Space News Round-up: Magnetic Bubbles, Mega Blasts, Missing Mass & Mucho 'Rogue' Planets {VIDEO}

computer model image of magnetic bubbles at the edge of our solar system

Over the past several weeks, a flurry of intriguing and surprising outer space-related discoveries have been made, ones that warrant a recap for those who may have missed them.  I have selected four of the more fascinating ones, plus one related, really cool piece with a video, and they are:

1] Magnetic Bubbles Discovered at the Edge of Our Solar System,

2] Biggest Blast Ever Seen In Our Universe

3] Aussie Grad Student Finds Missing Mass in Galaxies

4] ‘Rogue’ Planets, More Plentiful than Stars, May Be Roaming the Galaxy

and

5] (An extra-special space goody:) A Supernova Sonata – Turning Exploding Stars into Music

And here we go…

Mysterious, Massive “Magnetic Bubbles” May Fill the Edge of the Solar System

Like the Earth, the sun has magnetic poles resulting from the magnetic field (magnetosphere) that surrounds it. Like the Earth, the Sun spins on an axis (though the sun reverses itself every eleven years). This creates twists and loops in the magnetic field. Unlike the Earth, however, the Sun’s magnetic field extends all the way to the “edge” of our solar system. At this great distance (10 billion miles from home), the Sun’s magnetic field interacts with energetic particles from other stars in our neighborhood of the galaxy. How these particles interact with our Sun’s magnetic field, and impact our solar system, is a subject of on-going study.

Old and new views of the heliosheath
Old and new views of the heliosheath. Red and blue spirals are the gracefully curving magnetic field lines of orthodox models. New data from Voyager add a magnetic froth (inset) to the mix. Credit: NASA

Astronomers are finding that this outer perimeter of the Sun’s field (the heliosheath) does not curve or dissipate smoothly, but rather, it appears that out there, magnetic field lines get twisted and bunched into discreet “bubbles” of magnetic energy. The bubbles in this “froth”, however, are huge — measuring 100 million miles (about one Astronomical unit, see top photo) in diameter. Whether these bubbles are the natural outcome of the Sun’s own activity, or due to an interaction with particles from other stars, is a question that remains to be answered.

So far, evidence for this “turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles” comes from a single particle detector on board one of the Voyager spacecraft that serve as our planet’s most distant probes. Scientists are still trying to verify the data and are using a computer model to confirm the existence of these massive bubbles of magnetic energy.

Reference: (Astrobio.net) Magnetic Bubbles at the Edge of the Solar System

Biggest Blast Ever Seen May be a Star-Eating Black Hole

Astronomers may be observing the biggest blast ever seen in the Universe. NASA’s SWIFT observatory detected the mega-blast on March 28. At that time it was thought to be a massive star going supernova and observers assumed that it would fade in a few hours, but in the two weeks before its reporting in Science, the blast was still going strong.

M87 galaxy emitting jet of high-energy particles
The jet of high energy particles originating from the center of M87 in this image comes from an active galactic nucleus that may contain a supermassive black hole. The distant cosmic explosion detected on March 28 (not shown) continues to put out a series of high-energy flares. Astronomers believe it's a star being consumed by a black hole 3.8 billion light-years away. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope/NASA/ESA.

That’s no ordinary supernova. Hubble Space telescope and Chandra X-ray observatory located the source as being the center of a galaxy 3.8 billion lights years away (so, the event actually happened “out there” as single-celled life was just beginning here). Scientists believe that the explosion was caused by a large star passing too close to a black hole. As the black hole grabs hold and begins “consuming” the star’s hot, outer gases, it produces enormous bursts (“jets”) of high-energy particles (and “gamma ray bursts”)

Although its intensity has decreased from its maximum, the blast is putting our more energy than previously seen. As it continues to stay bright (a measure of its intensity), some are looking at alternative explanations, such as a massive dormant quasar suddenly “waking up”

Reference: Star-Eating Black Hole May Be Producing Universe’s Biggest Blast

This is the  Sound of Supernovae – Translating An Exploding Star into Music

How do your memorialize the death of a star as it goes supernova? Translate the explosion into music! And these are Type 1-a supernovae which help astronomers measure distance and time in the cosmos, showing that the cosmos is accelerating, providing proxy proof of dark energy. Watch and Listen to the video! (article continues below)

Supernova Sonata from Alex Parker on Vimeo.

