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Category: Astronomy

‘Missing link’ may prove solar system’s water is older than the sun

March 13, 2023 sNawaWebs.ADV

Astronomers have detected an abundance of water in the form of gas in a disk of planet-forming material that surrounds a distant star. The disk appears to contain hundreds of times more water than in all of Earth’s oceans.

The discovery could give clues as to how water moves from star-forming clouds of gas and dust to planets, and could also indicate that Earth’s water may be older than the sun.

The team of astronomers reached their conclusion as a result of observations of V883 Orionis, an infant star or “protostar” located around 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Orion constellation using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Northern Chile.

“We can now trace the origins of water in our solar system to before the formation of the sun,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) astronomer and research lead author, John J. Tobin, said in a statement. (opens in new

News at a glance: Hubble interlopers, an ocean-drilling gap, and a near-sighted astronomer | Science

March 12, 2023 sNawaWebs.ADV

ASTRONOMY

Satellite swarms spoil Hubble’s view

Images from the iconic Hubble Space Telescope are increasingly marred by the tracks of passing satellites in higher orbits, a threat that could balloon as companies vie to build “megaconstellations” for global internet services. The rocket company SpaceX has launched more than 3500 of its Starlink satellites out of a planned 12,000; Amazon and the Chinese government have similar plans. Ground-based observatories are already seeing images spoiled, so researchers wanted to know how badly Hubble was affected. They enlisted members of the public to help identify trails, sometimes multiple ones, in more than 100,000 Hubble photos. The team’s analysis of those data, reported on 2 March in Nature Astronomy, suggests images taken before the start of Starlink had a 3.7% chance of containing a satellite trail. But in 2021—with 1562 Starlink satellites in orbit—that chance rose to 5.9%. The orbiting interlopers could interfere

Exploring the Mysteries of the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy

March 10, 2023 sNawaWebs.ADV

Introduction

Astronomy is the study of the universe, including planets, stars, galaxies, and other celestial objects. It is a fascinating field that has captured the imagination of people throughout history. Today, with advances in technology and scientific understanding, we are able to explore the universe in ways that were once unimaginable.

In this article, we will provide an introduction to astronomy and explore some of the key concepts and discoveries in this exciting field.

The History of Astronomy

The study of astronomy has a long and rich history that stretches back thousands of years. Many ancient civilizations, including the Egyptians, Greeks, and Chinese, studied the stars and planets, using them for navigation, timekeeping, and religious purposes.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, astronomers such as Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler made groundbreaking discoveries about the nature of the solar system, using telescopes to observe the planets and stars in greater … Read More

Astronomy

Newborn stars sculpt their galaxies in new James Webb telescope images

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A gaggle of galaxies crackle with intricate detail in new images from the James Webb Space Telescope. JWST’s sharp infrared eyes are revealing how newborn stars shape their surroundings, giving hints to how stars and galaxies grow up together.

“We were just blown away,” says Janice Lee, an astronomer at the University of Arizona in Tucson. She and more than 100 astronomers reported on scientists’ first look at these galaxies with JWST in a special February issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Before JWST launched in December 2021, Lee and her colleagues selected 19 galaxies that, if observed with the telescope, they thought could reveal new details of the life cycles of stars (SN: 1/24/22). These galaxies are relatively close, within 65 million light-years of the Milky Way, and all have different types of spiral structures. The team had observed the galaxies with many observatories, but parts

Astronomers find missing link for water in th

March 9, 2023 sNawaWebs.ADV

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected gaseous water in the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. This water carries a chemical signature that explains the