Astronomy

Remote-controlled cockroaches with computers mounted on their backs can move as a swarm towards a target location, and could be used for search missions

Deadly bites could surge as venomous snakes migrate into unprepared countries as the climate changes

Just like Isaac Newton, Galileo and Albert Einstein, I’m not sure exactly when I became aware of Peter Higgs. He has been one of those names that anyone who has even the slightest interest in science, especially physics, has become aware of at some point. Professor Higgs was catapulted to fame by the concept of the Higgs Boson – or God Particle as it became known. Sadly, this shy yet key player in the world of physics passed away earlier this month.

Peter Higgs was born on 29th May 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne. He suffered with asthma as a child and, coupled with the family moving around due to his father’s work, was schooled at home for much of his earlier years. Whilst living in Bristol, Higgs’ father had to move to Bedford so Peter and is Mum stayed behind. Eventually he enrolled in Cotham Grammar School in Bristol where he excelled at science and won many prizes for his work. Surprisingly this tended to focus around chemistry rather than physics. It was at Cotham that he became fascinated by quantum mechanics.

By the time he was 17, he had moved to City of London School and here he focussed on mathematics, eventually graduating with a first-class honours degree in physics. His masters came two years later in 1952. In 1954, he was awarded a PhD with a thesis titled ‘Some Problems in the Theory of Molecular Vibrations from the Universe.’ Higgs tried to get a job at Kings College where he earned his PhD but was unsuccessful so moved to the University of Edinburgh and set about answering the question – Why do some particles have mass?

He worked upon the idea that, at the time when the Universe began, particles did not have mass. This was later gained due to interactions with something which became known as the Higgs Field. The concept was a field that permeates through space giving mass to sub-atomic particles like quarks and leptons. His work was an evolution of earlier work from Yoichiro Nambu from the University of Chicago.

Two other groups of scientists published work at similar times with a similar concept, but Higgs’ work published in 1964 was prominent and so the (theoretical) particle, that transferred mass, became known as the Higgs Boson. In the years that followed, scientists hunted for the new particle, chiefly using the Large Hadron Collider at CERN but Higgs retired by 2006 with nothing detected.

The Hadron Collider is a particle accelerator that had been built to simulate conditions equivalent to billionths of a second after the Big Bang. By crashing subatomic particles together and observing the interactions, scientists can probe the very nature of matter. It cost $10bn and it was this that scientists hoped would prove, or otherwise Higgs’ theory.

In 2012, Higgs received word from CERN at the collider ‘Peter should come to the CERN event or he will regret it!’ Higgs went along and to his delight and amazement, and at the age of 83 and 48 years after he published his theory, he heard that the Higgs Boson had finally been discovered. Higgs later said “It’s been a long wait but it might have been even longer, I might not have been still around. At the beginning I had no idea whether a discovery would be made in my lifetime.”

The discovery changed the face of physics and it was this that led to being awarded a Nobel Prize. Higgs didn’t own a mobile phone though and he found out about his award when a neighbour stopped him in the street to congratulate him. It is clear though that Higgs was in it for the science and not the fame that came with his groundbreaking discovery. He was a man who was often referred to as shy and retiring and he will be a great loss to the world of Physics. Professor Higgs died on 8th April 2021.

The post Peter Higgs Dies at 94 appeared first on Universe Today.

Astronomers have discovered the most massive stellar-born black hole ever seen in the Milky Way, and it lies relatively close to Earth.

A black hole 33 times the mass of the sun is the largest stellar black hole ever spotted, and its strange companion star could help explain how it got so huge

A black hole 33 times the mass of the sun is the largest stellar black hole ever spotted, and its strange companion star could help explain how it got so huge

After being packed up in Germany, a long voyage to the US and then a month in storage, ESA’s EarthCARE satellite has been carefully lifted out of its transport container so that the team at the launch site can start getting it ready for its big day in May.

Wading through the wealth of data from ESA’s Gaia mission, scientists have uncovered a ‘sleeping giant’. A large black hole, with a mass of nearly 33 times the mass of the Sun, was hiding in the constellation Aquila, less than 2000 light-years from Earth. This is the first time a black hole of stellar origin this big has been spotted within the Milky Way. So far, black holes of this type have only been observed in very distant galaxies. The discovery challenges our understanding of how massive stars develop and evolve. 

It’s been just over a week since millions of people flocked to places across North America for a glimpse of moonshadow. The total solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024 was a spectacular sight for many on the ground. From space, however, it was even more impressive as Earth-observing satellites such as GOES-16 captured the sight of the shadow sweeping over Earth.

