Space

A once-in-a-century supernova, dubbed SN2014J, in a the nearby galaxy Messier 82 - the Cigar Galaxy - 12 million light-years away has been spotted; a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million suns. The object, previously thought to be a black hole because it is so powerful, is in fact a pulsar - the incredibly dense rotating remains of a star.  Dom Walton, a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech who works with NuSTAR data, says that with its extreme energy, this first ultraluminous pulsar takes the top prize in the weirdness category. Pulsars are typically between one and…

Gamma rays are the highest-energy form of radioactive waves known in the universe but how they're made and where they come from have been something of a mystery.  Using highly detailed radio telescope images, a team of astronomers have pinpointed the location where an explosion on the surface of a star, known as a nova, emitted gamma rays.  A nova occurs in a star that is part of a binary system – two stars orbiting one another. One star, known as a dense white dwarf, steals matter from the other and the interaction triggers a thermonuclear explosion that flings debris into space.…

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of European collaboration in space, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, located in Rome, hosts the exhibition “My Planet from Space: Fragility and Beauty”. The event was attended by the heads of ESA, NASA, Italy’s space agency and representatives from the Italian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Such event aims at increasing awareness on our planet fragility, through the eyes of the satellites. The images collected manage to capture the beauty and the restlessness of a world that is changing due to global warming: melting glaciers, rising oceans,…

Just before totality on a total lunar eclipse. Credit: Flickr/John Johnson, CC BY-NC-SA By Tanya Hill, Museum Victoria At least twice a year, Earth comes between the sun and the moon. The result is a lunar eclipse, where we see the splendid sight of Earth’s shadow falling across the moon. Lunar eclipses are wonderful to watch as they are very leisurely and no special equipment is required. During the eclipse, the moon slowly makes its way through the Earth’s shadow and becomes increasingly dark. There are three different types of lunar eclipses: a penumbral eclipse, a partial lunar eclipse…

The meteorite that hit the Russian city of Chelyabinsk on Feb. 15, 2013, was the cause of a large number of dynamic ionospheric, atmospheric and seismic phenomena. Oleg Berngardt of the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics in Irkutsk, Russia, presents the properties of ionospheric irregularities elongated with Earth magnetic field during the first 25 minutes after the impact. The irregularities were observed by the EKB radar of Russian segment of the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), an international radar network for studying the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. “It is shown…

Astronomers have discovered an asteroid called 2014 OL339, that is the latest quasi-satellite of Earth – a space rock that orbits the sun but is close enough to Earth to look like a companion. Our planet has one permanently bound satellite - the Moon, but also a likely large number of mini-moons or transient irregular natural satellites, and temporary natural retrograde satellites or quasi-satellites. The newest addition to the family of Earth’s quasi-moons was discovered on July 29, 2014 by Farid Char of the Chilean University of Antofagasta. As of September 2014, it has been observed 27…

An international team of astrophysicists has identified the most metal-poor stars in the Milky Way bulge. They present their findings in a paper published on Oct. 2. The scientists describe the discovery and analysis of four bulge giants - the lowest metallicity bulge stars studied with high-resolution spectroscopy to date. Using the Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) spectra, through the Gaia-ESO Survey they have derived abundances of twelve elements. “Given the uncertainties, we find a chemical similarity between these bulge stars and halo stars of the same…

Polish astronomers from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) have discovered a young stellar bridge, that forms a continuous connection between the Magellanic Clouds. This finding is based on number density maps for stellar populations found in data gathered by OGLE. This is the most extensive optical survey of this region up to date. “We find that the young population is present mainly in the western half of the Magellanic Bridge area (MBR), which, together with the newly discovered young population in the eastern Bridge, form a continuous stream of stars…

A team of researchers has proposed a solution to the problematic chemical composition of Neptune and Uranus, perhaps providing clues for understanding their formation. Uranus and Neptune, which post-Pluto are considered the outermost planets in the Solar System by the International Astronomical Union, each have a mass approximately fifteen times that of the Earth and consist of up to 90% ice, with highly enriched in carbon.  Earlier models for their formation, as well as observations of the outer Solar System, could not explain how they formed with those compositions in the area…

Encouraged by the successful Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) that reached the Red Planet this week, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientists dream big of further space exploration, pondering future Mars missions. One of them is the former ISRO chairman Udupi Ramachandra Rao, popularly known as U. R. Rao. "I think that the first human feet will walk on Mars before the year 2030. It might not be us but whoever has the capability will achieve it by this time," he told the New Indian Express. "Mars is important because it is the nearest neighbour to us and is almost like Earth. It…