Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread
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Natural Plutonium Discovered Beneath The Oceans Shows Cataclysmic History:
View: https://youtu.be/c-B3UVGVCmU
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Mysterious radio burst from space is unusually close—and especially baffling
A fast radio burst, one of the most perplexing phenomena seen by astronomers, has been detected among a nearby population of ancient stars.
Related paper:
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Next New Frontiers mission will retain same set of destinations
A delay of up to two years in the next New Frontiers planetary science mission competition won’t change the potential destinations for that mission.
spacenews.com
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Although these radiolytic reactions yield energy far more slowly than the sun and underground thermal processes, the researchers have shown that they are fast enough to be key drivers of microbial activity in a broad range of settings—and that they are responsible for a diverse pool of organic molecules and other chemicals important to life. According to Jack Mustard, a planetary geologist at Brown University who was not involved in the new work, the radiolysis explanation has “opened up whole new vistas” into what life could look like, how it might have emerged on an early Earth, and where else in the universe it might one day be found.
www.theatlantic.com
Earth’s Underground Worlds May Run on Radioactive Decay
No sunlight, no problem.
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Colossal Flare Could Be First Evidence Energy Can Be Extracted From Black Holes
The popular conception goes that nothing can escape from a black hole.
www.sciencealert.com
Related paper: https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2021/05/aa37135-19/aa37135-19.html
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Neutron stars may be quite a bit bigger than previously thought
New experiments measuring the size of lead nuclei show neutron stars may be bigger than previously thought.
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The ‘double-disk’ shape of the Milky Way could be common across galaxies
Until now, astronomers weren't sure if the Milky Way's 'double-disk' star configuration was a common galactic evolution or a cosmic one-off.
www.popsci.com
Identification of an [α/Fe]—Enhanced Thick Disk Component in an Edge-on Milky Way Analog
Abstract
The Milky Way disk consists of two prominent components—a thick, alpha-rich, low-metallicity component and a thin, metal-rich, low-alpha component. External galaxies have been shown to contain thin- and thick-disk components, but whether distinct components in the [α/Fe]–[Z/H] plane exist in other Milky Way-like galaxies is not yet known. We present Very Large Telescope (VLT)—Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) observations of UGC 10738, a nearby, edge-on Milky Way-like galaxy. We demonstrate through stellar population synthesis model fitting that UGC 10738 contains alpha-rich and alpha-poor stellar populations with similar spatial distributions to the same components in the Milky Way. We discuss how the finding that external galaxies also contain chemically distinct disk components may act as a significant constraint on the formation of the Milky Way's own thin and thick disk.
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Ancient volcanic eruption destroyed the ozone layer
Ozone depletion following the Toba eruption around 74,000 years ago compounded the ensuing volcanic winter and caused a human population bottleneck.
discovery.kaust.edu.sa
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Oort cloud Ecology II: The chronology of the formation of the Oort cloud
We present a chronology on the formation and early evolution of the Oort cloud, and test the sequence of events of its formation by simulating the formation process in subsequent amalgamated steps. These simulations start with the Solar system being born with planets and asteroids in a stellar cluster orbiting the Galactic center. Upon ejection from its birth environment, we continue to follow the Solar system's evolution while it sojourns the Galaxy as an isolated planetary system. We conclude that the range in semi-major axis between ∼100\,au and several ∼103\,au still bears the signatures of the Sun being born in a $\apgt 1000$\,\Msun/pc3 star cluster, and that most of the outer Oort cloud formed after the Solar system escaped. The escape, we argue, happened between ∼20\,Myr and 50\,Myr after birth of the Solar system. Today, the bulk of the material in the Oort cloud (∼70\%) originates from the region in the circumstellar disk that was located between ∼15\,au and ∼35\,au, near the current location of the ice-giants and the Centaur family of asteroids. This population is eradicated if the ice-giant planets were born in orbital resonance. Planet migration or chaotic orbital reorganization, occurring while the Solar system is still a cluster member is, according to our model, inconsistent with the presence of the Oort cloud. About half the inner Oort cloud, between 100 and 104\,au, and a quarter of the material in the outer Oort cloud $\apgt 10^4$\,au could be non-native to the Solar system but was captured from free-floating derbis in the cluster or from the circumstellar disk of other stars in the birth cluster. Characterizing this population will help us to reconstruct the Solar system's history.
