Carolyn Collins Petersen, Author at Universe Today

November 30, 2022November 30, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Mauna Loa is Erupting for the First Time in 40 Years. Here’s What it Looks Like From Space.

Fissure 3 of the current Mauna Loa eruption on the Big island of Hawaii. Courtesy USGS.

A sleeping giant of a volcano woke up this past week on the Big Island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa, which last erupted in the early 1980s, has been rattling the island with earthquakes for weeks. Finally, on November 27th, the mountain opened up. Not only did residents see this eruption, but NASA and NOAA satellites captured an infrared view of it.

November 29, 2022December 5, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

BlueWalker 3 is a Cellphone Tower in Space and One of the Brightest Objects Ever Launched. Astronomers Aren’t Happy.

It seems our nighttime skies are hosting another new communications network. In recent years, we’ve seen Starlink trains of satellites moving against the backdrop of stars, and more OneWeb satellites will soon be heading to orbit. Now, it’s BlueWalker 3, a prototype test satellite for a new communications constellation aimed at cell phones. Think of it as the first of many “cell towers in space” providing communications access for people around the globe.

November 28, 2022November 28, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Second-Closest Supermassive Black Hole Might be in a Nearby Dwarf Galaxy

Leo 1 dwarf spheroidal galaxy has a supermassive black hole — Leo I appears as a faint patch to the right of the bright star, Regulus. Astronomers say it appears to have a supermassive black hole Credit: Scott Anttila Anttler

There’s a little galaxy in the Milky Way’s cosmic neighborhood called Leo 1. It’s a dwarf spheroidal that lies less than a million light-years away from us. Surprisingly, it has a supermassive black hole about the same mass as Sagittarius A* in our galaxy. That’s unusual in several ways, and astronomers want to know more about it.

November 23, 2022November 23, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

JWST Detects Signs of Active Chemistry and Clouds in the Atmosphere of Exoplanet WASP-39 b

NASA’s JWST data just keeps on delivering amazing discoveries. Back in July, it observed the exoplanet WASP-39 b and found fingerprints of atoms and molecules and active chemical reactions in its clouds. Now, a team of scientists extends that discovery with a much deeper analysis of the data.

November 22, 2022November 22, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Milky Way’s Stellar Halo Isn’t a Sphere After All

stellar halo around the milky way — The Milky Way's anatomy includes a rounded stellar halo That view is changing with new data. Image courtesy ESA.

Our galaxy’s stellar halo is giving astronomers some new food for thought. It turns out everyone thought the halo was spherical. But, it’s not. That’s news to everyone who said it was spherical. According to a new measurement done by a team at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, it has a tilted, oblong football shape. This all tells astronomers an interesting tale about our galaxy’s ancient history.

November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hubble Sees a Dense Cloud of Gas and Dust That’s About to Become a Star

A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the center of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. — A small, dense cloud of gas and dust called CB 130-3 blots out the centre of this HST image. Courtesy NASA/ESA/STScI

The process of star birth begins in a shroud of gas and dust. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) excels in showing detailed views of these stellar crêches because there’s still a lot to learn about them. Its latest image shows an object called a “dense core”, where a stellar embryo could already exist.

November 18, 2022November 18, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Perseverance has Found a Nice Patch of Sandstone on Mars

Sandstone on Mars in Jezero Crater — This image of “Yori Pass” was taken by a Hazcam imager aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on Nov. 5, 2022. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s rolling geology robot shared a great image of sandstone that it found on Mars in Jezero Crater. It’s in a region called “Yori Pass”, which is part of an ancient river delta. Perseverance will take rock samples there for the upcoming Sample Return Mission. They should tell more about what happened with water in this region. And maybe they’ll show evidence of life.

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Gamma-ray Bursts Don’t Always Signal the Birth of a Black Hole, Sometimes It’s Just a New Neutron Star

gamma-ray burst from neutron star merger — Artist rendering of colliding neutron stars. Credit: Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science

Way out in the universe, a long time ago, a proto-magnetar was born. The birth was heralded by a gamma-ray burst (GRB), followed by a blast of strange emissions. Astronomers once assumed that GRBs like this came from black hole births. However, observations of the new object by astronomers in England show there’s more than one way to cause a GRB. And, there’s more than one type of GRB.

November 10, 2022November 10, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Divers Have Found a Piece of the Space Shuttle Challenger Off the Coast of Florida

Space Shuttle Challenger memorial poster — A memorial poster of space shuttle Challenger's orbiter tribute, or OV-099, which hangs in Firing Room 4 of the Launch Control Center at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Courtesy NASA.

Nearly 37 years ago the world watched in stunned horror as an explosion destroyed the space shuttle Challenger. The accident occurred 73 seconds after liftoff and killed seven astronauts. Memories of shuttle pieces falling into the sea remain with everyone who witnessed the catastrophe.

November 9, 2022November 9, 2022 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Hubble saw the Same Supernova at Three Different Times Thanks to Gravitational Lensing

As cosmic events go, supernova explosions epitomize the saying, “Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse.” They’re the deaths of stars so massive that they tear through their fuel in a short time. Then, they explode and create gorgeous scenes of stellar destruction. These seminal events enrich the universe with chemical elements for new generations of stars and planets.