Carolyn Collins Petersen, Author at Universe Today

June 28, 2023June 28, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

That New Car Smell… But for Planets

The young star HD 169142 is host to a giant new forming planet embedded within its dusty, gas-rich protoplanetary disk. This artist’s conception shows it driving molecular gas outflows and forcing emissions from SO and SiS, and other the commonly molecules. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), M. Weiss (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Remember how a new car smells? It’s a chemical signature of all the materials used to make the car’s interior. What if you could use chemical signatures to learn about newborn planets?

June 27, 2023June 27, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST

An international team of scientists have used data collected by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to detect a molecule known as the methyl cation (CH3+) for the first time, located in the protoplanetary disc surrounding a young star. This graphic shows the area, in the centre of the Orion Nebula, that was studied by the team. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), PDRs4ALL ERS Team

The search for life is an incredibly evocative driver of cosmic exploration. It captures our imagination to think that there might be living things out there somewhere else. That’s one reason why we point our eyes—and telescopes—to the stars.

June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Nearby Supernova Almost Destroyed the Solar System Before it Could Form

Artist’s impression of the blast wave from a supernova colliding with the molecular cloud filament where the infant Solar System was forming. Credit: NAOJ

Way back in time, about 4.6 billion years ago, our Sun and planets were busily forming nestled inside a cloud of gas and dust. Not far away, a supernova exploded, threatening to tear everything apart. Luckily, a filament of molecular gas protected the infant Solar System from imminent destruction.

June 25, 2023June 25, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Supervillains Take Note. Here’s a New Way to Destroy a Star

Astronomers studying a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) with the International Gemini Observatory may have observed a never-before-seen way to destroy a star. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick/M. Zamani

If you’re an evil genius supervillain looking to freak out your enemy with a big messy space kablooie, here’s a novel way to do it. Smack a couple of ancient star remnants together right in front of your nemesis. The result will give you a gratifyingly huge, bright explosion plus a bonus gamma-ray burst visible across the Universe. And, it’ll scare everybody into doing your evil bidding.

June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Mind-Blowing Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions

A map of carbon dioxide in atmosphere from various sources during 2021. CourtesyNASA's Scientific Visualization Studio — A map of carbon dioxide in atmosphere over North America from various sources during 2021. CourtesyNASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

It’s a strange, eerie-looking place. Carbon dioxide gas appears… and disappears in cycles and bursts throughout the year. It’s how our planet would look if we could detect carbon dioxide (CO₂) with our eyes. Scientists at NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office made computer animations of its presence in our atmosphere. Those videos show an almost-alien view of Earth under the influence of this gas.

June 21, 2023June 21, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.

Imagery from NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and Chandra X-ray Observatory have been combined to show X-ray data of the area around Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the core of the Milky Way galaxy. The lower panel combines IXPE data, in orange, with Chandra data in blue. The upper panel depicts a much wider field-of-view of the center of the Milky Way, courtesy of Chandra. The thin white lines layered onto the top panel frame the highlighted area, and indicate that the perspective in the bottom panel has been rotated approximately 45 degrees to the right. The combination of IXPE and Chandra data helped researchers determine that the X-ray light identified in the molecular clouds originated from Sagittarius A* during an outburst approximately 200 years ago. Credits: IXPE: NASA/MSFC/F. Marin et al; Chandra: NASA/CXC/SAO; Image Processing: L.Frattare, J.Major & K.Arcand

We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr A*. It’s not loud and bright like an active galactic nucleus. It appears to be active for brief periods before going to sleep. Two hundred years ago, it “woke up” for about a year and a half and had a bite to eat.

June 20, 2023June 20, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers Find a White Dwarf Pulsar

An artist's conception of a white dwarf pulsar pair. Two are now known. Credit: University of Warwick.

When astronomers talk about the “end states” of stellar evolution, several categories come to mind: black holes, neutron stars/pulsars, and white dwarfs. What happens if one star ends up in two of these states? That’s the case with a genre-breaking white dwarf pulsar called J191213.72-441045.1 (J1912-4410 for short). It’s part of a binary pair that includes a red dwarf star.

June 19, 2023June 19, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Evidence is Building that Dark Matter is Made of Axions

In shaping the Universe, gravity builds a vast cobweb-like structure of filaments tying galaxies and clusters of galaxies together along invisible bridges hundreds of millions of light-years long. A galaxy can move into and out of the densest parts of this web throughout its lifetime. Credit: Volker Springel (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics) et al.

There’s some potentially big news on the hunt for dark matter. Astronomers may have a handle on what makes this mysterious cosmic stuff: strange particles called “axions.”

June 15, 2023June 15, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

A Planet So Hot Its Atmosphere Contains the Raw Material for Rocks

An artist's impression of WASP-76b, a planet with an atmosphere so hot it vaporizes metals. Courtesy: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. Zamani

In the annals of “strange new worlds”, the ultra-hot Jupiter planet WASP-76b ranks right up there as a very unusual place. There’s no surface, but it does have a massive, hot atmosphere. Temperatures average a raging 2000 C and rise up to 2400 C in one hemisphere. That’s hot enough for mineral and rock-forming elements like calcium, nickel, and magnesium to get vaporized and float around in that thick blanket of air. Not only that, but iron probably rains down through the clouds.

June 14, 2023June 14, 2023 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

An Element Critical for (Earth) Life is Spewing out of Enceladus

Saturn's moon Enceladus sprays its salty sea out into space. Those plumes are rich in phosphates. (NASA/JPL/SSI/J. Major)

We really need to get back to Enceladus. Not to send people necessarily, although that would be nice. But, we need to get some more robotic missions out there. This moon is one of the most intriguing places in the solar system. Not only has it got oceans under that icy crust, but it’s spewing salty water out to space. Plus, that water seems to be rich in phosphates, which contain phosphorus, which is a building block of life.