AAS NOVA — Research Highlights 2020

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AAS NOVA — Research Highlights 2020

Post by bystander » Fri Jan 17, 2020 6:13 pm

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Giant Planets in a Post-Apocalyptic Solar System

Post by bystander » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:48 pm

Giant Planets in a Post-Apocalyptic Solar System
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jan 22
Susanna Kohler wrote:
It’s nearly eight billion years in the future.

The Sun, having exhausted its source of fuel, has dramatically expanded into a red giant and then puffed off its outer layers, leaving its dense, scalding hot core exposed. This core — a white dwarf — initially clocks in at nearly 100,000 K (180,000 °F), bathing its surroundings in harsh extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation at levels that are up to a million times brighter than the present-day Sun.

Earth and the other inner, rocky planets were swallowed up by the ballooning Sun long ago. But how have the giant planets of our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — fared since this unavoidable apocalypse? ...

Cold Giant Planets Evaporated by Hot White Dwarfs ~ Matthias R. Schreiber et al
viewtopic.php?t=40068
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Re: Giant Planets in a Post-Apocalyptic Solar System

Post by saturno2 » Fri Jan 24, 2020 2:07 pm

bystander wrote: Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:48 pm Giant Planets in a Post-Apocalyptic Solar System
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jan 22
Susanna Kohler wrote:
It’s nearly eight billion years in the future.

The Sun, having exhausted its source of fuel, has dramatically expanded into a red giant and then puffed off its outer layers, leaving its dense, scalding hot core exposed. This core — a white dwarf — initially clocks in at nearly 100,000 K (180,000 °F), bathing its surroundings in harsh extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) radiation at levels that are up to a million times brighter than the present-day Sun.

Earth and the other inner, rocky planets were swallowed up by the ballooning Sun long ago. But how have the giant planets of our solar system — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — fared since this unavoidable apocalypse? ...

Sad end to planet Earth and the life

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Confirming New Physics in Space

Post by bystander » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:21 pm

Confirming New Physics in Space
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jan 24
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Not all laboratory astrophysics occurs in labs down here on Earth; sometimes, the lab is in space! A new study has used a space laboratory to confirm a new atomic process — with far-reaching implications. ...

First Evidence of Enhanced Recombination in Astrophysical
Environments and the Implications for Plasma Diagnostics
~ A. Nemer et al
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Faint Repetitions of an Extragalactic Burst

Post by bystander » Fri Jan 31, 2020 6:19 pm

Faint Repetitions of an Extragalactic Burst
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jan 29
Susanna Kohler wrote:
New evidence deepens the mystery of fast radio bursts (FRBs), the brief flashes of radio emission stemming from unknown sources beyond our galaxy. Scientists have now discovered faint repeat bursts from one of the brightest FRBs, previously thought to have been a one-off event. ...

Faint Repetitions from a Bright Fast Radio Burst Source ~ Pravir Kumar et al
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Today’s Forecast for K2-18b: Cloudy with a Chance of Rain?

Post by bystander » Fri Jan 31, 2020 6:57 pm

Today’s Forecast for K2-18b: Cloudy with a Chance of Rain?
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jan 31
Tarini Konchady wrote:
Water is critical to life as we know it on Earth. So naturally, finding evidence of liquid water on a planet in its star’s habitable zone is extremely relevant to searches for extraterrestrial life. Thus far, we’ve only discovered water vapor in the atmospheres of massive, short-period gas giants — but new observations of sub-Neptune K2-18b have now changed that. ...

Water Vapor and Clouds on the Habitable-zone Sub-Neptune Exoplanet K2-18b ~ Björn Benneke et al viewtopic.php?t=39785
viewtopic.php?t=37820
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Comparing Black Holes Large and Small

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 05, 2020 6:14 pm

Comparing Black Holes Large and Small
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 03
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Black holes come in a variety of sizes — from a mass of a few Suns, to millions or even billions of solar masses. As these vastly different black holes feast on accreting matter, do they behave in the same way? ...

The Analogous Structure of Accretion Flows in Supermassive and Stellar Mass
Black Holes: New Insights from Faded Changing-look Quasars
~ John J. Ruan et al
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A Detailed View of Our Second Interstellar Visitor

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:08 pm

A Detailed View of Our Second Interstellar Visitor
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 05
Susanna Kohler wrote:
What do we know about the second object to visit us from another stellar system? Detailed Hubble images have given us plenty to consider! ...

