Latest news with #HarvardSmithsonian
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Alcohol-soaked star system could help explain 'why life, including us, was able to form'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Researchers have found alcohol in the orbit of a young star, and it could help them understand the origins of life on Earth. Methanol (methyl alcohol) and its isotopes (versions of elements) were detected in gases around a star called HD 100453, which is about 330 light-years from Earth. This is the first time researchers have found isotopes of methanol in the disk of a young star like HD 100453, the scientists reported in a study published June 5 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Methanol is a building block for organic compounds such as amino acids, which are needed for life. Researchers had previously detected methanol — but not its far rarer isotopes — in other star-forming disks. "Finding these isotopes of methanol gives essential insight into the history of ingredients necessary to build life here on Earth," study lead author Alice Booth, a research fellow at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement. Related: A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone Many young stars are surrounded by swirling disks of gas and dust. These protoplanetary disks, also known as planet-forming disks, provide the material for planets, moons and comets to form. The team made the methanol discovery using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile. ALMA maps the chemical composition and distribution of gas in nearby (relatively speaking) protoplanetary disks. RELATED STORIES —See a young star potentially giving birth to a giant planet in new image from Very Large Telescope —James Webb telescope spots 'groundbreaking' molecule in scorching clouds of giant 'hell planet' —Ginormous planet discovered around tiny red star challenges our understanding of solar systems HD 100453 is larger than the sun, with about 1.6 times the sun's mass. This means that methanol and other molecules in its disk exist as a gas farther from their home star than would have been the case when our solar system was young. Smaller stars have cooler disks, so their molecules are normally frozen as ice and undetectable to ALMA, according to the statement. In HD 100453's disk, the researchers found that the ratio of methanol to other organic molecules was similar to that of comets in our solar system. The findings suggest that ices within protoplanetary disks eventually clump together to form comets loaded with complex organic molecules, which may then be delivered to planets through collisions. "This research supports the idea that comets may have played a big role in delivering important organic material to the Earth billions of years ago," study co-author Milou Temmink, a doctoral candidate who studies protoplanetary disks at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said in the statement. "They may be the reason why life, including us, was able to form here."
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers discover ultrapowerful black hole jet as bright as 10 trillion suns lit by Big Bang's afterglow
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have discovered extraordinarily powerful X-ray jets blasting from two supermassive black holes that are so ancient that the jets shine in the afterglow of the Big Bang. "They are transforming the first light of the universe into high-energy jets," Jaya Maithil, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told reporters Monday (June 9) at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, Alaska. Using data from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), Maithil and her team found that each jet spans a whopping 300,000 light-years — nearly three times the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. Each jet emerges from an actively feeding supermassive black hole, known as a quasar, located about 11.6 billion and 11.7 billion light-years away. The researchers observed these immense structures as they appeared when the universe was just 3 billion years old, during a period when galaxies and their central black holes were growing at breakneck speed. "These quasars are like cosmic time capsules," Maithil said. "If we understand them, we can understand how they were impacting the growth of their galaxy and the environment in which they resided." One of the newfound jets, from a quasar known as J1610+1811, is visible in the Chandra image above. A slender, faint purple line extends from the quasar's brilliant white core toward the upper right, ending in a small, bright blob. A second, dimmer jet appears to shoot in the opposite direction, downward and to the left. "It's like looking for candlelight in close vicinity to a flashlight that's blazing toward us," Maithil said. Related: Hungry black hole shoots out bright X-ray jet 60,000 times hotter than the sun What makes these jets particularly noteworthy is that they remain visible across billions of light-years. In a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, Maithil and her team suggested that the jets shine in X-rays thanks to interactions with the cosmic microwave background (CMB) — the faint relic radiation from the Big Bang left over after the universe cooled enough for starlight to travel freely for the first time, marking the end of the "cosmic dark ages." Back when these jets formed, the CMB was far denser than it is today, filling space with a sea of low-energy photons. As electrons in the jets raced outward at near light speed, they slammed into these CMB photons, boosting them into the X-ray range detectable by Chandra, according to the new study. RELATED STORIES —Brightest quasar ever seen is powered by black hole that eats a 'sun a day' —How black-hole-powered quasars killed off neighboring galaxies in the early universe —Distant 'quasar tsunamis' are ripping their own galaxies apart This process makes them visible across cosmic gulfs, despite their proximity to the quasars' dazzling cores, the researchers said. The jet from J1610+1811 clocks in at 92% to 98% light, carrying about half as much energy as all the light emitted by matter spiraling into the black hole — a staggering output equivalent to that from 10 trillion suns, the new study found. The second quasar, J1405+0415, located 11.7 billion light-years from Earth, features a jet just as powerful. By combining Chandra's X-ray and VLA's radio data, the researchers calculated that particles in the J1405+0415 jet are traveling at 95% to 99% the speed of light. "We're finding that some black holes may carry a bigger punch at this stage in the universe than we thought," Maithil said in a statement.
