Skip to main content

Posts

Astronomers Search for "Exotrojans" Hiding in Extreme Pulsar Systems

Greek mythology has given a name to a great many objects in our solar system. But perhaps one of the least well understood are the Trojans, named after the people of Troy featured in The Iliad. When astronomers refer to them, they are normally talking about a group of over 10,000 confirmed asteroids orbiting at the Lagrange points both in front of and behind Jupiter on its orbit around the Sun. But, more generally, astronomers can now use the term to refer to any co-orbital setup - indeed almost every planet in our solar system has Trojans, though not as many as Jupiter. Which also leads to the belief that “exotrojans” must exist around other stars. Despite our best efforts with initiatives like the TROY project, so far we have yet to find one. But a new paper published in The Astrophysical Journal by Jackson Taylor of West Virginia University and an abundance of co-authors took the hunt to one of the most extreme environments in the universe: pulsar binary systems. from Universe T...
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Why Conventional SETI Needs A Major Refocus

After decades of searching for alien signals in narrow radio and microwave bandwidths, a new paper suggests that we take a wholly different approach. The idea is to broaden the search to a much wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/Lw3Icmg via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

CERN Adds a New Particle to Large Hadron Collider's Subatomic Zoo

Scientists at Europe's CERN research center say the Large Hadron Collider's LHCb experiment has discovered a "doubly charmed" particle that's like a proton, but four times as weighty. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/aFyPj86 via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Scientists Find Evidence of Worlds Colliding ... 11,000 Light-Years Away

Astronomers say unusual readings from a star system 11,000 light-years away suggest that two of the planets circling the star crashed into each other, creating a huge, light-obscuring cloud of rocks and dust. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/XwRgAEj via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

New Study Complicates the Search for Alien Oxygen

Oxygen has been the most important gas in our search for life among the cosmos thus far. On Earth, we have it in abundance because it is produced by biological synthesis. But that might not be the case on other planets, so even if we do find a very clear high oxygen signal in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, it might not be a clear indication that life exists there. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv, from Margaret Turcotte Seavey and a team of researchers from institutions like the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Johns Hopkins University, adds some additional context to what else might be going on in those atmospheres. In particular, they note that if there’s even a little bit of water vapor, it can make a big difference in whether a lifeless rock looks like a living, thriving world. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/ebPp6Ml via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

The Coming Age of Space Stations

With the ISS set to retire in 2030, several plans are in place to replace it. These include existing space stations, proposals by rising national space agencies, and commercial space stations. With multiple outposts in orbit, the potential for research, development, and even conflict is considerable! from Universe Today https://ift.tt/EPN17vi via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more

Are Rogue Exomoons the Newest Frontier in the Search for Habitability?

There may be as many rogue planets or free-floating planets in the Milky Way as there are stars. If there are billions of these worlds, some of them have likely held onto their moons. New research reveals a pathway to habitability for these rogue exomoons. from Universe Today https://ift.tt/LztCT98 via IFTTT
Post a Comment
Read more