Post by Andrei Tchentchik on Aug 12, 2020 15:36:50 GMT 2
(.#587).- The Universe Unveils New Secrets, August 9, 2020.
The Universe Unveils New Secrets, August 9, 2020.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NASA / UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
A type 1A supernova, generated by a white dwarf by a still mysterious process that has recently been partially elucidated.
White dwarfs, solar currents, hidden exoplanets, ultraviolet agony: from one end of the cosmos to the other, astronomers announce several discoveries every week, each more incredible and dizzying than the next. Here is a collection of some of the recent announcements from starhunters.
Posted on August 9, 2020
MATHIEU PERREAULT
THE PRESS
The Legacy of the White Dwarfs
PHOTO GUILLAUME SEIGNEURET, PROVIDED BY NASA
The open star cluster NGC 7789, also known as the Carolina Rose, 8,000 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, in the Milky Way
A heated debate has just been settled: The particles that float in the solar wind, carrying carbon to form galaxies and new stars, come from the ashes of white dwarfs rather than from more massive supernovas. This finding by American and European researchers, published in June in the journal Nature Astronomy, is based on the observation of white dwarfs of "open star clusters" of the Milky Way, from the Keck observatory in Mauna Kea, in Hawaii. An open star cluster is a group of stars, sometimes thousands, linked by gravity. From the current mass of these white dwarfs, the researchers calculated their mass at birth and deduced that at the very end of their life, white dwarfs produce more carbon than expected.
Hidden solar currents
PHOTO PROVIDED BY Z.-C. LIANG
200,000 kilometers below the surface of the Sun, plasma currents flow towards the equator and the poles, generating the 22-year solar cycle.
German and American researchers have mapped the plasma currents that lie 200,000 kilometers below the surface of the Sun, which generate 22-year solar cycles. The plasma therefore takes 22 years to complete the circuit. These currents travel at 50 km / h, much slower than other components of the Sun, requiring a lot of observation to reduce background noise. This discovery of "helioseismology" was unveiled in June in the journal Science.
First photo of exoplanets
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BOHN ET AL.
The star TYC 8998-760-1 and the two giant exoplanets TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c, in the center and lower right. The other points are other stars located further away. The rings around the star are optical illusions.
A European telescope succeeded for the first time in munching two exoplanets orbiting a star similar to ours, TYC 8998-760-1, which is located 300 light years from Earth. A photo of an exoplanet was taken in 2004 by the same telescope, the VLT (Very Large Telescope) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, but until recently it had been impossible to photograph two exoplanets in same time. Last year, the VTL managed to bite into two exoplanets orbiting a brown dwarf. Direct observation of exoplanets around a star similar to the Sun is important because they could harbor life.
Ultraviolet agony
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NORTHWESTER UNIVERSITY
The blue dot in the center indicates SN2019yvq.
When they explode as supernovas, white dwarfs release ultraviolet lightning. This discovery by California astrophysicists at NASA, unveiled in mid-July in the Astrophysical Journal, could help understand the mechanics of white dwarf transition to supernova stage. White dwarfs are cooler than the material needed to emit such ultraviolet lightning. Supernova SN2019yvq was detected last December and occurred 140 million light years from Earth, in the constellation Dragon. NASA researchers believe that this ultraviolet flash, which had only been observed once in connection with a type 1A supernova, corresponding to the explosion of a white dwarf, could be linked to the creation of the dark matter and iron. They now want to explore four hypotheses explaining the creation of ultraviolet lightning by a cold white dwarf, including the collision of two white dwarfs. They think they will have the answer within a year.
A hidden exoplanet ...
An astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium has just discovered an exoplanet the size of Neptune, which was hidden in a cluster of dust around the star AU Microscopii, located 32 light years from Earth. Astronomers had been looking for an exoplanet in this solar system for 10 years, very conducive to the study of the formation of planets. This is because AU Microscopii was born only 20 to 30 million years ago, which makes it 180 times younger than our Sun. In Nature in June, Jonathan Gagné of Space for Life and his American colleagues described this exoplanet, sketched using the TESS and Spitzer space telescopes. AU Microscopii is half the mass of the Sun, which makes it particularly magnetic and makes it difficult to observe exoplanets.
… or many
British researchers have developed a technique that will detect hundreds of exoplanets that are habitable but located too far from their stars to be observed by the transit method. In mid-July in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers at the University of Warwick described the exoplanet NGTS-11b, a "gas giant" located 620 light years from Earth. It had been observed for the first time in 2018, but since it takes up to 79 days of observation to see it pass in front of its star, it had not been possible to see it a second time, a necessary condition for the existence of an exoplanet is proven. Researchers from Warwick have adapted the NGTS telescope in Chile to confirm by the transit method of stars crunched for the first time by space telescopes, more suitable for a first detection.
