Astronomy Oddities 4

 

Anthill Galaxy.  The Anthill Galaxy is a massive galaxy 12 billion light-years away.  A long, cold stream of gas is feeding this galaxy.  The stream of gas could keep this galaxy supplied with star-forming fuel for a billion years.  Astronomers did not expect these streams of gas to be so cold.  The stream of cold gas stretches at least 325,000 light-years away from the galaxy.  The stream carries the mass of 70 billion suns and deposits 450 suns of cold gas into the galaxy every year.  That’s enough to double the galaxy’s mass within a billion years.   [source: Grossman, “A stream of cold gas is unexpectedly feeding the far-off Anthill Galaxy,” Science News, Apr 5, 2023]

Cosmic Dust.  Cosmic dust is dust that occurs in outer space.  They are usually a few molecules in size.  A pair of stars in our galaxy is revealing how light pushed around matter.  It’s the first time anyone has directly seen how the pressure of light from stars changes the flow of dust in space.  The finding could help researchers understand how light sculpts matter throughout the cosmos.   Such radiation pressure influences how cosmic dust clears from the regions near young stars and guides the formation of gas clouds around dying stars.  The dust pattern surrounding a stellar pair 5,600 light-years away in the Cygnus constellation is providing an opportunity to observe the effect in action.  The dust emerging from the star WR 140 and its companion is formed by gas from these two stars colliding and condensing into soot.  The dust is accelerating as it travels away from the starts.  The force accelerating the dust is the pressure exerted by light radiated from the stars.    [source: Riordon, “For the first time, astronomers saw dust in space being pushed by starlight,” Science News, Oct 18, 2022]

Molecular Cloud.  A molecular cloud is a type of interstellar cloud.  Its density and size permit absorption nebulae and molecular hydrogen.  Molecular hydrogen clouds are a key component of the interstellar medium because they are the birthplaces for stars.  The details of how molecular clouds assemble from and interact with the atomic gas in interstellar space are still largely unknown.  Ionized carbon is an excellent tracer of molecular cloud interactions.   [source: Schneider at al, “Ionized carbon as a tracer of the assembly of interstellar clouds,” Nature Astronomy, Feb 16, 2023]

Neutron Star.  A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star.  Except for black holes, they are the smallest and densest class of stellar objects.  It has a radius of 6 miles and a mass of about 1.4 solar masses.  New research suggest that collisions of neutron stars may trigger mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs].  [source: Lewis, “Curious cosmic coincidence cold help explain fast radio burst mystery,” space.com, April 1, 2023]  There is a non-pulsating neutron star in the supernova remnant HESS J1731-347.  The neutron star has a mass of 0.77 solar masses and a radius of 10.4 km.  This object is either the lightest neutron star known, or a ‘strange star.’  [source: Doroshenko et al, “A strangely light neutron star within a supernova remnant,” Nature Astronomy, Oct 24, 2022]

Pancake Dome.  A pancake dome is an odd type of lava dome found on the planet Venus.  They are 10 to 100 times larger than volcanic domes formed on Earth.  They are formed by the eruption of an extremely viscous lava.  [source: “Aline Corona with Pancake Domes,” JPL, May 21, 1991]

Pea Galaxy.  A Pea Galaxy or Green Pea Galaxy is a type of luminous blue compact galaxy that is undergoing very high rates of star formation.  These galaxies are small (5,000 light-years in diaeter) and are greenish in appearance.  Their greenish hue is because most of their light comes from glowing gas clouds rather that directly from their stars.  They could be partly responsible for the ‘reionization’ of the universe.  They were first discovered in 2009.  The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) spotted some Green Pea galaxies dating to 13.1 billion years ago.  These galaxies leak much more ultraviolet light, which can rip electrons from atoms.    [source: Grossman, “The James Webb telescope found ‘Green Pea’ galaxies in the early universe,” Science News, Jan 12, 2023]  The Green Pea galaxy found by the JWST may be one of the most “chemically primitive” galaxies astronomers have ever seen.  [source: Lea, “Rare ‘green pea’ galaxy may be the most ‘chemically primitive’ galaxy ever discovered.” space.com, Jan 11, 2023]

