Daily Archives: July 11, 2024

Researchers have detected fast-moving stars in a nearby star cluster within the Milky Way. The finding suggests the presence of an elusive black hole which may be the closest one to Earth.

The star cluster, Omega Centauri, is a collection of around 10 million stars, visible as a smudge in the night sky south of the Equator.

It looks no different to similar clusters through a small telescope, but the new study confirms what astronomers had been suspecting for some time it contains a central black hole.

The black hole, which is at a distance of about 18,000 light-years, appears to be stuck in an intermediate stage of evolution, and is considerably less massive than typical black holes in the centres of galaxies.

Researchers say the finding appears to be the missing link between stellar and supermassive black holes.

Black holes have been observed in various sizes, including stellar-mass black holes with masses around five to 150 times that of the Sun, to supermassive black holes which are more than 100,000 times the mass of the Sun.

The black hole appears to be stuck in an intermediate stage of evolution. Photo: AFP

However, only a few intermediate-mass black holes, between 150 and 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, have been discovered.

Omega Centauri seems to be the core of a small, separate galaxy whose evolution was cut short when the Milky Way swallowed it, the study suggests.

Dr Nadine Neumayer, a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, said: Previous studies had prompted critical questions of So where are the high-speed stars?

We now have an answer to that and the confirmation that Omega Centauri contains an intermediate-mass black hole.

At a distance of about 18,000 light-years, this is the closest known example of a massive black hole.

Nasas Ingenuity helicopter has sent final message from red planet to Earth

The supermassive black hole in the centre of the Milky Way is at a distance of about 27,000 light-years.

The study, led by Maximilian Haberle of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, is based on more than 20 years of Hubble Space Telescope observations, and published in the Nature journal.

Writing in an accompanying article, Daryl Haggard and Adrienne Cool said: These newly discovered stars offer the best evidence yet that Alpha Centauri harbours an intermediate-mass black hole.

The results could suggest that searching for intermediate-mass black holes in other globular clusters may be warranted.

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Astronomers find black hole closest to Earth 18,000 light-years away - YP

Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Edward Stone was a pre-eminent space scientist with an exceptional record of leading space missions and building ground-based astronomical facilities. The public face of NASAs Voyager missions for the launch of the two probes in 1977, he served as project scientist for 50 years. Stone introduced the world to the wonders of the gas-giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) in multiple press conferences, from Voyager 1s encounter with Jupiter in 1979 to Voyager 2s fly-by of Neptune in 1989. He also oversaw the probes entering interstellar space the first in 2012 and the second in 2018. They continue to transmit data to Earth today.

At the helm of the California Association for Research and Astronomy in the 1990s, Stone was involved in the development of the twin 10-metre Keck telescopes on Maunakea in Hawaii, two of the most productive ground-based astronomical facilities ever built. And as the executive director of the Thirty Meter Telescope, for eight years he oversaw the huge international collaboration that plans to build one of the worlds largest opticalinfrared telescopes on the same mountain land that is sacred to Native Hawaiians, leading to years-long protests and controversy. The telescope aims to capture light from the earliest galaxies in the Universe and search for habitable planets. Stones involvement was a service to the astronomy community, because his observational interests were focused on cosmic rays.

Stone was born in Knoxville and grew up in Burlington, both in Iowa. His father was a construction supervisor who communicated his curiosity about how things worked to his son. Stone studied physics at the University of Chicago, Illinois, for a masters degree and PhD. Soon after he started studying there, in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 the first artificial Earth satellite starting the space race. Stone took notice, and was at a good place to get involved. His thesis adviser, cosmic-ray-research pioneer John Simpson, was deploying instruments attached to high-altitude balloons as well as using ground-based neutron monitors. Instruments on rockets soon followed. Stones thesis experiment was on a now-declassified US spy satellite, Discoverer 31, flown in 1961.

The Milky Way is less weird than we thought

After earning his doctorate in 1964, Stone joined Rochus Robbie Vogt, whom he studied alongside at Chicago, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, as a research fellow. Together, they formed the Space Radiation Laboratory, where I work. They focused on observations of cosmic rays, with instruments first carried on balloons and later launched into space. Stone moved up the academic ranks at Caltech, becoming a professor of physics in 1976. In 1972, he was appointed project scientist for NASAs MJS77 mission, later renamed Voyager. Stone was also directly involved in developing an instrument for use aboard the Voyagers the Cosmic Ray Subsystem helping to design its cosmic-ray telescopes and draw up the calibration procedures.