We present a chronology on the formation and early evolution of the Oort cloud, and test the sequence of events of its formation by simulating the formation process in subsequent amalgamated steps. These simulations start with the Solar system being born with planets and asteroids in a stellar cluster orbiting the Galactic center. Upon ejection from its birth environment, we continue to follow the Solar system's evolution while it sojourns the Galaxy as an isolated planetary system. We conclude that the range in semi-major axis between ∼100\,au and several ∼103\,au still bears the signatures of the Sun being born in a $\apgt 1000$\,\Msun/pc3 star cluster, and that most of the outer Oort cloud formed after the Solar system escaped. The escape, we argue, happened between ∼20\,Myr and 50\,Myr after birth of the Solar system. Today, the bulk of the material in the Oort cloud (∼70\%) originates from the region in the circumstellar disk that was located between ∼15\,au and ∼35\,au, near the current location of the ice-giants and the Centaur family of asteroids. This population is eradicated if the ice-giant planets were born in orbital resonance. Planet migration or chaotic orbital reorganization, occurring while the Solar system is still a cluster member is, according to our model, inconsistent with the presence of the Oort cloud. About half the inner Oort cloud, between 100 and 104\,au, and a quarter of the material in the outer Oort cloud $\apgt 10^4$\,au could be non-native to the Solar system but was captured from free-floating derbis in the cluster or from the circumstellar disk of other stars in the birth cluster. Characterizing this population will help us to reconstruct the Solar system's history.
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How Sublimation Delays the Onset of Dusty Debris Disk Formation Around White Dwarf Stars
Although numerous white dwarf stars host dusty debris disks, the temperature distribution of these stars differs significantly from the white dwarf population as a whole. Dusty debris disks exist exclusively around white dwarfs cooler than 27,000 K. This is all the more enigmatic given that the formation processes of dusty debris disks should favor younger, hotter white dwarfs, which likely host more dynamically unstable planetary systems. Here we apply a sophisticated material sublimation model to white dwarf systems to show that these statistics are actually a natural result of the interplay of thermal and tidal forces, and show how they define the circumstellar regions where dusty debris disks can form. We demonstrate that these processes tend to prevent stability against both sublimative destruction and reaccretion into planetesimals for rocky materials until white dwarfs cool to below ~25,000-32,000 K, in agreement with the observed limit of ~27,000 K. For pure water ice, this critical temperature is less than 2,700 K (requiring a cooling age older the universe); this precludes pure water ice-rich debris disks forming through the accepted two-step mechanism. The critical temperature is size-dependent; more massive white dwarfs could potentially host dusty debris disks at warmer temperatures. Our model suggests that the location of the disks within the PG 0010+280, GD 56, GD 362, and PG 1541+651 systems are consistent with a forsterite-dominated olivine composition. We also find that very cool white dwarfs may simultaneously host multiple, independently formed dusty debris disks, consistent with observations of the LSPM J0207+3331 system.
Although numerous white dwarf stars host dusty debris disks, the temperature distribution of these stars differs significantly from the white dwarf population as a whole. Dusty debris disks exist exclusively around white dwarfs cooler than 27,000 K. This is all the more enigmatic given that the formation processes of dusty debris disks should favor younger, hotter white dwarfs, which likely host more dynamically unstable planetary systems. Here we apply a sophisticated material sublimation model to white dwarf systems to show that these statistics are actually a natural result of the interplay of thermal and tidal forces, and show how they define the circumstellar regions where dusty debris disks can form. We demonstrate that these processes tend to prevent stability against both sublimative destruction and reaccretion into planetesimals for rocky materials until white dwarfs cool to below ~25,000-32,000 K, in agreement with the observed limit of ~27,000 K. For pure water ice, this critical temperature is less than 2,700 K (requiring a cooling age older the universe); this precludes pure water ice-rich debris disks forming through the accepted two-step mechanism. The critical temperature is size-dependent; more massive white dwarfs could potentially host dusty debris disks at warmer temperatures. Our model suggests that the location of the disks within the PG 0010+280, GD 56, GD 362, and PG 1541+651 systems are consistent with a forsterite-dominated olivine composition. We also find that very cool white dwarfs may simultaneously host multiple, independently formed dusty debris disks, consistent with observations of the LSPM J0207+3331 system.
