29 posts · 12,986 views
A blog about space and astrophysics research, written by a soon-to-be graduate of Imperial College.
Kelly Oakes
29 posts
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- January 14, 2012
- 07:25 AM
- 101 views
Explaining Titan's Alien Weather System
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Underneath Titan’s dense atmosphere lies something rather unusual, by terrestrial standards. Some features of the Saturnian moon, at first glance, might look similar to some features we have on Earth — it is the only other body in the solar system with lakes, and appears to have an active weather system. But instead of water, it’s methane that rains from the skies to fill Titan’s vast lakes, before it evaporates to form clouds that cover the surface. Curiously similar to ........ Read more »
Schneider, T., Graves, S., Schaller, E., & Brown, M. (2012) Polar methane accumulation and rainstorms on Titan from simulations of the methane cycle. Nature, 481(7379), 58-61. DOI: 10.1038/nature10666
- January 11, 2012
- 05:00 PM
- 39 views
Red giant core spins ten times faster than its surface
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Astronomers have found that the core of a red giant, the type of star that our Sun will eventually become, spins ten times as fast as its surface. And it happens because of a phenomenon we can see here on Earth, too.... Read more »
Beck, P., Montalban, J., Kallinger, T., De Ridder, J., Aerts, C., García, R., Hekker, S., Dupret, M., Mosser, B., Eggenberger, P.... (2011) Fast core rotation in red-giant stars as revealed by gravity-dominated mixed modes. Nature, 481(7379), 55-57. DOI: 10.1038/nature10612
- December 30, 2011
- 06:51 PM
- 127 views
Stars that go out with a bang
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
When a star becomes a white dwarf — an old, extremely dense star that would have once been similar to our own Sun — the eventful part of its life is over. It releases what heat and light it has left over billions of years, slowly cooling until it no longer shines. Usually. Some white dwarfs, however, are not content with this ending....... Read more »
Li W, Bloom JS, Podsiadlowski P, Miller AA, Cenko SB, Jha SW, Sullivan M, Howell DA, Nugent PE, Butler NR.... (2011) Exclusion of a luminous red giant as a companion star to the progenitor of supernova SN 2011fe. Nature, 480(7377), 348-50. PMID: 22170681
Nugent PE, Sullivan M, Cenko SB, Thomas RC, Kasen D, Howell DA, Bersier D, Bloom JS, Kulkarni SR, Kandrashoff MT.... (2011) Supernova SN 2011fe from an exploding carbon-oxygen white dwarf star. Nature, 480(7377), 344-7. PMID: 22170680
- November 24, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 141 views
Hubble Unearths Distant Colourful Dwarf Galaxies
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Hubble has uncovered a goldmine of young dwarf galaxies that are undergoing intense bursts of star formation.
Dwarf galaxies are the most common in the universe but until now astronomers had seen few examples of distant dwarf galaxies because they are small and not very bright...... Read more »
van der Wel, A., Straughn, A., Rix, H., Finkelstein, S., Koekemoer, A., Weiner, B., Wuyts, S., Bell, E., Faber, S., Trump, J.... (2011) EXTREME EMISSION-LINE GALAXIES IN CANDELS: BROADBAND-SELECTED, STARBURSTING DWARF GALAXIES AT 1 . The Astrophysical Journal, 742(2), 111. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/742/2/111
- October 28, 2011
- 08:39 AM
- 1,170 views
Blue stragglers formed by engulfing red giants
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Unusual stars known as blue stragglers have been causing trouble for astronomers since they were first seen in 1953: they are hotter and brighter than they should be, and much younger too. Now, they are causing mischief again for astronomers that are trying to work out where they come from.... Read more »
Geller AM, & Mathieu RD. (2011) A mass transfer origin for blue stragglers in NGC 188 as revealed by half-solar-mass companions. Nature, 478(7369), 356-9. PMID: 22012393
- October 17, 2011
- 03:51 AM
- 259 views
Light from starburst galaxies makes the best cosmic disinfectant
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
If you’re reading this at night, look outside. Even in a city you’ll be able to see a few stars, if it’s not too cloudy and your eyes are up to it. If you’re lucky, the view from your window or garden will include a whole host of stars...... Read more »