PKS 2131-021.  This is a blazer (a type of quasar) 9 billion light-years away that has a binary black hole.  The black holes are pointing a jet of supercharged matter directly at Earth.  They orbit each other every two years.  This is the tightest-knit supermassive black hole duo observed to date.  They will merge in about 10,000 years.  [source: Spektor, “2 monster black holes are headed toward a collision that will rock the fabric of space-time,” Live Science, March 1, 2020]   A powerful jet emanating from one of two black holes in PKS 2131-021 is shifting back and forth due to the pair’s orbital motion.  This causes periodic changes in the quasar’s radio=light brightness.  [source: California Institute of Technology, “Colossal black holes locked in dance at heart of galaxy, Eureka Alert, Feb 23, 2022] 

Pluto.  Pluto, discovered in 1930, is considered a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt.  Pluto’s eccentric orbit periodically brings it closer to the Sun than Neptune, but a stable orbital resonance prevents them from colliding.  It has 5 known moons.  The moon Charon is only 12,000 miles away from Pluto.   Pluto has ice-spewing volcanoes.  Pluto has an atmospheric haze that extends 1,000 miles high.  There are 20 layers in Pluto’s atmosphere.  Tons of nitrogen gas escape Pluto by the hour, but somehow Pluto can constantly resupply that lost nitrogen.  It may be creating more of it through geological activity.  Pluto has very bright areas next to very dark ones.  The bright areas are probably shifting fields of nitrogen ice.  The dark areas could be methane ice interacting with sunlight.  At sometime in the past, Pluto flipped on its side.  Pluto’s orientation before the flip and the degree to which it reoriented itself has not been well understood.  Researches have attributed the flip to the formation of Sputnik Planita, a 620-mile basin that makes up half of the heart-shaped region on Pluto.  [source: Kuthunur, “New Horizons Pluto probe notches 3 new discoveries in outer solar system,” space.com, March 17, 2023] 

Proxima Centauri.  Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C) is a small, low-mass red dwarf star located 4.2465 light-years away from the sun.  It was discovered in 1915.  It is the nearest known star to the Sun.  It is a member of the Alpha Centauri star system.  Its mass is 12.5% of the Sun’s mass and 14% of the Sun’s diameter.  It is 33 times denser than our Sun.  Its lifetime will be 4 trillion years.  It has two known exoplanets and one candidate exoplanet.  [source: Lea, “Alpha Centauri: Facts about the stars next door,” space.com, Mar 5, 2023]

PSR J1748-2446ad.  This pulsar (neutron star) is the fastest rotating star known.  It is a dead star located 18,000 light-years away.  At its equator, the neutron star’s surface spins at around 157 million mph – that’s nearly 24 percent the speed of light. 

Pulsar.  A pulsar (pulsating radio source) is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnet radiation out of its magnetic poles.   The linking of pulsars with supernova neutron star remnants was confirmed with the “odd” star close to the center of the Crab Nebula was shown to be a pulsar rotating over 30 times a second.  In 1992, the first extrasolar planets were discovered around a pulsar.  In 2016, a pulsar was discovered being a white dwarf instead of a neutron star.  The Crab Nebular pulsar seems to increase its spin every 3 to 6 years.  This seems odd as generally pulsars slow down with time.

Quaoar.  50000 Quaoar is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt about 690 miles in diameter.  It has a ring around the icy dwarf planet that is much further from its parent body than thought possible.  The ring around Quaoar is over twice the Roche limit, which defies theoretical expectations.  The ring orbits Quaoar at a distance of over 2,500 miles.  [source: Lea, “’Impossible’ New Ring System Discovered at the Edge of the Solar System,” Scientific American, Feb 11, 2023]

