Astronomy

[Seldom Bucket]

Hubble Photo of Globular Cluster NGC 6441, One of the Most Massive in the Milky Way

The Hubble Space Telescope has delivered another outstanding image. This one is of NGC 6441, a massive globular cluster in the constellation Scorpius. It’s one of the most massive ones in the Milky Way, and the stars in it have a combined mass of 1.6 million solar masses.

NGC 6441 is a gorgeous visual spectacle. It’s also of great scientific interest; it hosts four pulsars, an abnormally high number of variable stars, and has a rather high metallicity for a globular cluster. And it’s host to several Type II Cepheid stars, which is unusual for a cluster with high metallicity.

It was discovered in 1826 by Scottish astronomer James Dunlop, who also published “A Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars in the Southern Hemisphere observed in New South Wales” in 1828. Those were challenging times for observers, and only about half of the objects he discovered were actually real. The remainder were artifacts of the telescopes of the time.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

A 2nd Planet has been Confirmed for Proxima Centauri

Our closest stellar neighbour is Proxima Centauri, a small red dwarf star about 4.2 light years away from us. It’s the third member of the Alpha Centauri group, and even though it’s so close, it can’t be seen with the naked eye. In 2016 astronomers discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centuari, named Proxima Centauri b. That planet was confirmed only a few days ago.

Now, astronomers have confirmed the existence of a second planet, Proxima Centauri c.

The presence of this second planet was reported in a paper back in April. That paper is titled “A Preliminary Mass for Proxima Centauri C*.” It was published in Research Notes of the AAS. Fritz Benedict, lead author of the work, recently presented these results at the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

 

[biometrics]

There could be 36 communicating intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, study says

Earth has proven unique in its ability to host life in the universe so far, leading us to question if we're truly alone.

Maybe we're not.

Scientists have calculated that there could be a minimum of 36 active, communicating intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, according to a new study. However, due to time and distance, we may never actually know if they exist or ever existed.

The study published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.

There could be 36 communicating intelligent civilizations in our galaxy, study says

Scientists have calculated that there could be a minimum of 36 active, communicating intelligent civilizations in our Milky Way galaxy, according to a new study published Monday in The Astrophysical Journal.

edition.cnn.com

 

[Tribs]

Planets in our Universe can get extremely large, but stars get even bigger. In this video we explore the sizes of moons, planets, stars, and even beyond, including black holes and even galaxies. Basically a comparison of the entire Universe. Support the channel on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/HarryEvett

 

[Seldom Bucket]

Antares is a supergiant star that would fill the Solar System beyond Mars, but its atmosphere is 12 times bigger than that

Antares, the angry red eye of the constellation Taurus the bull, is a red supergiant star near the end of its life. And astronomers with the VLA and ALMA have realized that it’s much, much bigger than we ever imagined.


So when I say that Antares is a big star, I don’t think you really appreciate just how big it is. By mass it’s not the most impressive thing in the universe – just about a dozen times more massive than our sun. But Antares is in the late stages of its life cycle, running out of usable hydrogen in its core. The increasing presence of helium – the byproduct of hydrogen fusion – in the core pushes the hydrogen burning into a shell around it. This in turn inflates the rest of the star to grotesque proportions.


It’s a big star.

 

[Tribs]

Not sure if this is the best place for this. Came across it last night - totally fascinating even if it is "promotional material" for a learning site.
I am putting it here because they reference the planets and communication between earth and the heavenly bodies.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

Pluto and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Started Out With Water Oceans, and Have Been Slowly Freezing Solid for Billions of Years

It seems unlikely that an ocean could persist on a world that never gets closer than 30 astronomical units from the Sun. But that’s the case with Pluto. Evidence shows that it has a sub-surface ocean between 100 to 180 km thick, at the boundary between the core and the mantle. Other Kuiper Belt Objects may be similar.


But time might be running out for these buried oceans, which will one day turn to ice.


For a long time, thinking about Pluto’s ocean was centered around one question: How did Pluto’s ocean survive to the present day? Embedded in that question is the accepted scenario for Pluto’s formation: the ice dwarf originated as a frozen ball of ice and rock. Some of that rock underwent radioactive decay, releasing enough heat to melt some of the ice, creating a sub-surface ocean covered with a layer of ice.

 

[TabacNW]

@Mad_Dog pretty much a thread talking to yourself ? Want my whatsapp number ?

 

[biometrics]

@Mad_Dog pretty much a thread talking to yourself ? Want my whatsapp number ?

I enjoy these posts. Not much to discuss other than reading it.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

@Mad_Dog pretty much a thread talking to yourself ? Want my whatsapp number ?

Its more of an info thread for people to read.


