Space sciences

At least one in a dozen stars show evidence of planetary ingestion according to a paper published in Nature today.

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An international research team have made unprecedentedly detailed observations of the earliest merger of galaxies ever witnessed. They suggest stars developed much faster and more efficiently than we thought. They used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe the massive object as it was 510 million years after the Big Bang – i.e. around 13 billion years ago.

Organic materials discovered on Mars may have originated from atmospheric formaldehyde, according to new research, marking a step forward in our understanding of the possibility of past life on the Red Planet.

Jun’ichi Yokoyama once amused his professors by proposing a far-fetched idea of using neutrinos and gravitational waves to observe the Universe. Decades later, he was proven right and contends young scientists should be nurtured to believe in themselves.

Theoretical predictions have been confirmed with the discovery of an outflow of molecular gas from a quasar when the Universe was less than a billion years old.

The Hayabusa2 mission that collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu has provided a treasure trove of insights into our solar system. After analyzing samples further, a team of researchers have unearthed evidence that cometary organic matter was transported from space to the near-Earth region.

A recent paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics presents new images from the 2018 data that reveal a familiar ring the same size as observed in 2017. This bright ring surrounds a deep central depression, “the shadow of the black hole,” as predicted by general relativity. Excitingly, the peak brightness of the ring has shifted by about 30º counter clockwise compared to its position in 2017, which is consistent with our theoretical understanding of the variability of the turbulent material around black holes.

Osaka Metropolitan University researchers and their colleagues have successfully detected an ultra-high-energy cosmic ray with an energy level comparable to the most energetic cosmic ray ever observed. The cosmic ray is set to be named after the Japanese sun goddess, Amaterasu. No promising astronomical object has been identified in the direction from which this cosmic ray originated, implying the potential existence of unknown astronomical phenomena and novel physical origins beyond the Standard Model.

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Observations during two flybys by the Mio spacecraft as part of the BepiColombo International Mercury Exploration Project have revealed that chorus waves occur quite locally in the dawn sector of Mercury. Mercury's magnetic field is about 1% of that of Earth, and it was unclear whether chorus waves would be generated like on Earth. The present study reveals that the chorus waves are the driving source of Mercury’s X-ray auroras, whose mechanism was not understood.

Survey observations with the Subaru Telescope have led to the discovery of 22 quasars in the very distant universe. Their space density indicates the rapid emergence of supermassive black holes soon after the Big Bang, providing strong constraints on models of when, where, and how they formed and grew in cosmic space-time. The results also indicate a small quasar contribution to cosmic reionization, a major phase transition of the early universe.

Tohoku University geophysicist Yuto Katoh led a study into the activity of high energy electrons and clarified the unexpected role of the geomagnetic field surrounding the Earth in protecting.

Current evidence suggests that microparticles of cosmic dust collide and stick together to form larger dust aggregates that may eventually combine and develop into planets. Numerical models that accurately characterize the conditions required for colliding microparticle aggregates to stick together, rather than bounce apart, are therefore paramount to understanding the evolution of planets. Recent modeling suggests that dust aggregates are less likely to stick together after a collision as the size of the aggregates increases.

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Samples from the asteroid Ryugu collected by the Hayabusa2 mission contain nitrogenous organic compounds, including the nucleobase uracil, which is a part of RNA.

A team led by Kavli IPMU researchers have found the earliest evidence of parts of the universe that were heated to temperatures more characteristic to the intergalactic gas medium where most atoms reside in the universe today.

Finding extra-terrestrial life would transform how we view our place in the Universe, but reporting on the search for it poses challenges for scientists and the media.

One astronomer never thought of leaving Japan, but then he did and became a world best.

Asia Research News met five female researchers to learn about their research, what drew them to Kavli IPMU, and their experiences there. These women, from diverse backgrounds, excel in their fields and show what can be achieved when women are not held back.

Researchers at Tohoku University have analyzed samples from asteroid Ryugu. They identified some of the oldest solids from the solar system to date, and their findings suggest that the asteroid initially formed in the outer reaches of the solar system.

Osaka Metropolitan University scientists identified about 140,000 molecular clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy from large-scale data of carbon monoxide molecules, observed in detail by the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope. Using artificial intelligence, the researchers estimated the distance of each of these molecular clouds to determine their size and mass, successfully mapping the distribution of the molecular clouds in the Galaxy in the most detailed manner to date.

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Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to identify the precise location of a powerful energy source hidden by cosmic dust in the luminous merging galaxy IIZw096.

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Understanding how dust grains form in interstellar gas could offer significant insights to astronomers and help materials scientists develop useful nanoparticles.

When stars die out, they emit gamma-ray bursts. Although scientist can calculate the explosion energy from dying stars, it is difficult to do when the conversion efficiency is low or unknown. Using light polarization, a research group has found a workaround for this, enabling astronomers to calculate the hidden energy of gamma-ray bursts.

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