AAS NOVA — Research Highlights 2020

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
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Alignment of a Star and a Planet

Post by bystander » Thu Jul 02, 2020 6:06 pm

Alignment of a Star and a Planet
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jun 29
Susanna Kohler wrote:
The planets in our solar system all orbit in roughly the same direction as the Sun spins — but this isn’t true for all planetary systems! Recent measurements of the spin angle of a nearby, planet-hosting star provide new insight into how solar systems form. ...

Spin–Orbit Alignment of the β Pictoris Planetary System ~ Stefan Kraus et al
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A Young Population of Hidden Jets

Post by bystander » Thu Jul 02, 2020 6:15 pm

A Young Population of Hidden Jets
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 01
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Looking for a fireworks show this 4th of July? Try checking out the distant universe, where powerful jets flung from supermassive black holes slam into their surroundings, lighting up the sky. Though these jets are hidden behind shrouds of gas and dust, a new study has now revealed some of these young powerhouses. ...

High-resolution VLA Imaging of Obscured Quasars:
Young Radio Jets Caught in a Dense ISM
~ Pallavi Patil et al
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An Update on the Mysterious Flashes of FRB 180916

Post by bystander » Fri Jul 10, 2020 11:02 pm

An Update on the Mysterious Flashes of FRB 180916
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 08
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Earlier this year, we gained new insight into the origins of fast radio bursts (FRBs) when FRB 180916 became the first of these strange sources observed to exhibit repeated bursts in a periodic pattern.

Now, we’re taking a look at four recent studies detailing some of the latest observations and theories of FRB 180916 — and what this tells us about the population of FRBs as a whole. ...

Detection of Repeating FRB 180916.J0158+65 Down to Frequencies of 300 MHz ~ P. Chawla et al The Lowest-frequency Fast Radio Bursts: Sardinia Radio Telescope
Detection of the Periodic FRB 180916 at 328 MHz
~ M. Pilia et al Periodic Fast Radio Bursts with Neutron Star Free Precession ~ J. J. Zanazzi, Dong Lai Precessing Flaring Magnetar as a Source of Repeating FRB 180916.J0158+65 ~ Yuri Levin, Andrei M. Beloborodov, Ashley Bransgrove
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Shining Bright Through the Ages

Post by bystander » Fri Jul 10, 2020 11:09 pm

Shining Bright Through the Ages
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 10
Tarini Konchady wrote:
Accurate distance measurements are critical to astronomy. A Type Ia supernova is one of the few objects that we can trust for making distance measurements since they have a fixed peak brightness. But can the brightness of such a supernova change significantly based on the properties of its host galaxy? And what does this mean for our understanding of dark energy? ...

Evidence for Cosmic Acceleration Is Robust to Observed Correlations
between Type Ia Supernova Luminosity and Stellar Age
~ B. M. Rose et al
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Evidence for an Ancient Martian Ocean

Post by bystander » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:46 pm

Evidence for an Ancient Martian Ocean
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 13
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Was Mars once partially covered in ancient seas? A recent study has found new evidence to support the Mars ocean hypothesis. ...

Evidence for an Ancient Sea Level on Mars ~ Abbas Ali Saberi
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Bent Crystals and Solar Flares

Post by bystander » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:52 pm

Bent Crystals and Solar Flares
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 15
Susanna Kohler wrote:
In 1984, a rescue mission took place in space — ultimately saving a spacecraft that went on to make some of the most detailed observations we have of solar flares during a highly active solar cycle. Now, more than three decades later and thanks to some clever recalibration, we’re still reaping the rewards. ...

A Unique Resource for Solar Flare Diagnostic Studies: the SMM Bent Crystal Spectrometer ~ J. Sylwester et al
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A Stellar Flyby Makes Some Waves

Post by bystander » Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:59 pm

A Stellar Flyby Makes Some Waves
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 17
Susanna Kohler wrote:
The gaseous, dusty disks surrounding newly born stars can reveal a wealth of information about how distant stellar systems form and evolve. In a new study, scientists have now watched the interaction of two such disks in a stellar flyby. ...

Tidal Interaction between the UX Tauri A/C Disk System Revealed by ALMA ~ Luis A. Zapata et al
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Re: Bent Crystals and Solar Flares

Post by BDanielMayfield » Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:22 pm

bystander wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:52 pm Bent Crystals and Solar Flares
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 15
Susanna Kohler wrote:
In 1984, a rescue mission took place in space — ultimately saving a spacecraft that went on to make some of the most detailed observations we have of solar flares during a highly active solar cycle. Now, more than three decades later and thanks to some clever recalibration, we’re still reaping the rewards. ...

