Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Astronomy. Show all posts

Astronomers Admit: We Were Wrong—100 Billion Habitable Earth-Like Planets In Our Galaxy Alone

 Estimates by astronomers indicate that there could be more than 100 BILLION Earth-like worlds in the Milky Way that could be home to life. Think that’s a big number? According to astronomers,  there are roughly 500 billion galaxies in the known universe, which means there are around 50,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (5×1022) habitable planets. That’s of course if there’s just ONE universe.



In fact, just inside our own Milky Way Galaxy experts now believe are some 400 BILLION STARS, but this number may seem small as some astrophysicists believe that stars in our galaxy could figure the TRILLION. This means that the Milky Way alone could be home to more than 100 BILLION planets.

However, since astronomers aren’t able to see our galaxy from the outside, they can’t really know for sure the number of planets the Milky Way is home to. They can only provide estimates.



To do this, experts calculate our galaxy’s mass and calculate how much of that mass is composed of stars. Based on these calculations scientists believe our galaxy is home to at least 400 billion stars, but as I mentioned above, this number could drastically rise.

There are some calculations that suggest that the Milky Way is home on an average between 800 billion and 3.2 trillion planets, but there are some experts who believe the number could be as high as eight trillion.

Furthermore, if we take a look at what NASA has to say, well find out how the space agency believes there are at least 1,500 planets located within 50 light-years from Earth. These conclusions are based on observations taken over a period of six years by the PLANET—Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork—collaboration, founded in 1995. The study concluded that there are way more Earth-sized planets than Jupiter-sized worlds.

Astronomers Discovered A Second ‘Alien Megastructure’ Star That’s Even Stranger Than Kic 8462852

 



The strangest star in the universe is not alone. In 2015, astronomers reported unusual 
behaviors in the star "KIC 8462852" which they could not explain. Now, another team has 
discovered a second star that behaves similarly to KIC 8462852. It is called 
"EPIC 204278916" and is even stranger than the first. Find out more about this mysterious 
star in the video below:

Astronomers Have Spotted The Birth Of Planets For The First Time

 


For the first time ever, scientists have been able to detect the formation of a planetary 
system. A research paper, published in Nature, proposes that the detected objects are newly 
born planets, which are currently put together by tremendously hot gas and dust. By means of
the system images captured between 2009 and 2015, the group of astronomers was able to 
detect two protoplanets - small objects that continue to form planets - together with a 
third potential, in orbit around a LkCa 15 star in an elliptical orbit, as expected by the 
planets.

Image Credit: Artist's Illustration of Planets Developing in a Transition Disc like LkCa 15.
The planets within the disc clearing collect material that would otherwise have fallen on 
the star, NASA / JPL-Caltech

Identifying the formation of planets is a rather difficult task. Newborn star systems are
generally shielded in a cloud of dust that blocks our view, making normal observation 
methods inadequate. As a result, the team of astronomers had to come up with a different 
method for studying the system. Newly formed stars produce large discs of material from 
which planets are formed. As developing planets move over this protoplanetary disk, they 
generate gaps in swirling debris, which astronomers can locate using infrared light. 
Numerous protoplanet candidates have been identified in this way. For this recent discovery,
the team gathered infrared observations from the large binocular telescope, with 
alpha-hydrogen examination by the Magellan Telescope.

The gap around the parent star LkCa 15 was first detected in 2011, which showed the
potential for the star to have at least one exoplanet. For this new study, astronomers 
were able to detect the hot gas (9,700 ° C [17,500 ° F]) that sinks to the nearest planet 
LkCa 15b. By examining the data from the system, astronomers realized that there were other 
discharges in the gap: a signal was recognized as a second planet after being observed 
numerous times. A third discharge should be another planet but it has yet to be confirmed.

This discovery and the success of this method offer new opportunities to study how planetary
systems are formed and how new planets connect with the disc of material around the star.

Astronomers Have Watched a Nova Go From Start to Finish For The First Time

A nova may be a dramatic episode within the lifetime of a binary pair of stars. It's an explosion of bright light that may last weeks or perhaps months. And though they are not exactly rare - there are about 10 every year within the galaxy - astronomers haven't watched one from start to end.


Until now.

A nova occurs in an exceedingly close binary system when one amongst the celebs has had its red giant star phase. That star leaves behind a remnant white dwarf star. When the star and its partner become close enough, the large gravitational pull of the white dwarf star draws material, mostly hydrogen, from the opposite star.

That hydrogen accretes onto the surface of the white dwarf star, forming a skinny atmosphere. The white dwarf star heats the hydrogen, and eventually, the pressure level is extremely high, and fusion is ignited. Not just any fusion: rapid, runaway fusion.


