All posts tagged: Telescopes

Nine-member young star family spotted by ALMA

Nine-member young star family spotted by ALMA

Published by skeptic

Astronomers observed a young stellar system with nine stars in the early stages of formation using ALMA telescope data from the CoCCoA survey. Stars larger than our sun always form in pairs or groups and never alone, although the reasons for this are not fully understood. But a new study featured in arXiv discovered a nascent family of stars, allowing further research into the phenomena. A system of stars with a variety of age differences The study was originally about the chemistry of complex organic molecules around hot cores in star-forming regions. The team were examining 25 hot cores in the telescope, including NGC 6334-43, a hot core over 4,300 light-years away. Whilst analysing high-resolution dust and gas emissions in NGC 6334-43’s field, researchers spotted nine compact, closely situated sources connected by a single 24,700 AU long filement of gas, suggesting they are part of a single large multiple-star system. After further analysis, the researchers confirmed that the nine sources are not reandomly scattered and instead are part of a single, gravitationally bound system. This …

Ask Ethan: How do space telescopes stay focused?

Ask Ethan: How do space telescopes stay focused?

Published by Jenni Sidey

In the era of space telescopes, we’re now used to clear, sharp images where everything is focused pristinely: reaching the theoretical maximum that’s possible based on the wavelength of light that’s begin observed and the diameter of the telescope’s primary mirror. First with Hubble (once the flaw in its primary mirror was corrected) and later with space telescopes such as Spitzer, GALEX, Herschel, and now JWST, the lack of an atmosphere to contend with means that all we need to do is make our optical systems as optimized as possible in the vacuum of space, and we’ll get those ideal images. Of course, that involves: keeping that telescope stable, keeping it pointed correctly, and keeping it focused correctly, even as the telescope moves, rotates, and deals with external influences like radiation from the Sun. How, then, do telescopes and telescope operators accomplish this? That’s what Jim Wilson wants to know, as he writes in to ask: “How do space telescopes focus and stay focused? For example, on an object close by or an object far …

JWST’s Little Red Dots could be black hole feeding bursts

JWST’s Little Red Dots could be black hole feeding bursts

Published by skeptic

A new theoretical study suggests that Little Red Dots observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) could be black holes in rare, short-lived – but extremely volatile – nuclear bursts. A paper by Yangyao Chen of Nanjing University and Houjun Mo of the University of Massachusetts reexamined a phenomena that has intrigued scientists since the JWST’s debut. Astronomers have observed nearly 350 faintly-red objects that are particularly unusual for their apparent lack of x-ray, radio and infrared emission. They have a V-shaped spectrum, being bright in ultraviolet and optical light, but dim in between, as well as the broad emission lines associated with black hole activity. Current theories posed that that the Little Red Dots – or LRDs – are primordial galaxies, or non-metallic primordial stars(also known as Population III stars), or even quasi-stars. The majority seem to have been formed 600 million years after the Big Bang, or 13.2 to 12.2 billion years ago. Chen and Mo created a galaxy formation model built on the ΛCDM cosmological framework reported in a previous study. …

Dormant black hole from early Universe weighed for first time using JWST

Dormant black hole from early Universe weighed for first time using JWST

Published by skeptic

Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers calculated the mass of the inactive giant at approximately 6 billion times that of the Sun. The dormant black hole resides at the centre of MRG-M0138, a massive galaxy located around 10 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy is observed as it existed when the Universe was only about three billion years old, providing researchers with a rare opportunity to investigate black hole growth during a critical stage of cosmic evolution. The breakthrough was made possible by combining JWST’s advanced imaging capabilities with gravitational lensing, a natural magnification effect created by a foreground galaxy cluster. The findings provide some of the strongest evidence yet that supermassive black holes and their host galaxies were already evolving together in the early universe. A new way to study dormant black holes Unlike actively feeding black holes, which can be detected through the intense radiation they produce as they consume surrounding gas, a dormant black hole emits little or no visible energy. This makes such objects significantly harder to …

The telescope that could reveal the missing half of the universe

The telescope that could reveal the missing half of the universe

Published by skeptic

A new European-led telescope could map the dusty, hidden half of the universe, all without using fossil fuels. If you have ever seen the Milky Way in the night sky, you probably noticed that it looks cloudy. That is because towards the centre of our galaxy, and of most galaxies, there are vast amounts of dust that make it hard to see what is going on. That means a big swathe of the universe is hidden to us, with about half of the light coming from galaxies buried in this dust. The best way to see inside these obscured regions is to use a gigantic submillimetre-wave telescope that detects radiation between radio waves and infrared. “Without submillimetre, we’re getting a very biased picture of what’s out there,” said Claudia Cicone, an astrophysicist at the University of Oslo in Norway. “We are missing the regions of space that are most obscured by dust.” In recent decades, telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile have allowed us to probe some of these regions. Now astronomers want …

