TechInScience

Spinning around: the green arrows represent rotation speed in the stellar convection zone. Differential rotation is inferred from the oscillatory motions of the star seen as orange/blue shades on the right side of the figure. (Courtesy: MPI for Solar System Research/MarkGarlick.com) An international team of astronomers has observed latitude-varying rotation in the outer layers of 13 Sun-like stars and shown in great detail that the Sun is not alone in displaying this curious behaviour.  Othman Benomar  at New York University, Abu Dhabi and his colleagues made the discovery by measuring distinctive patterns of acoustic oscillations in the stars. Their discovery could help to advance our understanding of the elusive mechanisms which play out deep within the Sun and other stars. By observing the movements of sunspots across the Sun’s surface, astronomers have known for some time that our host star’s equator rotates 30% faster than its poles – a phenomenon known as “differenti...

Launch Voyager 2 launched on August 20, 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. On September 5, Voyager 1 launched, also from Cape Canaveral aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Planetary Tour Between them, Voyager 1 and 2 explored all the giant planets of our outer solar system, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; 48 of their moons; and the unique system of rings and magnetic fields those planets possess. Closest approach to Jupiter occurred on March 5, 1979 for Voyager 1; July 9, 1979 for Voyager 2. Closest approach to Saturn occurred on November 12, 1980 for Voyager 1; August 25, 1981 for Voyager 2. Closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24, 1986 by Voyager 2. Closest approach to Neptune occurred on August 25, 1989 by Voyager 2. Most Distant Spacecraft T he Voyager spacecraft are the third and fourth human spacecraft to fly beyond all the planets in our solar system. Pioneers 10 and 11 preceded Voyager in outstripping the grav...

Astronomers combine mathematical models with observations to develop workable theories of how the Universe came to be. The mathematical underpinnings of the Big Bang theory include Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity along with standard theories of fundamental particles. Today NASA spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Spitzer Space Telescope continue measuring the expansion of the Universe. One of the goals has long been to decide whether the Universe will expand forever, or whether it will someday stop, turn around, and collapse in a "Big Crunch?" Background Radiation According to the theories of physics, if we were to look at the Universe one second after the Big Bang, what we would see is a 10-billion degree sea of neutrons, protons, electrons, anti-electrons (positrons), photons, and neutrinos. Then, as time went on, we would see the Universe cool, the neutrons either decaying into protons and electrons or combining with protons to ma...

The observation of the explosive merger of two neutron stars has confirmed UC Berkeley researchers’ theories on the origin of precious metals, such as platinum, as well as previous theories regarding gravitational waves. The collision, which was later identified as a neutron star merger, was observed Aug. 17 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, in the United States and by the Virgo detector in Italy. This is the first time researchers have successfully detected the gravitational waves that result from a neutron star merger. “ Following the collision of the stars, neutron-rich matter (neutron star ‘guts’) were ejected from the merger site at velocities up to 30 percent the speed of light,” said Brian D. Metzger, a physics professor at Columbia University, in an email. “This hot debris synthesized heavy elements, such as gold, platinum and silver within seconds as it expanded into space.” Previously, physicists from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Be...

UC Berkeley astronomers have detected 15 fast, high-energy radio bursts from a mysterious source across the universe. The bursts were detected by Breakthrough Listen, an initiative headquartered at UC Berkeley that aims to find evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence and civilization. The 15 bright, brief millisecond-long radio impulses detected by Breakthrough Listen originated from a source called FRB 121102. FRB 121102 is located in the constellation of Auriga, in a dwarf galaxy 2.5 billion light-years away, according to Andrew Siemion, director of Berkeley SETI Research Center and the Breakthrough Listen Initiative. These 15 new radio bursts are the first of their kind to exhibit multiple, repeating signals at such high frequencies, making them a rarely observed phenomenon, according to Vishal Gajjar, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Berkeley SETI Research Center who discovered the bursts. “ Most of the observations of this source was done at 1,400 megahertz. We did ...

Should a person venture into a specific type of black hole, it may be able to provide them with infinite possible futures, according to a study published Jan. 17. The study focused on the “ fate of Cauchy horizons”  — whether or not someone who approaches these horizons would survive based on the exchange of energy within and beyond the black hole. Peter Hintz, a UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow in mathematics who contributed to the study, used a theoretical, highly charged black hole. “Normally, when physics works as it is supposed to, if you know your position and velocity, and those of anything that might influence you, you can compute, at least in principle, what will happen,” said study contributor Aron Jansen in an email. “This is what breaks down at a Cauchy horizon; we simply don’t know what will happen (and) in that sense it can be anything.” It is possible to travel beyond the event horizon of a highly charged black hole and enter the Cauchy horizon, acc...