UNAWE Space Scoop

Death by Spaghettification

Mon, 12 Oct 2020 10:08:42 +0200

Spaghetti in space? Not quite!

The Noodle Effect

Black holes are some of the most powerful objects in the Universe. When an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole in the centre of a galaxy, it gets ripped apart by a black hole. As it is being ripped apart, it becomes extremely stretched out and resembles spaghetti!

Astronomers call this 'Spaghettification' or 'the Noodle Effect'.

Caught in the Act

Astronomers have now observed this violent act in new detail, as a star (formally known as AT2019qiz) roughly 215 million light-years from Earth was sucked in by a black hole.

In order to study this dramatic event, they used telescopes from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and other organisations around the world to observe what happened after the star was ripped apart by the black hole: a blast of light.

This is the closest blast of this kind that astronomers have found to date.

Tidal Effect

This blast of light happens because huge amounts of energy are released as the black hole eats up the star and spits out the star’s debris. This is known to astronomers as a tidal disruption event. The scientists watched the star’s bright blast of light grow strong and then fade away over a period of 6 months.

Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

Cool Fact

Astronomers were able to capture a blast of dust and debris from this demolished star. This material was being spit out by at speeds of up to 10 000 km/s - that’s about 100 times as fast as a bolt of Lightning!

Help! I’m Trapped!

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 09:00:00 +0200

Imagine being trapped in an enormous spider web that’s much larger than the Milky Way. What’s even scarier is that at the center of this web is a black hole. This is the haunting reality being faced by a newly-discovered group of galaxies!

An Enormous Web and A Lurking Monster

With the help of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have found six galaxies lying around a supermassive black hole when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

The galaxies are all lying in a cosmic “spider’s web” of gas extending to over 300 times the size of the Milky Way.

This is the first time such a close grouping of galaxies has been seen so soon after the Big Bang. This discovery is helping us to better understand how really big black holes, known as supermassive black holes, formed and grew to their enormous sizes so quickly.

A Surprising Growth Spurt

The very first black holes are believed to have formed when the Universe’s first stars collapsed and died. This also means they must have grown very fast.

But, astronomers have struggled to explain how large amounts of black hole “food” could have been around in the early Universe to feed these giant monsters.

The new-found spider web structure and the galaxies within it likely contained enough gas to grow to its supermassive size. Astronomers also think the mysterious dark matter was another source of food in the giant spider web to help the black hole grow.

Image credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Cool Fact

Our own Milky Way galaxy also hosts a supermassive black hole at its center. But don’t worry, it’s not close to us! In fact, it’s 26,000 light-years away from our Solar System. It’s also believed to be over 4 million times more massive than our Sun!

Hubble Snaps New Image of Jupiter

Thu, 17 Sep 2020 19:00:00 +0200

Jupiter is made up of gasses that form cloudy belts that can even be seen with a small telescope. This gas giant is also seen by larger telescopes, like the Hubble Space Telescope, which has captured a beautiful new snapshot of this gas giant!

A Windy Weather Report

This latest image of Jupiter was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on 25 August 2020.

Hubble’s sharp view of Jupiter is giving researchers an updated weather report on the monster planet’s violent atmosphere.

For example, the image has revealed a new storm brewing. In the top half of the planet, there is a white stretched out storm that looks like a ghost moving across the planet. This storm is moving at 550 kilometers per hour - that’s about three times as fast as a Tornado!

The Moon Europa

The new image also shows a small dot to the left of Jupiter - this is the moon Europa!

This icy moon is believed to be home to a liquid ocean beneath its icy crust. This makes it a destination of interest for researchers who think we may one day find signs of life in these oceans!

The Great Red Spot

The gas giant Jupiter is home to the famous Great Red Spot - which is clearly visible in this new image. The storm is so big that it could swallow the Earth!