Quasar.  A quasar (quasi-stellar object) is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN).  Quasars are the most brilliant beacons of all.  More than a million quasars have been found.  Quasars were more common in the early universe than today.  Quasar 3C 273 is the hottest object in space and was the first quasar to be discovered.  It is 2.5 billion light-years away.  Its temperatures is 18 trillion degrees Fahrenheit.  Quasar SMSS J1144-4308 is a quasar in the constellation Centaurus.  It is the most intrinsically luminous quasar known, having a luminosity 8 times greater that of quasar 3C 273.  It has a red shift of z = 0.83 with a supermassive black hole that may be the fastest growing black hole observed.  [source: Kammoun at al, “The first X-ray look at SMSS J11447: the most luminous quasar in the last 9 Gyr,” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, April 3, 2023]

Quenching.  Quenching is a process in which a galaxy loses cold gas.  This suppresses star formation.  Galaxy GS-9209 is the earliest known galaxy to abruptly stop forming stars.  It quenched its star formation more than 12.5 billion years ago.  This discovery shows at least some galaxies quenched when the universe was young. [source: Grossman, “The James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy,” Science News, Feb 14, 2023] 

Red Dwarf.  A red dwarf (M-dwarf) is the smallest and coolest kind of star on the main sequence.  They are the most common type of star in the Milky Way.  50 of the 60 nearest stars are red dwarfs.  Rocky planets orbiting red-dwarf stars are among the most promising and abundant astronomical targets for detecting habitable climates.  [sources: Lobo et al “Terminator Habitability: The Case for Limited Water Availability on M-dwarf Planets,” The Astrophysical Journal, Jan 1, 2022 and “M Dwarfs Could Be the Best – or Worst—Extraterrestrial Homes,” Scientific American, May 1, 2015]

Red Giant.  A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass in a late phase of stellar evolution.  It has exhausted its central hydrogen content, leaving a helium core and a hydrogen-burning shell.  A red giant will usually produce a planetary nebula and become a white dwarf at the end of its life.  Rotation of a red giant may be boosted by magnetic fields.  However, owing to the lack of direct measurements of magnetic fields in stellar interiors, little is currently known about their properties.  Field strengths of 30 to 100 kilogause in the vicinity of the hydrogen-burning shell have been measured.  [source: Li et al, “Magnetic fields of 30 to 100 kG in the cores of red giant stars,” Nature, Oct 6, 2022]

Rings of Saturn.  The rings of Saturn are the most extensive ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometers to meters that orbit around Saturn. The ring particles are made almost entirely of water ice, with a trace component of rocky material. There is still no consensus as to their mechanism of formation.  New studies have shown that Saturn’s rings are heating its upper atmosphere.  The evidence came from an excess of ultraviolet radiation, seen as a spectral line of hot hydrogen in Saturn’s atmosphere.  The bump in radiation means that something is contaminating and heating the upper atmosphere.    [source: Murray, “Saturn is doing something never seen before in our solar system,” nbcrightnow.com, March 21, 2023]

Rogue Planet.  A rogue planet is an interstellar object of planetary mass which is not gravitationally bound to any star or brown dwarf.  Rogue planets originate from planetary systems in which they are formed and later ejected. They can also form on their own, outside a planetary system. In 2020, an Earth-mass rogue planet was discovered.  Astronomers have spotted over 200 rogue, starless planets.  The Milky Way alone may have billions to trillions of rogue planets.  With the right orbit and atmosphere, a moon orbiting a rogue planet might stay warm for over a billion years and may be suitable for life.  [source: den Hond, “Planets without stars might have moons suitable for life.” Science News, April 1, 2023]   In 2021, at least 70 rogue planets were found in our Milky Way in the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchas constellations.  It is the largest group of rogue planets found so far.  All 70 rogue planets have masses comparable to Jupiter’s.   [source: Carter, “Astronomers Stunned to Find 70 Mysterious ‘Rogue’ Planets in the 13^th Constellation,: Forbes, Dec 22, 2021]

Ryugu.  162173 Ryugu is a near-Earth object and a potentially hazardous asteroid of the Apollo group.  It is 3,000 feet in diameter with a rare spectral type.  Samples of it were returned by a Japanese spacecraft.  The samples showed the presence of organic compounds, such as the nucleic acid uracil (a component of RNA) and vitamin B3.  [source: Johnston, “Asteroid Ryugu Contains Niacin (aka Vitamin B3),” Universe Today, Mar 26, 2023] 