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CHIME has detected 535 new FRBs including 18 repeaters between 2018 and 2019. The repeaters also look different to the one off events. They occur evenly across the sky and at estimated rate of 9000 per day.
www.google.co.uk
CHIME telescope detects more than 500 mysterious fast radio bursts in its first year of operation
To catch sight of a fast radio burst is to be extremely lucky in where and when you point your radio dish. Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are oddly bright flashes of light, registering in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum, that blaze for a few milliseconds before vanishing without a trace.
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New article in favour of building LUVOIR as the next big space based telescope.
www.forbes.com
Astronomers To NASA: Please, Build This Telescope!
If you want to find life in the Universe, this is how you do it.
www.forbes.com
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Astronomers spot a 'blinking giant' near the centre of the Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted a giant 'blinking' star towards the centre of the Milky Way, more than 25,000 light years away.
www.eurekalert.org
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VVV-WIT-08: the giant star that blinked
We report the serendipitous discovery of a late-type giant star that exhibited a smooth, eclipse-like drop in flux to a depth of 97 per cent. Minimum flux occurred in April 2012 and the total event duration was a few hundred days. Light curves in V, I and Ks from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment and VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea surveys show a remarkably achromatic event. During 17 years of observational coverage of this source only one such event was detected. The physical properties of the giant star itself appear somewhat unusual, which may ultimately provide a clue towards the nature of the system. By modelling the event as an occultation by an object that is elliptical in projection with uniform transparency, we place limits on its physical size and velocity. We find that the occultation is unlikely to be due to a chance alignment with a foreground object. We consider a number of possible candidates for the occulter, which must be optically thick and possess a radius or thickness in excess of 0.25 au. None are completely satisfactory matches to all the data. The duration, depth and relative achromaticity of the dip mark this out as an exceptionally unusual event, whose secret has still not been fully revealed. We find two further candidates in the VVV survey and we suggest that these systems, and two previously known examples, may point to a broad class of long period eclipsing binaries wherein a giant star is occulted by a circumsecondary disc.
VVV-WIT-08: the giant star that blinked
We report the serendipitous discovery of a late-type giant star that exhibited a smooth, eclipse-like drop in flux to a depth of 97 per cent. Minimum flux occurred in April 2012 and the total event duration was a few hundred days. Light curves in V, I and Ks from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment and VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea surveys show a remarkably achromatic event. During 17 years of observational coverage of this source only one such event was detected. The physical properties of the giant star itself appear somewhat unusual, which may ultimately provide a clue towards the nature of the system. By modelling the event as an occultation by an object that is elliptical in projection with uniform transparency, we place limits on its physical size and velocity. We find that the occultation is unlikely to be due to a chance alignment with a foreground object. We consider a number of possible candidates for the occulter, which must be optically thick and possess a radius or thickness in excess of 0.25 au. None are completely satisfactory matches to all the data. The duration, depth and relative achromaticity of the dip mark this out as an exceptionally unusual event, whose secret has still not been fully revealed. We find two further candidates in the VVV survey and we suggest that these systems, and two previously known examples, may point to a broad class of long period eclipsing binaries wherein a giant star is occulted by a circumsecondary disc.
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Exoplanets: Liquid water on exomoons of free-floating planets
The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists at LMU have calculated that such systems could harbor sufficient water to make life possible – and sustain it.
Connecting a star’s chemical composition and planet formation | Penn Today
Along with developing a new statistical method for studying exoplanets, researchers from Penn found that the majority of stars in their dataset are similar to the sun, implying that many stars in the Milky Way could host their own Earthlike planets.
penntoday.upenn.edu
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Exoplanets: Liquid water on exomoons of free-floating planets
The moons of planets that have no parent star can possess an atmosphere and retain liquid water. Astrophysicists at LMU have calculated that such systems could harbor sufficient water to make life possible – and sustain it.www.lmu.de
Interesting that they have found liquid water on exomoons that have no parent planet, I wonder what type of life would these exomoons have?
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By managing to automate the search through the K2 mission data produced by the Kepler space telescope astronomers have managed to discover 372 new exoplanet candidates including 18 multi-planetary systems.
www.forbes.com
We’ve Found 372 New Alien Planets Using A Long-Dead Telescope Say Scientists
NASA’s Kepler K2 mission may be over but its data is still proving a treasure trove for exoplanet-hunters.
www.forbes.com
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By managing to automate the search through the K2 mission data produced by the Kepler space telescope astronomers have managed to discover 372 new exoplanet candidates including 18 multi-planetary systems.
