Tag Archive for 'Hydrogen'

An artist’s impression of two white dwarfs in the process of merging; depending on the combined mass, the system may explode in a thermonuclear supernova, or coalesce into a single heavy white dwarf, as with WD J0551+4135. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Astronomers Spot Ultra-Massive White Dwarf with Unique Atmosphere

Mar 3, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers have discovered an ultra-massive white dwarf with a unique carbon-hydrogen mixed atmosphere. Named WD J055134.612+413531.09 (WD J0551+4135...

Artist’s impression of a cloud of trapped antihydrogen atoms. Image credit: Chukman So.

CERN Physicists Measure Quantum Effects in Energy Structure of Antihydrogen

Feb 28, 2020 by News Staff

In 1947, American physicist Willis Lamb and his colleagues observed an incredibly small shift in the energy levels of the hydrogen atom as the atom’s...

Artist’s impression of a sunset on the ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b. Image credit: Denis Bajram.

Ultrahot Jupiter KELT-9b is So Hot that Even Atmospheric Hydrogen Molecules are ‘Torn to Shreds’

Jan 28, 2020 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence that the heat in the atmosphere of KELT-9b, the hottest known transiting...

Astrophysicists One Step Closer to Unlocking Mystery of Superluminous Supernovae

Jan 24, 2020 by News Staff

SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova discovered in 2006, gained its exceptional brightness when a normal Type Ia explosion smashed into a dense shell of...

$Cassini captured this image of Enceladus as it neared the moon for its closest-ever dive past the moon’s active south polar region. The image was taken in visible light with the spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera on October 28, 2015. The image shows heavily cratered northern latitudes at top, transitioning to fractured, wrinkled terrain in the middle and southern latitudes. The wavy boundary of the moon's active south polar region is visible at bottom, where it disappears into wintry darkness. This view looks towards the Saturn-facing side of Enceladus. The image was taken at a distance of approximately 60,000 miles (96,000 km) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 45 degrees. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.$

Geochemical Model Reveals Inner Complexity of Enceladus

Jan 23, 2020 by News Staff

Enceladus, an ocean-harboring moon of Saturn, erupts a plume that contains gases and frozen sea spray into space. By understanding the composition of the...

New Study Looks at Why Neptune-Sized and Larger Exoplanets are Rare

Jan 3, 2020 by News Staff

Sub-Neptunes — extrasolar planets with radii between 2.7 and 3 times that of Earth — are much more numerous than Neptune-sized and larger planets....

This CFHT image shows a huge ring of neutral hydrogen gas (red) around the galaxy AGC 203001. The two small red blobs show the distribution of neutral hydrogen around two other galaxies. Image credit: Omkar Bait, NCRA-TIFR & GMRT / Pierre-Alain Duc, ObAS & CFHT.

Enormous Ring of Neutral Hydrogen Found around Distant Massive Galaxy

Jan 3, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) have discovered an extremely large off-centered ring of neutral hydrogen gas around AGC 203001,...

This illustration depicts a gas halo surrounding a quasar in the early Universe. The quasar, in orange, has two powerful jets and a supermassive black hole at its center, which is surrounded by a dusty disk. The halo of glowing hydrogen is represented in blue. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

VLT Spots Huge Halos of Cool Hydrogen around Active Galaxies in Early Universe

Dec 20, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have spotted enormous hydrogen halos around 12 quasars — a type of active galaxy which shines...

On Earth, the Northern and Southern lights occur when the solar wind (electrically charged particles from the Sun) follow our planet’s geomagnetic field lines to the poles and collide with the upper atmosphere. Mars lacks a global magnetic field, so instead the solar wind piles up in front of Mars in a bow shock, which blocks charged particles from reaching the bulk of the atmosphere. However, in a process first observed by NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft, some solar wind protons can slip past the bow shock by first bonding with electrons from the Martian upper atmosphere to form hydrogen atoms. Because these hydrogen atoms are electrically neutral, they can pass through the bow shock and go on to create an ultraviolet proton aurora on the dayside of Mars. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

‘Proton Aurora’ is Most Common Type of Aurora on Mars, Researchers Say

Dec 13, 2019 by News Staff

Proton aurora, a type of Martian aurora first identified in 2016, forms when protons from the solar wind interact with hydrogen in the extended portions...

This illustration shows the white dwarf WD J0914 and its Neptune-like exoplanet. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Astronomers Find Neptune-Like Exoplanet Orbiting White Dwarf

Dec 5, 2019 by News Staff

A Neptune-like exoplanet orbits an Earth-sized white dwarf star called WD J091405.30+191412.25 (WD J0914 for short) once every 10 days, leaving a comet-like...

For DNA to be read, replicated or repaired, DNA molecules must open themselves. This happens when the cells use a catalytic protein to create a hydrophobic environment around the molecule. Image credit: Yen Strandqvist / Chalmers University of Technology.

Scientists Disprove Popular Theory of How DNA Binds Itself

Sep 23, 2019 by News Staff

DNA is constructed of two strands, consisting of sugar molecules and phosphate groups. Between these two strands are nitrogen bases, the compounds which...

This artist’s impression shows planets K2-18b and c and their host star. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Detect Water in Atmosphere of Habitable-Zone Super-Earth K2-18b

Sep 12, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have detected water vapor in the atmosphere of K2-18b, a planet of eight Earth masses in the habitable...

In this illustration, one photon (purple) carries a million times the energy of another (yellow). Image credit: NASA / Sonoma State University / Aurore Simonnet.

Scientists Find Way to Measure Quantum Entanglement in Chemical Reactions

Aug 7, 2019 by News Staff

A duo of researchers at Purdue University has modified a popular theorem — called Bell’s inequality — for identifying quantum entanglement...

This image from Data Release 1 of the Dark Energy Survey shows 2MASX J04180598-6336523, the host galaxy of the Type Ia supernova ASASSN-18tb; the position of the supernova is marked by the white ticks. Image credit: Kollmeier et al, doi: 10.1093/mnras/stz953.

TESS Observes Unusual Type Ia Supernova: ASASSN-18tb

Jul 19, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers have used NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to see what was happening around the supernova ASASSN-18tb in the first moments...

This artist’s illustration shows a giant cloud of hydrogen streaming off the warm Neptune GJ 3470b. The host star’s intense radiation is heating the hydrogen in the planet’s upper atmosphere to a point where it escapes into space. GJ 3470b is losing hydrogen at a rate 100 times faster than a previously observed warm Neptune whose atmosphere is also evaporating away. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Player, STScI.

Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes Probe Atmosphere of Sub-Neptune

Jul 3, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers are curious about the two recently-discovered classes of planets not found in the Solar System: the so-called super-Earths and sub-Neptunes,...

$This enhanced-color view of Enceladus is largely of the southern hemisphere and includes the south polar terrain at the bottom of the image. Ancient craters remain somewhat pristine in some locales, but have clearly relaxed in others. Northward-trending fractures, likely caused by a change in the moon’s rate of rotation and the consequent flattening of the moon’s shape, rip across the southern hemisphere. The south polar terrain is marked by a striking set of ‘blue’ fractures and encircled by a conspicuous and continuous chain of folds and ridges, testament to the forces within Enceladus that have yet to be silenced. The mosaic was created from 21 false-color frames taken during Cassini’s close approaches to Enceladus on March 9 and July 14, 2005. Images taken using filters sensitive to UV, visible and IR light (spanning wavelengths from 338 to 930 nm) were combined to create the individual frames. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.$