NASA even got a snap of the eclipse from the Moon, as taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). Unlike most Earth-based photographers, however, LROC’s view was a tricky one to get. The cameras are line scanners and their images get built up line-by-line. That process requires the spacecraft to slew to keep up with the action and build up a complete view. Amazingly, it took only 20 seconds to capture all the action.

A short video of the eclipse shadow along the path of totality, captured by NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory.

NASA’s Deep Space Climate Observatory got an amazing view from Earth orbit, capturing the entire eclipse as it passed over the continent. That observatory “lives” out at LaGrange Point 1, which enabled it to get a full view of Earth and the Moon’s shadow.

Eclipse as Experience

For most viewers, the chase to see an eclipse meant driving (or flying) to somewhere along the path of totality to get the best view. That path stretched from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico up toward the northern Canadian provinces. That meant a wide swath of the U.S. experienced totality. Or course, the weather had to be good to see it all. In most places, that actually turned out reasonably well. Social media immediately came alive with images of the eclipse, people enjoying it, and others waiting vainly for a break in the clouds.

A composite of images taken during the total solar eclipse showing all the phases leading up to and after totality. NASA/Keegan Barber.

This writer was stationed off the coast of Mazatlán, Mexico, on a cruise ship with a group of amateur and professional astronomers. Although there were a few clouds, the view of the eclipsed Sun was nearly pristine. From the ship, everyone was able to watch the shadow approach, feel the temperature drop, and marvel at 4 minutes and 20 seconds of totality.

A projection of the partially eclipsed Sun on the stack of a cruise ship off the coast of Mazatlan. Image credit: Carolyn Collins Petersen.

In a few regions, however, people were only able to watch clouds get dark. And, for the majority of viewers outside of the path of totality, they could only get a partial view. Still, in many places, people went out to experience the event using eclipse glasses or pinhole projection methods to see those partial phases.

Eclipse from the Air

For those who could “fly the eclipse” it was an opportunity to take a jet plane along the path and prolong the experience. During the eclipse, flight-tracking apps showed a huge increase in traffic along the path. Several airlines had flights that tracked the path, giving lucky passengers the view of a lifetime for a short period.

A pilot flying a WB-57 jet during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. Credit: NASA/Mallory Yates

At least one NASA jet pilot captured a view as the aircraft passed through the shadow. In space, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station got a great shot of the umbra and penumbra passing over the maritime provinces of Canada.

A view of the eclipse shadow from the International Space Station. Courtesy NASA. Future Eclipses

The 2024 eclipse across North America left many with a taste for more moonshadow experience. Unfortunately, that was the last one for this part of the world until 2045. That’s when another one will sweep across the continent. Before that, however, there are other total solar eclipses, as well as lunar and annular events. The years 2026, 2027, and 2028 will feature totalities across parts of Europe, Egypt, and Australia. You can find out locations and dates for others at Mr. Eclipse, as well as NASA’s own eclipse site. For each event, there’ll be plenty of information about safe viewing, as well as “broadcasts” on social media for those outside of the paths of totality.

For More Information

2024 Eclipse as Seen From The Moon
The April 8 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA

The post More Views of the 2024 Eclipse, from the Moon and Earth Orbit appeared first on Universe Today.

Captured in this snapshot, the shadow of the Moon came to Lake Magog,

I’m really not sure what to call it but a ‘dusty sneeze’ is probably as good as anything. We have known for some years that stars surround themselves with a disk of gas and dust known as the protostellar disk. The star interacts with it, occasionally discharging gas and dust regularly. Studying the magnetic fields revealed that they are weaker than expected. A new proposal suggests that the discharge mechanism ‘sneezes’ some of the magnetic flux out into space. Using ALMA, the team are hoping to understand the discharges and how they influence stellar formation. 

In a fairly inconspicuous part of the Galaxy, a star slowly formed out of a cloud of gas and dust. This event took place around 4.6 billion years ago and soon, the hot young star began to clear the surrounding area of gas and dust. What remained was a disk surrounding the star known as a protostellar disk. Eventually the planets of our Solar System formed. It is not unique to our own system though as there have been disks like this found around many stars. A very well known example are the stars in the Trapezium cluster inside the Orion Nebula. 

Behind the Gas and Dust of Orion’s Trapezium Cluster

A team in Japan, from the Kyushu University have been examining data from the ALMA radio telescope to learn more about stars in the earliest stages of development. To their surprise they discovered the disks around new stars seem to emit jets or plumes of dust and gas and even electromagnetic energy. The team dubbed them ‘sneezes’ and its this process that seems to slowly erode the magnetic flux of a young star system. 

