Carolyn Collins Petersen

Denver

On Earth, work in space. Love clear blue skies. Wear mask, wash hands, get shots. Watch launches! Science: it works! Joined July 2008. date below should match.

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Articles

The Milky Way is More Clumpy than Astronomers Thought

4 days ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers have found a new way of accurately mapping the outer gas disk of the Milky Way using the positions of young stars. In the process, they've also discovered that our galaxy's structure is more complex than everyone thought, complete with tufty-looking "flocculent" gas clouds. University of Alabama's Sukanya Chakrabarti and MSU astronomer Peter Craig came up with the process of mapping hydrogen gas in the Milky Way's outer disk by determining distances to very young stars in it.
Superdense Star Factories Tell a Tale of Starbirth in the Early Universe

1 week ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

The early Universe was a busy place some 13 billion years ago. That's when countless young galaxies began to evolve and birthed stars at a prodigious rate. The hearts of those very distant galaxies show turbulent, lumpy disks studded with even thicker clumps of dust and gas that spawned their huge batches of stars. Astronomers want to understand what's driving the clumping, so they've turned to recent surveys of closer galaxies in the "local Universe" that contain similar lumpy regions.
Astronomers are Closing in on the Source of Galactic Cosmic Rays

1 week ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

In 1912, astronomer Victor Hess discovered strange, high-energy particles known as "cosmic rays." Since then, researchers have hunted for their birthplaces. Today, we know about some of the cosmic ray "launch pads", ranging from the Sun and supernova explosions to black holes and distant active galactic nuclei. What astronomers are now searching for are sources of cosmic rays within the Milky Way Galaxy.
Distant Galaxy Has Similar Icy Dust to the Milky Way. So, Similar Planets?

2 weeks ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

For most of us, dust is just something we have to clean up. For astronomers, interstellar dust is a hindrance when they want to study distant objects. However, recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations of a distant galaxy are changing that. This infrared-sensitive observatory is letting them find a way to use dust to understand the evolution of early galaxies.
Colliding Galaxies Tearing at Each Other with Gravity and Radiation

2 weeks ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

Astronomers recently used a pair of powerful telescopes to zero in on a cosmic battle occurring some 11 billion light-years away from Earth. The combatants are a pair of galaxies charging at each other over and over again, at velocities upwards of 500 kilometers per second. According to one of the scientists studying the scene, one galaxy is cutting into the heart of the other with a blast of radiation.
Webb Watches Haze Rise and Fall in Pluto's Atmosphere

3 weeks ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

When the New Horizons spacecraft swept past Pluto and Charon in 2015, it revealed two amazingly complex worlds and an active atmosphere on Pluto. Those snapshots redefined our understanding of the system. Now, new observations using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) taken in 2022 and 2023, show that Pluto's atmosphere is completely different from any other one in the Solar System. For one thing, it contains haze particles that rise and fall as they are heated and cooled.
Finding a Better Way to Distinguish Life from Non-Life

3 weeks ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

The search for life on other worlds needs a way to sift through the chemistry of their atmospheres. If another species observed Earth to search for life, they'd look for "smoking gun" chemistry in the atmosphere. That includes looking for oxygen, since it is created through photosynthesis by plants and some bacteria. So, the key is to look for life-dependent chemical "signals" at exoplanets.
James Webb telescope spots weird changes on Jupiter's icy moon Europa

4 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Europa's surface ices are changing constantly, according to new surface spectra taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. | Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Image processing: Kevin M. Gill CC BY 3.0You'd think that icy worlds are frozen in time and space because they're — well — icy. However, planetary scientists know that all worlds can and do change, no matter how long it takes.
James Webb telescope spots weird changes on Jupiter's icy moon Europa

4 weeks ago | livescience.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

You'd think that icy worlds are frozen in time and space because they're — well — icy. However, planetary scientists know that all worlds can and do change, no matter how long it takes. That's true for Europa, one of Jupiter's four largest moons. Recent observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) zero in on the Europan surface ices and show they're constantly changing. Dr. Ujjwal Raut of the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) reported on the changes reflected in the JWST studies.
Strange Object is Releasing Regular Blasts of Both X-Rays and Radio Waves

4 weeks ago | universetoday.com | Carolyn Collins Petersen

Just when astronomers think they're starting to understand stellar activity, something strange grabs their attention. That's the case with a newly discovered stellar object called ASKAP J1832-0911. It lies about 15,000 light-years from Earth and belongs to a class of stellar objects called "long-period radio transients." That means it emits radio waves that vary in their intensity on a schedule of only 44 minutes per cycle.