adplus-dvertising
Connect with us

Science

Telltale 'twist' points to the birth of a baby alien world – The Weather Network

Published

 on


Astronomers have made another stride forward in their quest to image the birth of a planet around another star directly.

For decades, scientists have been developing the basic ideas about how planets form around stars. First, a star forms from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust. The remaining material surrounding the star is spun into a disk by the star’s rotation, and parts of that disk clump together due to gravity. As these clumps gather more material to them, first planetesimals form, then protoplanets, and finally planets.

While this all makes sense, theoretically, these ideas still need to be verified by actual observations, and there are many details still missing from this model. Astronomers had to wait until 2018 for telescopes to improve to the point where they could start capturing images of protoplanetary disks. Until now, however, they still had not been able to focus in close enough to see an infant planet in the process of forming.

300x250x1

Over the past year, Anthony Boccaletti, from the Paris Observatory at France’s PSL University, led an international team in an attempt to do just that.

“Thousands of exoplanets have been identified so far, but little is known about how they form,” Boccaletti said in a European Southern Observatory (ESO) news release. “We need to observe very young systems to really capture the moment when planets form.”

Using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), high up in the mountains of Northern Chile, Boccaletti and his team zoomed in on AB Aurigae, a young star in the constellation Auriga, located around 520 light-years away from Earth.

The ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) beams a ‘guiding star’ laser up into the night sky, allowing its adaptive optics to take the clearest images of distant objects in space. Credit: ESO

Peering into the core of the AB Aurigae system, VLT captured the best images of the star’s planet-forming disk taken yet. Although they did not directly see a planet there, these images did capture the next-best thing.

AB Aurigae imaged by VLT SPHERE instrument eso2008aAB Aurigae imaged by the ESO’s SPHERE instrument. Credit: ESO/Boccaletti et al.

What we see here is an image captured by VLT’s Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument, also known as SPHERE. To produce this view of the system, SPHERE relies on a particular property of light to become ‘polarized’ as it reflects off a surface. SPHERE can apply various filters to collect the polarized light reflecting off dust grains and other objects surrounding a star. By doing so, it filters out all the unpolarized light being emitted directly by the star.

Thus, while a view like this would typically be completely washed out by the light from the star, SPHERE gives astronomers a detailed look without that bright interference.

AB-Aurigae-Planet-Forming-teaser-ESOThis VLT image for AB Aurigae reveals a bright ‘twist’ in the material around the star. Credit: ESO/Boccaletti et al./Scott Sutherland

By using SPHERE to observe AB Aurigae, Boccaletti and his team were able to resolve all the spirals of dense material (bright), and the darker gaps between those spirals.

In a particularly important find, though, they also spotted a bright ‘twist’ in the disk of material spiralling around the star, at roughly the same distance that Neptune orbits around the Sun. They identified this twist as the likely location of a planet in the process of forming.

As study co-author Emmanuel Di Folco of the Astrophysics Laboratory of Bordeaux (LAB) explained in an ESO press release, similar to a wave in the wake of a boat, this twist is a telltale sign that something big is moving through the gas and dust of this star’s protoplanetary disk.

AB-Aurigae-Planet-Forming-Spiral+Planet-eso2008cA larger view of the ‘twist’ reveals the spiral arms in more detail. The researchers also note a potential second planet in the view. Credit: ESO/Boccaletti et al./Scott Sutherland

“The twist is expected from some theoretical models of planet formation,” co-author Anne Dutrey, also with the Astrophysics Laboratory of Bordeaux, said in the press release. “It corresponds to the connection of two spirals – one winding inwards of the planet’s orbit, the other expanding outwards – which join at the planet location. They allow gas and dust from the disc to accrete onto the forming planet and make it grow.”

In the study, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, the researchers note that a second planet may be indicated in this view of AB Aurigae. It shows up as more of a ‘point source’, however, rather than another twist. They give a rough estimate that if this were another planet forming, it would likely be around three times the mass of Jupiter. The baby planet inside the ‘twist’ could be significantly larger, they say, with estimates of anywhere from 4-13 times Jupiter’s mass!

Astronomers will likely have to wait until the ESO completes their Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) in 2025 to revisit AB Augirae for a more detailed look. This current discovery is still significant, however. Not only will teach astronomers more about how alien exoplanets form, but it will help them to find even more of these baby planets in the making.

Sources: ESO | Phil Plait/Bad Astronomy/Syfy Wire | CBC

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Science

NASA to launch sounding rockets into moon's shadow during solar eclipse – Phys.org

Published

 on


This photo shows the three APEP sounding rockets and the support team after successful assembly. The team lead, Aroh Barjatya, is at the top center, standing next to the guardrails on the second floor. Credit: NASA/Berit Bland

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.

