Archaeology News Online

A team from the University of Kentucky’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has observed evidence of ancient impacts that are thought to have shaped and structured our Milky Way galaxy. Using observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) telescope, the team analyzed the spatial distribution  of 3.6 million stars and found ripples that support evidence of the Milky Way’s ancient impacts  [Credit: University of Kentucky] Deborah Ferguson, a 2016 UK graduate, is the lead author on a paper that published this week in the Astrophysical Journal . Ferguson conducted the research as an undergraduate student with co-authors Susan Gardner, a professor of physics and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, and Brian Yanny, a staff scientist and astrophysicist in the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. Their paper, "Milky Way Tomography with K and M Dwarf Stars: the Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disk," presents observational evidence of asymmetric ripples i

A simulated universe created by Swinburne University of Technology and The University of Melbourne has revealed galaxies emerging in the first billion years after the Big Bang were experiencing a recession. The density of gas in and around a simulated galaxy just over a billion years after the Big Bang. New gas  is arriving at too great a rate for the galaxy to convert it into stars and the gas piles up  [Credit: Swinburne University of Technology] It has long been imagined that the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang were rapidly growing, turning huge clouds of pristine gas into stars at rates thousands of times greater than what we see in the Milky Way today. However, new modelling inspired by economics theory has instead revealed the galaxies weren’t forming as fast as they could have. Swinburne astronomer Associate Professor Alan Duffy created supercomputer simulations of the early Universe treating the complex forming galaxies as a simple economical model with raw materials a

How does the gas in the centre of the Milky Way behave? Researchers from Heidelberg University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Oxford, recently investigated the motion of gas clouds in a comprehensive computer simulation. The new model finally makes it possible to conclusively explain this complex gas motion. Astrophysicists Dr Mattia C. Sormani (Heidelberg) and Matthew Ridley (Oxford) conducted the research, on Heidelberg's part, at the Collaborative Research Centre "The Milky Way System" (CRC 881). Spiral galaxy Messier 61, picture taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our Milky Way might look like this galaxy  [Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler] Our solar system is located in the outer regions of the Milky Way, a disk-shaped galaxy with an approximate diameter of 100,000 light years. From Earth, its appearance can only be observed indirectly, by measuring positions and movements of sta

The dichotomy concerns the so-called angular momentum (per unit mass), that in physics is a measure of size and rotation velocity. Spiral galaxies are found to be strongly rotating, with an angular momentum higher by a factor of about 5 than ellipticals. What is the origin of such a difference? Spiral galaxies are found to be strongly rotating, with an angular momentum higher by a factor of about 5 than ellipticals.  What is the origin of such a difference? [Credit: WikiCommons] An international research team investigated the issue in a study just published in the Astrophysical Journal . The team was led by SISSA Ph.D. student JingJing Shi under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Lapi and Luigi Danese, and in collaboration with Prof. Huiyuan Wang from USTC (Hefei) and Dr. Claudia Mancuso from IRA-INAF (Bologna). The researchers inferred from observations the amount of gas fallen into the central region of a developing galaxy, where most of the star formation takes places. The outcom

A new model giving rise to young planetary systems offers a fresh solution to a puzzle that has vexed astronomers ever since new detection technologies and planet-hunting missions such as NASA's Kepler space telescope have revealed thousands of planets orbiting other stars: While the majority of these exoplanets fall into a category called super-Earths -- bodies with a mass somewhere between Earth and Neptune -- most of the features observed in nascent planetary systems were thought to require much more massive planets, rivaling or dwarfing Jupiter, the gas giant in our solar system. Artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets (not shown to scale) are forming [Credit: ESO/L. Calcada] In other words, the observed features of many planetary systems in their early stages of formation did not seem to match the type of exoplanets that make up the bulk of the planetary population in our galaxy. "We propose a scenario that was previously d

A group of scientists led by researchers at Cardiff University have discovered a rich inventory of molecules at the centre of an exploded star for the very first time. This artist's illustration of Supernova 1987A reveals the cold, inner regions of the exploded star's remnants (red) where  tremendous amounts of dust were detected and imaged by ALMA. This inner region is contrasted with the outer shell (blue),  where the energy from the supernova is colliding (green) with the envelope of gas ejected from the star prior  to its powerful detonation [Credit: A. Angelich; NRAO/AUI/NSF] Two previously undetected molecules, formylium (HCO+) and sulphur monoxide (SO), were found in the cooling aftermath of Supernova 1987A, located 163,000 light years away in a nearby neighbour of our own Milky Way galaxy. The explosion was originally witnessed in February 1987, hence its name. These newly identified molecules were accompanied by previously detected compounds such as carbon monoxide (CO

Supernovas — the violent endings of the brief yet brilliant lives of massive stars — are among the most cataclysmic events in the cosmos. Though supernovas mark the death of stars, they also trigger the birth of new elements and the formation of new molecules. Remnant of Supernova 1987A as seen by ALMA. Purple area indicates emission from SiO molecules. Yellow area  is emission from CO molecules. The blue ring is Hubble data that has been artificially expanded into 3-D  [Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); R. Indebetouw; NASA/ESA Hubble] In February of 1987, astronomers witnessed one of these events unfold inside the Large Magellanic Cloud, a tiny dwarf galaxy located approximately 163,000 light-years from Earth. Over the next 30 years, observations of the remnant of that explosion revealed never-before-seen details about the death of stars and how atoms created in those stars — like carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen — spill out into space and combine to form new molecules and dust. These microsc

