Tag Archives: Space / planetary science

[ad_1] Astronomers have taken a step towards understanding how the Moon could have formed from a giant collision between the early Earth and another huge object 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists led by Durham University in the UK ran supercomputer simulations on the DiRAC high-performance computing facility to send a …

[ad_1] IMAGE: MIT physicists created a perfect fluid in the lab and recorded the sound of that “perfect flow”. The way sound travels through this fluid can be used to … visualize More Credit: Image: Christine Daniloff, MIT For some, the sound of a “perfect stream” might be the gentle …

[ad_1] The Gaia Space Telescope measured the acceleration of the Solar System as it orbits the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. The motion of the Solar System with respect to the stars agrees with the results of Finnish astronomers in the 19th century. Additionally, Gaia’s observational data improves …

[ad_1] What is Gaia? The goal of the ESA mission, launched on December 19, 2013, is none other than to produce a three-dimensional map of all the astronomical objects that can be detected by the satellite’s 1000-megapixel camera, an impressive average of three million stars per hour. The observations are …

[ad_1] IMAGE: A diagram of the Milky Way’s two most important companion galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud or LMC (left) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) made using data from … view More Credit: ESA / Gaia / DPAC On December 3, an international team of astronomers will announce the …

[ad_1] IMAGE: The Voyager spacecraft continues to make discoveries even as it travels through interstellar space. In a new study, physicists at the University of Iowa report on Voyager’s detection of cosmic rays … sight More Credit: NASA / JPL More than 40 years after its launch, the Voyager probe …

[ad_1] IMAGE: Artist’s impression of the system, with the star in the center and the internal dust ribbon from which the gas is produced and dispersed outwards to the … view More Credits: Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge Astronomers have captured a unique stage in the evolution of the …

[ad_1] On November 18, scientists from the US National Science Foundation’s National Solar Observatory predicted the arrival of a large sunspot just in time for Thanksgiving. Using a special technique called heliosismology, the team ‘listened to’ the change in sound waves from within the Sun that invite the arrival of …

[ad_1] IMAGE: Magellanic clouds above Bromo Semeru Tengger National Park, Java, Indonesia view More Credit: Gilbert Vancell- gvancell.com The spiral-shaped disc of stars and planets is pulled, twisted and deformed with extreme violence by the gravitational force of a smaller galaxy: the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Scientists believe that the …

[ad_1] Researchers have developed a new theory for observing a quantum vacuum that could lead to new insights into the behavior of black holes. The Unruh effect combines quantum physics and the theory of relativity. It has not been possible to measure or observe it so far, but now new …