Astronomy Archives

December 12, 2024December 12, 2024 by Matt Williams

New Research may Explain how Supermassive Black Holes in the Early Universe Grew so Fast

An artist's illustration of a supermassive black hole (SMBH.) The JWST has revealed SMBHs in the early Universe that are much more massive than our scientific models can explain. Could primordial black holes have acted as "seeds" for these massive SMBHs? Image Credit: ESA

Not long ago, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) peered into Cosmic Dawn, the cosmological period when the first galaxies formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang. In the process, it discovered something rather surprising. Not only were there more galaxies (and brighter ones, too!) than expected, but these galaxies had supermassive black holes (SMBH) much larger than cosmological models predicted. For astronomers and cosmologists, explaining how these galaxies and their SMBHs (aka. quasars) could have grown so large less than a billion years after the Big Bang has become a major challenge.

Several proposals have been made, ranging from optical illusions to Dark Matter accelerating black hole growth. In a recent study, an international team led by researchers from the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) analyzed a sample of 21 quasars, among the most distant ever discovered. The results suggest that the supermassive black holes at the center of these galaxies may have reached their surprising masses through very rapid accretion, providing a plausible explanation for how galaxies and their SMBHs grew and evolved during the early Universe.

December 11, 2024December 11, 2024 by Matt Williams

Could the ESA’s PLATO Mission Find Earth 2.0?

Artist's impression of the ESA's PLATO mission. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

Currently, 5,788 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,326 star systems, while thousands more candidates await confirmation. So far, the vast majority of these planets have been gas giants (3,826) or Super-Earths (1,735), while only 210 have been “Earth-like” – meaning rocky planets similar in size and mass to Earth. What’s more, the majority of these planets have been discovered orbiting within M-type (red dwarf) star systems, while only a few have been found orbiting Sun-like stars. Nevertheless, no Earth-like planets orbiting within a Sun-like star’s habitable zone (HZ) have been discovered so far.

This is largely due to the limitations of existing observatories, which have been unable to resolve Earth-sized planets with longer orbital periods (200 to 500 days). This is where next-generation instruments like the ESA’s PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission come into play. This mission, scheduled to launch in 2026, will spend four years surveying up to one million stars for signs of planetary transits caused by rocky exoplanets. In a recent study, an international team of scientists considered what PLATO would likely see based on what it would see if observing the Solar System itself.

December 9, 2024December 9, 2024 by Evan Gough

Hubble Gets its Best Look At the First Quasar

3C 273 is the uninspiring name given to the very first quasar to be linked with a visual object. Prior to that, quasars were known only by their radio emissions. The Hubble recently took a new, better look at the quasar, seen in this image. Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI

The term quasar comes from quasi-stellar objects, a name that reflected our uncertainty about their nature. The first quasars were discovered solely because of their radio emissions, with no corresponding visual objects. This is surprising since quasars blaze with the light of trillions of stars.

In recent observations, the Hubble examined a historical quasar named 3C 273, the first quasar to be linked with a visual object.

December 9, 2024December 11, 2024 by David Dickinson

Our Strategy to Catch the 2024 Geminid Meteors

Don’t let the bright Moon deter you from seeing the one of the best meteor showers of the year.

Update: Astronomer Gianluca Masi will carry the Geminid meteors live on December 13th, courtesy of the Virtual Telescope Project.

One of the best meteor showers of 2024 closes out the year this coming weekend. If skies are clear, watch for the Geminid meteors, peaking on the night of Friday into Saturday, December 13-14^th.

December 7, 2024December 7, 2024 by Scott Alan Johnston

Space Telescopes Could See a Second Life With a Servicing Mission

CAD model of the Gaia spacecraft with service vehicle, post-docking configuration.

Telescopes in space have a huge advantage over those on the ground: they can see the universe more clearly. The Earth’s atmosphere, weather conditions, and low-flying satellites don’t obscure their view. But space telescopes have a disadvantage too. They can’t be repaired, at least not since NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

But next-generation telescopes are being planned with robotic servicing missions in mind. And not just in low earth orbit, where the Hubble Space Telescope received repairs and upgrades five times during its lifespan from space shuttle crews. Today’s engineers are preparing for ways to repair telescopes in deep space, including at the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2.

December 5, 2024December 10, 2024 by Matt Williams

MAUVE: An Ultraviolet Astrophysics Probe Mission Concept

An illustration of the variations among the more than 5,000 known exoplanets discovered since the 1990s. Could their stars' metallicity play a role in making them habitable to life? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For the past thirty years, NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes – have revealed some amazing things about the Universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the Universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the cosmos – i.e., in the infrared, gamma-ray, and ultraviolet spectrums. With the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is contemplating future missions that would reveal even more of the “unseen Universe.”

This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope NASA plans to launch in 2030 as its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In a recent study, a team comprised of graduate students and postdocs from institutions across the US detailed a concept mission known as the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE (MAUVE). This telescope and its sophisticated instruments were conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. According to the team’s paper, this mission would hypothetically be ready for launch by 2031.

December 4, 2024December 4, 2024 by Evan Gough

Here’s How Interstellar Objects and Rogue Planets Can be Trapped in the Solar System

Illustration of an interstellar object approaching our solar system. Credit: Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. daSilva

When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more will visit in the future. There are obviously more of these objects out there, and the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory is expected to discover many more.

It’s possible that the Sun could capture an ISO or a rogue planet in the same way that some of the planets have captured moons.

It all comes down to phase space.

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 by Laurence Tognetti

Astronauts on Long Missions Will Need Personal AI Assistants

Astronaut Megan McArthur uses a HoloLens head-mounted display (HMD) during Expedition 65 onboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

How can artificial intelligence (AI) help astronauts on long-term space missions? This is what a recent study presented at the 2024 International Astronautical Congress in Milan, Italy, hopes to address as an international team of researchers led by the German Aerospace Center introduce enhancements for the Mars Exploration Telemetry-Driven Information System (METIS) system and how this could help future astronauts on Mars mitigate the communications issues between Earth and Mars, which can take up to 24 minutes depending in the orbits. This study holds the potential to develop more efficient technology for long-term space missions beyond Earth, specifically to the Moon and Mars.

December 3, 2024December 3, 2024 by David Dickinson

Catch Jupiter at Opposition 2024 This Coming Weekend

Now is the time to catch Jupiter at its best.

The King of the Planets rules the winter night skies. Early December gives sky watchers a good reason to brave the cold, as Jupiter shines at its best. Look for the regal planet rising in the east at sunset, while the Sun sets to the west.

November 29, 2024November 29, 2024 by Evan Gough

A Superfast Supercomputer Creates the Biggest Simulation of the Universe Yet

These images are a small sample from the Frontier supercomputer simulations. They reveal the evolution of the expanding universe in a region containing a massive cluster of galaxies from billions of years ago to present day (left). Red areas show hotter gasses, where temperatures reach 100 million Kelvin or more. The panel on the right is a zoom-in, where star tracer particles track the formation of galaxies and their movement over time. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, U.S Dept of Energy

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have created the largest astrophysical simulation of the Universe ever. They used what was until recently the world’s most powerful supercomputer to simulate the Universe at an unprecedented scale. The simulation’s size corresponds to the largest surveys conducted by powerful telescopes and observatories.