I already have chuckys, you can give me yours

 

[TabacNW]

Its more of an info thread for people to read.


I already have chuckys, you can give me yours

Aha. I was moerse interested in astronomy when young. Now i just point out star constelations to impress a chick.

 

[satanboy]

Astronomers see first light flare from two distant black holes colliding

Astronomers see first light flare from two distant black holes colliding

"If it’s two black holes merging, you don’t expect to see anything."

www.theverge.com

 

[Seldom Bucket]

A Hunt for Ice on the Moon Ends in Surprise: What the Moon’s Really Made of

What started out as a hunt for ice lurking in polar lunar craters turned into an unexpected finding that could help clear some muddy history about the Moon’s formation.

Team members of the Miniature Radio Frequency (Mini-RF) instrument on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft found new evidence that the Moon’s subsurface might be richer in metals, like iron and titanium, than researchers thought. That finding, published July 1 in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, could aid in drawing a clearer connection between Earth and the Moon.

“The LRO mission and its radar instrument continue to surprise us with new insights about the origins and complexity of our nearest neighbor,” said Wes Patterson, Mini-RF principal investigator from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, and a study coauthor.

 

[Seldom Bucket]

Gigantic Star Has Suddenly Vanished in Cosmic Mystery

A stellar object inside the Kinman dwarf galaxy has vanished from view. A gigantic and extraordinarily bright blue star was hypothesized to exist, based on astronomical observations that happened from 2001 to 2011.

But beginning sometime in 2019, no one else could detect it.

The study's authors — headed by Andrew Allan of Trinity College Dublin, have come up with two explanations: The star has either experienced a sharp drop in luminosity and is momentarily hiding behind stellar dust, or it has collapsed into a new black hole without exploding into a supernova.

If the latter is the case, it would mark the second-known failed supernova.

 

[Tribs]

Gigantic Star Has Suddenly Vanished in Cosmic Mystery

Could there be a cosmic cloud in the way ? Ah ok - they mention stellar dust. That is what I meant.

 

[satanboy]

Astronomers Discover Deep-Space “Structure,” 1.4 Billion Light Years Across
That's roughly 8,400,000,000,000,000,000,000 miles.

Astronomers have created a 3D map of a cosmic structure so gigantic that it’s almost impossible to even comprehend.

The “South Pole Wall” is a flabbergasting 1.4 billion light years across and contains hundreds of thousands of galaxies, Live Science reports. That puts it on par with the Sloan Great Wall, the sixth largest cosmic structure ever discovered at 1.38 billion light-years across.

“The surprise for us is that this structure is as big as the Sloan Great Wall and twice as close, and remained unnoticed, being hidden in an obscured sector of the southern sky,” Daniel Pomarède from Paris-Saclay University and lead author of a paper about the research published in The Astrophysical Journal today, told The New York Times in an email.

Astronomers discover deep-space "structure," 1.4 billion light years across

Address to: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way, Local Group cluster, Virgo cluster, Laniakea supercluster.

futurism.com

 

[Seldom Bucket]

A Radical Hypothesis Says Planet Nine Could Be a Black Hole. Here's How to Find Out

A comet-eating black hole the size of a planet? It's possible. And if there's one out there in the distant Solar System, a pair of researchers think they know how to find it.

If they do, we might finally put the Planet Nine issue to rest.

The researchers are Avi Loeb, a Professor of Science at Harvard, and Amir Siraj, a Harvard undergraduate student. The paper outlining their thinking is titled "Searching for Black Holes in the Outer Solar System with LSST". It's been accepted by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Out beyond the orbit of Neptune, a cluster of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) is shepherded together gravitationally by some body with enough mass to do so. One of the explanations for this is the Planet Nine hypothesis. But finding that planet is a near-impossible task, and its existence remains hypothetical.

Some researchers have put forth other explanations for the cluster of Kuiper Belt Objects with their unusual orbits. A disc of icy material was one explanation. Another study suggested the collective mass of the KBOs themselves was responsible.

 

[biometrics]

First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and—until now—astronomers had never directly observed more than one planet orbiting a star similar to the sun. The observations can help astronomers understand how planets formed and evolved around our own sun.

First image of a multi-planet system around a sun-like star

The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) has taken the first ever image of a young, sun-like star accompanied by two giant exoplanets. Images of systems with multiple exoplanets are extremely rare, and—until now—astronomers had never directly observed more than one...

phys.org

 

[satanboy]

So, astronomers *may* have found evidence of life on Venus

Astronomers have found phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus, which on Earth is an indication of life. Skepticism is called for, though.

www.syfy.com

 

[Nicholas]

Giant planet spotted orbiting a white dwarf star