F I N .
The Universe Unveils New Secrets, August 9, 2020.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NASA / UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
A type 1A supernova, generated by a white dwarf by a still mysterious process that has recently been partially elucidated.
White dwarfs, solar currents, hidden exoplanets, ultraviolet agony: from one end of the cosmos to the other, astronomers announce several discoveries every week, each more incredible and dizzying than the next. Here is a collection of some of the recent announcements from starhunters.
Posted on August 9, 2020
MATHIEU PERREAULT
THE PRESS
The Legacy of the White Dwarfs
PHOTO GUILLAUME SEIGNEURET, PROVIDED BY NASA
The open star cluster NGC 7789, also known as the Carolina Rose, 8,000 light years away in the constellation Cassiopeia, in the Milky Way
A heated debate has just been settled: The particles that float in the solar wind, carrying carbon to form galaxies and new stars, come from the ashes of white dwarfs rather than from more massive supernovas. This finding by American and European researchers, published in June in the journal Nature Astronomy, is based on the observation of white dwarfs of "open star clusters" of the Milky Way, from the Keck observatory in Mauna Kea, in Hawaii. An open star cluster is a group of stars, sometimes thousands, linked by gravity. From the current mass of these white dwarfs, the researchers calculated their mass at birth and deduced that at the very end of their life, white dwarfs produce more carbon than expected.
Hidden solar currents
PHOTO PROVIDED BY Z.-C. LIANG
200,000 kilometers below the surface of the Sun, plasma currents flow towards the equator and the poles, generating the 22-year solar cycle.
German and American researchers have mapped the plasma currents that lie 200,000 kilometers below the surface of the Sun, which generate 22-year solar cycles. The plasma therefore takes 22 years to complete the circuit. These currents travel at 50 km / h, much slower than other components of the Sun, requiring a lot of observation to reduce background noise. This discovery of "helioseismology" was unveiled in June in the journal Science.
First photo of exoplanets
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BOHN ET AL.
The star TYC 8998-760-1 and the two giant exoplanets TYC 8998-760-1b and TYC 8998-760-1c, in the center and lower right. The other points are other stars located further away. The rings around the star are optical illusions.
A European telescope succeeded for the first time in munching two exoplanets orbiting a star similar to ours, TYC 8998-760-1, which is located 300 light years from Earth. A photo of an exoplanet was taken in 2004 by the same telescope, the VLT (Very Large Telescope) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, but until recently it had been impossible to photograph two exoplanets in same time. Last year, the VTL managed to bite into two exoplanets orbiting a brown dwarf. Direct observation of exoplanets around a star similar to the Sun is important because they could harbor life.
Ultraviolet agony
PHOTO PROVIDED BY NORTHWESTER UNIVERSITY
The blue dot in the center indicates SN2019yvq.
When they explode as supernovas, white dwarfs release ultraviolet lightning. This discovery by California astrophysicists at NASA, unveiled in mid-July in the Astrophysical Journal, could help understand the mechanics of white dwarf transition to supernova stage. White dwarfs are cooler than the material needed to emit such ultraviolet lightning. Supernova SN2019yvq was detected last December and occurred 140 million light years from Earth, in the constellation Dragon. NASA researchers believe that this ultraviolet flash, which had only been observed once in connection with a type 1A supernova, corresponding to the explosion of a white dwarf, could be linked to the creation of the dark matter and iron. They now want to explore four hypotheses explaining the creation of ultraviolet lightning by a cold white dwarf, including the collision of two white dwarfs. They think they will have the answer within a year.
A hidden exoplanet ...
An astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium has just discovered an exoplanet the size of Neptune, which was hidden in a cluster of dust around the star AU Microscopii, located 32 light years from Earth. Astronomers had been looking for an exoplanet in this solar system for 10 years, very conducive to the study of the formation of planets. This is because AU Microscopii was born only 20 to 30 million years ago, which makes it 180 times younger than our Sun. In Nature in June, Jonathan Gagné of Space for Life and his American colleagues described this exoplanet, sketched using the TESS and Spitzer space telescopes. AU Microscopii is half the mass of the Sun, which makes it particularly magnetic and makes it difficult to observe exoplanets.
… or many
British researchers have developed a technique that will detect hundreds of exoplanets that are habitable but located too far from their stars to be observed by the transit method. In mid-July in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers at the University of Warwick described the exoplanet NGTS-11b, a "gas giant" located 620 light years from Earth. It had been observed for the first time in 2018, but since it takes up to 79 days of observation to see it pass in front of its star, it had not been possible to see it a second time, a necessary condition for the existence of an exoplanet is proven. Researchers from Warwick have adapted the NGTS telescope in Chile to confirm by the transit method of stars crunched for the first time by space telescopes, more suitable for a first detection.
F I N .
