Latest news with #HarvardSmithsonian
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers discover strange solar system body dancing in sync with Neptune: 'Like finding a hidden rhythm in a song'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astronomers have found that a weird space rock at the edge of the solar system is locked in a rhythmic dance with Neptune. The object, designated 2020 VN40, is part of a family of distant solar system objects called trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs). 2020 VN40 is the first object discovered that orbits the sun once for every ten orbits Neptune makes. Considering that one Neptunian year lasts 164.8 Earth years, that means 2020 VN40 has one heck of a long year, lasting around 1,648 years or 19,776 months on Earth! The team behind this research thinks that 2020 VN40's ponderous orbital dance with Neptune may have come about when it was temporarily snared by the gravity of the ice giant planet. Thus, this discovery could help researchers better understand the dynamics of bodies at the edge of the solar system. "This is a big step in understanding the outer solar system," team leader Rosemary Pike from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian said in a statement. "It shows that even very distant regions influenced by Neptune can contain objects, and it gives us new clues about how the solar system evolved." The orbital rhythm of 2020 VN40 was discovered in data from the Large inclination Distant Objects (LiDO) survey. LiDO uses the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with backup from the Gemini Observatory and the Walter Baade Telescope to search the outer solar system for weird objects. In particular, LiDO specializes in hunting TNOs with orbits that take them far above and below the orbital plane of Earth around the sun. These are regions of the solar system that have thus far only been sparsely explored by astronomers. "It has been fascinating to learn how many small bodies in the solar system exist on these very large, very tilted orbits," LiDO team member and University of Regina researcher Samantha Lawler said. The highly tilted path of 2020 VN40 finds it at an average distance from the sun equivalent to 140 times the distance between Earth and our star. However, the most interesting element of the orbit of 2020 VN40 is its resonance with the orbit of Neptune. Other bodies rhythmically aligned with Neptune make their closest approaches to the sun, their perihelion, when Neptune is at its greatest distance from our star, or its aphelion. Defying this trend, 2020 VN40 is at perihelion when Neptune is also close to the sun. That's if one were looking at it from above the solar system, with the tilt of 2020 VN40 meaning that this TNO and Neptune are not actually close together; the TNO is actually far below the solar system. This also separates 2020 VN40 from other resonant TNOs, which tend to stay within the plane of the solar system when they make close approaches to the sun. "This new motion is like finding a hidden rhythm in a song we thought we knew," team member and University of California Santa Cruz scientist Ruth Murray-Clay said. "It could change how we think about the way distant objects move." Related Stories: — Astronomers discover a cosmic 'fossil' at the edge of our solar system. Is this bad news for 'Planet 9'? — Icy asteroids help the James Webb Space Telescope uncover Neptune's history —Messenger comets might be why Earth has life, asteroid Ryugu samples suggest Revealing the orbital strangeness of 2020 VN40 suggests that solar system objects with highly tilted orbits can adopt novel and unexpected types of movement. The hunt is now on for more bodies like 2020 VN40, with the newly operating Vera C. Rubin Observatory set to play a key role in this investigation. "This is just the beginning," team member and Planetary Science Institute researcher Kathryn Volk said. "We're opening a new window into the solar system's past." The 2020 VN40 results were published on July 7 in The Planetary Science Journal. Solve the daily Crossword
South China Morning Post
03-07-2025
- Science
- South China Morning Post
Giant object from deep space spotted blazing through our solar system
Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through our solar system – only the third ever spotted, though scientists suspect many more may slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre, is likely the largest yet detected. It has been classified as a comet. 'The fact that we see some fuzziness suggests that it is mostly ice rather than mostly rock,' Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, said. Originally known as A11pl3Z before it was confirmed to be of interstellar origin, the object poses no threat to Earth, said Richard Moissl, head of planetary defence at the European Space Agency. 'It will fly deep through the solar system, passing just inside the orbit of Mars,' he said, 'but will not hit our neighbouring planet, he said. Excited astronomers were still refining their calculations, but the object appears to be zooming more than 60km (37 miles) a second.
News.com.au
03-07-2025
- Science
- News.com.au
Third-ever confirmed interstellar object blazing through Solar System
Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through our Solar System -- only the third ever spotted, though scientists suspect many more may slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, is likely the largest yet detected. It has been classified as a comet. "The fact that we see some fuzziness suggests that it is mostly ice rather than mostly rock," Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told AFP. Originally known as A11pl3Z before it was confirmed to be of interstellar origin, the object poses no threat to Earth, said Richard Moissl, head of planetary defense at the European Space Agency. "It will fly deep through the Solar System, passing just inside the orbit of Mars," but will not hit our neighboring planet, he told AFP. Excited astronomers are still refining their calculations, but the object appears to be zooming more than 60 kilometres (37 miles) a second. This would mean it is not bound by the Sun's orbit, unlike those asteroids and comets that remain within the solar system. Its trajectory also "means it's not orbiting our star, but coming from interstellar space and flying off to there again," Moissl said. "We think that probably these little ice balls get formed associated with star systems," added McDowell. "And then as another star passes by, tugs on the ice ball, frees it out. It goes rogue, wanders through the galaxy, and now this one is just passing us." The NASA-funded ATLAS survey in Hawaii first discovered the object on Tuesday, US astronomer David Rankin wrote on the social media platform Bluesky. Professional and amateur astronomers across the world then searched through past telescope data, tracing its trajectory back to at least June 14. The object is currently estimated to be roughly 10-20 kilometers wide, Moissl said, which would make it the largest interstellar interloper ever detected. But the object could be smaller if it is made out of ice, which reflects more light. "It will get brighter and closer to the Sun until late October and then still be observable (by telescope) until next year," Moissl said. - Our third visitor - This marks only the third time humanity has detected an object entering the solar system from the stars. The first, 'Oumuamua, was discovered in 2017. It was so strange that at least one prominent scientist became convinced it was an alien vessel -- though this has since been dismissed by further research. Our second interstellar visitor, 2I/Borisov, was spotted in 2019. Mark Norris, an astronomer at the UK's University of Central Lancashire, told AFP that the new object appears to be "moving considerably faster than the other two extrasolar objects that we previously discovered." The object is currently roughly around the distance from Jupiter away from Earth, Norris said. He lamented that he would not be able to observe the object on his telescope on Wednesday night, because it is currently only visible in the Southern Hemisphere. Norris pointed to modelling estimating that there could be as many as 10,000 interstellar objects drifting through the Solar System at any given time, though most would be smaller than the newly discovered object. If true, this suggests that the newly online Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile could soon be finding these dim interstellar visitors every month, Norris said. Moissl said it is not feasible to send a mission into space to intercept the new object. Still, these visitors offer scientists a rare chance to study something outside of our Solar System. For example, if we detected precursors of life such as amino acids on such an object, it would give us "a lot more confidence that the conditions for life exist in other star systems," Norris said.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- 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.