We’ve Found 372 New Alien Planets Using A Long-Dead Telescope Say Scientists
NASA’s Kepler K2 mission may be over but its data is still proving a treasure trove for exoplanet-hunters.
Amazing to think that the scientists that used Kepler are still finding exoplanets using data from the now dead satellite, I would like to think how many exoplanets are still to be found in the last data that got sent from Kepler before it died.
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I am sure I read something about other gyros from the same company failing on other satellites. But I really cannot remember any of the details.By managing to automate the search through the K2 mission data produced by the Kepler space telescope astronomers have managed to discover 372 new exoplanet candidates including 18 multi-planetary systems.
We’ve Found 372 New Alien Planets Using A Long-Dead Telescope Say Scientists
NASA’s Kepler K2 mission may be over but its data is still proving a treasure trove for exoplanet-hunters.
Amazing to think that the scientists that used Kepler are still finding exoplanets using data from the now dead satellite, I would like to think how many exoplanets are still to be found in the last data that got sent from Kepler before it died.
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Planets that have no parent star should likely be extremely cold. Like, a few °K cold.
There might be water, but at those temperatures it would be ice.
More generally, in my book it is doubtful whether a planet without a parent star would be a thermodynamic system with enough ongoing energy input to fuel the chemical reactions that lead to life, during the billion+ years they take.
There might be water, but at those temperatures it would be ice.
More generally, in my book it is doubtful whether a planet without a parent star would be a thermodynamic system with enough ongoing energy input to fuel the chemical reactions that lead to life, during the billion+ years they take.
This is true for planets, but the surprising result in the recent paper is that a large enough gas giant with large enough moons that have thick enough atmospheres can keep the moons hot enough for liquid water on the surface for billions of years, through tidal forces alone.
The energy gradients available for life to exploit would be much less steep than those on earth, so this probably limits the complexity of possible life on those world.
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Mysterious dimming of Betelgeuse was the result of star ejecting gas
Betelgeuse, usually one of the brightest stars in the sky, dimmed by about 65 per cent at the end of 2019, and now we may finally know what caused it
'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved
Astronomers say a cold spot and dust formation explain last year's unusual drop in brightness.
www.bbc.com
Paper:
A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming - Nature
The southern hemisphere of Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming was an order of magnitude darker than usual, owing to a cool patch on the photosphere and associated dust formation.
www.nature.com
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Mysterious dimming of Betelgeuse was the result of star ejecting gas
Betelgeuse, usually one of the brightest stars in the sky, dimmed by about 65 per cent at the end of 2019, and now we may finally know what caused itwww.newscientist.com
'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved
Astronomers say a cold spot and dust formation explain last year's unusual drop in brightness.
Paper:
A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming - Nature
The southern hemisphere of Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming was an order of magnitude darker than usual, owing to a cool patch on the photosphere and associated dust formation.
At least we finally know what caused the dimming of Betelgeuse, at one point I was thinking that it was getting ready to explode as a Supernova.
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Many astronomers were fearing the same thing, I believe.
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At least we can all breath a sigh of relief that Betelgeuse is not going to explode as a Supernova in the current time period. Though when it does explode it will be as bright as the Moon and be visible during the day.
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New Research of Impact Crater Blows Away Previous Estimates on Its Age
www.smithsonianmag.com
New Research of Impact Crater Blows Away Previous Estimates of Its Age
Scientists say the Boltysh crater in Ukraine formed well after the impact in Mexico that caused the dinosaurs to go extinct
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Related paper:Mysterious dimming of Betelgeuse was the result of star ejecting gas
Betelgeuse, usually one of the brightest stars in the sky, dimmed by about 65 per cent at the end of 2019, and now we may finally know what caused it
'Great Dimming' of Betelgeuse star is solved
Astronomers say a cold spot and dust formation explain last year's unusual drop in brightness.
Paper:
A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming - Nature
The southern hemisphere of Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming was an order of magnitude darker than usual, owing to a cool patch on the photosphere and associated dust formation.