The Great Red Spot’s storm has been raging for over 150 years. The Hubble Space Telescope has watched the storm for many years and has noticed that it is getting smaller. This image also suggests that the storm is still shrinking, but astronomers don’t know why. You can read more about this mystery in this Space Scoop from 2019.

The Hubble Space Telescope will continue to watch Jupiter to learn more about its mysterious Great Red Spot and its other storms.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) and the OPAL team

Cool Fact

Jupiter is over 100 times bigger than Earth! The giant planet has two and a half times more mass than all the rest of the planets in our Solar System combined.

A Surprise Planetary Companion

Wed, 16 Sep 2020 17:00:00 +0200

Planets are not found around all stars. In fact, sometimes astronomers find them where we least expect them to be!

White Dwarfs

When a Sun-like star has burned up all its fuel, it begins to collapse inwards. The material in the star's core ends up squashed tightly down into a tiny ball called a white dwarf.

During this process, planets that orbit close to the star are usually swallowed up by the star itself. It is therefore not common to find planets orbiting white dwarf stars, especially not big planets…

Surprise!

But, this is exactly what astronomers have found!

For the first time, an intact, giant exoplanet has been discovered orbiting close to a white dwarf star.

The planet, formally known as WD 1856b, is around 13 times as massive as the planet Jupiter. It was found using data from the Gemini North Telescope of NOIRLab, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, and more.

This discovery tells us that it is possible for Jupiter-sized planets to survive their star’s demise. It also indicates that they can find a new home orbiting around the white dwarf star.

A Sign of the Future?

It is expected that our own Sun will one day become a white dwarf too (not anytime soon however!).

This means that much of our solar system will be swallowed up by our Sun as it nears the end of its life when transitioning into a white dwarf - including Earth. However, this new finding suggests that perhaps some of the larger gas planets in our solar system might survive!

Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Cool Fact

White dwarfs are very dense (meaning they are tightly packed). In fact, if you were to capture just one teaspoon of a white dwarf, it would weigh as much as an elephant on Earth!

Life on Venus?

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 17:00:00 +0200

Astronomers and the public are all eager to learn if there is life elsewhere in the Universe. Today, an exciting discovery has been announced that suggests there could be signs of life on a nearby neighbour.

A Special Molecule

Today an international team of astronomers announced the discovery of a rare molecule — phosphine — in the clouds of Venus.

This exciting discovery of phosphine could point to the existence of life!

On Earth, this molecule is usually created by special microbes that prefer to live in environments where there is no oxygen. This isn’t common, as most living things on Earth need oxygen to survive.

Astronomers have long wondered if the high clouds on Venus could offer a home for microbes. Up in these clouds, the microbes are far from the hot surface of Venus.

Although the high clouds of Venus have pleasant temperatures of around 30 degrees Celsius, they are incredibly acidic — making it very uncomfortable for any microbes trying to survive there.

Collaboration and Future Explorations

The molecule was first spotted by the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaiʻi. This surprising discovery was then confirmed by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.

The team believes their discovery is important because they can rule out many other ways to make phosphine. However, they also understand that confirming the finding of life on Venus will take a lot more work. This means there is much more research (and hopefully exciting findings) to come!

Image credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/L. Calçada & NASA/JPL/Caltech

Cool Fact

Venus is one of the brightest objects in the night sky! But it’s visible only sometimes and for small periods: just before sunrise (look east) or just after sunset (look west).

A Missing Ingredient

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 20:00:00 +0200

The Universe is full of unanswered questions. One of the biggest questions astronomers are trying to answer is what is the Universe made of? Astronomers know that the Universe is full of dark matter, but we still don’t fully understand it…

The Mysterious Dark Matter

Dark matter is a mysterious and peculiar material that got its name because it doesn’t give off any light - it’s totally invisible. Yet, astronomers think there is 5 times as much of this strange material in the Universe as there is normal matter that we can see.