The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the created when the moon eclipses the sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 .

300x250x1

They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024. The mission is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab.

The sounding rockets will launch at three different times: 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse. These intervals are important to collect data on how the sun’s sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that have the potential to interfere with our communications.

The ionosphere is a region of Earth’s atmosphere that is between 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the ground. “It’s an electrified region that reflects and refracts and also impacts as the signals pass through,” said Barjatya. “Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.”

A sounding rocket is able to carry science instruments between 30 and 300 miles above Earth’s surface. These altitudes are typically too high for science balloons and too low for satellites to access safely, making sounding rockets the only platforms that can carry out direct measurements in these regions. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The ionosphere forms the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere—where we live and breathe—and the vacuum of space. It is made up of a sea of particles that become ionized, or electrically charged, from the sun’s energy or .

When night falls, the ionosphere thins out as previously ionized particles relax and recombine back into neutral particles. However, Earth’s terrestrial weather and space weather can impact these particles, making it a dynamic region and difficult to know what the ionosphere will be like at a given time.

It’s often difficult to study short-term changes in the ionosphere during an eclipse with satellites because they may not be at the right place or time to cross the eclipse path. Since the exact date and times of the are known, NASA can launch targeted sounding rockets to study the effects of the eclipse at the right time and at all altitudes of the ionosphere.

As the eclipse shadow races through the atmosphere, it creates a rapid, localized sunset that triggers large-scale atmospheric waves and small-scale disturbances or perturbations. These perturbations affect different radio communication frequencies. Gathering the data on these perturbations will help scientists validate and improve current models that help predict potential disturbances to our communications, especially high-frequency communication.

This conceptual animation is an example of what observers might expect to see during a total solar eclipse, like the one happening over the United States on April 8, 2024. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The APEP rockets are expected to reach a maximum altitude of 260 miles (420 kilometers). Each rocket will measure charged and neutral particle density and surrounding electric and magnetic fields. “Each rocket will eject four secondary instruments the size of a two-liter soda bottle that also measure the same data points, so it’s similar to results from fifteen rockets while only launching three,” explained Barjatya. Embry-Riddle built three secondary instruments on each rocket, and the fourth one was built at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

In addition to the rockets, several teams across the U.S. will also be taking measurements of the ionosphere by various means. A team of students from Embry-Riddle will deploy a series of high-altitude balloons. Co-investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts and the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico will operate a variety of ground-based radars taking measurements.

Using this data, a team of scientists from Embry-Riddle and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are refining existing models. Together, these various investigations will help provide the puzzle pieces needed to see the bigger picture of ionospheric dynamics.

The animation depicts the waves created by ionized particles during the 2017 total solar eclipse. Credit: MIT Haystack Observatory/Shun-rong Zhang. Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P. J., Goncharenko, L. P., Coster, A. J., Rideout, W. & Vierinen, J. (2017). Ionospheric Bow Waves and Perturbations Induced by the 21 August 2017 Solar Eclipse. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(24), 12,067-12,073. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076054

When the APEP- launched during the 2023 annular solar eclipse, scientists saw a sharp reduction in the density of charged particles as the annular eclipse shadow passed over the atmosphere.

“We saw the perturbations capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket that was before peak local eclipse,” said Barjatya. “We are super excited to relaunch them during the total eclipse to see if the perturbations start at the same altitude and if their magnitude and scale remain the same.”

The next total solar eclipse over the contiguous U.S. is not until 2044, so these experiments are a rare opportunity for scientists to collect crucial data.

Provided by
NASA

Citation:
NASA to launch sounding rockets into moon’s shadow during solar eclipse (2024, March 27)
retrieved 28 March 2024
from https://phys.org/news/2024-03-nasa-rockets-moon-shadow-solar.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Science

Royal Sask. Museum research finds insect changes may have set stage for dinosaurs' extinction – CTV News Regina

Published

 on


Research by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) shows that ecological changes were occurring in insects at least a million years before dinosaur extinction.

Papers published in the scientific journal, Current Biology, describe the first insect fossils found in amber from Saskatchewan and the unearthing of three new ant species from an amber deposit in North Carolina, according to a release from the province.

The amber deposit from in the Big Muddy Badlands of Saskatchewan, which was formed about 67 million years ago, preserved insects that lived in a swampy redwood forest about one million years before the extinction of dinosaurs.

