Researchers conducted the first-ever near-infrared analysis of an extragalactic recurrent nova and found it is one of the hottest nova explosions ever discovered.
Category: space
After confirming the potential historic observation, the results were evaluated for several possible errors. The work was also analyzed independently. Each time, the team came back to the conclusion that they may have found the first potential signs of life outside our solar system.
“It was an incredible realisation seeing the results emerge and remain consistent throughout the extensive independent analyses and robustness tests,” said co-author Måns Holmberg, a researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.
Notably, the concentrations of either DMS or DMDS spotted by JWST were thousands of times higher than concentrations found on Earth. According to the Cambridge astronomers, detecting high levels of either of these chemicals on Hycean (ocean) worlds due to large amounts of biological activity was previously predicted.
NASA and partners are building the first quantum gravity sensor for space, a breakthrough instrument that uses ultra-cold atoms to detect tiny shifts in Earth’s gravity from orbit. With potential applications ranging from mapping hidden aquifers to exploring distant planets, this compact, highly
The NFI opened its eye to the sky first on April 14, imaging the Sun against the background stars of the constellation Pisces. The view here has been specifically filtered to bring out those background stars, which are otherwise blotted out by the bright zodiacal light generated by sunlight glinting off dust particles in the inner solar system. Also visible is a sliver of the Sun’s corona at center, reminiscent of the view during an annular solar eclipse.
You might notice several strange, streaky crescent-shaped artifacts at right. These arise from a small misalignment between the imager and the Sun, allowing stray sunlight to glint off the optics where it’s not quite blocked by the coronagraph. Engineers will use this and subsequent images to adjust the NFI’s position on the sky to bring it in full alignment with our star and eliminate stray light in future scientific data. Ultimately, that calibration will allow just one percent of the corona’s light through to the imager, providing clear views of faint structures and changes within the corona as the Sun spews material out into space.
Two days later, on April 16, the three WFIs got their first look at the Sun, taking in a broad view across the solar system. These instruments are designed to look at the region of space out to some 45° from the Sun’s position, roughly out to the distance of Earth’s orbit projected on the sky. Their fields of view don’t overlap, but instead form a trefoil pattern that rotates over time.
What can carbon deposits on Mars tell scientists about whether life could have once existed on the Red Planet? This is what a recent study published in Sci | Space
Though tiny, this newfound satellite galaxy around M31 offers big lessons — and questions — about how galaxies evolve.
A groundbreaking discovery has rocked the field of neutrino astronomy—scientists have detected an ultra-high-energy neutrino using the KM3NeT telescope, with an energy level 16,000 times greater than the most powerful collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. These elusive “ghost particles” provid
NASA’s Lucy mission is about to fly past asteroid Donaldjohanson, a strange, elongated rock in the main belt. While this three-mile-wide object isn’t one of Lucy’s primary targets, the April 20 flyby serves as a full dress rehearsal before the spacecraft heads toward the Trojan asteroids near Jup
Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious.
Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), in the atmosphere of the exoplanet K2-18b, which orbits its star in the habitable zone.
On Earth, DMS and DMDS are only produced by life, primarily microbial life such as marine phytoplankton. While an unknown chemical process may be the source of these molecules in K2-18b’s atmosphere, the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.
Subsurface ocean on Mars suggested by new data and long organic molecules found too. See why these suggest life may be on Mars today!GoldBacks from Galactic/.…