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IMAGE: In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the celebrated observatory at one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy. view more
Credit: NASA, ESA and STScI
The giant star featured in this latest Hubble Space Telescope anniversary image is waging a tug-of-war between gravity and radiation to avoid self-destruction. The star, called AG Carinae, is surrounded by an expanding shell of gas and dust a nebula that is shaped by the powerful winds of the star. The nebula is about five light-years wide, which equals the distance from here to our nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio
Rain is a common phenomenon on Earth. There is a similar phenomenon on the Sun, called coronal rain. It is related to the coronal heating and magnetic field, and plays a fundamental role in the mass cycle between the hot, tenuous corona and the cool, dense chromosphere.
Coronal rain usually takes place in post-flare loops and the non-flaring active region coronal loops. It is generally classified into two categories: flare-driven and quiescent coronal rain, depending on its relation to the flare. Both kinds of coronal rain form along structures that are magnetically closed.
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IMAGE: Sound waves trapped inside stars cause them to oscillate at particular frequencies. These vibrations are visible on the surface, and can be measured by astronomers using space telescopes. When a. view more
Credit: Mark Garlick / University of Birmingham
Stars spin faster than expected as they age according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Birmingham which uses asteroseismology to shed new light on this emerging theory.
All stars, like the Sun, are born spinning. As they grow older, their spin slows down due to magnetic winds in a process called magnetic braking . Research published in 2016 by scientists at Carnegie Observatories delivered the first hints that stars at a similar stage of life as the Sun were spinning faster than magnetic braking theories predicted. The results from this study were based on a method in which scientists pinpoint dark spots on the surface of stars and track them as they move with the stars spin. Whi
Astronomers have discovered a pulsar a dense and rapidly spinning neutron star sending radio waves into the cosmos using a low-frequency radio telescope in outback Australia. The new pulsar is located more than 3,000 light-years from Earth and spins about once every second. Pulsars are used by astronomers for applications including testing the laws of physics under extreme conditions.
The study of pulsars is one of the headline areas of science for the multi-billion-dollar Square Kilometre Array.
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A new study shows a correlation between the end of solar cycles and a switch from El Nino to La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean, suggesting that solar variability can drive seasonal weather variability on Earth.
If the connection outlined in the journal
Earth and Space Science holds up, it could significantly improve the predictability of the largest El Nino and La Nina events, which have a number of seasonal climate effects over land. For example, the southern United States tends to be warmer and drier during a La Nina, while the northern U.S. tends to be colder and wetter.