Jordan Zastrow, M. S. Oey, Sylvain Veilleux, Michael McDonald, & Crystal L. Martin. (2011) An Ionization Cone in the Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC 5253. Asrophysical Journal Letters. arXiv: 1109.6360v1
- September 29, 2011
- 10:00 PM
- 276 views
In praise of Tevatron
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Tomorrow, the Tevatron particle accelerator at Fermilab will shut down. The end will be no song and dance: the accelerator operators will simply stop putting new protons and antiprotons into the machine...... Read more »
CDF Collaboration. (1995) Observation of Top Quark Production in p¯p Collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Physical Review Letters, 74(14), 2626-2631. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2626
DZero Collaboration., Abachi, S., & et al. (1995) Search for High Mass Top Quark Production in pp¯ Collisions at s. Physical Review Letters, 74(13), 2422-2426. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.74.2422
- September 23, 2011
- 07:45 PM
- 229 views
Faster-than-light neutrinos show science in action
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 24 hours, you’ve probably heard about the neutrinos that turned up at the Gran Sasso Laboratory in Italy a few nanoseconds earlier than they were supposed to, in a feat that would have required them to travel faster than the speed of light.... Read more »
The OPERA Collaboraton. (2011) Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam. . arXiv: 1109.4897v1
- September 23, 2011
- 05:16 AM
- 235 views
An impossible star?
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
In the beginning, the only elements that existed were hydrogen, helium and very small amounts of lithium...... Read more »
Caffau E, Bonifacio P, François P, Sbordone L, Monaco L, Spite M, Spite F, Ludwig HG, Cayrel R, Zaggia S.... (2011) An extremely primitive star in the Galactic halo. Nature, 477(7362), 67-9. PMID: 21886158
- September 8, 2011
- 12:05 PM
- 422 views
For a realistic Milky Way simulation, just add clustered star formation
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Judging by its starlight and gas content (as seen in the image above), Eris looks to be a near match for our own Milky Way galaxy — except that it exists only as a simulation inside a supercomputer...... Read more »
Javiera Guedes, Simone Callegari, Piero Madau, & Lucio Mayer. (2011) Forming Realistic Late-Type Spirals in a LCDM Universe: The Eris Simulation. Astrophysical Journal. arXiv: 1103.6030v2
- August 18, 2011
- 04:20 PM
- 462 views
Double checking our cosmic tape measure
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
In the late 90s there was a race going on between two astronomy collaborations. Both were on the verge of making a discovery that would change the field of cosmology forever, though they may not have realised it at the time.... Read more »
Sternberg A, Gal-Yam A, Simon JD, Leonard DC, Quimby RM, Phillips MM, Morrell N, Thompson IB, Ivans I, Marshall JL.... (2011) Circumstellar material in type Ia supernovae via sodium absorption features. Science (New York, N.Y.), 333(6044), 856-9. PMID: 21836010
- August 15, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 307 views
Oxygen might be hiding behind grains of cosmic dust
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
We often think of outer space, the bit between stars, as a complete vacuum. The reality is that, while it is a better vacuum than any we can create on Earth, it is far from empty. The interstellar medium (ISM) fills the space between stars in a galaxy. ... Read more »
Paul F. Goldsmith, Rene Liseau, Tom A. Bell, John H. Black, Jo-Hsin Chen, David Hollenbach, Michael J. Kaufman, Di Li, Dariusz C. Lis, Gary Melnick.... (2011) Herschel Measurements of Molecular Oxygen in Orion. Astrophysical Journal. arXiv: 1108.0441v1
- August 2, 2011
- 10:00 AM
- 326 views
On the origin of chemical elements
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
We take it for granted that there exists a periodic table with numerous elements (at last count, 118) from which we can construct the world around us. But when the universe began with a big bang, it started out with no elements at all.... Read more »
Alpher, R., Bethe, H., & Gamow, G. (1948) The Origin of Chemical Elements. Physical Review, 73(7), 803-804. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRev.73.803
