Tag Archive for 'Cosmic rays'

This view of Titan is among the last images NASA’s Cassini spacecraft sent to Earth before it plunged into the giant planet’s atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Cosmic Rays from beyond Solar System Affect Atmosphere of Titan

Feb 14, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a team of Japanese researchers has found that Galactic cosmic rays affect the...

Scanning electron microscope image of the 6.2-billion-year-old grain of silicon carbide from the Murchison meteorite. Image credit: Heck et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1904573117.

Scientists Find 7-Billion-Year-Old Stardust in Murchison Meteorite

Jan 13, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, Switzerland and Australia has found 4.6 to 7-billion-year-old presolar grains of silicon carbide (SiC) in...

NASA’s Voyager 2 Spacecraft Sends Back New Data on Interstellar Space

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

In November 2018, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft became only the second human-made object to cross the outer edge of the Sun’s heliosphere, the bubble...

The moons of our Solar System are brimming with unusual landscapes. However, sometimes they look a little more familiar, as in this new radar image from the Cassini orbiter. The image shows dark streaks carved into dunes reminiscent of those we might find on a beach on Earth, or raked with flowing lines in a Japanese Zen garden — but this scene is actually taking place on Saturn’s moon Titan. While our sand is composed of silicates, the ‘sand’ of these alien dunes is formed from grains of organic materials about the same size as particles of our beach sand. The small size and smoothness of these grains means that the flowing lines carved into the dunes show up as dark to the human eye. While previous images have spotted these eerily familiar patterns on Titan's dunes, this new image (colorized) shows them in greater detail. The image was obtained by Cassini's radar mapper on July 10, 2013. The vertical seam near the center is an artifact of radar image data processing. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Sci-News.com.

Researchers Unravel Origin and Chemical Composition of Titan’s Mysterious Dunes

Oct 22, 2019 by News Staff

Vast longitudinal dunes up to 330 feet (100 m) in height in the equatorial deserts of Saturn’s moon Titan are the Solar System’s most monumental surface...

NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, one in the heliosheath and the other just beyond in interstellar space, took measurements as a solar event known as a global merged interaction region passed by each spacecraft four months apart. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith.

Researchers Measure Pressure in Solar System’s Heliosheath

Oct 9, 2019 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Voyager spacecraft, a team of scientists has calculated the total pressure from particles in the outer region of the Solar System,...

Acharya et al uncovered striking neurobehavioral and electrophysiological defects in rodents subjected to continuous (6 month) low dose rate (1 mGy/day) neutron exposures. Image credit: NASA.

Exposure to Radiation in Deep Space May Impair Learning and Memory

Aug 6, 2019 by News Staff

In a study by researchers from the University of California, Irvine and elsewhere, exposure to chronic, low dose radiation — the conditions present...

Scholz’s star flew through the Oort Cloud 70,000 years ago. Image credit: José A. Peñas / SINC.

Did Nearby Supernovae Induce Hominins to Walk on Two Legs?

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

Between 8 and 2 million years ago, cosmic-ray energy from one or more nearby supernovae reached Earth and pummeled the planet’s atmosphere, initiating...

The superbubbles in NGC 3079 are defined by X-ray, optical and radio emission. Image credit: X-rays - NASA / CXC / University of Michigan / Li et al; optical - NASA / STScI.

Chandra Detects Ultra-Energetic Particles from NGC 3079’s ‘Fermi Bubbles’

Mar 1, 2019 by News Staff

NGC 3079, an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 67 million light-years from Earth, contains two ‘superbubbles.’ New observations from NASA’s Chandra...

This illustration shows the position of NASA’s Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes, outside of the heliosphere, a protective bubble created by the Sun that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Voyager 2 Reaches Interstellar Space

Dec 11, 2018 by News Staff

Forty-one years after it launched into space, NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere. Called the heliopause, this...

A red, green, blue composite image of the Large Magellanic Cloud made from radio wavelength observations at 123, 181 and 227 MHz. At these wavelengths, emission from cosmic rays and the hot gases belonging to the star forming regions and supernova remnants of the galaxy are visible. Image credit: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

Astronomers Create Cosmic-Ray Maps of Magellanic Clouds

Sep 6, 2018 by News Staff

By observing two neighboring galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud, using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in...

