Space Science News

Galactic Cosmic-Ray Composition During Solar Minimum Periods
Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 17:22

As galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) diffuse into the heliosphere, their energy spectra are distorted by interactions with the magnetic field convected outward by the expanding solar wind. This process, called solar modulation, will cause GCRs with interstellar energies less than ~1 GeV/nucleon to lose a significant fraction of their energy due to adiabatic deceleration; these losses are smallest during the solar minimum periods of the ~11 year solar cycle.

 

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Rare Stellar Alignment Offers Opportunity To Hunt For Planets
Monday, June 3, 2013 - 18:08

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri. The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from Hubble.

 

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New mathematical model links space-time theories
Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 08:55

Researchers at the University of Southampton have taken a significant step in a project to unravel the secrets of the structure of our Universe. Professor Skenderis has developed a mathematic model which finds striking similarities between flat space-time and negatively curved space-time, with the latter however formulated in a negative number of dimensions, beyond our realm of physical perception.

 

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Longer telomeres after treatment with lithium
Friday, May 24, 2013 - 07:13

A new study from Karolinska Institutet reveals that lithium treatments for bipolar disorder can sometimes increase the length of so-called telomeres, the sections of DNA at the end of the chromosomes in the cell nucleus. The shortening of these telomeres has been linked to ageing, stress and mental disease, and the researchers now hope that their results will mark the first step on the path to a more individualised treatment of bipolar disorder.

 

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Black Hole Powered Jets Plow Into Galaxy
Wednesday, May 15, 2013 - 13:08

This multi-wavelength view shows 4C+29.30, a galaxy located some 850 million light years from Earth. The radio emission comes from two jets of particles that are speeding at millions of miles per hour away from a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy. The estimated mass of the black hole is about 100 million times the mass of our Sun. The ends of the jets show larger areas of radio emission located outside the galaxy.

 

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Moon and Earth have common water source
Friday, May 10, 2013 - 11:29

Researchers used a multicollector ion microprobe to study hydrogen-deuterium ratios in lunar rock and on Earth. Their conclusion: The Moon’s water did not come from comets but was already present on Earth 4.5 billion years ago, when a giant collision sent material from Earth to form the Moon.

 

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