The Nucleus of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov ~ David Jewitt et al
viewtopic.php?t=39796#p297892
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Early Results from Parker Solar Probe

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:20 pm

Early Results from Parker Solar Probe
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 07
Susanna Kohler wrote:
What might we learn about the Sun if we could fly a spacecraft close enough to dip down and skim through its atmosphere? Thanks to the Parker Solar Probe, we don’t have to speculate! ...

Early Results from Parker Solar Probe: Ushering a New Frontier in Space Exploration ~ Nour E. Raouafi et al
  • Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 246(2) (2020 Feb)

viewtopic.php?t=38586
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A Pulsed Discovery in Omega Centauri

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 19, 2020 3:55 pm

A Pulsed Discovery in Omega Centauri
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 12
Susanna Kohler wrote:
The globular cluster Omega Centauri makes for an impressive sight — millions of stars gravitationally bound into a beautiful sphere, its core alight from the glow of densely packed bodies. A recent study has unveiled a new discovery at the heart of this cluster: five long-anticipated pulsars. ...

Discovery of Millisecond Pulsars in the Globular Cluster Omega Centauri ~ Shi Dai et al
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Making Stars at the Beginning of the Universe

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:01 pm

Making Stars at the Beginning of the Universe
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 14
Tarini Konchady wrote:
Studying star formation in the early universe can give us clues about what the universe was like when the earliest massive galaxies were forming. How efficiently were these first galaxies making stars only a billion years after the Big Bang? ...

Low Star Formation Efficiency in Typical Galaxies at z = 5–6 ~ Riccardo Pavesi et al
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ALMA Explores Possible Interacting Twin Disks

Post by bystander » Wed Feb 19, 2020 4:10 pm

ALMA Explores Possible Interacting Twin Disks
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 17
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Some young stars seem to spend a brief portion of their lives undergoing dramatic, flaring outbursts. A new study has used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile to get the closest look yet at one of these systems — possibly identifying the cause of the flares. ...

Resolving the FU Orionis System with ALMA: Interacting Twin Disks? ~ Sebastián Pérez et al
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Exploring Our Star with SunPy

Post by bystander » Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:05 pm

Exploring Our Star with SunPy
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 19
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Python, one of the foremost high-level programming languages, has played a growing role in the analysis of astronomical data. With the recent release of a new software package, SunPy, it’s now easier than ever for solar physicists to use Python as well.

The SunPy Project: Open Source Development and Status of the Version 1.0 Core Package ~ SunPy Community, Will T. Barnes et al
[i]Astrophysical Journal[/i] 890(1):68 ... 357/ab4f7a [/url]
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Gravitational Waves After Galaxy Collisions

Post by bystander » Tue Feb 25, 2020 9:12 pm

Gravitational Waves After Galaxy Collisions
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 21
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Thanks to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), we now know that black holes in our distant universe sometimes find each other in a dramatic inspiral and collision, releasing a burst of gravitational-wave emission that we can detect here on Earth.

But what happened earlier in these black holes’ lives to bring them to this point? A new study explores the possibility that LIGO’s black holes once lay at the centers of very small galaxies — until those galaxies collided. ...

LIGO/Virgo Sources from Merging Black Holes in Ultradwarf Galaxies ~ Christopher J. Conselice et al
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Exploring a Cluster’s Stragglers

Post by bystander » Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:34 pm

Exploring a Cluster’s Stragglers
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 26
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Though stars within the same cluster all typically form around the same time, they don’t all evolve in the same way. A recent study has carefully explored a population of particularly unusual, straggling stars in the old open cluster Collinder 261. ...

A Study of the Blue Straggler Population of the Old Open Cluster Collinder 261 ~ M.J. Rain et al
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Looking at the Insides of Stars

Post by bystander » Sat Feb 29, 2020 5:42 pm

Looking at the Insides of Stars
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Feb 28
Tarini Konchady wrote:
We can only really see what’s going on at the surface of a star. However, the motions within stellar interiors show themselves as subtle variations in the star’s brightness, and with the dense observations of planet-finding missions, we can pick up these variations at very fine levels. ...