An artist’s impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Astronomers Pinpoint Source of High-Energy Neutrinos for First Time

Jul 13, 2018 by News Staff

A large multinational team of astronomers has found the first evidence of a source of super-energetic neutrino particles: a distant blazar — the...

Eta Carinae’s great eruption in the 1840s created the Homunculus Nebula, imaged here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Now about a light-year long, the expanding cloud contains enough material to make at least 10 copies of our Sun. Astronomers cannot yet explain what caused this eruption. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

NuSTAR Detects High-Energy Cosmic Rays from Eta Carinae System

Jul 4, 2018 by News Staff

Eta Carinae — a binary star system approximately 7,500 light-years away in the constellation Carina — is accelerating particles to high energies,...

Novel drugs could one day protect astronauts on deep-space missions from dangerous cosmic radiation. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

New Drug Prevents Memory Impairment in Mice Exposed to Simulated Deep Space Radiation

May 23, 2018 by News Staff

A team of neuroscientists from the University of California, San Francisco, and Loma Linda University has identified the first potential treatment for...

Pyramids at Giza in Egypt. Image credit: Catharina.

Muon Detectors Reveal Hidden Chamber in Great Pyramid of Giza

Nov 3, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists, physicists and engineers has found a 100-foot (30 m) long space deep inside the Great Pyramid, or Khufu’s Pyramid,...

At the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, cosmic rays have been detected from far off galaxies. Image credit: A. Chantelauze / S. Staffi / L. Bret / Pierre Auger Observatory.

Ultra-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Have Extragalactic Origins

Sep 22, 2017 by News Staff

For the first time, astrophysicists have confirmed that cosmic rays with ultra-high energies come from outside our Milky Way Galaxy. At the Pierre Auger...

An all-sky image of the Milky Way Galaxy, as observed by ESA’s Planck Space Observatory in IR. The data contained in this image were used in this research and were essential in calculating the distribution of the light energy of the Galaxy. Image credit: ESA / HFI / LFI consortia.

Researchers Map Light Energy Distribution in Milky Way Galaxy

Jul 31, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has used data from ESA’s Planck Space Observatory and other telescopes to map the distribution of all light energy...

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope produced this composite image of the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy. Note that the center of the Galaxy is located within the bright white region to the right of and just below the middle of the image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ESA / CXC / STScI.

High-Energy ‘Trap’ Spotted in Milky Way’s Center

Jul 19, 2017 by News Staff

The center of our Milky Way Galaxy contains a ‘trap’ that concentrates some of the highest-energy cosmic rays, according to a new analysis of data...

NASA’s Fermi telescope has detected a gamma-ray excess (shown in yellow-white) at the center of the Andromeda galaxy that’s similar to a signature Fermi previously detected at the center of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists think the signal could be produced by a variety of processes, including a population of pulsars or even dark matter. Image credit: NASA / DOE / Fermi LAT Collaboration / Bill Schoening / Vanessa Harvey / REU Program / NOAO / AURA / NSF.

Fermi Finds Dark Matter Clues in Andromeda Galaxy

Feb 22, 2017 by News Staff

NASA’s Fermi telescope has detected a strong gamma-ray signal coming from the core of the Andromeda galaxy (also known as Messier 31) that could indicate...

According to Prof. Limoli and co-authors, deep space travel poses a real and unique threat to astronauts. Image credit: Das Wortgewand.

Deep Space Travel Poses Unique Threat to Astronauts, Researchers Say

Oct 11, 2016 by News Staff

Exposure to highly energetic charged particles can lead to a range of potential central nervous system complications that can occur during and persist...

Artist’s impression of the giant molecular clouds surrounding the Milky Way’s center, bombarded by very high energy protons accelerated in the vicinity of Sagittarius A*. Image credit: Mark A. Garlick / H.E.S.S. Collaboration.

PeVatron: Source of Very-High-Energy Cosmic Rays Discovered at Milky Way’s Center

Mar 17, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) Observatory, a system of four imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes in Namibia, astronomers have...

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