right now
10:40 Conclusions

 

[NMaude]

Here's an interesting what if video about visiting Kepler-22b:

Welcome to Kepler-22 b. Chase: Hey y'all! I've got an exciting mission. To land on and explore a planet that could easily be Earth 2.0. Exoplanets are like the planets inside our Solar System, but they orbit different stars. It's cool, but there's only one problem. Exoplanets are far away. So your Solar System is this little neighborhood of planets and moons with the Sun in its center. And light-years away from this neighborhood, there are potentially billions of others. What If guy got tired of sending me to die in the Solar System. This time, I'm travelling to an exoplanet where I might actually have a chance to survive.

Interestingly enough Ripley Scott's cancelled SF TV-series Raised by Wolves was set on Kepler-22b.

 

[Flyaway]

The LUX-ZEPLIN, or LZ, experiment has searched for and ruled out the existence of dark matter particles with a wide swath of properties, researchers report August 26 at two conferences. Dark matter is a substance whose influence can be seen on the scale of galaxies and galaxy clusters, but which has never been directly detected.

LZ searches for a hypothetical type of dark matter particle called a weakly interacting massive particle, specifically WIMPs with masses above 9 billion electron volts. (For comparison, a proton has a mass of around 1 billion electron volts). The LZ detector, filled with 10 metric tons of liquid xenon, monitors for atomic nuclei recoiling when WIMPs plow into the liquid (SN: 7/7/22).

The possibilities for dark matter have just shrunk — by a lot

The LZ dark matter experiment has ruled out weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, with a wide range of properties.

www.sciencenews.org

Related papers:

TeV Particle Astrophysics 2024

TeV Particle Astrophysics (TeVPA) is an international conference that covers the most recent advances in the field of Particle Astrophysics. This year, TeVPA returns to Chicago for the first time since its inaugural edition in 2005 (at Fermilab). This meeting will feature morning plenary...

indico.uchicago.edu

LIDINE 2024: LIght Detection In Noble Elements

Sponsored by CAEN, ALLECTRA, MDPI, OPTO, AKAER, FCA and Autocoat. Support: LNA The objective of the LIDINE conference series is to promote discussion among members of the particle and nuclear physics communities about detector technologies based on noble elements and their applications such as...

indico.cern.ch

 

[FighterJock]

So that is WIMPs out of the equation to be a candidate for Dark Matter, though there is another possibility of Dark Stars, so called because scientists think that they are made up of Dark Matter. And if they are then the Universe must be full of Dark Stars.

 

[Michel Van]

This here is speculative Exobiology

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hcI7FxP0fc&t=82s

 

[NMaude]

Some major Moon updates from Anton Petrov:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about new discoveries coming from the Moon

Previous Moon videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCMf35iO0Z0&t=0s
• Lunar Crater That Formed a Quasi Moon...
• Moon Mission Updates! Japanese Missio...

• Major Moon Updates: Rock Anomaly, Wei... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siIPmpQJia4&t=0s
#moon #nasa #space

0:00 Moon updates! And a new time zone?
2:00 Mystery of Lunar atmosphere possibly solved
4:25 Lunar swirly mystery - what are these?
6:05 Possibly solution for the magnetic anomaly
8:00 Best colony location!
9:05 Scanning the lunar caves and the new Chinese missions
11:05 Graphene found too
12:00 Conclusions

 

[Rhinocrates]

An exploration of the recent discovery of a new deep ocean source for dark oxygen production and how that may play into a new potential solution to the Fermi Paradox.

TL;DW - Manganese nodules produce 'dark oxygen' useful to complex deep sea life. There's no reason why nodules wouldn't be common in ice moons throughout the galaxy, if they aren't under a thick layer of high-pressure ice. This could allow the evolution of complex life in such moons. However, they can't develop metals-based technological civilisations, because if they did, they're deprive themselves of oxygen (and die). Also, it's not likely they'd even be aware of the universe beyond their ice shells.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hcI7FxP0fc

EDIT, since Michael Van's posted this, let's add some more to make it worthwhile.

Interesting but on the wider speculation in the later part of the video, I'm sceptical of any argument that relies on one factor and specifically, I don't think that metals are the only possible basis for technology. I call it the rice pudding fallacy: rice pudding is certainly a 'signature' of life and civilisation on earth and if we found it elsewhere, we could reasonably suppose that a civilisation had made it. However, rice pudding is not a sole and essential requirement for life and there are substitute foods that are as good or even better (and certainly more interesting). Yet again, we're back to the problem of 'signatures.' Just what are simple molecules signatures of? There's far too much anthropomorphism in SETI and astrobiology as a whole in my opinion.

'Assembly theory' might provide a way out of this conundrum.