A Unique Resource for Solar Flare Diagnostic Studies: the SMM Bent Crystal Spectrometer ~ J. Sylwester et al
The NOVA AAS news report about this contains this remarkable, for an Astronomical publication, error:
The authors additionally improve other calibration aspects, ultimately producing high-resolution line spectra that they suggest could now be used as templates for the analysis and interpretation of future observed X-ray spectra — in particular, spectra gathered from other active, flaring stars in our solar system.
Does the American Astronomical Society not know that there is only one star in our solar system? :facepalm:
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The Contradiction of a Low-Mass Massive Black Hole

Post by bystander » Thu Jul 23, 2020 6:52 pm

The Contradiction of a Low-Mass Massive Black Hole
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 22
Susanna Kohler wrote:
The black holes we’ve observed in the universe typically fall into two categories: small star-sized black holes, and gargantuan black holes lurking at the centers of galaxies. Now, a new black-hole discovery sheds some light on the gray area between these extremes. ...

An Accreting, Anomalously Low-mass Black Hole at the Center of Low-mass Galaxy IC 750 ~ Ingyin Zaw et al
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There’s Metal in the Air

Post by bystander » Mon Jul 27, 2020 5:25 pm

There’s Metal in the Air
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 24
Tarini Konchady wrote:
With atmospheric temperatures ranging from roughly 3,000 to 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit, ultra-hot Jupiters are ready-made laboratories for extreme planetary science. For instance, any molecules in the atmosphere of an ultra-hot Jupiter will be broken down into their component atoms and ions. So what can be found in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121 b? ...

Neutral Cr and V in the Atmosphere of Ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121 b ~ Maya Ben-Yami et al
viewtopic.php?t=39675
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An Infant Pulsar Defies Categorization

Post by bystander » Tue Jul 28, 2020 2:58 pm

An Infant Pulsar Defies Categorization
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 27
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Pulsars have historically been classified into different categories — but the distinction between them may be blurrier than we thought. The discovery of the youngest pulsar yet observed is now raising questions about how we classify these extreme objects. ...

A Very Young Radio-Loud Magnetar ~ P. Esposito et al
viewtopic.php?t=40688
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Searching for Patterns from Feeding Supermassive Black Holes

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:59 pm

Searching for Patterns from Feeding Supermassive Black Holes
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 29
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Our universe is filled with distant supermassive black holes that feed on surrounding gas and dust, emitting bright gamma-ray radiation. A new study explores how many of these show periodic patterns in the variations of their high-energy light. ...

Systematic Search for γ-Ray Periodicity in Active Galactic Nuclei Detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope ~ P. Peñil et al
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Hints of Young Solar Systems

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 05, 2020 7:05 pm

Hints of Young Solar Systems
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Jul 31
Susanna Kohler wrote:
How did our solar system’s planets first form within the swirling disk of gas and dust that surrounded the newborn Sun? One of the best ways to answer this question is watch other solar systems as they form — and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) continues to help us do so. ...

Hints of a Population of Solar System Analog Planets from ALMA ~ Deryl Long et al
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Tracing Gas Flows Out of Star-Forming Galaxies

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:37 pm

Tracing Gas Flows Out of Star-Forming Galaxies
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 07
Tarini Konchady wrote:
The flow of gas into and out of a galaxy regulates many of its features, such as its rate of star formation and chemical content. Computer simulations have allowed us to probe these gas flows in greater detail, but there still remains much to uncover. For example, on what scales does gas flow out of actively star-forming galaxies? ...

A Systematic Study of Galactic Outflows via Fluorescence Emission:
Implications for Their Size and Structure
~ Bingjie Wang et al
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Identifying a Slow Planet from a Single TESS Transit

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:42 pm

Identifying a Slow Planet from a Single TESS Transit
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 10
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Over the past 25 years, we’ve found thousands of worlds beyond our solar system. Nonetheless, some categories of exoplanets remain elusive — for instance, planets that orbit their hosts on long, slow paths. A new study shows how we might hunt these worlds down. ...

NGTS-11 b (TOI-1847 b): A Transiting Warm Saturn Recovered from a TESS Single-transit Event ~ Samuel Gill et al
viewtopic.php?t=40808
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The Deepening Mystery of White Dwarf GD 394

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 13, 2020 3:49 pm

The Deepening Mystery of White Dwarf GD 394
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 12
Susanna Kohler wrote:
This week, scientists are celebrating the recent conclusion of the primary mission for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). On Monday, we talked about TESS’s ongoing contributions to exoplanet science. But what else has this spacecraft been up to? Today we’re exploring its addition to the mystery of a puzzling white dwarf. ...

Optical Detection of the 1.1 day Variability at the White Dwarf GD 394 with TESS ~ David J. Wilson et al
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When Dark Matter Gets Fuzzy

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:38 pm

When Dark Matter Gets Fuzzy
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 14
Susanna Kohler wrote:
What model of dark matter best describes our universe? A new study uses a unique region in our own galaxy to constrain one particular model: that of fuzzy dark matter. ...

Testing the Prediction of Fuzzy Dark Matter Theory in the Milky Way Center ~ Zhi Li, Juntai Shen, Hsi-Yu Schive
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The Impact of Land on an Ocean World’s Habitability

Post by bystander » Thu Aug 20, 2020 4:46 pm

The Impact of Land on an Ocean World’s Habitability
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 19
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Which habitable-zone planets can actually support life? A recent study uses a nearby planet — Proxima Centauri b — to examine how the presence and size of a land mass impacts the habitability of an ocean world. ...