Gizmodo
08-06-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
These Two Galaxy Clusters Are About to Smash Into Each Other—Again
Roughly 2.8 billion light-years from Earth, two galaxy clusters are engaged in a cosmic tussle. These enormous structures last collided about a billion years ago, but now, it appears they're going back for round two. The galaxy clusters involved in this scuffle are part of a larger system—a 'combined' galaxy cluster—called PSZ2 G181. In a study published in The Astrophysical Journal in April, researchers analyzed new observations of PSZ2 G181 that suggest its constituent clusters are poised to smash into each other for a second time. Major collisions between galaxy clusters are generally considered rare, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), but repeated collisions are decidedly more unusual. What's more, PSZ2 G181's total mass is uncharacteristically low compared to other combined galaxy clusters that have resulted from collisions, adding another layer of peculiarity to the findings. Astronomers know the individual galaxy clusters that make up PSZ2 G181 crashed into each other once before thanks to previous radio observations, according to a NASA statement. That work revealed parentheses-shaped regions of diffuse radio emissions on the outskirts of the system. These structures most likely formed as a result of the initial collision a billion years ago. This new study, led by Andra Stroe, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, further validates the idea that a previous collision occurred. The researchers analyzed new observations of PSZ2 G181 from two X-ray observatories—NASA's Chandra and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton. Their study identified a bridge of cool gas connecting the two clusters, which probably resulted from gas stripping during the first collision, according to their report. Over the last billion years, the two clusters have drifted apart and now sit roughly 11 million light-years away from each other. This is the largest separation between these kinds of structures that astronomers have ever seen, according to NASA's statement. But Stroe and her colleagues found evidence to suggest these galaxy clusters are now on a collision course again. The team uncovered three more shock fronts aligned with the previous axis of collision—a potential early sign of a second, oncoming crash. The discovery of this rare event provides new insight into the dynamics of merging galaxy clusters—particularly those involving low-mass systems, which are underexplored. As the researchers note, finding radio emissions from low-mass clusters like PSZ2 G181 is challenging, but 'with the advent of new-generation radio telescopes and surveys, we may be uncovering the 'tip of the iceberg,' they state in their report.
Geek Wire
04-06-2025
- General
- Geek Wire
Software suggests Rubin Observatory will discover millions of solar system objects in its first year
A new type of computer simulation predicts that the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will discover 2.85 million previously undetected objects in the solar system in its first year of operation, with millions more to be spotted in the years that follow. The discovery campaign, which is due to begin in earnest later this year, should expand the known population of small bodies in the solar system by a factor of four to nine, said University of Washington astronomer Mario Juric, a member of the research team behind the open-source Sorcha simulation software. 'With this data, we'll be able to update the textbooks of solar system formation and vastly improve our ability to spot — and potentially deflect — the asteroids that could threaten Earth,' Juric said today in a news release. Several studies describing the software and the predictions have been accepted for publication by The Astronomical Journal. The project was led by researchers from Queen's University Belfast in collaboration with colleagues from UW, the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The software's name is derived from the Gaelic word for 'brightness.' Sorcha starts with the Rubin Observatory's planned observing schedule, factors in how the telescope makes its observations, and matches up those capabilities with the best model for the current state of the solar system and its reservoirs of small bodies such as asteroids. 'Accurate simulation software like Sorcha is critical,' said Queen's University astronomer Meg Schwamb, who led the research team. 'It tells us what Rubin will discover and lets us know how to interpret it. Our knowledge of what objects fill Earth's solar system is about to expand exponentially and rapidly.' The software suggests that, over the course of a 10-year campaign known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, Rubin will map more than 5 million main-belt asteroids, 127,000 near-Earth objects, 109,000 Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit, 37,000 trans-Neptunian objects and about 2,000 orbit-crossing objects known as Centaurs. Jake Kurlander, a UW doctoral student who's the principal author of one of the studies, said Rubin's observations should double the number of known asteroids in the solar system in less than a year. 'Rubin's unparalleled combination of breadth and depth make it a uniquely effective discovery machine,' he said. The observatory's Simonyi Survey Telescope — which is named after the family of Seattle software pioneer Charles Simonyi — is designed to observe small bodies multiple times using different optical filters, revealing their surface colors. Past solar system surveys typically made observations using a single filter. 'With the LSST catalog of solar system objects, our work shows that it will be like going from black-and-white television to brilliant color,' said Joe Murtagh, a doctoral student at Queen's University. The Rubin Observatory team has already started making preliminary observations and will share some of those early images at a First Look event on June 23. Check out for more information about the Sorcha simulation software. The Rubin Observatory is funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, with additional support from other organizations and private contributors including Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates. The research papers relating to the Sorcha project include:
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Quote of the Day: Spacecraft Lost in 1972 Is Coming Back to Earth
'It's going to get its moment in atmospheric entry — albeit on the wrong planet.' JONATHAN MCDOWELL, an astronomer at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who maintains a catalog of space objects, on the Kosmos-482, a half-ton Soviet-era craft which never made it to its planned destination of Venus and was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere this weekend.
