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Astronomers are trying to determine how supermassive black holes, such as the one at the heart of the galaxy M87, grew so quickly. Image credit - EHT Collaboration
space
09 December 2019

How did supermassive black holes grow so fast?

Black holes in the early universe pose a bit of a problem. Based on observations from telescopes on Earth and in space, we know that some black holes grew to be a billion times the mass of the sun just one billion years after the Big Bang. Our current models of black hole growth, however, can’t explain this speed of growth. So how did these supermassive black holes come about?

Understanding if a hot Jupiter bleeds off its atmosphere can help explain how the atmospheres of all exoplanets change over time. Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech
space | frontier research
25 November 2019

Probing exoplanet atmospheres could reveal telltale signatures of life

It may be that life is lurking out there on other planets. But stuck here on Earth, how can we ever know for sure? A good place to start is by looking for the compounds on other worlds that are known to be the key ingredients of life as we know it.

The way that a young exoplanet interacts with its star's disc of dust and gas determines the type of exoplanet that will ultimately form. Image credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech/D. Berry
space | frontier research
18 November 2019

Zeroing in on baby exoplanets could reveal how they form

Twenty-four years ago, Swiss astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered the first planet orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system – a milestone recognised by this year’s Nobel prize in physics. Today we know of thousands more ‘exoplanets’, and researchers are now trying to understand when and how they form.

The habitability of a super-Earth could be related to its having a magnetic field. Image credit - ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Artist’s impression of super-Earth K2-18 b
space | frontier research
12 November 2019

Is there life on super-Earths? The answer could lie in their cores

Rocky planets larger than our own, so-called super-Earths, are surprisingly abundant in our Galaxy, and stand as the most likely planets to be habitable. Getting a better idea of their interior structures will help predict whether different planets are able to generate magnetic fields – thought to be conducive for life to survive.

One of the main goals of exoplanet research is to work out the frequency of potentially habitable planets, according to Dr Gillon. Image credit - ©ULiège / JLWertz
interview | space | frontier research
04 November 2019

'We've found dozens of potentially habitable planets - now we need to study them in detail'

From the first discoveries of planets beyond our solar system in the 1990s, we now know of thousands of alien worlds, some of which could even be habitable to life as we know it. Now we need to detect more of these exoplanets and study them in detail, says astronomer Dr Michaël Gillon from the University of Liège in Belgium, who was involved in one of the most important exoplanet discoveries to date.

FRB 121102, a repeating burst, was discovered in 2015. This discovery enabled astronomers to figure out what galaxy the FRB came from and in turn locate hundreds more FRBs. Image credit - Gemini Observatory / AURA / NSF / NRC
space | frontier research
16 July 2019

Why hunting for fast radio bursts is an ‘exploding field’ in astronomy

Little more than a decade ago, two astronomers discovered mysterious bursts of radio waves that seem to take place all over the sky, often outshining all the stars in a galaxy. Since then, the study of these fast radio bursts, or FRBs, has taken off, and while we still don’t know what exactly they are or what causes them, scientists are now edging closer to some answers.

M87’s supermassive black hole, imaged for the first time, is 53 million light years away, but wide enough for astronomers to see it from Earth. Image credit - EHT Collaboration
space | frontier research
10 April 2019

Astronomers reveal first-ever image of a black hole

Scientists have revealed the first ever image of a black hole, a major milestone in astrophysics which not only backs up Einstein’s theory of general relativity but also opens up a new era of black hole observations.

M87’s supermassive black hole, imaged for the first time, is six billion times as massive as our sun. Image credit - EHT Collaboration
space | frontier research
10 April 2019

In a picture: ‘Now we know what a black hole looks like’

The first-ever image of an event horizon – the gravitational boundary of a black hole beyond which light cannot escape – was revealed on 10 April and is the best evidence yet that these phenomena really do exist. It was the result of a global collaboration of hundreds of scientists, using multiple telescopes around the world to pick up the high-frequency radio waves emitted by matter pulled into the event horizon.

When two objects such as black holes or neutron stars merge, they cause the frequency of the gravitational waves to increase, which would sound like a chirp. Image Credit - LSC/Alex Nitz
space | frontier research
05 April 2019

Gravitational waves helping to expose black holes, dark matter and theoretical particles

Gravitational waves – the invisible ripples in the fabric of space predicted by Albert Einstein – are opening up a new era of astronomy that is allowing scientists to see parts of the universe once thought to be invisible, such as black holes, dark matter and theoretical subatomic particles called axions.

Smaller, autonomous satellites could help analyse the internal structure of clouds to give a more detailed view of Earth's changing climate. Image credit - Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center
space | frontier research | industry
27 March 2019

Fleets of autonomous satellites to coordinate tasks among themselves

Space missions have long benefited from some autonomous operations being carried out aboard spacecraft, but with a sharp increase expected in the number of satellites being launched in the next few years, researchers are using automation and artificial intelligence to make them smarter and more effective.

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