We know that dark matter exists because we can see the effect that it has on the things around it. Like seeing paw prints in the snow made by an invisible dog. And we know that it mostly hangs out around galaxies - we believe it’s what helps keep them held together!

A Missing Ingredient?

Astronomers have recently made an exciting discovery: something may be missing from how we understand dark matter to behave! This was found by combining data and images from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope.

The international team of astronomers investigated galaxy clusters in their study. Galaxy clusters are groups of galaxies that are clumped together. They are also where most of the Universe’s dark matter is found. In these galaxy clusters, dark matter is heaped like in a mountain range, with lots of high peaks and valleys.

The team created a map to understand how the dark matter is spread out in three galaxy clusters (like the one shown in this image). They were surprised to find that smaller clumps of dark matter (like the lower valleys of a mountain range) are much stronger than they previously believed. This likely means there is something missing in our understanding of how dark matter behaves with stars and galaxies throughout the Universe.

There will be many more studies conducted in the future to help uncover the mysteries of dark matter!

Image credit: NASA, ESA, G. Caminha (University of Groningen), M. Meneghetti (Observatory of Astrophysics and Space Science of Bologna), P. Natarajan (Yale University), the CLASH team, and M. Kornmesser (ESA/Hubble)

Cool Fact

Can you spot the squiggly lines and funny shapes in this image? These are galaxies! They appear strange to us because their light has been bent out of shape due to the pull of gravity from other galaxies and dark matter! This is called gravitational lensing and you can learn more about it in this Space Scoop. Gravitational lensing is the effect that was used to map the dark matter shown in this image!

Tilted Wonder

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 20:00:00 +0200

Imagine a giant dinner plate that could fit our entire solar system. Almost all of the planets would be touching the plate because our solar system is very flat. But this is not always the case because some systems in the universe are tilted!

A Violent Series of Events

For a solar system to become tilted, something must have changed its shape. This can also happen long before planets form, when the system is still a large disc of gas and dust.

An international team of astronomers have found the first direct evidence that groups of stars are strong enough to tear apart their planet-forming discs. This creates a warped and tilted disc!

The team studied a system called GW Orionis, which is 1300 light years away in the constellation Orion. This system has three stars and a large deformed, broken-apart disc surrounding them.

A Home for Planets?

When a star is born, any leftover gas and dust forms a disc around it, similar to Saturn's rings. Within this disc, small dust grains made of rock or gas sometimes form. These grains can then collide and stick together, forming larger and larger objects. In these rings of dust and gas, called protoplanetary discs, is where planets are born.

No planets have formed in the peculiar tilted rings of GW Orionis... yet!

But, this new research suggests that planets may form in these tilted rings of gas and dust that encircle more than one star.

Image credit: ESO/Exeter/Kraus et al./L. Calçada

Cool Fact

Astronomers believe that around half of all planets live in star systems with at least two stars!

New Worlds in Our Own Backyard

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0200

Space is so big that sometimes surprises and new findings can pop up in our own backyard. A team of astronomers have done just that by finding around 100 new worlds known as brown dwarfs!

Failed Stars

Brown dwarfs are called “failed stars” by some astronomers. In size, they are somewhere between a giant planet like Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System, and a small star. But, unlike stars like our Sun, they never become hot enough for the gases inside them to begin merging and giving off energy in a process called nuclear fusion. Instead, after they form, brown dwarfs simply begin to fade and cool down.

Because of their cooler temperatures, these objects are not very bright. This makes them very hard for astronomers to find. This is why scientists normally look for brown dwarfs that are relatively close to us, because they will seem brighter.

Treasure Hunt

To help find our Sun’s coldest and nearest neighbors, the astronomers using NSF’s NOIRLab facilities and a worldwide network of volunteers collaborated as part of the Backyard Worlds project. This large team searches carefully through troves of telescope images in search of tiny movements of brown dwarfs and planets. Today, the team announced they have found roughly 100 new worlds near the Sun!