229169 web

Artist's impression of a nova eruption, showing the star accreting matter from its companion. (Nova_by K. Ulaczyk, Warschau Universität Observatorium)


When the rapid fusion ignites, we will see the sunshine, and also the new hydrogen atmosphere is expelled aloof from the star into space. In the past, astronomers thought these new bright lights were new stars, and also the name "nova" stuck.

Astronomers now call these sorts of nova "classical" novae. (There also are recurrent novae, when the method repeats itself.)

This is an enormously energetic event, that produces not only light but gamma rays and x-rays too. the tip result's that some stars that would only be seen through a telescope are often seen with the oculus during a nova.

All of this is often widely accepted in astronomy and astrophysics. But much of it's theoretical.


Recently, astronomers using the BRITE (BRIght Target Explorer) constellation of nanosatellites were fortunate enough to look at the complete process from start to end, confirming the speculation.


BRITE could be a constellation of nanosatellites designed to "investigate stellar structure and evolution of the brightest stars within the sky and their interaction with the local environment," per the website.

They operate in low-Earth orbit and have few restrictions on the parts of the sky that they'll observe. BRITE may be a coordinated project between Austrian, Polish, and Canadian researchers.

This first-ever observation of a nova was pure chance. BRITE had spent several weeks observing 18 stars within the Carina constellation. One day, a brand new star appeared. BRITE Operations Manager Rainer Kuschnig found the nova during a daily inspection.

"Suddenly there was a star on our records that wasn't there the day before," he said in a very handout. "I'd never seen anything prefer it all together the years of the mission!"

Werner Weiss is from the Department of Astrophysics at the University of Vienna. in a very release, he emphasized the importance of this observation.

V906 Carinae

A shows bright V906 Carinae labeled with a white arrow. B and C show the star before and after the V906 Carinae nova. (A. Maury and J. Fabrega)


"But what causes a previously unimpressive start to explode? This was an issue that has not been solved satisfactorily so far," he said.

The explosion of Nova V906 within the constellation Carina is giving researchers some answers and has confirmed a number of the theoretical concept behind novae.


V906 Carinae was first spotted by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae. Fortunately, it appeared in a neighborhood of the sky that had been under observation by BRITE for weeks, therefore the data documenting the nova is in BRITE data.

"It is astounding that for the primary time a nova may be observed by our satellites even before its actual eruption and until many weeks later," says Otto Koudelka, project manager of the BRITE Austria (TUGSAT-1) satellite at TU Graz.

V906 Carinae is about 13,000 light-years away, therefore the event is already history. "After all, this nova is to date far from us that its light takes about 13,000 years to succeed in the planet," explains Weiss.

The BRITE team reported their findings during a new paper. The paper is titled "Direct evidence for shock-powered optical emission in a very nova." It's published within the journal Nature Astronomy. First author is Elias Aydi from Michigan State University.

"This fortunate circumstance was decisive in ensuring that the nova event can be recorded with unprecedented precision," explains Konstanze Zwintz, head of the BRITE Science Team, from the Institute for Astro- and physical science at the University of Innsbruck.


Zwintz immediately realized "that we had access to observation material that was unique worldwide," consistent with an announcement.

Novae like V906 Carinae are thermonuclear explosions on the surface of white dwarf star stars. For a protracted time, astrophysicists thought that a nova's luminosity is powered by continual nuclear burning after the initial burst of runaway fusion. But the info from BRITE suggests something different.

In the new paper, the authors show that shocks play a bigger role than thought. The authors say that "shocks internal to the nova ejecta may dominate the nova emission."

These shocks may be involved in other events like supernovae, stellar mergers, and tidal disruption events, in step with the authors. But up yet, there's been a scarcity of observational evidence.

"Here we report simultaneous space-based optical and gamma-ray observations of the 2018 nova V906 Carinae (ASASSN-18fv), revealing a stimulating series of distinct correlated flares in both bands," the researchers write.

Since those flares occur at the identical time, it implies a standard origin in shocks.

"During the flares, the nova luminosity doubles, implying that the majority of the luminosity is shock powered." So instead of continual nuclear burning, novae are driven by shocks.

"Our data, spanning the spectrum from radio to gamma-ray, provide evidence that shocks can power substantial luminosity in classical novae and other optical transients." 

In broader terms, shocks are shown to play some role in events like novae. But that understanding is basically supported by studying timescales and luminosities. This study is that the first direct observation of such shocks, and is probably going only the start of observing and understanding the role that shocks play.

In the conclusion of their paper, the authors write: "Our observations of nova V906 Car definitively demonstrate that substantial luminosity may be produced - and emerge at optical wavelengths - by heavily absorbed, energetic shocks in explosive transients."

They go on to mention that: "With modern time-domain surveys like ASAS-SN, the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and also the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, we'll be discovering more - and better luminosity - transients than ever before. The novae in our galactic backyard will remain critical for testing the physical drivers powering these distant, exotic events."

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