Electron-eating neon causes star to collapse
Neon inside a certain star core can eat so many electrons, it causes the star to collapse into a neutron star and produce a supernova.
Mar 30th, 2020
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Astronaut urine to build moon bases
The modules that the major space agencies plan to erect on the Moon could incorporate an element contributed by the human colonizers themselves: the urea in their pee. Researchers have found that it could be used as a plasticizer in the concrete of the structures.
Mar 27th, 2020
Read morePaired with super telescopes, model Earths guide hunt for life
Astronomers have created five models representing key points from our planet's evolution, like chemical snapshots through Earth's own geologic epochs. The models will be spectral templates for astronomers to use in the approaching new era of powerful telescopes, and in the hunt for Earth-like planets in distant solar systems.
Mar 27th, 2020
Read moreNew technique looks for dark matter traces in dark places
Study knocks down some theories for the origin of a mysterious light signature that has puzzled physicists for years.
Mar 26th, 2020
Read moreIs this what our solar system's 'force field' looks like?
Astrophysicists reveal a new model of our heliosphere that?s shaped somewhere between a croissant and a beach ball.
Mar 24th, 2020
Read moreSolar system acquired current configuration not long after its formation
Model developed by astrophysicists shows chaotic phase that placed objects in current orbits beginning within first 100 million years after formation of giant planets.
Mar 24th, 2020
Read moreStar formation project maps nearby interstellar clouds
Astronomers have captured new, detailed maps of three nearby interstellar gas clouds containing regions of ongoing high-mass star formation. The results of this survey, called the Star Formation Project, will help improve our understanding of the star formation process.
Mar 23rd, 2020
Read moreThe strange orbits of 'Tatooine' planetary disks (w/video)
Astronomers have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments.
Mar 19th, 2020
Read moreSnapping an exoplanet shot
Physicists will develop instruments to directly image exoplanets.
Mar 19th, 2020
Read moreMerger between two stars led to iconic supernova
Simulations suggest that two stars came together to form a blue supergiant, which subsequently exploded.
Mar 19th, 2020
Read moreAstronomers discover the first pulsating remains of a star in an eclipsing double star system
Scientists have discovered a pulsating ancient star in a double star system which will help further our understanding of how stars like the Sun evolve and die.
Mar 17th, 2020
Read moreAstrophysicists wear 3D glasses to watch quasars
Researchers have shown a way to determine the origins and nature of quasar light by its polarization. The new approach is analogous to the way cinema glasses produce a 3D image by feeding each eye with the light of a particular polarization: either horizontal or vertical.
Mar 13th, 2020
Read moreResearchers find new minor planets beyond Neptune
An updated catalog of trans-Neptunian objects, and the methods used to find them, could aid in future searches for undiscovered planets in the far reaches of the solar system.
Mar 12th, 2020
Read moreDiscovery points to the origin of mysterious ultraviolet radiation
Billions of lightyears away, gigantic clouds of hydrogen gas produce a special kind of radiation, a type of ultraviolet light known as Lyman-alpha emissions. The enormous clouds emitting the light are Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs). LABs are several times larger than our Milky Way galaxy, yet were only discovered 20 years ago.
Mar 12th, 2020
Read moreObserved: An exoplanet where it rains iron
This exoplanet, 390 light years away towards the constellation Pisces, has days when its surface temperatures exceed 2,400 Celsius, sufficiently hot to evaporate metals. Its nights, with strong winds, cool down the iron vapour so that it condenses into drops of iron.
Mar 11th, 2020
Read moreThe axion solves three mysteries of the universe
A hypothetical particle called the axion could solve one of physics' great mysteries: the excess of matter over antimatter, or why we're here at all.
Mar 10th, 2020
Read moreSlime mold simulations used to map dark matter holding universe together
The behavior of one of nature's humblest creatures is helping astronomers probe the largest structures in the universe.
Mar 10th, 2020
Read moreSolved: the mystery of the expansion of the universe
A new hypothesis to solve a conundrum that has been splitting the scientific community for a decade: at what speed is the universe expanding?
Mar 10th, 2020
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