- July 26, 2011
- 02:00 PM
- 276 views
Jupiter sneaked up on asteroid belt, then ran away
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Mars has always been the toddler of the rocky planet family. With a radius half that of Earth’s and a mass just over one tenth of that of our planet, it is bigger than baby Mercury but not quite as grown up as Earth and Venus.... Read more »
Walsh KJ, Morbidelli A, Raymond SN, O'Brien DP, & Mandell AM. (2011) A low mass for Mars from Jupiter's early gas-driven migration. Nature, 475(7355), 206-9. PMID: 21642961
- July 21, 2011
- 02:00 PM
- 229 views
We’re cosmic dust but you’re everything to me
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
On February 23rd 1987, the journey of some light that had been travelling for 168,000 years came to an end. Astronomer Ian Shelton at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile was observing the night sky as usual when he saw something out of the ordinary.... Read more »
Matsuura M, Dwek E, Meixner M, Otsuka M, Babler B, Barlow MJ, Roman-Duval J, Engelbracht C, Sandstrom K, Lakicevic M.... (2011) Herschel Detects a Massive Dust Reservoir in Supernova 1987A. Science (New York, N.Y.). PMID: 21737700
- July 7, 2011
- 03:00 PM
- 260 views
Cassini helps us peek underneath the surface of Enceladus
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
The Cassini spacecraft is zooming around Saturn as I type, currently in between two flybys of Saturn’s moon Titan – one was in June, the next will be September. It was supposed to explore Saturn and its moons for only four years between 2004 and 2008.... Read more »
Postberg F, Schmidt J, Hillier J, Kempf S, & Srama R. (2011) A salt-water reservoir as the source of a compositionally stratified plume on Enceladus. Nature, 474(7353), 620-2. PMID: 21697830
- March 8, 2011
- 05:16 AM
- 782 views
How the Sun lost its spots
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
It may look like a static yellow ball from here, but in reality the Sun is alive with activity. Right now it is becoming more active each day as we get closer to the next solar maximum, which is expected … Continue reading →... Read more »
Nandy D, Muñoz-Jaramillo A, & Martens PC. (2011) The unusual minimum of sunspot cycle 23 caused by meridional plasma flow variations. Nature, 471(7336), 80-2. PMID: 21368827
- February 23, 2011
- 04:00 AM
- 774 views
Cut down to size: supermassive black holes turn out not to be so “super” after all
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
You might not be able to tell from wherever you are reading this, but black holes in the distant universe just shrunk down to as little as a tenth of their previous size. This is not some cosmic disappearing act; … Continue reading →... Read more »
Kollatschny, W., & Zetzl, M. (2011) Broad-line active galactic nuclei rotate faster than narrow-line ones. Nature, 470(7334), 366-368. DOI: 10.1038/nature09761
- February 15, 2011
- 05:28 AM
- 1,096 views
Caught in the act: sneak preview of galaxy cluster that’s still forming
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Galaxy clusters are some of the largest structures in the universe. Astronomers have found these clusters, which are large groups of galaxies bound together by gravity, as far back as only 4 billion years after the Big Bang (less than … Continue reading →... Read more »
Capak PL, Riechers D, Scoville NZ, Carilli C, Cox P, Neri R, Robertson B, Salvato M, Schinnerer E, Yan L.... (2011) A massive protocluster of galaxies at a redshift of z ≈ 5.3. Nature, 470(7333), 233-5. PMID: 21228776
- January 10, 2011
- 03:29 AM
- 692 views
Black holes are not fed by colliding galaxies after all
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
It’s not a question you’re likely to have ever considered, but the source of “food” for some of the most active black holes has been a longstanding line of inquiry for the astrophysics community. Many thought they had the answer … Continue reading →... Read more »
Cisternas, M., Jahnke, K., Inskip, K., Kartaltepe, J., Koekemoer, A., Lisker, T., Robaina, A., Scodeggio, M., Sheth, K., Trump, J.... (2011) THE BULK OF THE BLACK HOLE GROWTH SINCE z ~ 1 OCCURS IN A SECULAR UNIVERSE: NO MAJOR MERGER-AGN CONNECTION* . The Astrophysical Journal, 726(2), 57. DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/726/2/57
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