300x250x1

“Fossils in the amber deposit seem to show that common Cretaceous insects may have been replaced on the landscape by their more modern relatives, particularly in groups such as ants, before the extinction event,” Elyssa Loewen, curatorial assistant, said.

The research team was led by Loewen and Dr. Ryan McKellar, the RSM’s curator of paleontology.

“These new fossil records are closer than anyone has gotten to sampling a diverse set of insects near the extinction event, and they help researchers fill in a 17-million-year gap in the fossil record of insects around that time,” Dr. McKellar said.

The three ant species discovered in North Carolina also belonged to extinct groups that didn’t survive past the Cretaceous period.

“When combined with the work in Saskatchewan, the two recent papers show that there was a dramatic change in ant diversity sometime between 77 and 67 million years ago,” Dr. McKellar said in the release.

“Our analyses of body shapes in the fossils suggests that the turnover was not related to major differences in ecology, but it may have been related to something like the size and complexity of ant colonies. More work is needed to confirm this.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Science

Meteors, UFOs or something else? Dawson City, Yukon, residents puzzled by recent sightings in night sky – CBC.ca

Published

 on


Some residents in Dawson City, Yukon, say they’ve been seeing unusual things in the night sky lately — and it’s not the Northern Lights. 

But some might say it’s equally as fascinating.

Over the past few weeks, some residents have taken to social media to report seeing what they described as a fireball or meteor overhead. And last week, two residents said they both saw something similar.

300x250x1

Naomi Gladish lives in Henderson Corner, a subdivision approximately 20 kilometres from downtown Dawson City. She told CBC News she saw something while walking her dog Friday morning.

“I looked up and saw a bright star,” Gladish said. “Or what I thought was a star.” 

“Within a fraction of a second, I realized it was actually moving quickly. And then as I watched it, a second later it grew a long tail.”

Dawson City resident Naomi Gladish said she saw something similar to the fireball shown in this image from the American Meteor Society. (American Meteor Society)

Gladish said the unknown object started to change into a pale blue colour, like a gas flame. Then, a few seconds later, it appeared to burn out.

“I could see fire, or coal,” Gladish said. “Like red glowing bits, breaking off of it. And then that was it. I tried watching to see if I could see any dark chunks falling from that spot, or carrying on from that spot, but the sky was dark.”

A minute or two after Gladish saw what she thought was a meteor, she heard a boom in the distance.

“My dog and I both turned our head to that exact direction that I had just seen it,” she said.”I figured it was related.”

Two women walking through snowy mountain terrain.
Naomi Gladish hiking with her sister at Tombstone Park. (Submitted by Naomi Gladish)

Dawson resident Jeff Delisle reported seeing something similar at about the same time. He then took to social media to ask if anyone else had seen it. Two people responded saying they had. 

“It flew right above me,” Delisle wrote.

“Pretty cool looking…. What is it?”

Likely not a meteor, says astronomer

Christa Van Laerhoven, president of the Yukon Astronomical Society, came across Delisle’s post and got in touch. She asked about what he’d seen, such as how long it was in the sky and the colour.

Van Laerhoven told CBC News that based on descriptions from both Delisle and Gladish, she doesn’t believe it could have been a meteor.

She says a meteor would have been moving much faster, and the colouring would have appeared differently. 

“Meteors can be any colour but … as a rule, are a consistent colour. What these people were describing had different colours. So the head looked blue and then the tail was more of an orange,” van Laerhoven said.

“That’s just something that doesn’t happen with meteors.”

a meteor
This zoomed-in still from a dashcam video captured in 2020 by Louise Cooke from Mount Lorne, Yukon, shows what one space science expert said appears to be an unusually-bright meteor travelling across the sky. (Submitted by: Louise Cooke)

Van Laehoven believes there may be another explanation for the recent unusual sightings: space junk, falling to earth.

“Space junk, when it comes in … comes through the atmosphere and starts glowing that can be more irregular, because of the variety of materials that go into a spacecraft.”

Van Laerhoven also suggested it could a very fast plane, or someone playing with rockets.

Gladish, however, doesn’t think anyone in Dawson was playing with rockets on Friday morning.

“Unless they’re talking about someone in China, or like a distant land playing with very high, powerful rockets … then sure,” she said.

“This was not something that someone in Dawson was doing … This came from much, much higher and it was much, much different to anything that would be locally caused.”

Van Laerhoven also dismissed another possibility: alien visitors.

“If aliens were coming to Earth, we would know,” she said.

“Simply because it would take them so much effort to get here that it would be very hard to imagine them getting here and not doing something dramatic enough that we would actually know about it.”

Adblock test (Why?)

728x90x4

Source link

Continue Reading

Trending