Detection and Characterization of Oscillating Red Giants:
First Results from the TESS Satellite
~ Víctor Silva Aguirre et al
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Life Beyond the Habitable Zone

Post by bystander » Thu Mar 05, 2020 5:53 pm

Life Beyond the Habitable Zone
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 02
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Whether or not a planet lies in its star’s habitable zone is commonly used to gauge its ability to host life. But what about non-habitable-zone planets that have sources of heat besides starlight? ...

On the Habitable Lifetime of Terrestrial Worlds with High Radionuclide Abundances ~ Manasvi Lingam, Abraham Loeb
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Catastrophic Collisions in Protoplanetary Disks

Post by bystander » Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:00 pm

Catastrophic Collisions in Protoplanetary Disks
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 04
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Some of the most spectacular images to come out of observatories like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) or the Very Large Telescope (VLT) are detailed views of protoplanetary disks. These disks of gas and dust around young stars aren’t just smooth and featureless; instead, they exhibit arcs, rings, gaps, and spirals. What causes this impressive array of structure? ...

Catastrophic Events in Protoplanetary Disks and Their Observational Manifestations ~ Tatiana V. Demidova, Vladimir P. Grinin
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Jet-Setting in the Infrared

Post by bystander » Fri Mar 13, 2020 5:14 pm

Jet-Setting in the Infrared
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 11
Tarini Konchady wrote:
An X-ray binary consists of a dense compact object that strips material off its stellar companion, producing X-rays in the process. These binaries are surrounded by radiating accretion disks of infalling material, but they also sometimes fling matter out in powerful relativistic jets. What can their infrared emission tell us about the speed of these jets? ...

Lorentz Factors of Compact Jets in Black Hole X-Ray Binaries ~ Payaswini Saikia et al
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CHIME Detects Even More Repeating Bursts

Post by bystander » Sun Mar 15, 2020 4:18 pm

CHIME Detects Even More Repeating Bursts
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 13
Susanna Kohler wrote:
In October of 2018, we wrote about a new project to study fast radio bursts (FRBs) — brief, energetic flashes of light from beyond our galaxy. At the time, we knew of about 30 FRB sources; the new project by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope in British Columbia promised to dramatically increase that number.

Now, a year and a half later, we can see the impressive progress made: CHIME has already detected around 700 bursts from FRB sources! Included among those is the collaboration’s latest announcement: nine new repeating sources. ...

Nine New Repeating Fast Radio Burst Sources from CHIME/FRB ~ E. Fonseca et al A Living Theory Catalogue for Fast Radio Bursts ~ E. Platts et al The CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project: System Overview ~ CHIME/FRB Collaboration: M. Amiri et al
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A Star-Bursting Galaxy Born from the Collision of Dwarfs

Post by bystander » Wed Mar 18, 2020 6:35 pm

A Star-Bursting Galaxy Born from the Collision of Dwarfs
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 16
Susanna Kohler wrote:
What happens when the large-scale drama of a violent galaxy merger plays out on small scales for a pair of dwarf galaxies? New observations document the scene of a recent dwarf-galaxy collision. ...

The Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy VCC 848 Formed by Dwarf–Dwarf Merging ~ Hong-Xin Zhang et al
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Cloudy Challenges to Exploring Exoplanet Atmospheres

Post by bystander » Fri Mar 20, 2020 5:31 pm

Cloudy Challenges to Exploring Exoplanet Atmospheres
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 18
Susanna Kohler wrote:
One of our goals with the soon-to-launch James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is to better characterize the atmospheres of exoplanets. But will clouds get in the way of our chances? ...

Clouds Will Likely Prevent the Detection of Water Vapor in
JWST Transmission Spectra of Terrestrial Exoplanets
~ Thaddeus D. Komacek et al
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Learning from LIGO’s Second Binary Neutron Star Detection

Post by bystander » Sat Mar 21, 2020 3:58 pm

Learning from LIGO’s Second Binary Neutron Star Detection
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 20
Susanna Kohler wrote:
In case you missed the news in January: the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has detected its second merger of two neutron stars — probably. In a recent publication, the collaboration details the interesting uncertainties and implications of this find. ...

GW190425: Observation of a Compact Binary Coalescence with Total Mass ∼3.4 M
~ LIGO Scientific Collaboration, VIRGO Collaboration: B. P. Abbott et al
viewtopic.php?t=40215
viewtopic.php?t=40170
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Planetary Studies from a New Journal

Post by bystander » Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:26 pm

Planetary Studies from a New Journal
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 25
Susanna Kohler wrote:
At the end of 2019, we announced the launch of a new publication in the American Astronomical Society’s journal family: The Planetary Science Journal (PSJ), a peer-reviewed journal that covers “all aspects of investigation of the solar system and other planetary systems.”