The Effect of Substellar Continent Size on Ocean Dynamics of Proxima Centauri b ~ Andrea M. Salazar et al
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Getting Deeper into the Main Sequence with Gaia

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:27 pm

Getting Deeper into the Main Sequence with Gaia
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 21
Tarini Konchady wrote:
Hertzsprung–Russell (HR) diagrams have been an integral part of astronomy for over a hundred years. Stars at different stages of life occupy different parts of the diagram, which allows us to take in a population of stars at a glance. The Gaia mission provided us with an enormous sample of stars — what can we learn by putting them in a HR diagram? ...

Fine Structures in the Main Sequence Revealed by Gaia Data Release 2 ~ Wei-Chun Jao, Gregory A. Feiden
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Will Radio Bursts Reveal Hidden Baryons?

Post by bystander » Wed Aug 26, 2020 6:34 pm

Will Radio Bursts Reveal Hidden Baryons?
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 24
Susanna Kohler wrote:
The Earth, your body, and the electronic device you’re reading this on are all made up of ordinary, baryonic matter. A new study has now used bursts of radio emission to probe whether the outskirts of our galaxy are hiding vast quantities of “missing” baryonic matter. ...

A Data-Driven Technique Using Millisecond Transients
to Measure the Milky Way Halo
~ E. Platts, J. Xavier Prochaska, Casey J. Law
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Opportunities from a Newly Discovered Planetary System

Post by bystander » Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:22 pm

Opportunities from a Newly Discovered Planetary System
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 26
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Less than 250 light-years from Earth lie two newly found planets orbiting a star not unlike our own. A new study introduces these discoveries and explores what we may learn from future observations of their puffy atmospheres. ...

The Multiplanet System TOI-421: A Warm Neptune and a Super Puffy
Mini-Neptune Transiting a G9 V Star in a Visual Binary
~ Ilaria Carleo et al
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A Stellar Pinwheel at a New Wavelength

Post by bystander » Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:29 pm

A Stellar Pinwheel at a New Wavelength
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Aug 28
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Spiral galaxies are one thing — but some spiral patterns in the sky are created much closer to home, arising from stars instead! A recent study explores a stellar pinwheel spotted around an unexpected source. ...

A Radio Pinwheel Emanating from WR 147 ~ Luis F. Rodríguez et al
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LIGO/Virgo’s Newest Merger Defies Mass Expectations

Post by bystander » Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:01 pm

LIGO/Virgo’s Newest Merger Defies Mass Expectations
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Sep 02
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Been waiting for new signals to be parsed from LIGO/Virgo’s third observing run data? Wait no longer! The latest detection announced in Physical Review Letters and ApJ Letters is big news — both figuratively and literally. The two black holes that merged in GW190521 are the most massive we’ve observed yet, and this has major astrophysical implications. ...

GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M ~ LIGO, Virgo, R. Abbott et al Properties and Astrophysical Implications of the
150 M Binary Black Hole Merger GW190521
~ LIGO, Virgo, R. Abbott et al
viewtopic.php?t=40963
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Re: LIGO/Virgo’s Newest Merger Defies Mass Expectations

Post by BDanielMayfield » Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:30 pm

bystander wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:01 pm LIGO/Virgo’s Newest Merger Defies Mass Expectations
NOVA | American Astronomical Society | 2020 Sep 02
Susanna Kohler wrote:
Been waiting for new signals to be parsed from LIGO/Virgo’s third observing run data? Wait no longer! The latest detection announced in Physical Review Letters and ApJ Letters is big news — both figuratively and literally. The two black holes that merged in GW190521 are the most massive we’ve observed yet, and this has major astrophysical implications. ...

GW190521: A Binary Black Hole Merger with a Total Mass of 150 M ~ LIGO, Virgo, R. Abbott et al Properties and Astrophysical Implications of the
150 M Binary Black Hole Merger GW190521
~ LIGO, Virgo, R. Abbott et al
viewtopic.php?t=40963
Was this GW event also detected by other em radiation telescopes?
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Re: LIGO/Virgo’s Newest Merger Defies Mass Expectations

Post by bystander » Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:53 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:30 pm Was this GW event also detected by other em radiation telescopes?

Follow the links :wink:
bystander wrote: Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:01 pm viewtopic.php?t=40963
bystander wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 5:20 pm viewtopic.php?t=40714
bystander wrote: Fri Jun 26, 2020 2:13 pm Black Hole Collision May Have Exploded with Light
California Institute of Technology | 2020 Jun 25

Possible Flare from Black Hole Merger
APS Physics Focus | 2020 Jun 25

Candidate Electromagnetic Counterpart to the Binary Black Hole
Merger Gravitational-Wave Event S190521g
~ M. J. Graham et al
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