ALMA’s high-resolution images of nearby protoplanetary disks, which are results of the Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP). The observatory is often used to look for planet birth clouds like these and the one around HD 169142. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), S. Andrews et al.; NRAO/AUI/NSF, S. Dagnello

One phenomenon of the disks is a powerful magnetic field which permeates through the region. It therefore carries a magnetic flux and herein lies the problem. The magnetic fields would be far stronger than those observed if the magnetic flux had been retained from day one. History shows us, they didn’t seem to retain them so the flux has been slowly eroded away in new star and planetary systems. 

One such proposal was that the field slowly decreased as the surrounding dust cloud collapsed into the core of the star. To explore the phenomenon the team studied MC 27, a system 450 light years away using ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimetre Array. In total, 66 radio telescopes pointed to the object from an altitude of 5,000 metres. They found that there were ‘spike like’ structures that seemed to extend out by a few astronomical units (average distance between Sun and Earth.)

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Credit: C. Padilla, NRAO/AUI/NSF

The team found that the features contained gas and dust but had a magnetic flux. Known as ‘interchange instability’, the field exhibits instabilities when it reacts with different densities of gas. They referred to these, not as interchange instability but as a baby star’s sneeze. Just like a human sneeze which expels dust and gas or rather air from our bodies, so a young hot star ‘sneezing’ releases gas and dust from the disk. 

Further exploration revealed signs of other plumes several thousands of astronomical units from the protostellar disk. They suggest that these are evidence of other sneezes in the past. It’s not just on MC 27 though, the spikes have been seen in other star systems but more time is needed to be able to fully understand the implications of the discovery. 

Source : Twinkle twinkle baby star, ‘sneezes’ tell us how you are

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The total solar eclipse of 2024 was an epic experience to share with my daughter. It was one part celestial event, one part college prep.

A detailed analysis of the Winchcombe meteorite has found evidence that its parent asteroid was altered by water before being smashed apart multiple times.

The most recognizable feature on Pluto is its “heart,” a relatively bright valentine-shaped area known as Tombaugh Regio. How that heart got started is one of the dwarf planet’s deepest mysteries — but now researchers say they’ve come up with the most likely scenario, involving a primordial collision with a planetary body that was a little more than 400 miles wide.

The scientific term for what happened, according to a study published today in Nature Astronomy, is “splat.”

Astronomers from the University of Bern in Switzerland and the University of Arizona looked for computer simulations that produced dynamical results similar to what’s seen in data from NASA’s New Horizons probe. They found a set of simulations that made for a close match, but also ran counter to previous suggestions that Pluto harbors a deep subsurface ocean. They said their scenario doesn’t depend on the existence of a deep ocean — which could lead scientists to rewrite the history of Pluto’s geological evolution.

An artist’s conception shows the presumed collision of a planetary body with Pluto. (Thibaut Roger/University of Bern)

University of Arizona astronomer Adeene Denton, one of the study’s co-authors, said the formation of the heart “provides a critical window into the earliest periods of Pluto’s history.”

“By expanding our investigation to include more unusual formation scenarios, we’ve learned some totally new possibilities for Pluto’s evolution,” Denton said in a news release. Similar scenarios could apply to other objects in the Kuiper Belt, the ring of icy worlds on the edge of our solar system.

The study focuses on the western half of the heart, a roughly 1,000-mile-wide, teardrop-shaped region called Sputnik Planitia. That region contains an assortment of ices and is roughly 2.5 miles lower in elevation than the rest of Pluto. It’s clearly the result of a massive impact.

“While the vast majority of Pluto’s surface consists of methane ice and its derivatives, covering a water-ice crust, the Planitia is predominantly filled with nitrogen ice which most likely accumulated quickly after the impact due to the lower altitude,” said study lead author Harry Ballantyne, a research associate at the University of Bern.

The eastern half of the heart is covered by a similar but much thinner layer of nitrogen ice. The origins of that part of Tombaugh Regio are still unclear, but it’s probably related to the processes that shaped Sputnik Planitia.

Ballantyne and his colleagues ran a wide assortment of computer simulations for the ancient impact. Those simulations reflected a range of sizes and compositions for the impacting body, at different velocities and angles of approach. The best fit for Sputnik Planitia’s shape involved a 400-mile-wide object, composed of 15% rock, coming in at an angle of 30 degrees and hitting Pluto at a relatively low velocity.

Based on those parameters, the object would have plowed through Pluto’s surface with a splat. The resulting shape wouldn’t look like your typical impact crater. Instead, it would look like a bright, icy teardrop, with the rocky core of the impacting body ending up at the tail of the teardrop.

