The natural brightness of the night sky.
Some 80% of the human population lives in places with light pollution, and around a third of them cannot see the Milky Way. Analysis of data from 44 of the darkest places in the world found that the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands has the darkest night skies. Artificial light adds only 2% to the natural background.
The study has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal and is available as a preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.01066
#sciencenews #astronomy
Some 80% of the human population lives in places with light pollution, and around a third of them cannot see the Milky Way. Analysis of data from 44 of the darkest places in the world found that the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in the Canary Islands has the darkest night skies. Artificial light adds only 2% to the natural background.
The study has been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal and is available as a preprint: https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.01066
#sciencenews #astronomy
Volcanoes on Mars could be active.
Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Mars shows that eruptions could have taken place in the past 50,000 years, according researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. This geologically recent activity suggests that eruptions could still take place in the future.
The evidence has been published in the journal Icarus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019103521001779
#sciencenews #astronomy
Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Mars shows that eruptions could have taken place in the past 50,000 years, according researchers at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. This geologically recent activity suggests that eruptions could still take place in the future.
The evidence has been published in the journal Icarus: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019103521001779
#sciencenews #astronomy
60 years ago, United States of America announced the Apollo program that successfully brought humankind to the Moon!
Hurray to Science!
For thousands of years Moon was studied and admired by our ancestors, eventually because of its proximity to Earth, so one can spot it with a bare eye.
But in the 60s of 20th century the tremendous scientific work made it possible for humans to walk on the surface of Moon!
What are your thoughts about Moon and the ways we need further explore it?
#sciencenews #astronomy
Hurray to Science!
For thousands of years Moon was studied and admired by our ancestors, eventually because of its proximity to Earth, so one can spot it with a bare eye.
But in the 60s of 20th century the tremendous scientific work made it possible for humans to walk on the surface of Moon!
What are your thoughts about Moon and the ways we need further explore it?
#sciencenews #astronomy
The oldest spiral galaxy.
Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has shown a galaxy with a spiral morphology formed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang - the most ancient of its kind in the known universe.
The report is published in Science: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/05/19/science.abe9680
#sciencenews #astronomy
Data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) has shown a galaxy with a spiral morphology formed just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang - the most ancient of its kind in the known universe.
The report is published in Science: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2021/05/19/science.abe9680
#sciencenews #astronomy
Science
Spiral morphology in an intensely star-forming disk galaxy more than 12 billion years ago
The early assembly of galaxies is thought to have produced disturbed and asymmetric objects. Morphological features seen in nearby galaxies, such as stellar disks, bulges, and spiral arms, require time to form and would be disturbed by the frequent galaxy…
Massive white dwarf.
Astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen, formed from the merger of a binary system of two smaller white dwarfs. The star has a mass greater than the Sun, but a size closer to that of the Moon.
The discovery has recently been published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03615-y
#sciencenews #astronomy
Astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility have discovered the smallest and most massive white dwarf ever seen, formed from the merger of a binary system of two smaller white dwarfs. The star has a mass greater than the Sun, but a size closer to that of the Moon.
The discovery has recently been published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03615-y
#sciencenews #astronomy
Nature
A highly magnetized and rapidly rotating white dwarf as small as the Moon
Nature - A binary star merger has produced a white dwarf with a spin period of under 7 minutes, a magnetic field of 600 to 900 million gauss and a radius only slightly larger than that of our Moon.
Hawking’s black hole theorem - confirmed.
Hawking’s central law for black holes predicts that the area of their event horizons should never shrink. Physicists at MIT have confirmed Hawking's theorem using experimental observations of gravitational waves.
Their confirmation is published in Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.011103
#sciencenews #astronomy
Hawking’s central law for black holes predicts that the area of their event horizons should never shrink. Physicists at MIT have confirmed Hawking's theorem using experimental observations of gravitational waves.
Their confirmation is published in Physical Review Letters: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.011103
#sciencenews #astronomy
Physical Review Letters
Testing the Black-Hole Area Law with GW150914
By comparing the sizes of black holes before and after a merger, researchers have tested Hawking's theorem on black hole areas.
Life on Enceladus?
A new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the @University of Arizona suggests an unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The unexpected presence of methane could be a sign of life in the depths of the moon.
The paper is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01372-6
#sciencenews #astronomy
A new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the @University of Arizona suggests an unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus. The unexpected presence of methane could be a sign of life in the depths of the moon.
The paper is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41550-021-01372-6
#sciencenews #astronomy
Nature Astronomy
Bayesian analysis of Enceladus’s plume data to assess methanogenesis
Nature Astronomy - What is the origin of the methane detected in Enceladus’s plumes? A Bayesian approach to the problem shows that abiotic serpentinization of rocks cannot explain the...
Sparkling cluster galaxy.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys have been used to capture an image of the NGC 6717 galaxy. Located 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius, NGC 6717 is a spherical grouping of stars held together by gravity.
The image can be seen at: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-captures-a-sparkling-cluster
#sciencenews #astronomy
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys have been used to capture an image of the NGC 6717 galaxy. Located 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius, NGC 6717 is a spherical grouping of stars held together by gravity.
The image can be seen at: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-captures-a-sparkling-cluster
#sciencenews #astronomy
NASA
Hubble Captures a Sparkling Cluster
This star-studded image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts NGC 6717, which lies more than 20,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.