Venus could be a Life-bearing Planet: Space Exploration

Space scientists have always looked up to our closest planet neighbour and wondered what if there is life on Venus. Sanjay Limaye, from University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science also an expert on Venus says that in the coming decade in a collective effort, astronomers all across the globe will make case for exploring the “evening star”. With an experience of over 45 years, Limaye’s core investigation is the planet’s dense atmosphere.

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Biofuel to Produce Locally on Mars: Martian Exploration

What if we are able to produce fuel directly on Mars? Explorers would then be able to stay on the red planet a li’l longer and return journey will then be easier relatively.   Shipping the propellant and oxygen for a return journey from Mars would cost billions of dollars. To make things easier, researchers have developed a concept for local rocket fuel production with algae and E.coli.

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Magnetic Tunnel Surrounds Our Solar System: Galactic Bodies

Radio astronomy is very fascinating since it shows the “other side” of reality which we do not witness in our everyday life. Of course, due to our own limitations. Dr. Jennifer West, an astrophysicist at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics suggests that a gigantic magnetic tunnel surrounds our solar system. This magnetic flux can be observed in radio waves.

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Interview: Dr Benjamin Pope, an Astrophysicist at The University of Queensland, Brisbane

Dr Benjamin Pope is a physicist and data scientist at The University of Queensland, Brisbane. He is working to find planets around other stars using NASA space telescopes. With the help of leading-edge machine-learning algorithms, he is trying to dig up tiny signals out of the noise to expand our knowledge of the universe.

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Radio Signals from Hidden Planet Star Interaction: New Exoplanets

In a collaborative effort, an international team of astronomers at The University of Queensland and the Dutch national observatory ASTRON have been looking for planets with the help of the most powerful radio telescope – Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) – located in the Netherlands. Recently, they were able to figure out stars spewing off radio waves. This hints at the presence of some hidden planets.

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Interview: Dr. Kamber Schwarz, Postdoctoral Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Astronomy Heidelberg

Dr. Kamber Schwarz is a postdoc at MPIA in Heidelberg. She has been a NASA Sagan Postdoctoral Fellow in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. She received her PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Michigan in 2018. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Ralph B. Baldwin Prize in Astronomy, 2020.

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Tracing the Beginnings of Planet Formation: Stellar Factory

Astronomers led by Kamber Schwarz (MPIA in Heidelberg) have successfully deduced the mass of a potential “planet factory”, the protoplanetary disk around the star GM Aurigae. With the help of radio data from the ALMA observatory and physical modelling, the astronomers were able to track the GM Aurigae system.

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Supercomputer Simulation to Investigate Black Hole and Galaxy Coevolution: Quasar Fueling

Big question regarding the formation of black holes and how they grow under different regimes have always been the holy grail for astrophysicists. Our galaxy hovers around a massive black hole which, under normal circumstances, is surrounded by spinning gases. Not much is known about these gases, however, some shine brightly, with an unceasing supply of fuel. While others go to a state of temporary dormancy and erupts again later with an influx of gases.

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X-ray Emission from Behind Black Hole: Galactic Nuclei

Black holes are the most fascinating phenomena in the universe. Any new finding regarding the intricacies of black hole makes us wonder how less we know about it. This uncanny object is famous for ingesting huge quantities of matter from its surroundings, beaming with glittering luminosity and spilling out small portion of this matter by means of very powerful jets.  

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Stars Spin Faster as They Age: Weakened Magnetic Braking

Stars are the building blocks of galaxies. Turbulence, that is, the result of chaotic changes in pressure and velocity deep within the dust clouds gives rise to some mass. This “mass” results in stellar gravity due to which, the peripheral dust and gas start to disintegrate under its own gravitational attraction. And hence, star formation takes place.

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