What is the origin of the asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, and of their spinning-top shape? An international research team led by Patrick Michel, a CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire Lagrange (CNRS/Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur/Université Côte d’Azur) and Ronald-Louis Ballouz from the University of Arizona, proposes an answer to this question in an article published in Nature Communications on May 27,…
Tag: University of Arizona
Searching for scalar dark matter using compact mechanical resonators
Researchers at University of Delaware, University of Arizona and Haverford College have recently introduced the idea of searching for scalar dark matter using compact acoustic resonators. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, theoretically demonstrates the potential of mechanical systems in searching for dark matter. …
Hubble celebrates its 30th anniversary
For 30 years, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, launched April 24, 1990, has been snapping photos of distant stars, providing a time machine that has taken astronomers back to when the universe was less than a billion years old. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/hubble-30th-anniversary-video…
A beloved exoplanet turns to dust
Fomalhaut b was thought to be one of the few exoplanets photographed so far, but new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show it’s really an expanding dust cloud. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/fomalhaut-b-not-an-exoplanet-instead-a-dust-cloud…
Update on 2I/Borisov, the first known interstellar comet
The first known interstellar comet – 21/Borisov – probably came here from a red dwarf star, according to a new study of data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/comet-21-borisov-comets-red-dwarf-stars-hubble-space-telescope…
Was Mercury once habitable?
As unlikely as it may sound, Mercury may have once been able to support subsurface microscopic life, according to a new study from the Planetary Science Institute. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/mercury-habitability-chaotic-terrain-messenger-astrobiology…
Lunar lasers and cosmic crops: NASA funds UArizona space exploration missions
Many things change for astronauts when they leave Earth and head into space, but at least one remains the same: They need food and water. NASA recently awarded funding to two University of Arizona teams to search for water and grow food in space. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-lunar-lasers-cosmic-crops-nasa.html…
Save the giants, save the planet
Protecting large animals such as elephants and whales, and large plants like the sequoias, has a disproportionate positive impact on the health of the planet and resilience to climate change. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/why-to-conserve-large-animals-trees…
Could salt-loving microbes explain Mars’ methane?
New laboratory studies – simulating conditions on the planet Mars and using salt-loving microbes – suggest that similar organisms could be producing Mars’ mysterious methane. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/salt-loving-microbes-methane-on-mars…
Astronomers spy the Geminid meteors’ dust trail in space
Astronomers held a press conference this week to discuss the trail of dust left by 3200 Phaethon – the mysterious, blue rock-comet that spawns the Geminid meteor shower each year. This object was one of the 1st to blur the distinction between asteroids and comets. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/rock-comet-3200-phaethon-geminid-meteor-shower…