News – Page 165 – Astronomy Now

Mars will gain a ring as Phobos has only 40 million years left

25 November 2015 Keith Cooper

The red planet Mars is destined to become the ringed planet within 40 million years’ time, when its largest moon Phobos is torn apart, according to two scientists from the University of California, Berkeley.

UPDATED: Are comet fragments best explanation for mysterious dimming star?

25 November 2015 Keith Cooper

A star called KIC 8462852 has been in the news recently for unexplained and bizarre behaviour. NASA’s Kepler mission had monitored the star for four years, observing two unusual incidents, in 2011 and 2013, when the star’s light dimmed in dramatic, never-before-seen ways. Something had passed in front of the star and blocked its light, but what?

Oodles of faint dwarf galaxies shed light on cosmological mystery

24 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Computer simulations of the evolution of matter distribution in the universe predict hundreds of low mass dwarf galaxies for every Milky Way-like galaxy. An international team of astronomers recently announced the discovery of an astonishing number of faint low surface brightness dwarf galaxies in the Fornax Cluster, suggesting that the “missing satellites” are now being found.

Earth might have hairy dark matter

23 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Dark matter is an invisible, mysterious substance that makes up about 27 percent of all matter and energy in the universe. A new NASA study publishing this week proposes that when a stream of dark matter particles goes through a planet, the planet’s gravity bends and focuses the particles into an ultra-dense filament, or “hair,” of dark matter. In theory, there should be many such hairs sprouting from Earth.

Mars rover steers toward active sand dunes

22 November 2015 Stephen Clark

The Curiosity rover’s next destination is a moving mound of wind-blown dark sand blanketing the base of Mount Sharp, the focal point of the Mars mission’s research, scientists said.

“Planetary Nebulae” receive more meaningful physical presence

22 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Despite their name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They were described as such by early astronomers whose telescopes showed them as glowing disc-like objects, but we now know that they represent the final stage of activity of stars like our Sun. A way of estimating more accurate distances to planetary nebulae dispersed across our Galaxy has just been announced.

Hubble survey reveals early galaxies were more efficient at making stars

21 November 2015 Astronomy Now

A study just published by University of Texas at Austin assistant professor Steven Finkelstein and colleagues reveals that galaxies were more efficient at making stars when the universe was younger. The announcement explains the team’s discovery that there are a lot more bright, highly star-forming galaxies in the early universe than scientists previously thought.

The little star with a mighty magnetic punch

20 November 2015 Keith Cooper

A dim red dwarf star with just one-tenth the mass of the Sun has been shown to possess a magnetic field so strong that its average strength rivals that of the most extreme active regions on our Sun.

Stanford astronomers observe the birth of an alien planet

19 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Stanford University researchers announce evidence of an exoplanet being born that could move us one step closer to understanding the process of planet formation around other stars. The alien planet, called LkCa 15 b, orbits a star 450 light-years away and appears to be on its way to growing into a world similar to Jupiter.

Dark matter dominates in nearby dwarf galaxy

18 November 2015 Astronomy Now

Dark matter is called “dark” for a good reason. Although they outnumber particles of regular matter by more than a factor of 10, particles of dark matter are elusive. Now, by measuring the mass of a nearby dwarf galaxy called Triangulum II, astronomers believe they may have found the highest concentration of dark matter in any known galaxy.