Astronomy

Faster-than-light warp drives are theoretically possible to build, and if aliens are using them, we should be able to detect the gravitational waves produced when one goes wrong

The nova caused HM Sge to brighten in our night sky by 250 times.

Meet Shaula, the bright star on the Scorpion's tail. It's a challenge for northern observers, but easy to find if it clears the horizon!

The post Meet Shaula: The Scorpion’s Triple-Pronged Stinger appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Europe’s newest rocket soon launches, taking with it many space missions each with a unique objective, destination and team at home, cheering them on. Whether launching new satellites to look back and study Earth, peer out to deep space or test important new technologies in orbit, Ariane 6’s first flight will showcase the versatility and flexibility of this impressive, heavy-lift launcher. Read on for all about the RAMI deployer, then see who else is flying first.

Starliner's two astronauts continue to put the capsule through a series of checks, while ground teams analyze helium leaks and other issues.

Scientists have identified a new species of pterosaur from a 100-million-year-old fossil in Australia, which appears to have had a massive tongue to push prey down its throat

Scientists have identified a new species of pterosaur from a 100-million-year-old fossil in Australia, which appears to have had a massive tongue to push prey down its throat

Ultrathin gold was achieved with the help of a century-old sword-making technique

XRISM could change the way we see the X-ray universe, but a jammed door presents a mighty challenge. With the door closed, low energy X-rays are impossible to detect. But trying to open the door could put the rest of the mission at risk.

Chemists are hard at work figuring out how to make tattoos last—and ensure they’re safe.

Image: Drone test of planetary landing radar

Video: 00:02:54

Proba-3 is ESA’s – and the world’s – first precision formation flying mission. A pair of satellites will fly together relative to the Sun so that one casts a precisely-controlled shadow onto the other, to create a prolonged solar eclipse in orbit. In the process the mission will open up the Sun’s faint surrounding coronal atmosphere for sustained study. Normally this corona is rendered invisible by the brilliant face of the Sun, like a firefly next to a bonfire.

Due for launch together this autumn, the two Proba-3 satellites will fly 144-m apart for up to six hours at a time to create these eclipses. Beside its scientific interest, this experiment will be a perfect method to demonstrate the precise positioning of the two platforms. It will be enabled using a novel combination of guidance technologies. In this video the Proba-3 team details the mission concept.

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A new collaboration between ESA and Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands has got passengers thinking about space. Digital screens throughout the airport featuring stunning  satellite images of Earth have been stopping travellers in their tracks. That's because these pictures from space are part of a fun Where on Earth? travel quiz.

Production of Galileo Second Generation satellites advances at full speed after two independent Satellite Critical Design Review boards have confirmed that the satellite designs of the respective industries meet all mission and performance requirements. This achievement is another crucial milestone hit on time in the ambitious schedule to develop the first 12 satellites of the Galileo Second Generation fleet.

A small trial has found that electrical stimulation of arm muscles while people do physiotherapy exercises leads to more improvement

A small trial has found that electrical stimulation of arm muscles while people do physiotherapy exercises leads to more improvement

Many astronomy-interested people know of the Hyades and the Pleiades. They’re star clusters in the Taurus constellation. They’re two out of a handful of star clusters that are visible to the unaided eye under dark sky conditions.

It turns out that these clusters, along with more than 150 other nearby clusters, all originated in only three massive star-forming regions.

Open star clusters like Hyades and Pleiades contain hundreds of stars that are loosely bound together by mutual gravitation. They have fewer stars than globular clusters and aren’t as tightly packed. They also aren’t spherical like globulars; instead, they follow the galactic plane. They’re usually found in the Milky Way’s spiral arms rather than the halo where globulars reside.

Eventually, open clusters lose their gravitational bond with one another and are called stellar associations. They still move through space together and are then known as a moving group. Their movement allows astronomers to understand their origins.

In a new research article in Nature, a team of researchers traced the origins of 155 young star clusters within about 3,500 light years from the Sun. The article is titled “Most nearby young star clusters formed in three massive complexes.” The authors are from institutions in Austria, Germany, and the United States.

“Young star clusters are excellent for exploring the history and structure of the Milky Way. By studying their movements in the past and thus their origin, we also gain important insights into the formation and evolution of our galaxy,” says João Alves from the University of Vienna, co-author of the study.

The researchers used Gaia data and spectroscopic observations of star clusters to trace their histories back over 60 million years. They uncovered three families of star clusters, each one associated with one of three star-formation regions. “This indicates that the young star clusters originate from only three very active and massive star-forming regions,” says Alves.

The researchers began with a sample of 272 clusters. They found that between 30 and 50 million years ago, almost 60% of their trajectories converged in three locations. This showed that “a large fraction of clusters in the solar neighbourhood share common origins.”

The three families of clusters are named after their most prominent members: Collinder 135 (Cr135), Messier 6 (M6), and Alpha Persei (?Per). The clusters contain 39, 34, and 82 clusters, respectively. Collectively, they contain 57% of the 272 clusters in the sample and 59% of the 48,514 stars in the sample.

This figure from the research shows the all-sky positions of the clusters’ stars along with some optical images of some of their members. The Alpha Persei members are more spread across the sky because they’re closest to the Sun. (Interactive Version Here.)Image Credit: Swiggum et al. 2024.

“These findings offer a clearer understanding of how young star clusters in our galactic neighbourhood are interconnected, much like members of a family or ‘bloodlines’,” says lead author Cameron Swiggum, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna. “By examining the 3D movements and past positions of these star clusters, we can identify their common origins and locate the regions in our galaxy where the first stars in these respective star clusters formed up to 40 million years ago.”

The team’s research uncovered more than just the history of star clusters. They also worked out that over 200 supernova explosions must have occurred in the three star-forming regions to eject all of these clusters. But supernova explosions are extraordinarily powerful and 200 of them release enough energy to shape their environment on a grand scale.

The authors say that these explosions created a gigantic bubble in the ISM. “This could explain the formation of a superbubble, a giant bubble of gas and dust with a diameter of 3,000 light-years around the Cr135 family,” Swiggum said in a press release.

Our Solar System is also inside one of these bubbles, called the Local Bubble. Inside the bubble the gas is thinner and hotter than outside it. “The Local Bubble is probably also linked to the history of one of the three star cluster families,” adds Swiggum. “And it has likely left traces on Earth, as suggested by measurements of iron isotopes (60Fe) in the Earth’s crust.”

This figure from the research shows three star cluster families and other local features on a dust map. The dust is shown in grey, and two prominent dust features, the Vela Molecular Ridge and the Radcliffe Wave, are labelled. The Sun is the yellow dot, and the Local Bubble is shown in blue. (Interactive Version Here.) Image Credit: Swiggum et al. 2024.

It’s a truism to say that finding connections between things creates meaning. The stars in the sky aren’t just “there.” There’s a long story to be told by unravelling what we see as static. This research is another example of the powerful Gaia spacecraft’s ability to find relationships between stars and weave an evidence-based tale of their histories. And we’re somewhere in the middle of it all.

“We can practically turn the sky into a time machine that allows us to trace the history of our home galaxy,” says João Alves. “By deciphering the genealogy of star clusters, we also learn more about our own galactic ancestry.”

The post The Nearby Star Clusters Come from Only Three Places appeared first on Universe Today.

Starfield might have disappointed some at launch, but in typical Bethesda fashion, it's continuing to expand and giving more power to the players.

More than 200 Chinese scientists gathered in Beijing recently for a seminar about the geology of the Chang'e 6 mission's landing area. Samples from the site are scheduled to arrive on Earth on June 25.