Now, PSJ has officially published its first issue. Read on for a look at the first articles included, and follow the links to the full open-access articles if you’d like to learn more!
Origin of a Battered Lunar Layer

The surface of the Moon has been constantly bombarded by small, rocky bodies over its lifetime, fracturing its crust down to depths of perhaps 20 km. Planetary Science Institute scientists James Richardson and Oleg Abramov have now modeled this process to better understand how the upper megaregolith — the battered layer of lunar dirt 1–3 km deep that lies just below the Moon’s surface — formed.

Modeling the Formation of the Lunar Upper Megaregolith Layer ~ James E. Richardson, Oleg Abramov
Will Asteroid Ejecta Arrive at Earth?

In 2022, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft will fire a projectile into the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos to explore how we can deflect asteroids for planetary defense. Scientist Paul Wiegert (The University of Western Ontario, Canada) wonders whether some of the ejected material might escape the Didymos system and make its way to Earth — where we could examine it, but where it also might pose a risk to spacecraft. Wiegert finds that, based on the parameters of the mission, little DART-ejected material will reach our planet, and most will only arrive after thousands of years.

On the Delivery of DART-ejected Material from Asteroid (65803) Didymos to Earth ~ Paul Wiegert
Observing Mercury’s Exosphere at Twilight

Due to Mercury’s proximity to the Sun, ground-based observations of the planet’s exosphere — its tenuous outermost atmosphere — are best conducted at twilight. A team of scientists led by Carl Schmidt (Boston University and LATMOS, France) reports on how results from a new instrument, the Rapid Imaging Planetary Spectrograph, are mitigating some of the challenges of observing at twilight, like windshake, fluctuations in seeing and atmospheric transmission, and guiding problems.

The Rapid Imaging Planetary Spectrograph: Observations of Mercury’s Sodium Exosphere in Twilight ~ Carl A. Schmidt et al
Characterization of Nearby Asteroids and Comets

The Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft has been conducting an infrared survey to detect and characterize asteroids and comets since its reactivation in 2013 December. Led by Joseph Masiero (Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech), a team of scientists now reports on the 374 near-Earth objects and 11,607 main-belt asteroids the mission detected in its fourth and fifth years.

Asteroid Diameters and Albedos from NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Years 4 and 5 ~ Joseph R. Masiero et al
Learning about Fluid Stability from Jupiter’s Jets

Inviscid shear instability is a common type of fluid instability that governs the dynamics of everything from meandering jet streams in atmospheres and oceans to the formation of planets in protoplanetary disks. Scientist Timothy Dowling (University of Louisville) has used observations from the two Voyager flybys, the Galileo entry probe, the Cassini flyby, and the Juno orbiter to study this instability in Jupiter’s zonal jets — the atmospheric flows in the light bands that encircle the planet.

Jupiter-style Jet Stability ~ Timothy E. Dowling
Getting Rid of Mercury’s Mantle

Why does Mercury have such an unusually large iron core? One hypothesis is that Mercury formed with a silicate-to-iron ratio closer to that of Earth, but its silicate mantle was stripped off by a giant impact in its past, leaving behind the large fraction of iron. Scientists Christopher Spalding (Yale University) and Fred Adams (University of Michigan) show that the primordial solar wind — which was stronger than the solar wind of present day — could have produced enough drag to push the silicate ejecta away and prevent the material from reaccreting onto Mercury’s surface.

The Solar Wind Prevents Reaccretion of Debris after Mercury’s Giant Impact ~ Christopher Spalding, Fred C. Adams
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Signals from Neutron Star Binaries

Post by bystander » Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:34 pm

Signals from Neutron Star Binaries
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Mar 27
Tarini Konchady wrote:
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief radio signals that last on the order of milliseconds. They appear to be extragalactic, coming from small, point-like areas on the sky. Some FRBs are one-off events, while others are periodic or “repeating”. The sources of FRBs are still unknown, but binary neutron star systems might be a piece of the puzzle. ...

Fast Radio Bursts from Interacting Binary Neutron Star Systems ~ Bing Zhang
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