The Voyager missions capitalized on a rare alignment of the four gas-giant planets a once-in-176-years opportunity that allowed a single spacecraft to visit all four. It required a launch between 1976 and 1980 to succeed. For budget reasons, only a two-spacecraft mission to Jupiter and Saturn was initially approved. Voyager 2 was later re-programmed to visit Uranus and Neptune as well.

Eleven experiments were planned. Stones role included developing a planetary fly-by programme that would be agreeable to all the participating principal investigators. To accomplish this, he learnt about the science of each experiment earning the respect of all involved. One of the researchers, Tom Krimigis, recalled: He was always knowledgeable, insightful and fair in his decisions, with the principal focus on the best science; he never deviated from that.

159 days of solitude: how loneliness haunts astronauts

The Voyager planetary fly-bys resulted in many discoveries, including moons, rings, a moon with volcanoes, moons with more water than there is on Earth and Triton a moon of Neptune that is one of the coldest places in the Solar System and yet has geysers. Textbooks on the outer planets of the Solar System were rewritten. But the culmination of Stones research career came when Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause the boundary between interplanetary and interstellar space, at 18.2 billion kilometres from the Sun. The Cosmic Ray Subsystem was at last able to measure something that cannot be quantified inside the heliopause because of the Suns outflowing solar wind: the intensity of low-energy cosmic rays in the Milky Way galaxy.

For his work on the Voyagers, Stone was awarded the National Medal of Science by then US president George Bush in 1991, and in 2019 he received the Shaw Prize in astronomy. A prolific administrator and multitasker, Stone chaired the physics, mathematics and astronomy division at Caltech for five years in the 1980s and was the director of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1991 to 2001. During his tenure there, he oversaw the first landing of a robot on another planet the Mars rover Sojourner. His work ethic was extraordinary. In total, he held a major role on 14 NASA missions and 2 US Department of Defense missions most of the time while running the Space Radiation Laboratory at Caltech.

In 2022, owing to declining health, Stone retired as Voyager project scientist and became emeritus professor at Caltech. He was always even-tempered in his dealing with colleagues and sought to reach a consensus on whatever debate was going on. He will be greatly missed in both the space-science and astronomical communities.

The author declares no competing interests.

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Edward C. Stone obituary: physicist who guided Voyager probes to interstellar space - Nature.com

Temperate exoplanet LHS 1140 b may be a world completely covered in ice (left) similar to Jupiters moon Europa or be an ice world with a liquid substellar ocean and a cloudy atmosphere (centre). LHS 1140 b is 1.7 times the size of our planet Earth (right) and is the most promising habitable zone exoplanet yet in our search for liquid water beyond the Solar System. Image credit: B. Gougeon/Universit de Montral

Study: Transmission spectroscopy of the habitable zone Exoplanet LHS 1140 b with JWST/NIRISS

A team that includes a University of Michigan astronomer has identified a temperate exoplanet as a promising super-Earth ice or water world.

The findings, led by Universit de Montral, show that the habitable zone exoplanet, LHS 1140 b, is not likely a mini-Neptune, a small so-called gas giantlarge planets composed mostly of gaswith a thick hydrogen-rich atmosphere. The planet, located about 48 light-years away in the constellation Cetus, emerges as one of the most promising habitable zone exoplanet candidates known, potentially harboring an atmosphere and even a liquid water ocean.

Data from the James Webb Space Telescope were collected in December 2023 and added to previous data from other space telescopes Spitzer, Hubble, and TESS to solidify this result, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters this week.

This is the first time we have ever seen a hint of an atmosphere on a habitable zone rocky or ice-rich exoplanet. Detecting atmospheres on small, rocky world is a major goal from JWST, but these signals are much harder to see than for giant planet atmospheres, said Ryan MacDonald, NASA Sagan Fellow in the U-M Department of Astronomy who was key in the analysis of LHS 1140 bs atmosphere. LHS 1140 b is one of the best small exoplanets in the habitable zone capable of supporting a thick atmosphere, and we might just have found evidence of air on this world.

