Prospecting for interstellar oil
We have developed a new method to look for carbon compounds in space, akin to prospecting for oil on Earth. Our method is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society......»»
Beyond our solar system, Voyager 1 picks up the hum of interstellar gas
The two most distant man-made objects in the universe are the Voyager probes, launched in the 1970s. Now, Voyager 1 has found a hum of interstellar gas......»»
Astronomers Search For Answers To Origins of Interstellar Visitors Like "Oumuamua
"Getting to another extrasolar planet is never going to happen in my lifetime, or that of Western civilisation," says Alan Jackson, an astronomer and planetary scientist at Arizona State University. "But we can have nature deliver pieces of them to u.....»»
Probing deep space with Interstellar
When the four-decades-old Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft entered interstellar space in 2012 and 2018, respectively, scientists celebrated. These plucky spacecraft had already traveled 120 times the distance from the Earth to the sun to reach the.....»»
When stars get too close to each other, they cast out interstellar comets and asteroids
In October 2017, humanity caught its first-ever glimpse of an interstellar object—a visitor from beyond our solar system—passing nearby the sun. We named it "Oumuamua, and its unusual properties fascinated and confounded astronomers. Less than tw.....»»
Long-awaited review reveals journey of water from interstellar clouds to habitable worlds
Dutch astronomer Ewine van Dishoeck (Leiden University, the Netherlands), together with an international team of colleagues, has written an overview of everything we know about water in interstellar clouds thanks to the Herschel space observatory. Th.....»»
From stardust to pale blue dot: Carbon"s interstellar journey to Earth
We are made of stardust, the saying goes, and a pair of studies including University of Michigan research finds that may be more true than we previously thought......»»
First interstellar comet may be the most pristine ever found
New observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) indicate that the rogue comet 2I/Borisov, which is only the second and most recently detected interstellar visitor to our Solar System, is one of the most pris.....»»
Astronomer Makes Navigation System For Interstellar Space Travel
rushtobugment shares a report from ScienceAlert: Using the positions and shifting light of stars, both near and far, astronomer Coryn A.L. Bailer-Jones has demonstrated the feasibility of autonomous, on-the-fly navigation for spacecraft traveling far.....»»
Cold molecular clouds as cosmic ray detectors
The ionization of the neutral gas in an interstellar molecular cloud plays a key role in the cloud's evolution, helping to regulate the heating and cooling processes, the chemistry and molecule formation, and coupling the gas to magnetic fields. Usua.....»»
Interstellar visitor ‘Oumuamua was a piece of Pluto-like planet, not aliens
In 2017, a cigar-shaped object was spotted in the sky and was identified as coming from outside our solar system. Now researchers think they know what it was......»»
About 7 interstellar objects pass through the inner solar system every year, study estimates
In October 19th, 2017, the first interstellar object ever detected flew past Earth on its way out of the solar system. Less than two years later, a second object was detected, an easily identified interstellar comet designated as 2I/Borisov. The appe.....»»
Study shows a sharp rise in detection rate of broad absorption line variations
Gas around black holes and interstellar medium distribution are key factors in understanding the growth of supermassive black holes and the evolution of their host galaxies. However, as a crucial parameter, gas density is hard to determine reliably,.....»»
Mathematicians develop new classes of stellar dynamics systems solutions
The Vlasov-Poisson equations describe many important physical phenomena such as the distribution of gravitating particles in interstellar space, high-temperature plasma kinetics, and the Landau damping effect. A joint team of scientists from the Math.....»»
Image: Hubble spots an interstellar interaction
The life of a planetary nebula is often chaotic, from the death of its parent star to the scattering of its contents far out into space. Captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESO 455-10 is one such planetary nebula, located in the con.....»»
Dalian Coherent Light Source reveals origin of interstellar disulfur
Studying the creation and evolution of sulfur-containing compounds in outer space is essential for understanding interstellar chemistry. CS2 is believed to be the most important molecule in comet nuclei, interstellar dust, or ice cores. It could prod.....»»
How nearby galaxies form their stars
Stars are born in dense clouds of molecular hydrogen gas that permeates interstellar space of most galaxies. While the physics of star formation is complex, recent years have seen substantial progress towards understanding how stars form in a galacti.....»»