Carolyn Collins Petersen, Author at Universe Today

May 16, 2024May 16, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Webb Sees Black Holes Merging Near the Beginning of Time

The field in which the ZS7 galaxy merger was observed by JWST. Courtesy ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, J. Dunlop, D. Magee, P. G. Pérez-González, H. Übler, R. Maiolino, et. al

A long time ago, in two galaxies far, far away, two massive black holes merged. This happened when the Universe was only 740 million years old. A team of astronomers used JWST to study this event, the most distant (and earliest) detection of a black hole merger ever.

May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Why Hot Jupiters Spiral into Their Stars

Illustration showing one of the darkest known exoplanets - a hot Jupiter as black as fresh asphalt - orbiting a star like our Sun. The day side of the planet, called WASP-12b, eats light rather than reflects it into space. Something is pulling this planet into its star. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Exoplanets are a fascinating astronomy topic, especially the so-called “Hot Jupiters”. They’re overheated massive worlds often found orbiting very close to their stars—hence the name. Extreme gravitational interactions can tug them right into their stars over millions of years. However, some hot Jupiters appear to be spiraling in faster than gravity can explain.

May 2, 2024May 2, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

The Highest Observatory in the World Comes Online

The high-altitude Tokyo Atacama Observatory in Chile just opened its eye on the mid-infrared Universe. ©2024 TAO project CC-BY-ND

The history of astronomy and observatories is full of stories about astronomers going higher and higher to get better views of the Universe. On Earth, the best locations are at places such as the Atacama Desert in Chile. So, that’s where the University of Tokyo Atacama Observatory just opened its high-altitude eye on the sky, atop Cerro Chajnantor.

April 30, 2024April 30, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Earth Had a Magnetosphere 3.7 Billion Years Ago

The magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable impact on every day life. The field can be thought of as a huge bubble -- called the magnetosphere --, protecting us from cosmic radiation and charged particles that bombard Earth in solar winds. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab — The magnetic field and electric currents in and around Earth generate complex forces that have immeasurable impact on every day life. The field can be thought of as a huge bubble -- called the magnetosphere -- protecting us from cosmic radiation and charged particles that bombard Earth in solar winds. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab

We go about our daily lives sheltered under an invisible magnetic field generated deep inside Earth. It forms the magnetosphere, a region dominated by the magnetic field. Without that planetary protection shield, we’d experience harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles from the Sun.

April 26, 2024April 26, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes

This magnetar is a highly magnetized neutron star. This artist's illustration shows an outburst from a magnetar. Neutron stars that spin rapidly and give out radiation are called pulsars, and specific pulsars are rare in the core of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to explain this for years. One of the more interesting ideas comes from a team of astronomers in Europe and invokes dark matter, neutron stars, and primordial black holes (PBHs).

April 22, 2024April 22, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

NASA Restores Communications with Voyager 1

An artist's concept of Voyager 1 in interstellar space. Courtesy: NASA.

The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft is finally phoning home again. This is much to the relief of mission engineers, scientists, and Voyager fans around the world.

April 18, 2024April 18, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Artemis Astronauts Will Deploy New Seismometers on the Moon

Giordano Bruno crater on the Moon, as seen by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This young crater sports impact rays that may help scientists as they consider landing sties for future Artemis missions. Courtesy: NASA/LRO.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Apollo astronauts set up a collection of lunar seismometers to detect possible Moon quakes. These instruments monitored lunar activity for eight years and gave planetary scientists an indirect glimpse into the Moon’s interior. Now, researchers are developing new methods for lunar quake detection techniques and technologies. If all goes well, the Artemis astronauts will deploy them when they return to the Moon.

April 16, 2024April 16, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

More Views of the 2024 Eclipse, from the Moon and Earth Orbit

NASA's LROC view of the total solar eclipse shadow centered over Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Courtesy: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.

It’s been just over a week since millions of people flocked to places across North America for a glimpse of moonshadow. The total solar eclipse of April 8th, 2024 was a spectacular sight for many on the ground. From space, however, it was even more impressive as Earth-observing satellites such as GOES-16 captured the sight of the shadow sweeping over Earth.

March 24, 2024March 24, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

Webb Watches the Most Distant Galactic Merger Ever Seen

JWST shows details of massive galaxy merger 13 billion years ago. Credit: ASTRO 3D

Astronomers know that galaxies form through mergers. They’ve been happening since the earliest epochs of cosmic time. Using the Webb telescope (JWST) astronomers found a massive merger of young galaxies going on about a half million years after the Big Bang. It’s called Gz9p3, one of the earliest and most distant mergers ever witnessed.

March 21, 2024March 21, 2024 by Carolyn Collins Petersen

What Can Europa’s Surface Tell Us About the Thickness of Its Ice?

Jupiter's second Galilean moon, Europa. Its smooth surface has fewer craters than other moons, but they help us understand its icy shell. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Galileo spacecraft) — The Hubble spotted evidence of geysers coming from Jupiter's moon Europa, but nobody's been able to find them again. (Credit: NASA/JPL/Galileo spacecraft)

You can tell a lot about a planetary body just by looking at its surface, especially if it has craters. Take Europa, for example. It has a fairly young surface—somewhere between 50 and 100 million years old. That’s practically “new” when you compare it to the age of the Solar System. And, Europa’s icy crust is pretty darned smooth, with only a few craters to change the topography.