Heavens
SAN ANTONIO -- June 25, 2019 -- A Southwest Research Institute-led team studied the orientation of distant solar system bodies to bolster the "streaming instability" theory of planet formation.
"One of the least understood steps in planet growth is the formation of planetesimals, bodies more than a kilometer across, which are just large enough to be held together by gravity," said SwRI scientist Dr. David Nesvorny, the lead author of the paper "Trans-Neptunian Binaries as Evidence for Planetesimal Formation by the Streaming Instability" published in Nature Astronomy.
Using sophisticated computer simulations and observations, a team led by researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) at Tokyo Institute of Technology has shown how the so-called trans-Neptunian Objects (or TNOs) may have formed. TNOs, which include the dwarf planet Pluto, are a group of icy and rocky small bodies--smaller than planets but larger than comets--that orbit the Solar System beyond the planet Neptune. TNOs likely formed at the same time as the Solar System, and understanding their origin could provide important clues as to how the entire Solar System originated.
Diamonds are crystals of carbon that form deep in the Earth's mantle underneath the oldest continents, the cratons. They are transported to the surface of the earth in exotic magmas called kimberlites by explosive volcanic eruptions. Previous studies had always determined that diamonds include fluids containing sodium and potassium, but the origin of these fluids was unknown.
Researchers have developed a technology to analyze the adsorption behavior of molecules in each individual pore of a metal organic framework (MOF). This system has large specific surface areas, allowing for the real-time observation of the adsorption process of an MOF, a new material effective for sorting carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane.
ORLANDO, June 17, 2019 - Even though NASA's Cassini spacecraft's mission to Saturn ended in 2017, scientists are still poring over the copious amounts of data it transmitted.
Now, in a new paper that appeared in Science on Friday and includes two University of Central Florida co-authors, researchers are offering glimpses into the nature and composition of the mighty planet's legendary rings by using data from some of the closest observations ever made of the main rings.
International group of researchers including scientists from Skoltech have invented a new method for the generation of intense X and gamma-ray radiation based on Nonlinear Compton Scattering. Their results were published in the prestigious Physical Review Letters journal and the invention is about to get an international patent.
The newly-discovered dark dwarf galaxy Antlia 2's collision with the Milky Way may be responsible for our galaxy's characteristic ripples in its outer disc, according to a study led by Rochester Institute of Technology Assistant Professor Sukanya Chakrabarti.
The Solar System's second largest planet both in mass and size, Saturn is best known for its rings. These are divided by a wide band, the Cassini Division, whose formation was poorly understood until very recently. Now, researchers* from the CNRS, the Paris Observatory - PSL and the University of Franche-Comté have shown that Mimas, one of Saturn's moons, acted as a kind of remote snowplough, pushing apart the ice particles that make up the rings.
A mysterious large mass of material has been discovered beneath the largest crater in our solar system -- the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin -- and may contain metal from the asteroid that crashed into the Moon and formed the crater, according to a Baylor University study.
"Imagine taking a pile of metal five times larger than the Big Island of Hawaii and burying it underground. That's roughly how much unexpected mass we detected," said lead author Peter B. James,
Moons orbiting planets outside our solar system could offer another clue about the pool of worlds that may be home to extra-terrestrial life, according to an astrophysicist at the University of Lincoln.
Exoplanets are planets outside our solar system and up to this point nearly 4,000 have been discovered. Only a small proportion of these are likely to be able to sustain life, existing in what is known as the habitable zone. But some planets, especially large gas giants, may harbour moons which contain liquid water.
Belgian research groups from the VIB, Ghent University, Ghent University Hospital, and the biotech company argenx have solved a century-long puzzle about the presence of protein crystals in asthma. Normally, proteins do not crystallize in the body, but there are some instances where this process does occur. Charcot-Leyden Crystals are made from the protein Galectin-10 and were discovered in the airways of asthmatics as early as 1853. However, the crystals have been largely ignored by scientists, and their actual link to disease remained unknown.
In the strongly correlated materials such as cuprate high-temperature superconductors, superconductivity can be controlled either by changing the number of electrons or by changing the kinetic energy, or transfer energy, of electrons in the system.Although a large number of strongly correlated materials have been examined with different parameters to understand the mechanism of superconductivity, the range of parameter control is always limited. A versatile experimental method to achieve simultaneous control of the number and the transfer energy of the electrons has been long desired.
The Earth's magnetic shield booms like a drum when it is hit by strong impulses, according to new research from Queen Mary University of London.
As an impulse strikes the outer boundary of the shield, known as the magnetopause, ripples travel along its surface which then get reflected back when they approach the magnetic poles.
The interference of the original and reflected waves leads to a standing wave pattern, in which specific points appear to be standing still while others vibrate back and forth. A drum resonates like this when struck in exactly the same way.
On Jan. 30 2019, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) acquired a spectacular limb shot centered on the Chang'e 4 landing site, looking across the floor of Von Kármán crater. At the time, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was more than 200 kilometers from the landing site so Chang'e 4 was only a few pixels across and the rover was not discernable. The following day LRO was closer to the site and again slewed (59 degrees this time) to capture another view. This time the small Yutu-2 rover shows up (two pixels) just north of the lander.
New research undertaken at Northumbria University, Newcastle shows that the Sun's magnetic waves behave differently than currently believed.
Their findings have been reported in the latest edition of the prominent journal, Nature Astronomy.
After examining data gathered over a 10-year period, the team from Northumbria's Department of Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering found that magnetic waves in the Sun's corona - its outermost layer of atmosphere - react to sound waves escaping from the inside of the Sun.