Latest news with #LeibnizInstituteforAstrophysicsPotsdam
GMA Network
07-07-2025
- Science
- GMA Network
Alien planet lashed by huge flares from its ‘angry beast' star
he star HIP 67522 with a flare erupting toward an orbiting planet, HIP 67522 b, is depicted in this illustration released by the European Space Agency on July 2, 2025. A second planet, HIP 67522 c, is shown in the background. Janine Fohlmeister, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam/ Handout via REUTERS WASHINGTON — Scientists are tracking a large gas planet experiencing quite a quandary as it orbits extremely close to a young star—a predicament never previously observed. This exoplanet, as planets beyond our solar system are called, orbits its star so tightly that it appears to trigger flares from the stellar surface—larger than any observed from the sun—reaching several million kilometers into space that over time may strip much of this unlucky world's atmosphere. The phenomenon appears to be caused by the planet's interaction with the star's magnetic field, according to the researchers. And this star is a kind known to flare, especially when young. "A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. The star, called HIP 67522, is slightly more massive than the sun and is located about 407 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). This star and planet, as well as a second smaller gas planet also detected in this planetary system, are practically newborns. Whereas the sun and our solar system's planets are roughly 4.5 billion years old, this star is about 17 million years old, with its planets slightly younger. The planet, named HIP 67522 b, has a diameter almost the size of Jupiter, our solar system's largest planet, but with only 5% of Jupiter's mass. That makes it one of the puffiest exoplanets known, with a consistency reminiscent of cotton candy. It orbits five times closer to its star than our solar system's innermost planet Mercury orbits the sun, needing only seven days to complete an orbit. A flare is an intense eruption of electromagnetic radiation emanating from the outermost part of a star's atmosphere, called the corona. So how does HIP 67522 b elicit huge flares from the star? As it orbits, it apparently interacts with the star's magnetic field—either through its own magnetic field or perhaps through the presence of conducting material such as iron in the planet's composition. "We don't know for sure what the mechanism is. We think it is plausible that the planet moves within the star's magnetic field and whips up a wave that travels along magnetic field lines to the star. When the wave reaches the stellar corona, it triggers flares in large magnetic field loops that store energy, which is released by the wave," Ilin said. "As it moves through the field like a boat on a lake, it creates waves in its wake," Ilin added. "The flares these waves trigger when they crash into the star are a new phenomenon. This is important because it had never been observed before, especially at the intensity detected." The researchers believe it is a specific type of wave called an Alfvén wave, named for 20th century Swedish physicist and Nobel Prize laureate Hannes Alfvén, that propagates due to the interaction of magnetic fields. The flares may heat up and inflate the planet's atmosphere, which is dominated by hydrogen and helium. Being lashed by these flares could blast away lighter elements from the atmosphere and reduce the planet's mass over perhaps hundreds of millions of years. "At that time, it will have lost most if not all the light elements, and become what's called a sub-Neptune —a gas planet smaller than Neptune," Ilin said, referring to the smallest of our solar system's gas planets. The researchers used observations by two space telescopes: NASA's TESS, short for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and the European Space Agency's CHEOPS, short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite. The plight of HIP 67522 b illustrates the many circumstances under which exoplanets exist. "It is certainly no sheltered youth for this planet. But I am not sad about it. I enjoy diversity in all things nature, and what this planet will eventually become—perhaps a sub-Neptune rich in heavy elements that did not evaporate—is no less fascinating than what we observe today." — Reuters
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New 8K-resolution photos of the sun show off incredible details of raging sunspots
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Incredible new images of the sun's surface provide an unprecedented view of raging sunspots and solar activity. A new high-resolution camera system developed by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP) for the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT), located at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife, reconstructed views of the sun with an 8K image resolution for the first time, according to a statement from AIP. Solar observations often face a trade-off between field of view and resolution. Large solar telescopes provide high-resolution images but cover limited areas, while smaller instruments can monitor the entire solar disk but lack fine detail. However, the VTT offers both a wide field of view and commendable spatial resolution. The integration of the new camera system enhances this capability, allowing for comprehensive and detailed studies of active solar regions. "In order to better understand solar activity, it is crucial not only to analyze the fundamental processes of the fine structure and the long-term development of global activity with various instruments, but also to investigate the temporal evolution of the magnetic field in active regions," Rolf Schlichenmaier, a scientist at the Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) in Freiburg, which operates the VTT, said in the statement. The new camera system employs advanced image restoration techniques, compiling 100 short-exposure images — each with a resolution of 8000x6000 pixels — captured at 25 frames per second. This process yields reconstructed images with 8K resolution, effectively mitigating disturbances caused by Earth's atmosphere and achieving a spatial resolution of approximately 62 miles (100 kilometers) on the sun's surface. Such precision enables the observation of dynamic solar processes on timescales as short as 20 seconds, according to the statement. RELATED STORIES: — 14,000 years ago, the most powerful solar storm ever recorded hit Earth. 'This event establishes a new worst-case scenario' — World's largest solar telescope gains powerful new 'eye' to study the sun's secrets — Watch the sun unleash 600,000-mile-long eruption in fiery outburst (video) Using this technology, researchers have obtained high-resolution images covering areas up to 124,274 miles (200,000 km) in diameter, which is approximately one-seventh of the sun's diameter. In turn, the images reveal intricate details of sunspot groups, plasma flows and magnetic field structures that trigger solar flares. This not only enhances our understanding of complex solar dynamics, but lends insight for improved space weather forecasting.