LHS 1140 b, an exoplanet orbiting a low-mass red dwarf star roughly one-fifth the size of the sun, has captivated scientists due to it being one of the closest exoplanets to the solar system that lies within its stars habitable zone. Exoplanets found in this Goldilocks Zone have temperatures that would allow water to exist on them in liquid form, a crucial element for life as we know it on Earth.

One of the critical questions about LHS 1140 b was whether it is a mini-Neptune type exoplanet or a super-Eartha rocky or water-rich planet larger than Earth.

Of all currently known temperate exoplanets, LHS 1140 b could well be our best bet to one day indirectly confirm liquid water on the surface of an alien world beyond our solar system, said Charles Cadieux, lead author of the science paper and doctoral student at Universit de Montral. This would be a major milestone in the search for potentially habitable exoplanets.

Analysis of the teams observations strongly excluded the mini-Neptune scenario, with evidence suggesting the exoplanet LHS 1140 b is a super-Earth that may even have a nitrogen-rich atmosphere like that of Earths. However, the team cautions that additional observations with JWST observations will be necessary to confirm the signature of nitrogen gas.

Estimates based on all accumulated data reveal that LHS 1140 b is less dense than expected for a rocky planet with an Earth-like composition, suggesting that 10 to 20% of its mass may be composed of water. This discovery points to LHS 1140 b being a compelling candidate water world, likely resembling a snowball or ice planet with a potential liquid ocean at the sub-stellar point, or the area of the planets surface that would always be facing the systems host star due to the planets synchronous rotation (much like the Earths moon).

MacDonald conducted the atmospheric retrieval analysis that suggests LHS 1140 b has a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, potentially similar to the Earths atmosphere, which is 78% nitrogen. While it is still only a tentative result, the presence of a nitrogen-rich atmosphere would suggest the planet has retained a substantial atmosphere, creating conditions that might support liquid water.

This discovery favors the water world/snowball scenario as the most plausible. Current models indicate that if LHS 1140 b has an Earth-like atmosphere, it would be a snowball planet with a bulls-eye ocean about 4,000 kilometers in diameter, equivalent to half the surface area of the Atlantic Ocean. The surface temperature at the center of this alien ocean could even be a comfortable 20 degrees Celsius.

LHS 1140 bs potential atmosphere and favorable conditions for liquid water make it an exceptional candidate for future habitability studies. This planet provides a unique opportunity to study a world that could support life, given its position in the habitable zone and the likelihood of having an atmosphere that can retain heat and support a stable climate.

This is our first tantalizing glimpse of an atmosphere on a super Earth in the habitable zone. Compared to other known habitable zone exoplanets, such as those in the TRAPPIST-1 system, the star LHS 1140 appears to be calmer and less active, making it significantly less challenging to disentangle LHS 1140 bs atmosphere from stellar signals caused by starspots, MacDonald said.

Our initial reconnaissance of LHS 1140 b with JWST has revealed this to be perhaps the best habitable zone exoplanet currently known for atmospheric characterisation. While we need more JWST observations to confirm the nitrogen-rich atmosphere, and to search for other gases, this is a very promising start.

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Astronomers find surprising ice world in the habitable zone with JWST data - University of Michigan News

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Northern Arizona astronomy: The planet Mercury - Grand Canyon News

University Park, Pa. The Penn State Eberly College of Science's popular AstroFest program is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, welcoming visitors to Davey Laboratory from July 10-13 as part of the 2024 Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

The four-night astronomy festival, running from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. each evening, will offer a variety of fun and educational activities for all ages, according to a news release. Visitors can pick up a program, get it stamped at activities, and return it for science-themed prizes.

"We're absolutely thrilled to be celebrating 25 years of this impactful community outreach program," said Randy McEntaffer, head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, in the release. "Turning people on to the wonders of the universe is incredibly rewarding for us, and we hope it inspires them to continue to explore their curiosity through science and beyond."

On clear nights, visitors will be able to use the rooftop observatory telescopes including a brand-new instrument donated by Howard Schlegel, a 1971 alumnus with dual bachelor of science degrees in forest sciences and zoology to see up-close views of the moon, star clusters and glowing remnants of stellar death, according to the news release.