S4716.  S4716 is the closest and fastest star orbiting the black hole in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.  It orbits the black hole once every four years. S4716 and its high-speed cluster of starts have been dubbed “squeezers.”  This type of star follows a highly eccentric orbit around a black hole.  [source: Petersen, “One Star Flies Past the Milky Way’s Black Hole at 3% the Speed of Light,” Universe Today, July 6, 2022]

Sagittarius A*.  Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) is the supermassive black home at the Galactic Center of our Milky Way.  It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius.  It has a mass of over 4 million solar masses.  Astronomers have detected the heaviest and youngest infant star (X3a) ever discovered close to a black hole.   The star is less than 50,000 years old.  Theoretically, this star should not be able to exist so close to this black hole.  [source: University of Cologne, Feb 28, 2023]  The black hole is also stretching object X7, and it being pulled apart as the black hole drags it closer.  X7 appears to be a cloud of dust and gas that was created when two stars collided.  [source: University of California – Los Angeles, Feb 24, 2023]

Seyfert Galaxy.  Seyfert galaxies are one of two largest groups of active galaxies, along with quasars.  They have quasar-like nuclei (very luminous, distant and bright sources of electromagnetic radiation) with very high surface brightnesses whose spectra reveal strong, high-ionization emission lines, but unlike quasars, their host galaxies are clearly detectable.  When a quasar is not that bright, allowing us to see the stars, then it is considered a Seyfert galaxy.

Shock Wave.  For the first time, astronomers have caught a glimpse of shock waves rippling along strands of the cosmic web – the enormous tangle of galaxies, gas, and dark matter that fills the observable universe.  Spotting these shock waves could give astronomers a better look at the large-scale magnetic fields, who properties and origins are largely mysterious.  While scientists have observed shock waves around galaxy clusters before, shock waves in filaments have never been seen.  [source: Cutts, “Astronomers spotted shock waves shaking the web of the universe for the first time,” Science News, March 6, 2023] 

SIMP J013656.5+093347.  This is a rogue planet 19.9 light-years away in the constellation Pieces.   It has a magnetic field more than 200 times stronger than Jupiter’s.  This is strong enough to generate flashing auroras in its atmosphere, which can be seen with radio telescopes.  Its mass is about 12.7 Jupiter masses. 

Smertios.  Smertios (HD 149026b) is an extrasolar planet and hot Jupiter.  It is 250 light-years away in the constellation of Hercules.  Its atmosphere is rich in heavy elements, with high concentrations of carbon and oxygen.  [source: Pultarova, James Webb Space Telescope finds a ‘hot Jupiter’ exoplanet that defies expectations.” space.com, March 29, 2023]

Stephan’s Quintet.  Stephan's Quintet is a visual grouping of five galaxies of which four form the first compact galaxy group ever discovered. The group, visible in the constellation Pegasus, was discovered by in 1877 and is 290 million light-years away.   The group is the most studied of all the compact galaxy groups. The brightest member of the visual grouping (and the only non-member of the true group) is NGC 1720.

 

Super-Earth.  A Super-Earth is an exoplanet with a mass higher than Earth’s, but much below those of the ice giants.  They have also been called gas dwarfs or mini-Neptunes.  They can be up to 10 times the mass of Earth.  Most super-Earths orbit cool dwarf stars, which are lower in mass and live much longer than the Sun.  There are hundreds of cool dwarf stars for every star like the Sun,  Super-Earths orbit 40% of cool dwarfs that astronomers have looked at.  Scientis have estimated over 10 billion super-Earths in habitable zones where liquid water can ixist in the Milky Way.  [source: Impey, “Super-Earths are bigger, more common and more habitable than Earth itself,” The Conversation, Sep 19, 2022]

Superstring Theory.  Superstring theory is an attempt to explain all of the particles and fundamental forces of nature in one theory by modeling them as vibrations of tiny supersymmetric strings.  The theory states that Minuscule strands of energy vibrating in a higher dimensional space-time create every particle and force in the universe.

