TecMundo and #AstroMiniBR bring five related astronomical curiosities generated by collaborators each week. twitter profileSpread the knowledge of astronomy. See below!
#1: Jet entering a black hole!
In 2017, an international team of astronomers captured the first image of a black hole by coordinating worldwide radio antennas to act like a single planet-sized telescope.
Known collectively as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), the synchronized array imaged M87*, the black hole at the center of nearby galaxy Messier 87. The telescope’s laser-focused resolution revealed a very thin bright ring around a dark center. First look at the black hole’s shadow. Astronomers have now redirected telescopes to capture a new layer of M87* using another network of global observatories, the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA), to record a more magnified view of the black hole.
The new images, taken a year after the first EHT observations, reveal visual evidence of a larger and denser plasma ring, as well as the black hole’s accretion disk and relativistic jet. These observations could pave the way for a better understanding of the physics of black holes.
#2: Do you know what solar flares are?
A solar flare, also called a solar flare, is characterized by a sudden increase in the brightness of a region in the solar corona, usually near a sunspot group. The rash develops within minutes or even seconds and can last for several hours.
In this process, high-energy particles, electron streams, X-rays, and radio bursts are constantly emitted, and a shock wave is created when the explosion interacts with the interplanetary medium. The explosion takes place above the surface in the corona, and the energy accumulated at the surface creates an extremely hot cloud of about 100 million degrees Celsius.
Because they are usually associated with sunspots, such eruptions seldom occur in sunspots of at least three or four years (with their maximum activity occurring on an average 11-year cycle).
#3: Space Debris Effects with the Hubble Telescope
For more than 30 years in orbit around the Earth, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed the changing nature of space flight as the sky fills with more satellites.
For example, during its lifetime, Hubble saw the arrival of the International Space Station (ISS) and numerous collisions and explosions that created fast-moving clouds of space debris in space. Hubble felt the impact of this debris by accumulating tiny impact craters on its solar panels, evidence of its long and eventful life in space.
Examining the consequences of these impacts with small debris (ranging from micrometers to millimeters) allowed the new missions to use a model that was created to predict how many impacts could be expected for each mission and how harmful impacts would be mitigated. this may require investigations.
#4: Saturn wallpapers!
The Solar System’s Lord of the Rings is already naturally majestic, but these infrared images are no joke! This is because many of Saturn’s details, such as different cloud layers and its tall storms, are clearly visible in infrared light.
A very striking feature is the unusual shape of the clouds, which take on hexagonal shapes around the planet’s north pole. The existence of this hexagonal region was not predicted, and its origin and possible stability remain a subject of research. Saturn’s famous rings surround the planet and cast their shadows below the equator in these images taken by the Cassini spacecraft between 2014 and 2017.
#5: What is the most common chemical element in the universe?
The most common chemical elements in the universe are hydrogen (74%) and helium (24%). In order, the next 8 elements that make up the remaining 2% are: oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, silicon, iron and sulfur.
Although they only make up a very small part of the universe, these other “heavy elements” can greatly influence astronomical events. These other elements are produced by stellar processes, unlike hydrogen and helium, which were produced in significant quantities after the Big Bang.
In general, all other heavy elements are formed inside stars during the nuclear fusion process or at the end of their life, in massive explosions called supernovae.
Source: Tec Mundo
I’m Blaine Morgan, an experienced journalist and writer with over 8 years of experience in the tech industry. My expertise lies in writing about technology news and trends, covering everything from cutting-edge gadgets to emerging software developments. I’ve written for several leading publications including Gadget Onus where I am an author.