Researchers from the University of Oxford are using the largest, most intense lasers on the planet, to for the first time, show the general public how to recreate the effects of supernovae,  in a laboratory. Supernova explosion [Credit: University of Oxford] One of the most extreme astrophysical events, Supernova explosions are the violent deaths of certain stars that scatter elements heavier than hydrogen and helium into surrounding space. Our own solar system is thought to have formed when a nearby supernova exploded distributing these elements into a cloud of hydrogen that then condensed to form our sun and the planets. In fact, the very atoms that make up our bodies were formed in the remnants of such an explosion. Working in collaboration with Imperial College, London, and AWE Aldermaston the team, led in Oxford by Professor Gianluca Gregori of the Department of Physics, are currently demonstrating their research at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition , a week-long showcas

A team from the University of Kentucky’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has observed evidence of ancient impacts that are thought to have shaped and structured our Milky Way galaxy. Using observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) telescope, the team analyzed the spatial distribution  of 3.6 million stars and found ripples that support evidence of the Milky Way’s ancient impacts  [Credit: University of Kentucky] Deborah Ferguson, a 2016 UK graduate, is the lead author on a paper that published this week in the Astrophysical Journal . Ferguson conducted the research as an undergraduate student with co-authors Susan Gardner, a professor of physics and astronomy in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, and Brian Yanny, a staff scientist and astrophysicist in the Fermilab Center for Particle Astrophysics. Their paper, "Milky Way Tomography with K and M Dwarf Stars: the Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disk," presents observational evidence of asymmetric ripples i

A simulated universe created by Swinburne University of Technology and The University of Melbourne has revealed galaxies emerging in the first billion years after the Big Bang were experiencing a recession. The density of gas in and around a simulated galaxy just over a billion years after the Big Bang. New gas  is arriving at too great a rate for the galaxy to convert it into stars and the gas piles up  [Credit: Swinburne University of Technology] It has long been imagined that the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang were rapidly growing, turning huge clouds of pristine gas into stars at rates thousands of times greater than what we see in the Milky Way today. However, new modelling inspired by economics theory has instead revealed the galaxies weren’t forming as fast as they could have. Swinburne astronomer Associate Professor Alan Duffy created supercomputer simulations of the early Universe treating the complex forming galaxies as a simple economical model with raw materials a

How does the gas in the centre of the Milky Way behave? Researchers from Heidelberg University, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Oxford, recently investigated the motion of gas clouds in a comprehensive computer simulation. The new model finally makes it possible to conclusively explain this complex gas motion. Astrophysicists Dr Mattia C. Sormani (Heidelberg) and Matthew Ridley (Oxford) conducted the research, on Heidelberg's part, at the Collaborative Research Centre "The Milky Way System" (CRC 881). Spiral galaxy Messier 61, picture taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. Our Milky Way might look like this galaxy  [Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgements: G. Chapdelaine, L. Limatola, and R. Gendler] Our solar system is located in the outer regions of the Milky Way, a disk-shaped galaxy with an approximate diameter of 100,000 light years. From Earth, its appearance can only be observed indirectly, by measuring positions and movements of sta

The dichotomy concerns the so-called angular momentum (per unit mass), that in physics is a measure of size and rotation velocity. Spiral galaxies are found to be strongly rotating, with an angular momentum higher by a factor of about 5 than ellipticals. What is the origin of such a difference? Spiral galaxies are found to be strongly rotating, with an angular momentum higher by a factor of about 5 than ellipticals.  What is the origin of such a difference? [Credit: WikiCommons] An international research team investigated the issue in a study just published in the Astrophysical Journal . The team was led by SISSA Ph.D. student JingJing Shi under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Lapi and Luigi Danese, and in collaboration with Prof. Huiyuan Wang from USTC (Hefei) and Dr. Claudia Mancuso from IRA-INAF (Bologna). The researchers inferred from observations the amount of gas fallen into the central region of a developing galaxy, where most of the star formation takes places. The outcom

A new model giving rise to young planetary systems offers a fresh solution to a puzzle that has vexed astronomers ever since new detection technologies and planet-hunting missions such as NASA's Kepler space telescope have revealed thousands of planets orbiting other stars: While the majority of these exoplanets fall into a category called super-Earths -- bodies with a mass somewhere between Earth and Neptune -- most of the features observed in nascent planetary systems were thought to require much more massive planets, rivaling or dwarfing Jupiter, the gas giant in our solar system. Artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets (not shown to scale) are forming [Credit: ESO/L. Calcada] In other words, the observed features of many planetary systems in their early stages of formation did not seem to match the type of exoplanets that make up the bulk of the planetary population in our galaxy. "We propose a scenario that was previously d