Space and astronomy news
Researchers working with data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) have a found a planet that orbits two stars. Initially, the system was identified by citizen scientists as a pair of eclipsing binary stars without a planet. But an intern taking a closer look at that data found that it was misidentified.
Continue reading “TESS Finds a Planet That Orbits Two Stars”
For some time, astronomers have known that collisions or mergers between galaxies are an integral part of cosmic evolution. In addition to causing galaxies to grow, these mergers also trigger new rounds of star formation as fresh gas and dust are injected into the galaxy. In the future, astronomers estimate that the Milky Way Galaxy will merge with the Andromeda Galaxy, as well as the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds in the meantime.
According to new results obtained by researchers at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) in New York city, the results of our eventual merger with the Magellanic Clouds is already being felt. According to results presented at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society this week, stars forming in the outskirts of our galaxy could be the result of these dwarf galaxies merging with our own.
Continue reading “An Upcoming Impact With the Magellanic Clouds is Already Causing Star Formation in the Milky Way”
Stars are formed within large clouds of gas and dust known as stellar nurseries. While star formation was once seen as a simple gravitational process, we now know it is a complex dance of interactions. When one star forms it can send shock waves through the interstellar medium that trigger other stars to form. Supernovae and galactic collisions can trigger the creation of stars as well. One way to study stellar formation is to look at where stars form within a galaxy.
Continue reading “A Huge Wave is Passing Through the Milky Way Unleashing New Stellar Nurseries”
China greeted the New Year with some impressive lunar milestones. For starters, last Friday (Jan. 3rd) was the first anniversary of the Chang’e-4 mission becoming the first robotic mission to make a landing on the far side of the Moon. A day prior, the Yutu-2 rover also celebrated the end of its 13th lunar day of science operations and the fact that it was the first rover to travel a record 357.695 meters (1,173.5 ft) on the far side of the Moon.
Continue reading “Chang’e-4 Wraps Up a Year Roving on the Far Side of the Moon”
NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has found its first Earth-sized planet located in the habitable zone of its host star. The find was confirmed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. This planet is one of only a few Earth-sized worlds ever found in a habitable zone.
Continue reading “TESS Finds its First Earth-Sized World in the Habitable Zone of a Star”Hosts:
Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (MorganRehnberg.com / @MorganRehnberg & ChartYourWorld.org)
Veranika Klimovich ( @VeronikaSpace)
Susie Murph ( @cosmoquestx)
Continue reading “Weekly Space Hangout: January 8, 2020 – Dr. Brian Weeden, Director of Program Planning, The Secure World Foundation”
The star V Sagittae is the next candidate to explode in stellar pyrotechnics, and a team of astronomers set the year for that cataclysmic explosion at 2083, or thereabouts. V Sagittae is in the constellation Sagitta (latin for arrow,) a dim and barely discernible constellation in the northern sky. V Sagittae is about 1100 light years from Earth.
Continue reading “Forget Betelgeuse, the Star V Sagittae Should Go Nova Within this Century”
When it takes to space in 2025, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) will be the most powerful observatory ever deployed, succeeding the venerable Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes. Relying on a unique combination of high resolution with a wide field of view, WFIRST will be able to capture the equivalent of 100 Hubble-quality images with a single shot and survey the night sky with 1,000 times the speed.
In preparation for this momentous event, astronomers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have been running simulations to demonstrate what the WFIRST will be able to see so they can plan their observations. To give viewers a preview of what this would look like, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has shared a video that simulates the WFIRST conducting a survey of the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy (M31).
Continue reading “This Simulation Shows what We’ll be Able to See with WFIRST”
The universe is expanding. When we look in all directions, we see distant galaxies speeding away from us, their light redshifted due to cosmic expansion. This has been known since 1929 when Edwin Hubble calcuated the relation between a galaxy’s distance and its redshift. Then in the late 1990s, two studies of distant supernovae found that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. Something, some dark energy, must be driving cosmic expansion.
Continue reading “New Research Casts A Shadow On The Existence Of Dark Energy”
Ready for the very first lunar eclipse of the year? The first eclipse season of 2020 comes to an end Friday, with a penumbral lunar eclipse. This season overlaps with 2019, when it kicked off with the Boxing Day annular solar eclipse of December 26th, 2019.
Continue reading “Our Guide to this Friday’s Penumbral Lunar Eclipse”