Hindustan Times
23-05-2025
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Sun in 8k: Scientists reveal the most detailed view of our star yet
The Sun and its surface are now available in 8k resolution thanks to the Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) installed at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife. Developed by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), this solar observation tool has provided a significant leap in the technology used to study and capture the surface level activity of the Sun by allowing us to capture not only a large field of view but also substantially higher resolution images that can be used by scientists to study the Sun's surface better. Traditional solar telescopes have often had to pick a battle between either providing highly pixelated images or maintaining a large field of view. The VTT, however, allows scientists to combine the best of both aspects owing to its unique ability to maintain spatial resolution during wide angle shots. 100 shot-exposure images can be shot at 25 frames per second in an 8,000 by 6,000 pixels resolution which can later be restored to recreate the image in 8k. The enhanced spatial resolution down to 100 km on the surface allows scientists to overlook distortions caused by the Earth's turbulent atmosphere during observation. The capacities this groundbreaking opportunity unveils are vast. Capturing the fine details of the Sun's surface allows scientists to better study flares and sunspots which arise as a result of magnetic fields and plasma motions. Tracking these features is a key part of shielding satellites, communication and power grids on Earth from the changes these eruptive events bring to space weather. Solar dynamics can now be better comprehended thanks to the VTT's ability to observe large-scale features that are approximately 200,000 km across. The smallest magnetic signatures can be identified as bright structures in the photosphere and chromosphere layers by applying specialized filters. 'In order to better understand solar activity, it is crucial not only to analyze the fundamental processes of the fine structure and the long-term development of global activity with various instruments, but also to investigate the temporal evolution of the magnetic field in active regions,' says Rolf Schlichenmaier, scientist at the Kiepenheuer Institute for Solar Physics (KIS). The VTT is also well-equipped with various other advanced instruments such as the HELioseismic Large Region Interferometric Device (HELLRIDE), the Laser Absolute Reference Spectrograph (LARS), and the Fast Multi-line Universal Spectrograph (FaMuLUS) which allow scientists to study solar activity more comprehensively. The telescope is living proof of how existing instruments can be attached to cutting-edge technology in order to increase the research output they provide. Carsten Denker, head of the Solar Physics Section at AIP, says, 'The results obtained show how, together with our partners, we are teaching an old telescope new tricks.' A study published in the journal Solar Physics provides more details about this innovative technology and its scientific applications.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers Confused to Discover That a Bunch of Nearby Galaxies Are Pointing Directly at Us
Like how the Earth keeps the Moon bound on a gravitational tether, our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy (M31), is surrounded by a bunch of tiny satellite galaxies. But there's something incredibly strange about how these mini realms are arranged, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy: almost all the satellite galaxies appear on one side of its host, and are pointing right at us — the Milky Way — instead of being randomly distributed. In other words, it's extremely lopsided. Based on simulations, the odds of this happening are just 0.3 percent, the authors calculate, challenging our assumptions of galactic formation. "M31 is the only system that we know of that demonstrates such an extreme degree of asymmetry," lead author Kosuke Jamie Kanehisa at the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam in Germany told Our current understanding of cosmology holds that large galaxies form from smaller galaxies that merge together over time. Orchestrating this from the shadows are "haloes" — essentially clusters — of dark matter, the invisible substance thought to account for 85 percent of all mass in the universe, whose gravitational influence helps pull the galaxies together. Since this process is chaotic, some of the dwarf galaxies get left out and are relegated to orbit outside the host galaxy in an arrangement that should be pretty random. Yet it seems that's not the case with Andromeda. All but one of Andromeda's 37 satellite galaxies sit within 107 degrees of the line pointing at the Milky Way. Stranger still, half of these galaxies orbit within the same plane, like how the planets of our Solar System orbit the Sun. Evidencing how improbable this is, the astronomers used standard cosmological simulations, which recreate how galaxies form over time, and compared the simulated analogs to observations of Andromeda. Less than 0.3 percent of galaxies similar to Andromeda in the simulations showed comparable asymmetry, the astronomers found, and only one came close to being as extreme. One explanation is that there could be a great number of dwarf galaxies around Andromeda that we can't see yet, giving us an incomplete picture of the satellites' distribution. The data we have on the satellites we can see may not be accurate, too. Or perhaps, Kanehisa speculates, there's something unique about Andromeda's evolutionary history. "The fact that we see M31's satellites in this unstable configuration today — which is strange, to say the least — may point towards many having fallen in recently," Kanehisa told "possibly related to the major merger thought to have been experienced by Andromeda around two to three billion years ago." But the most provocative implication is that the standard cosmological model as we know it needs refining. We have very limited data on satellite galaxies throughout the cosmos, since they are incredibly far away and are outshone by the light of their hosts. Maybe, then, the configuration of Andromeda's dwarf galaxies isn't anomalous at all. "We can't yet be sure that similar extreme systems don't exist out there, or that such systems would be negligibly rare," Kanehisa told It's too early to draw any hard conclusions, but one thing's for certain: we need more observations and data on not just Andromeda's satellites, but on the satellites of much more distant galaxies as well. More on space: An AI Identifies Where All Those Planets That Could Host Life Are Hiding