In addition to activities like the oobleck kiddie pool, this year's program will feature a talk on the upcoming rare nova explosion in the T Coronae Borealis system, which could become visible to the naked eye. Attendees will also be able to use the rooftop observatory telescopes and experience the newly upgraded planetarium shows.

The first AstroFest was organized in 1999 by three then-undergraduate students, Karen Knierman, Jane Rigby, and Nahks Tr'Ehnl. Over the past 25 years, the event has welcomed more than 45,000 community members, according to Penn State. Co-founder Tr'Ehnl is still affilliated with the university and continues to be part of the committee that plans the annual event.

For more information, visit the AstroFest website or contact the Penn State Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

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Celebrating 25 years of stargazing and astronomy education at Penn State's AstroFest - NorthcentralPA.com

The protostar inside the dark cloud L1527 with the near-infrared camera (NIRCam) of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA. Zeus Valtierra Meteored Mexico 11/07/2024 09:49 8 min

Wherever the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) looks in the vast cosmos, matter and energy interact in spectacular exhibitions revealing more details than any other telescope, thanks to the fact that it can see through the dense gas and dust that hides many celestial objects.

In a new image, the JWST has detected a young protostar approximately 100,000 years old. This star, known as L1527, is still in its early stages of formation and is nestled in the molecular cloud that was the one that generated it.

One of the main reasons why NASA, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), built the JWST was precisely to observe these phenomena.

The image in question was captured using the Middle Infrared Instrument (MIRI) of the JWST. Where it is shown that the young protostar continues to grow, accumulating mass of the protoplanetary disk that surrounds it. This disc is crucial for the development of the star, since it provides the necessary material for its growth.

The protostar is not a main sequence star, which means that it is not experiencing nuclear fusion like the Sun does. Although there may be a small amount of deuterium fusion in its nucleus, the protostar generates energy in a different way.

As the gravity of the protostar attracts material to it, it is compressed and heated. The additional energy comes from the shock waves generated by the incoming material that collides with the existing gas. Which illuminates the protostar and its surroundings within the gigantic molecular cloud that generated it.

As young protostars accumulate mass, they generate powerful magnetic fields. These fields, combined with the rotation of the star, move part of the matter away from the protostar.

Thus, as a protostar acquires mass, it also expels part of it into space in spectacular hourglass-shaped jets that emerge from the poles of the star. These jets create visible shock arcs in the surrounding matter, forming filamentous structures.

In the environment of the star L1527 there are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HAP), organic compounds abundant throughout the Universe that could have contributed to the appearance of life. In the image captured by the JWST, these compounds shine blue, even in the filamentous structures.

The red region in the center of the image is a thick layer of gas and dust that surrounds the young star, illuminated by its energy. The white region between red and blue is a mixture of materials, including more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HAP), as well as ionised gases such as neon and other hydrocarbons.

This interaction of matter and energy is transient. The powerful emanations of the protostar will clean much of the gas and dust from its surroundings, preserving its protoplanetary disk. And it will become a main sequence star, easily visible without its veil of gas and dust.

The study of these hydrocarbons and other compounds in the L1527 environment provides us with valuable information about the chemical ingredients that could have played a role in the formation of life in the Universe. Opening up new possibilities for astrobiology and the search for life in other stellar systems.

There are many unanswered questions about the formation of protostars. For example, astrophysicists still do not know exactly how and when the nuclear fusion is triggered that turns a protostar into a main sequence star.

Although astronomers know that there are powerful magnetic fields around the protostars, they do not fully understand how these fields are formed or what role they play in the collapse and rotation of the star.

The JWST has made some progress in this area. Recently, he confirmed that the jets of material expelled by young stars are aligned due to the rotation of the star and its magnetic fields, something that the theory had suggested but had not been confirmed by observations until now.

There are also uncertainties about how binary stars are formed. Are they formed in the same way as solitary stars? Why are there so many binary stars in the universe?

The processes involved play an important role in the formation of planetary systems. Jets and magnetic fields can influence the distribution of the material in the protoplanetary disk, affecting the formation of planets and other celestial bodies.

The study of these phenomena provides information about the formation of planetary systems and the origins of life in the Universe. With each new observation, the JWST brings us one step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos.