Tadpole Galaxy.  The Tadpole Galaxy is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy located 420 million light-years from Earth in the northern constellation Draco. Its most dramatic feature is a trail of stars about 280,000 light-years long. Its size has been attributed to a merger with a smaller galaxy that is believed to have occurred about 100 million years ago.  The galaxy is filled with bright blue star clusters triggered by the merger, some containing as many as one million stars.  It is the largest disrupted spiral galaxy of its sort.

Taffy Galaxies.  The Taffy system is a pair of galaxies that contains the interacting galaxies UGC 12914 and UGC 12915.  These two galaxies are located in the constellation of Pegasus about 180 million light-years away.  The collision of these two galaxies began 25 million years ago.  The two galaxies are connected by a bridge of gas and stars that is highly turbulent in nature.   The bridge was formed due to the jets of the black holes of the two galaxies.  The correlation of jets from two galaxies is a unique event.  [source: Lea, “Colliding Taffy Galaxies create a sweet ‘cosmic butterfly’,” space.com, April 1, 2023]

Thorne-Zytkow Object.  A Thorne–Żytkow object (TZO), also known as a hybrid star, is a conjectured type of star wherein a red giant or red supergiant contains a neutron star at its core, formed from the collision of the giant with the neutron star. In 2014, it was discovered that the star HV 2112, located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), was a strong candidate.   It had excess amounts of lithium, calcium, and other elements similar to the unique reactions that would occur inside a TZO.

Titan.  Titan is the largest moon of Saturn.  It is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere.  Titan is 50% larger (in diameter) than Earth’s moon, and 80% more massive.  It is larger than Mercury. It is the second largest moon in the Solar system, ext to Jupiter’s Ganymede. 

TOI-700.  TOI-700 is a red dwarf 101.4 light years away, located in the Dorado constellation.  It hosts TOI-700d, the first Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone.  It is one of over 5,000 known exoplanets discovered so far since 1995.  TOI-700 has two Earth-sized planets (TOI-700d and TOI-700e) found in the habitable zone.  [source: Rodriguez, “Two potentially habitable planets found orbiting distant star,” astronomy.com, March 8, 2023]

TOI-4603b.  TOI-4603b is an exoplanet 730 light-years away.  It is the size of Jupiter, but with the density greater than lead.  It has a mass of nearly 13 Jupiters.  It orbits its star every 7.25 days.  It is the most massive and densest giant planet known to date.    [source: Starr, “Jupiter-Sized ‘Cannonball’ Planet Discovered With a Density Greater Than Lead,” Space Alert, Mar 29, 2023]

TOI-5205.  TOI-5205 is a low-mass red dwarf star that has a large gas giant planet orbiting it.  The planet, TOI-5205b, should not exist and is considered a ‘forbidden planet.’  The star is about 4 times larger than Jupiter, yet it has somehow managed to form a Jupiter-sized planet.  When the planet crosses in front of its star, it blocks 7 percent of its light – one of the largest known exoplanet transits.  [source: Carnegie Institution for Science, Feb 23, 2023]

TRAPPIST.  TRAPPIST-1 is an ultra-cool red dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius.  It has seven known planets.  The sun’s mass is 9% of our Sun, with a diameter slightly larger than Jupiter.  The star is 40.7 light-years away and is about 7.6 billion years old.  The star was discovered in 1999.  The biggest planet orbiting TRAPPIST-1 does not appear to have an atmosphere.  This is a hot, rocky planet that is tidally locked to its sun..  [source: Perkins, “The biggest planet orbiting TRAPPIST-1 does not appear to have an atmosphere,” ScienceNews, March 27, 2023]

Triton.  Triton is the largest moon of Neptune.  It is the only large moon in the Solar system with a retrograde orbit, and orbit in the direction opposite to its planet’s rotation.  It may have been a dwarf planet, captured by Neptune from the Kuiper belt.  Triton has a very thin atmosphere with active eruptions on the surface.