Articles about 'NASA'

Surface lakes cause Antarctic ice shelves to ‘flex’

13 February 2019

̽��ֱ��filling and draining of meltwater lakes has been found to cause a floating Antarctic ice shelf to flex, potentially threatening its stability.

Artist's impression of the winds emanating from the supermassive black hole

Rapid changes point to origin of ultra-fast black hole winds

01 March 2017

Astronomers have made the most detailed observation yet of an ultra-fast wind emanating from a Black Hole at a quarter of the speed of light. Using the European Space Agency (ESA)’s XMM-Newton and NASA’s NuSTAR telescopes, the scientists observed the phenomenon in an active galaxy known as IRAS 13224-3809.

Newly discovered planets could have water on their surfaces

22 February 2017

An international team of astronomers has found a system of seven potentially habitable planets orbiting a star 39 light years away three of which could have water on their surfaces raising the possibility they could host life. Using ground and space telescopes, the team identified the planets as they passed in front of the ultracool dwarf star known as TRAPPIST-1. ̽��ֱ��star is around eight per cent of the mass of the Sun and is no bigger than Jupiter.

Composite image showing how powerful radio jets from the supermassive black hole inflated huge bubbles in the hot, ionized, gas surrounding the galaxy. Credit: ALMA

Black Hole powered jets fuel star formation

14 February 2017

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a surprising connection between a supermassive black hole and the galaxy where it resides.

First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets using Hubble telescope

20 July 2016

Two Earth-sized exoplanets have become the first rocky worlds to have their atmospheres studied using the Hubble Space Telescope.

Gravitational vortex provides new way to study matter close to a black hole

12 July 2016

An international team of astronomers has proved the existence of a ‘gravitational vortex’ around a black hole, solving a mystery that has eluded astronomers for more than 30 years. ̽��ֱ��discovery will allow astronomers to map the behaviour of matter very close to black holes. It could also open the door to future investigation of Albert Einstein’s general relativity.

Illustration of the hot lava world 55 Cancri e

Map of rocky exoplanet reveals a lava world

30 March 2016

̽��ֱ��most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid ‘cool’ side.

Artist’s impression of a super-Earth exoplanet orbiting its nearby star

Exoplanet hunter: in search of new Earths and life in the Universe

15 February 2016

In 1995, in Geneva, PhD student Didier Queloz discovered a planet orbiting another sun – something that astronomers had predicted, but never found. Today he continues his terra hunting for extreme worlds and Earth twins in Cambridge.

On a massive planet around a nearby star, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of the atmospheres of Earth and other planets in our solar system.

‘Sunscreen’ layer detected on distant planet

12 June 2015

On a blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b, a team of astronomers including researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of Earth’s atmosphere.

Artist’s impression of super-Earth 55 Cancri e, showing a hot partially-molten surface of the planet before and after possible volcanic activity on the day side.

Astronomers find first evidence of changing conditions on a super Earth

05 May 2015

Astronomers have detected wildly changing temperatures on a super Earth – the first time any atmospheric variability has been observed on a rocky planet outside the solar system – and believe it could be due to huge amounts of volcanic activity, further adding to the mystery of what had been nicknamed the ‘diamond planet’.

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