Many of the new brown dwarfs discovered are among the very coolest known. Some of them even have temperatures similar to those we have on Earth. This means they are cool enough to possibly be home to water clouds.

The closest of these new discoveries is roughly 23 light years away from the Sun. Many more of these brown dwarf objects are around 30 to 60 light years away.

Who knows what other worlds we’ll find in the future!

Image credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld. Acknowledgement: William Pendrill

Cool Fact

So far, the keen volunteers of the Backyard Worlds project have already discovered more than 1,500 cold worlds near to the Sun!

The Curious Case of Betelgeuse

Thu, 13 Aug 2020 17:00:00 +0200

Back in late 2019, astronomers captured the peculiar dimming of the star Betelgeuse (you say the name as “Beetle-Juice”) in the constellation of Orion. The star’s bright light was fading and astronomers were unsure as to why (see our old Space Scoop about it here).

New findings from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have now offered an explanation as to this mysterious dimming of the star involving a dust cloud.

A Red Giant

Betelgeuse used to be an average-sized star, just like the Sun. But as Betelgeuse got older and it ran out of hydrogen fuel to burn, it grew bigger in size and redder in color, turning it into a red giant star. If you replaced the Sun in our Solar System with this star, it is so wide that it would reach as far as the planet Jupiter!

The Dimming Event

Betelgeuse has been a beacon in the night sky for sky watchers but it began to dim late last year (you can see the Space Scoop about it here). The star was about 36% of its normal brightness, a change that is noticeable even to the naked eye.

Many astronomy enthusiasts wondered if Betelgeuse’s dimming meant that it was about to explode. Like all red supergiants, Betelgeuse will one day experience an explosive death known as a supernova. These explosions are amongst the most energetic events in the Universe and are so bright they can outshine an entire galaxy!

Hubble Uncovers the Mystery

However, astronomers now understand that an upcoming supernova event is unlikely.

Observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have offered a new explanation. Astronomers now believe the dimming was caused by a dust cloud that blocked the star’s light. The cloud was likely caused by hot material that was ejected from the star and eventually cooled into a cloud of dust.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Cool Fact

Our Sun will eventually become a Red Giant star like Betelgeuse – but not for another 5,000,000,000 years!

A Giant Mirror Called the Moon

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 16:00:00 +0200

The Hubble Space Telescope is well known for its beautiful imagery of stars and galaxies throughout the Universe. However, Hubble recently turned its eyes to a target much closer to home... the moon!

The Lunar Eclipse

For the first time (for any space telescope), Hubble pointed at the moon during a total lunar eclipse. A total lunar eclipse takes place when the Earth comes between the Sun and the Moon, causing the Earth to cover the Moon with its shadow.

During such events, the moon has a reddish color. Hubble pointed towards the moon during a lunar eclipse in January of 2019 for a special study.

A Giant Mirror

Hubble didn’t point its sights on the moon to learn more about our closest neighbour. In fact, it did so to learn more about what we can learn about other planets! When astronomers are looking for exoplanets, they look for dips in sunlight from other stars. This indicates a planet has passed in front of it!

It is this process that this Hubble study was trying to copy during a lunar eclipse! Hubble’s study measured the ultraviolet light that came from Earth and was reflected off of the moon’s surface.

In this way, the moon acted like a giant mirror. Hubble could then study the chemicals in this light to learn more about Earth’s atmosphere.

Signs of Life

Hubble’s study was able to measure the chemical ozone in the Earth’s atmosphere. This is a strong indication of life as we know it here on Earth and this chemical could help astronomers find signs of life on other planets too.

This study served as a test run or practice to see how astronomers could study the atmosphere of other planets as they pass in front of their stars. To do this, scientists will need much bigger and stronger telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope that will launch in 2021.

Image credit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser

Cool Fact

The next total lunar eclipse will take place on 26 May 2021. It will best be seen by those who live in Australia, parts of the western United States, western South America, or in South-East Asia.