Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 194

Oct 6, 2022

‘Cataclysmic’ 50-minute orbit between two stars is the fastest ever recorded

Posted by in category: space

Astronomers have discovered a rare binary star system with an orbital period of just 51 minutes – a blazing new record.

Oct 5, 2022

Gamma rays from a dwarf galaxy solve an astronomical puzzle

Posted by in category: space

This article was originally published at The Conversation. (opens in new tab) The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

A glowing blob known as “the cocoon,” which appears to be inside one of the enormous gamma-ray emanations from the center of our galaxy dubbed the “Fermi bubbles,” has puzzled astronomers since it was discovered in 2012.

Oct 5, 2022

Enhanced! NASA reveals turbulent hot spots within Webb’s famous images

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, space

A NASA X-ray spacecraft delivers new dimensions to the first images from the Webb telescope.


Images touch people in a way that words cannot. The unprecedented clarity of the Webb telescope’s first scientific images dazzled people across the world when they became public on July 12, 2022. Three months later, the team working on NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory released new images of the same target objects: Stephan’s Quintet, galaxy cluster SMACS 0723.3–7327, and the “Cosmic Cliffs” of the Carina Nebula. An image that Webb later took of the Cartwheel Galaxy also got an update. All these visuals add more “turbulent” information about these structures and give the originals a whole new dimension.

Continue reading “Enhanced! NASA reveals turbulent hot spots within Webb’s famous images” »

Oct 5, 2022

The 5 greatest puzzles in fundamental physics

Posted by in categories: physics, space

From the tiniest subatomic scales to the grandest cosmic ones, solving any of these puzzles could unlock our understanding of the Universe.

Oct 4, 2022

Seeking Stability in a Relativistic Fluid

Posted by in categories: information science, particle physics, space

A fluid dynamics theory that violates causality would always generate paradoxical instabilities—a result that could guide the search for a theory for relativistic fluids.

The theory of fluid dynamics has been successful in many areas of fundamental and applied sciences, describing fluids from dilute gases, such as air, to liquids, such as water. For most nonrelativistic fluids, the theory takes the form of the celebrated Navier-Stokes equation. However, fundamental problems arise when extending these equations to relativistic fluids. Such extensions typically imply paradoxes—for instance, thermodynamic states of the systems can appear stable or unstable to observers in different frames of reference. These problems hinder the description of the dynamics of important fluid systems, such as neutron-rich matter in neutron star mergers or the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions.

Oct 4, 2022

Supercomputer Simulations Just Gave Us a New Explanation for How the Moon Was Created

Posted by in categories: space, supercomputing

Scientists have used a supercomputer to simulate the dramatic creation of Earth’s Moon following a collision with the Mars-sized body Theia.

Oct 3, 2022

Wow! Webb Telescope finds a failed star with clouds made of sand

Posted by in categories: materials, space

Clouds are made of silicate minerals.


The clouds of the distant brown dwarf contain silicate material, making it a quite unusual atmospheric composition.

Oct 3, 2022

Astronomers may have found some of the very earliest stars thanks to James Webb

Posted by in category: space

Peering incredibly far back into time, astronomers found a group of much older stars than they expected.

Astronomers made a new discovery in the very first full-color image released from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Continue reading “Astronomers may have found some of the very earliest stars thanks to James Webb” »

Oct 3, 2022

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew with a ‘foreign’ piece of debris attached to its foot

Posted by in category: space

The helicopter has been scouting the red planet for over a year.

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter went from being a proof of concept for off-world flight to becoming a fully-fledged aerial scout for NASA’s Perseverance mission.

The helicopter wasn’t alone, as per a blog post from NASA. Images from the chopper show a flowing debris object, resembling a piece of a plastic bag, for part of its journey.

Continue reading “NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter flew with a ‘foreign’ piece of debris attached to its foot” »

Oct 3, 2022

MIT Engineers Build Wireless Underwater Camera That Doesn’t Need Batteries!

Posted by in categories: climatology, space, sustainability

New underwater camera could help scientists explore unknown regions of the ocean, track pollution, or monitor the effects of climate change.

More than 95 percent of Earth’s oceans have never been observed, according to estimates by scientists, which means we have seen less of our planet’s ocean than we have the far side of the moon or the surface of Mars.

Mars is the second smallest planet in our solar system and the fourth planet from the sun. It is a dusty, cold, desert world with a very thin atmosphere. Iron oxide is prevalent in Mars’ surface resulting in its reddish color and its nickname “The Red Planet.” Mars’ name comes from the Roman god of war.