A dusty veil shading Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming - Nature
The southern hemisphere of Betelgeuse during its Great Dimming was an order of magnitude darker than usual, owing to a cool patch on the photosphere and associated dust formation.
www.nature.com
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Signs of geological activity found on Venus
Scientists find evidence parts of Venus's rocky surface move around like bits of ocean pack ice.
www.bbc.com
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Signs of geological activity found on Venus
Scientists find evidence parts of Venus's rocky surface move around like bits of ocean pack ice.
Highly interesting news Grey Havoc. I always wondered if there was any signs of possible geological activity on Venus, while it is not plate tectonics as on Earth it means that Venus is not as dead as was previously thought.
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Here’s the related paper. It could be an analogue for early pre plate tectonic Earth.Signs of geological activity found on Venus
Scientists find evidence parts of Venus's rocky surface move around like bits of ocean pack ice.
A globally fragmented and mobile lithosphere on Venus
Abstract
Venus has been thought to possess a globally continuous lithosphere, in contrast to the mosaic of mobile tectonic plates that characterizes Earth. However, the Venus surface has been extensively deformed, and convection of the underlying mantle, possibly acting in concert with a low-strength lower crust, has been suggested as a source of some surface horizontal strains. The extent of surface mobility on Venus driven by mantle convection, however, and the style and scale of its tectonic expression have been unclear. We report a globally distributed set of crustal blocks in the Venus lowlands that show evidence for having rotated and/or moved laterally relative to one another, akin to jostling pack ice. At least some of this deformation on Venus postdates the emplacement of the locally youngest plains materials. Lithospheric stresses calculated from interior viscous flow models consistent with long-wavelength gravity and topography are sufficient to drive brittle failure in the upper Venus crust in all areas where these blocks are present, confirming that interior convective motion can provide a mechanism for driving deformation at the surface. The limited but widespread lithospheric mobility of Venus, in marked contrast to the tectonic styles indicative of a static lithosphere on Mercury, the Moon, and Mars, may offer parallels to interior–surface coupling on the early Earth, when global heat flux was substantially higher, and the lithosphere generally thinner, than today.
A globally fragmented and mobile lithosphere on Venus
We have identified a pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus that suggests that many of the planet’s lowlands have fragmented into discrete crustal blocks, and that these blocks have moved relative to each other in the geologically recent past. These motions may be the result of mantle...
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Here’s a good target for JWST.
Extremely eccentric minor planet to visit inner solar system this decade
newatlas.com
Extremely eccentric minor planet to visit inner solar system this decade
Extremely eccentric minor planet to visit inner solar system this decade
Editor’s note: New details about this fascinating object have emerged since we wrote this article – here's the latest update.
newatlas.com
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Incoming Visitor From the Oort Cloud Could Be Among the Largest Comets Ever Documented
The newly detected object is somewhere between 62 and 230 miles long.
gizmodo.com
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Incoming Visitor From the Oort Cloud Could Be Among the Largest Comets Ever Documented
The newly detected object is somewhere between 62 and 230 miles long.
If this new comet is as big as the astronomers say it is then we might be getting a potential daylight comet, this comet will be a lot brighter than Hale-Bopp in 1997 when it approaches Earth.
It doesn't come close enough to the Sun for that. Will be visible with binoculars at best.
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Thanks Tuna, a shame that it won’t be a daylight comet, looks like I will have to get my binoculars out to see it.
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I wonder if there’s any way this mission could be re-configured to visit this monster comet.
ESA’s new mission to intercept a comet
Comet Interceptor has been selected as ESA’s new fast-class mission in its Cosmic Vision Programme. Comprising three spacecraft, it will be the first to visit a truly pristine comet or other interstellar object that is only just starting its journey into the inner Solar System.
www.esa.int
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I wonder if there’s any way this mission could be re-configured to visit this monster comet.
ESA’s new mission to intercept a comet
Comet Interceptor has been selected as ESA’s new fast-class mission in its Cosmic Vision Programme. Comprising three spacecraft, it will be the first to visit a truly pristine comet or other interstellar object that is only just starting its journey into the inner Solar System.www.esa.int
I would really like this up coming mission to be re-targeted to the new comet now because there is only one chance to observe such a big comet such as this one, by the looks of things from what I have read online, it is this comets first time into the solar system.
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See ISS transit the Sun during a spacewalk in view from the Earth:
View: https://youtu.be/pWEmvZyFZ9Y
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