“Pluto’s core is so cold that the rocks remained very hard and did not melt despite the heat of the impact, and thanks to the angle of impact and the low velocity, the core of the impactor did not sink into Pluto’s core, but remained intact as a splat on it,” Ballantyne explained.

Previous scenarios for Sputnik Planitia’s origin relied on the presence of a deep ocean beneath Pluto’s surface to explain why the impact region hasn’t drifted toward Pluto’s nearest pole over time. But the researchers behind the newly published study found that the best matches in their simulations called for an ocean measuring no more than 30 miles in depth. “If the influence of ammonia proves negligible, Pluto might not possess a subsurface ocean at all, in accordance with our nominal case,” they wrote.

The researchers say they’ll continue their work to model Pluto’s geological history — and how those models could apply to other Kuiper Belt objects as well.

Meanwhile, the New Horizons spacecraft is continuing its journey through the solar system’s far reaches, nearly nine years after its Pluto flyby. Mission scientists recently reported detecting higher than expected levels of interplanetary dust, which suggests there may be more to the Kuiper Belt than they thought. They’re hoping to identify yet another icy world that the spacecraft can observe up close in the late 2020s or the 2030s.

In addition to Ballantyne and Denton, the authors of the Nature Astronomy study, titled “Sputnik Planitia as an Impactor Remnant Indicative of an Ancient Rocky Mascon in an Oceanless Pluto,” include Erik Asphaug, Alexandre Emsenhuber and Martin Jutzi.

The post How Did Pluto Get Its Heart? Scientists Suggest an Answer appeared first on Universe Today.

Look through the names and origins of the constellations and you will soon realise that many cultures had a hand in their conceptualisation. Among them are the Egyptians who were fantastic astronomers. The movement of the sky played a vital role in ancient Egypt including the development of the 365 day year and the 24 hour day. Like many other cultures they say the Sun, Moon and planets as gods. Surprisingly though, the bright Milky Way seems not to have played a vital role. Some new research suggests that this may not be the case and it may have been a manifestation of the sky goddess Nut! 

It’s a fairly well accepted theory that the pyramids of Egypt were constructed in some way as a representation of or tribute to the sky. The Sun god Ra was often depicted sailing the Sun across the sky in a boat but the Milky Way was never seemed to be a big part, other than perhaps some consideration that the river Nile could represent it. 

Nile River, Lake Nasser and the Red Sea, Egypt

Back in the days of ancient Egypt, light pollution really wasn’t a thing. The Milky Way would have been far more prominent than for many stargazers today. A recent study by astrophysicists at the University of Portsmouth suggest that a lesser heard god by the name of Nut had something to do with it. 

Hunt through Egyptian artwork and you will often see a star-filled woman arched over another person. The woman is Nut, the goddess of the sky and the other figure represents her brother, the god of Earth, Geb. Nut has a very specific job though, she protects the Earth from being flooded from waters of the void! Presumably this would be the void of space but of course back then we didn’t have such a great understanding of the cosmos. She also swallowed the Sun as it sets, giving birth to it again in the morning. 

Thankfully the Egyptians were fabulous at recording things and so there have been plenty of Egyptian texts to refer to. Running simulations from the evidence in the documents, the team (led by Dr Or Graur Associate Professor in Astrophysics) suggest that the Milky Way represented Nut’s outstretched arms in the winter and her backbone in the summer. This suggestion aligns with the broad patterns in the Milky Way. 

The arch of the Milky Way seen over Bisei Town in Japan. It prides itself on its dark skies, but faces scattered light pollution from other nearby municipalities. Courtesy DarkSky.Org.

Dr Graur went on to explain that their results revealed that Nut had far more of a functional role too. She was involved in the transition of deceased souls to the afterlife and had a connection with annual bird migrations. This is in line with many cultures like those in North and Central America believing the Milky Way was a road used by spirits or those in Finland and the Baltics who believed it was a path for birds. 

Source : The hidden role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian mythology

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The small object that crashed through the roof of a Florida home last month was indeed part of a pallet jettisoned from the ISS three years ago, NASA has confirmed.

BepiColombo spotted an outpour of carbon and oxygen atoms in Venus' fragile magnetic environment

Boeing Starliner astronauts spent hundreds of hours in simulators preparing for Crew Test Flight, which lifts off May 6. I got a brief taste of what they experienced.

One species of nematode worm turns into a kin-devouring nightmare if it grows up in a crowded environment with a poor diet

One species of nematode worm turns into a kin-devouring nightmare if it grows up in a crowded environment with a poor diet