Identifying molecules as biosignatures with assembly theory and mass spectrometry - Nature Communications

The search for life in the universe is difficult due to issues with defining signatures of living systems. Here, the authors present an approach based on the molecular assembly number and tandem mass spectrometry that allows identification of molecules produced by biological systems, and use it...

www.nature.com

A New Theory for the Assembly of Life in the Universe | Quanta Magazine

If we want to understand complex constructions, such as ourselves, assembly theory says we must account for the entire history of how such entities came to be.

www.quantamagazine.org

The focus here is looking for molecules that can be produced through complex lifelike processes.

Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution - Nature

Assembly theory conceptualizes objects as entities defined by their possible formation histories, allowing a unified language for describing selection, evolution and the generation of novelty.

www.nature.com

AT, objects are not considered as point particles, but instead are defined by the set of possible histories of their formation as an intrinsic property. Defined in this way, we show how objects themselves can provide measurable evidence of selection, whether within the well-defined boundary of an individual or selected unit, or not.

 

[NMaude]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hcI7FxP0fc

Michael Van has already posted that video a couple of posts upthread.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Michael Van has already posted that video a couple of posts upthread.

Aha, so he did! I decided to edit and add some more.

 

[Flyaway]

A mysterious ring of radio light could have been created by a type of massive star with a powerful wind of radiation blowing away its outer layers, according to astronomers who made the discovery with the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

Astronomers discover new 'odd radio circle' near the center of our galaxy

A mysterious ring invisible at all wavelengths except radio could be a trace of a dramatically unstable star shedding its skin.

www.space.com

Related paper linked to at end of the article.

 

[Flyaway]

JWST discovers New Planet - it’s the coldest, oldest exoplanet ever imaged:

View: https://youtu.be/oJYWOWylZ94?si=x85-lYS8I6hjVVqs

 

[Flyaway]

C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS)

A Dazzling Comet is Heading Our Way! It Will Outshine Brightest Stars

Aug 28, 2024
A dazzling comet is headed our way and it will most certainly outshine even the brightest stars in the night sky. The comet is named C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS). It was discovered in early 2023 when it was a billion km away, between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.

This comet has the potential to become the next great comet, a term used to describe comets that are so exceptionally bright that they capture the attention of even casual observers who aren't actively looking for them. These comets often become widely recognized outside of the astronomical community, making headlines and sparking public interest. The last comets to earn this title were Hale-Bopp in 1997 and McNaught in 2007, both of which put on spectacular displays.

View: https://youtu.be/z9SLAokDS_4

 

[NMaude]

Anton Petrov has a video out about a galaxy sterilising quasar:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a strange quasar that killed all galaxies near it (VIK J2348-3054)

Links:
https://www.aanda.org/component/artic...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEVmR0RjZ1NzRHFhLWJ2dElURWJ1QmR1T1hZZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsQkZFUHk0Zy1fTWNrbmNQWjBqY1NyS21ob2s1czRhcXdhUzNWTG45c0E3emw4NkdRZzNrel90UDlDeVEtUHBPTnJmOXFJaU1Va1c2X0RBUXpPanNLMDkxS3lrajRjb0RoZ0F2Ym9tV01SWjBTblZtOA&q=https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202449566&v=uVgYWlgfisk
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbC1tOEp0R2RhVHB0Ui1MWTZmRGhucWZseFFVZ3xBQ3Jtc0tsNElIRTNyanhGZHlKLXdqckk1dTZlMlBvUWZRYW5palhSUldSOVFWb0djVTJjLVYtOExyeUYtb2ZLb3JmOGN4dlFjcG1JODVKZFJUNEtzWXd6S2xRQWkwa1hTVFM4VV9LdnVHckRtUFAxdEhPSVpsOA&q=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ad35c7&v=uVgYWlgfisk
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbnRTb0d3WWFsQUdVY0NKdHZhSmN0bnI2NXRXUXxBQ3Jtc0tuUEJxQ2hoZHN0clZfZEdnMWxlSFJwcVdWX2FfOVFWSUtHWlpaZVJtLUlpZ0dyRG8xYkh4Y1Ftd0hUSWdKSk5qdHdJeXVCdWJaOGtFRFliYmJJYVJmT040VEh5RldPZ0tIRnlYckYxOWlmRC1WNFVZOA&q=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad429e&v=uVgYWlgfisk

#quasar #universe #astronomy

0:00 Quasar updates
0:28 First ever quasar collision
1:35 Clarification about quasars
2:10 Quasar gas and galactic wind extremes
3:40 Effects
4:05 Insane quasar found that killed all galaxies around itself
6:55 Did something happen to Milky Way and M87?
7:50 Conclusions

 

[Flyaway]

Cool Worlds - Do ‘Grabby Aliens’ solve the Fermi Paradox?

He explains why he doesn’t buy this particular theory. He did send his criticisms of the theory to the person who originated the video before making the video, and discussed it with them.

View: https://youtu.be/tR1HTNtcYw0?si=O9afou6z9Owl_S6-

 

[NMaude]

Astrographics has a rather interesting video about intergalactic supervoids:

Explore the universe’s vast cosmic voids, where nothingness defies cosmic laws. Dive deep into the mysteries of these immense empty spaces and uncover the secrets they hold.