Before we send people to Mars, we need to understand more about how Martian dust could affect astronauts and their equipment. Here are 3 things we’ve learned from the planet’s 2018 global dust storm. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/understanding-mars-dust-storms…
Tag: gas
Arsenic-breathing life discovered in Pacific
Arsenic is a deadly poison for most living things, but new research shows that microorganisms are breathing arsenic in a large area of the Pacific Ocean. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/arsenic-breathing-microorganisms-discovered-in-pacific…
Matter around a young star helps astronomers explore stellar history
Astronomers map the substance aluminum monoxide (AlO) in a cloud around a distant young star—Origin Source I. The finding clarifies some important details about how our solar system, and ultimately we, came to be. The cloud’s limited distribution suggests AlO gas rapidly condenses to solid grains, which hints at what an early stage of our solar evolution looked like. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-young-star-astronomers-explore-stellar.html…
New water cycle on Mars discovered
Approximately every two Earth years, when it is summer on the southern hemisphere of Mars, a window opens: Only in this season can water vapor efficiently rise from the lower into the upper Martian atmosphere. There, winds carry the rare gas to the north pole. While part of the water vapor decays and escapes into space, the rest sinks back down…
Star formation burst created 50% of Milky Way disk stars
Analysis of data from the Gaia satellite shows a powerful burst of star formation – a stellar baby boom – in our Milky Way galaxy 2 to 3 billion years ago. This single burst might have created half the stars in the galaxy’s flat disk. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/star-formation-burst-created-50-of-milky-way-disk-stars…
Why can’t I find the Milky Way in May?
From the Northern Hemisphere now, the plane of the Milky Way is as parallel to your horizon as it can be, in early evening. Just wait. Around midnight, the starry band of the Milky Way will begin ascending in your eastern sky. Source: https://earthsky.org/tonight/milky-way-galaxy-flat-around-horizon-may…
Unfathomably deep oceans on alien water worlds?
Distant water exoplanets might have oceans thousands of miles deep. That’s in contrast to Earth’s ocean, which is about 6.8 miles (about 11 km) deep at its deepest point. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/exoplanet-water-worlds-deep-oceans-2019-study…
Jets and winds from galaxy cores appear to share a common cause
Astronomers have a rough understanding of how galaxies emit jets from their cores. Galaxy cores also blow out winds of ionized gas, for which researchers lack a general explanation. SRON astronomers have now found a correlation between jets and winds, suggesting magnetic fields as a common cause. The study is published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-jets-galaxy-cores-common.html…
Explosions of universe’s first stars spewed powerful jets
Several hundred million years after the Big Bang, the very first stars flared into the universe as massively bright accumulations of hydrogen and helium gas. Within the cores of these first stars, extreme, thermonuclear reactions forged the first heavier elements, including carbon, iron, and zinc. Source: https://phys.org/news/2019-05-explosions-universe-stars-spewed-powerful.html…
Why Pluto is losing atmosphere: Winter is coming
Pluto’s orbit is very elongated. Right now, it’s in a part of its orbit where its distance from the sun is steadily increasing. That fact is devastating its atmosphere. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/pluto-losing-atmosphere-winter…