JWST reveals the most detailed map yet of the cosmic web

JWST reveals the most detailed map yet of the cosmic web

Published by skeptic

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have created the clearest map ever produced of the cosmic web, the vast structure that connects galaxies across the universe. The international research team, led by scientists at the University of California, Riverside, traced this enormous network back to a time when the universe was just one billion years old. The breakthrough came through COSMOS-Web, the largest survey conducted by JWST to date. Researchers analysed more than 164,000 galaxies to reconstruct how the cosmic web evolved over 13.7 billion years of cosmic history. Their findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal. The result is a dramatically sharper view of the universe’s large-scale structure than anything previously achieved. Earlier observations from the Hubble Space Telescope could only hint at these formations, but the new JWST data reveal intricate filaments, clusters, and hidden structures that were previously blurred or invisible. The project involved scientists from the United States, Denmark, Chile, France, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, China, Germany, and Italy. Funding support included grants from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research …

King Charles launches Project Nova to track space debris from Bermuda

King Charles launches Project Nova to track space debris from Bermuda

Published by skeptic

King Charles III has formally launched a major UK-led effort to monitor space debris, unveiling the £40m Project Nova during the final leg of his visit to Bermuda. The initiative, spearheaded by the UK Space Agency, will establish a global network of telescopes designed to detect and track hazardous objects orbiting Earth. The first phase of Project Nova will see three high-powered telescopes installed on Bermuda’s northwest coast, a strategically selected location in the Atlantic. These instruments are engineered to identify even small fragments of space debris in low Earth orbit – objects capable of damaging satellites and disrupting critical infrastructure. The expected outcome is a significant improvement in the UK’s ability to monitor orbital risks, reduce collision threats, and strengthen international collaboration on space safety. The Bermuda installation will act as a testbed for a broader five-site global network, positioning the UK as a key player in tackling the growing problem of space debris. Why is space debris so dangerous? Space debris refers to defunct human-made objects orbiting Earth, including abandoned satellites, fragments from …

DESI completes largest-ever map of the Universe

DESI completes largest-ever map of the Universe

Published by skeptic

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has reached a defining milestone in modern cosmology, completing its original five-year survey and delivering the most detailed map of the Universe ever constructed. Operating from the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, DESI has charted more than 47 million galaxies and quasars in three dimensions. The result is a high-resolution cosmic map that stretches across billions of years, offering scientists an unprecedented dataset to probe how the Universe has evolved. Originally scheduled to run through a five-year mission, the project exceeded expectations both in speed and scale. Its success has now secured an extension through 2028, with plans to expand and refine this already vast map of the Universe. How DESI mapped the cosmos On April 15, DESI quietly marked the completion of its primary survey. Its 5,000 fibre-optic “eyes” scanned a region near the Little Dipper, repeatedly locking onto distant sources of light. Each observation captured photons that had travelled for billions of years before reaching Earth. At the heart of DESI is a highly coordinated system. …

Climate of Earth-like rocky exoplanets mapped for first time

Climate of Earth-like rocky exoplanets mapped for first time

Published by skeptic

Utilising the James Webb space telescope(JWST), an international team has mapped the climate of rocky exoplanets with masses similar to Earth in the TRAPPIST-1 system. First discovered in 2000, TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star and is thought to be about 3 billion years older than the Solar System. Further discoveries in 2016 and 2017 identified at least seven exoplanets in the star’s orbit, all likely tidally locked and with circular orbits between 1.5 and 19 days. At least four of the planets in TRAPPIST-1’s orbit- TRAPPIST-1d, TRAPPIST-1e TRAPPIST-1f and TRAPPIST-1g- are considered potentially hospitable to life, as their orbital distance allows the existence of liquid water, although there is no evidence of atmospheres on any of the planets in the system. The two planets studied, TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, are believed to have temperatures differences at day and night in excess of 500 degrees Celsius and so likely do not have atmospheres. “The TRAPPIST-1 system is incredible! Seven planets, some with masses similar to Earth’s, orbit the same star. At least three planets are located …

PoET telescope makes first observations in exoplanet research

PoET telescope makes first observations in exoplanet research

Published by skeptic

The Paranal solar ESPRESSO Telescope (PoET) will collect sunlight and redirect it to ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument, which will obtain highly detailed spectra of both the entire Sun and specific regions such as sunspots. These observations will be key to understanding the ‘noise’ that similar features in other stars introduce in observations aimed at detecting exoplanets around them. PoET, installed at the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, has made its first observations. The telescope will work with ESO’s ESPRESSO instrument to study the Sun in detail. Described as a solar telescope for planet hunters, PoET aims to understand how the variation in the light from stars like the Sun can mask the presence of planets orbiting them, helping us in our search for worlds outside the Solar System. PoET’s main telescope, seen above being lowered into its dome, has a 60-cm mirror. PoET also has a second smaller telescope that collects light from the entire disc of the Sun. “One of the greatest challenges for the detection of other Earths orbiting other Suns …