This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a galaxy that’s hard to categorize. The galaxy in question is NGC 2775, which lies 67 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer (The Crab). NGC 2775 sports a smooth, featureless center that is devoid of gas, resembling anContinue Reading
Scientists at the U. S. Department of Energy Ames National Laboratory and Iowa State University have discovered an unexpected “quantum echo” in a superconducting material. This discovery provides insight into quantum behaviors that could be used for next-generation quantum sensing and computing technologies. Superconductors are materials that carry electricity withoutContinue Reading
This illustration shows Earth’s magnetosphere interacting with the solar wind. The magnetosphere shields the Earth from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. Credit: NASA Goddard/CIL/Josh Masters A new study led by Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Michael Starkey has provided observational evidence from the SwRI-led Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission of pickup ionsContinue Reading
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have proposed a new explanation for some of the universe’s most puzzling early galaxies, nicknamed “little red dots.” In the study, published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Authors Fabio Pacucci and Abraham (Avi) Loeb suggest that these galaxies are theContinue Reading
Researchers have for the first time isolated a compound that could open new doors in understanding the chemistry that supports life in space. Ryan Fortenberry, an astrochemist at the University of Mississippi, Ralf Kaiser, professor of chemistry at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, and Alexander M. Mebel, computational chemistContinue Reading
The solar atmosphere, or corona, is far hotter than the Sun’s surface, a paradox that has puzzled scientists for decades. Furthermore, the constant outflow of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun, known as the solar wind, is accelerated to incredible speeds. Turbulent dissipation – the process by which mechanicalContinue Reading
A team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has discovered a rare object far beyond Neptune, from a class known as trans-Neptunian objects, that is moving in rhythm with the giant planet. This object, called 2020 VN40, is the first confirmed body that orbitsContinue Reading
A new kind of cosmic object could help solve one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark matter. Particle Astrophysicists have proposed the existence of a strange new type of star-like object, called a ‘dark dwarf’, which may be quietly glowing in the center of our galaxy. Far from being darkContinue Reading
The pristine samples from asteroid Ryugu returned by the Hayabusa2 mission on December 6, 2020, have been vital to improving our understanding of primitive asteroids and the formation of the Solar System. The C-type asteroid Ryugu is composed of rocks similar to meteorites called CI chondrites, which contain relatively highContinue Reading
The puzzling behaviour of Titan’s atmosphere has been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol for the first time. By analysing data from the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency, the team have shown that the thick, hazyContinue Reading
