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Category: space – Page 390

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration revealed on Thursday one of the closest-ever looks at an ice-covered moon orbiting Jupiter. That moon, named Europa, is widely considered the most promising place to search for life beyond Earth, according to the agency.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft buzzed by Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, on Thursday, coming within 220 miles of its surface around 5:36 a.m. ET. It is the first time the agency has glimpsed the moon that closely since its Galileo orbiter mission flew at a similar distance in 2000.

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The researchers are one step closer to making the technology viable.

Physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have taken a critical step forward toward achieving nuclear fusion.

The scientists traced back the collapse to the 3D disordering of strong magnetic fields.

Aleksandarnakovski/iStock.

Magnetic fields are used in fusion facilities as substitutes for the powerful gravity that holds fusion reactions in place in celestial bodies. However, in laboratory experiments these fields are disordered by plasma instability resulting in a superhot plasma rapidly escaping confinement. The ensuing heat can damage fusion facility walls.

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The universe’s first stars, known as population III, could have had masses up to 250 times greater than that of the Sun. We may now have proof of them.

Astronomers now believe they have discovered ancient chemical remnants of the universe’s first stars, according to new research published in The Astrophysical Journal.

For decades scientists have been diligently looking for direct evidence of these ‘first generation’ stars believed to have formed when the Earth was a modest 100 million years old. The discovery could improve our understanding of how matter in the universe evolved into what it is today, including us. Commons.

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An analysis of over 20 million stars shed new light on our galaxy’s cannibalistic past.

A nearby mini-galaxy, the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, slowly crashed through the Milky Way and ripped stars out of their regular orbits on more than one occasion, according to a new paper in the Royal Astronomical Society.

Their analysis shed new light on the galaxy’s violent past — one in which galaxies tear into each other, shifting their structures for eons to come.

Alex-mit/iStock.

Researchers used data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space observatory to compare the movements of over 20 million stars located throughout our galaxy, as per a LiveScience report.

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For billions of years, the Milky Way’s largest satellite galaxies—the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds—have followed a perilous journey. Orbiting one another as they are pulled in toward our home galaxy, they have begun to unravel, leaving behind trails of gaseous debris. And yet—to the puzzlement of astronomers—these dwarf galaxies remain intact, with ongoing vigorous star formation.

“A lot of people were struggling to explain how these streams of material could be there,” said Dhanesh Krishnarao, assistant professor at Colorado College. “If this gas was removed from these galaxies, how are they still forming stars?”

With the help of data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and a retired satellite called the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE), a team of astronomers led by Krishnarao has finally found the answer: the Magellanic system is surrounded by a corona, a protective shield of hot supercharged gas. This cocoons the two galaxies, preventing their gas supplies from being siphoned off by the Milky Way, and therefore allowing them to continue forming new stars.

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A new theory disputes a widely accepted claim about the existence of life on other planets.

The equivalence of life on Earth may hold the key to determining life existence on other planets according to a recent study published by Cambridge University Press.

Scientists have often questioned if the existence of life on Earth can tell us about abiogenesis, or the origin of life from inorganic substances, on other planets. Therefore the new insights may provide a fresh boost of understanding in the field.

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