The exact nature of the phenomena that trigger the formation of stars remains a mystery. The shock waves of supernovae can trigger the birth of stars, but what happens in other cases? Is it just a matter of the density of gas and dust?

The answers to these questions will come gradually. Thanks to the ability of the JWST to observe in great detail the young stars and the clouds of gas and dust that surround them, the telescope is advancing in our understanding of these astronomical processes, one image at a time.

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The JWST continues to revolutionise astronomy: It now shows the birth of a Star - Yourweather.co.uk

From mesmerizing "mythical monsters" to jaw-dropping distant constellations, the shortlisted candidates for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2024 showcase the magnificent beauty in the skies around us.Here are this year's stunning nominees.

In this image, a powerful geomagnetic storm creates a stunning display of multicolored hues across the night sky in Iceland.

"There was a prediction of a KP7 storm [a strong geomagnetic storm that can cause auroras and affect electrical power systems] and I was excited as to what I might see," photographer Jos Miguel Picn Chimelis said in a statement.

He took the panoramic photo near Eystrahorn mountain, capturing a scene full of vibrant colors, which he described as "one of the most amazing that I have experienced in my nighttime photography outings."

In this vibrant display of energy, photographer Wenlian Li captured an exploding sunspot spewing out glowing plasma from the sun's surface.

In this shot from La Palma, one of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the immense Isaac Newton Telescope sits below ominous cosmic clouds from the Cygnus constellation.

"The Cygnus region with its bright and vibrant star-forming regions is one of my favorite parts of the night sky. You can see it in the top right of the image," photographer Jakob Sahner said in the statement.

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Cygnus, which translates to "the swan" in Latin, is a northern constellation that sits above the Milky Way.

Related: The Milky Way will be visible without a telescope this summer. Here are the key nights to watch for.

Carina Letelier Baeza captured the aurora borealis forming the shape of a dragon. Its tail descends into the horizon, and bright green hues take the shape of wings that tower over the rock pyramids of the Arctic Henge in Iceland.

Paul Haworth created this entrancing image of radial stars above the ruins of an old jetty and cracked mudflats at Snettisham beach in Norfolk, U.K.

"I named this image 'Serpentine' as I love the curved channel in the mudflat, mirroring the trailing stars, and the wonderful scaly texture of the mud cracks," Haworth said in the statement.

The interstellar clouds of CG 4 (Cometary Globule 4) form a monstrous shape as if ready to devour the cosmos, in this picture taken by a team of astrophotographers known as ShaRA (Shared Remote Astrophotography).

The peculiar formation of gas clouds and dust is classed as a "cometary globule" because of its comet-like shape, and it's often referred to as "God's Hand" because of its similarity to an arm stretching across the universe.

Along with these names, a member of the astrophotography team noticed its resemblance to two famous fictional monsters.

"Is this the cosmic sandworm of Arrakis, from 'Dune,' or the terrifying Graboid from the film 'Tremors'?" ShaRa group member Alessandro Ravagnin said in the statement.

In this image, Sndor Biliczki captured the beauty of the Pleiades constellation.

Also known as Messier 45 or the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades consists of thousands of stars but is known for its seven brightest stars and is located 445 light-years from Earth, according to NASA.

Due to light pollution in Budapest, Biliczki traveled to Spain to photograph the constellation.

"The Pleiades are a popular target among astrophotographers, but there are still many tiny details to be discovered," Biliczki said in the statement.

This panorama captures the Geminid meteor shower in front of the entire winter Milky Way in the night sky over La Palma.

Jakob Sahner said he could see three meteors per minute within his field of view during the peak of the shower.

Yann Sainty captured the Cygnus supernova in this haunting image, named "The Scream of a Dying Star."

The name is a reference to 'The Scream,' the famous painting by Edvard Munch, symbolising the scream that continues to echo through space after the stars death, according to the image caption.

Sainty took advantage of the lack of light pollution and a long exposure time to capture rare details of the Cygnus Loop, such as the outer layers of the supernova remnant.

Leonardo Di Maggio created this eerie, abstract landscape image using a photo taken from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) a spacecraft on a mission to find evidence of water on Mars.

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Dragon-shaped aurora and 'scream of a dying star' revealed as 2024 Astronomy Photographer of the Year finalists - Livescience.com