Reference: (ScientificAmerican.com) The Real Explosions in the Sky: Supernovae Translated into Music [Video]

Aussie Grad Student Finds Missing Mass in Galaxies

It’s been a long-standing puzzle to astrophysicists: Where is the missing mass that must exist to account for the uneven rotational speeds observed in clusters of spiral galaxies? Scientists have proposed that the matter would need to be low in density but high in temperature. A few had previously postulated that the high-temp, missing mass should be detectable at x-ray wavelengths, and possibly, in a medium called the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), which forms into giant “filaments”, but no one had actually bothered to look really hard to substantiate the hypothesis.

Cosmic Microwave Background, WMAP Science Team
Cosmic Microwave Background Courtesy of NASA / WMAP Science Team

That was until Australian grad student Amelia Fraser-McKelvie, working with a team of astronomers at the Monash School of Physics, conducted an x-ray survey of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). It took a while — nearly three months — but her diligence paid off big. She was able to detect long “filaments” of low density and high-temperature — verifying both theoretical predictions.

Current theory holds that the universe is composed of dark energy (72%), dark matter  (22%) and baryonic matter (4%). Most of the baryons (protons, electrons, neutrons) in the Universe are now thought to be contained within filaments of galaxies, but until Ms Fraser-McKelvie’s survey, no study targeting and analyzing the actual physical properties (temperature, electron density) of such filaments had been conducted or published.

Reference: (Universetoday.com) Australian Student Uncovers the Universe’s Missing Mass

Rogue Planets, More Numerous than Stars, May be Roaming the Galaxies

More things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio…More planets than stars, quite possibly, in our galaxy (and others). That’s the latest estimation from a joint Japan-New Zealand survey of some 50 million stars. The team was searching for “micro-lensing events” that cause a star’s brightness to increase (for short durations of time) whenever a smaller body transits i(from our view) in front of it. They detected over 400 such events — ten of which lasted for less than 2 days. This is far more than was estimated based upon then number of stars — including “failed stars” like brown dwarfs — likely to be hosting planets and/or solar systems.

Jupiter-like planet
Ten Jupiter-like planets have been detected in our Milky Way Galaxy without any sign of a parent star, likely booted from their birth place in turbulent, developing solar systems. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

These postulated, Jupiter-class planetary objects are either in extremely wide orbits around distant stars, or, they have no parent star at all.  Astronomers are now having to reconsider earlier estimates, with many claiming that such “rogue” planets must be more numerous than stars, which are estimated at some 150 billion in number.

Reference: (Astronomynow.com) Free-floating planets more common than stars?

Top photo: Magnetic bubbles at the edge of the solar system are about 100 million miles wide–similar to the distance between Earth and the Sun. Credit: NASA

2 thoughts on “Space News Round-up: Magnetic Bubbles, Mega Blasts, Missing Mass & Mucho 'Rogue' Planets {VIDEO}”

  1. I must write in Serbian because I don’t know speak English enaught.
    Pravo je cudo da nauka i naucnici do sada nisu nasli uzroke koji izazivaju sve ove pojave na nasem Suncu.Svi moguci instrumenti nece moci da odgonetnu i saznaju STA JE TO STO IZAZIVA TAKVE BURNE REAKCIJE NA SUNCU I U NJEMU.
    Ja sam u nekoliko navrata pisao za NASA-u i druge naucne ustanove i pokusao da ih obavijestim i uvjerim da ja imam neke matematicke pokazatelje i dokaze o tome STA JE TO STO UZROKUJE SVE TE POJAVE. M edjutim , niko nije zaintereasovan da to cuje i da vidi ovo sto ja imam. A to sto ja imam ,po mom uvjerenju moze da posluzi za odredjivanje i definisanje svih ciklusa u svim vremenima za sunspots , reconnecting Sun’s magnetic poles i istalih gotovo bezbroj ciklusa i pojava.
    Ako imate ikakvog uticaja na te forume koji se muce da objasne te pojave a ne mogu, molim vas da se ucini da ja imam neku korespondenciu sa tim timovima i da pokusamo za svagda da odgonetnemo uzroke tih fenomena na Suncu, kako bi svi sirom svijeta mogli da saznaju osnovne zakone koje je sam Bog uspostavio u univerzumi i u nasem suncevom sistemu.
    INTUICIJA I VEZA SA SVEMIRSKIM MEMORIJSKIM RECIPIJENTOM JE MOCNIJA OD SVIH SVJETSKIH INSTRUMENATA ZA SAZNAVANJE LOGICKIH PRIRODNIH ZAKONA.To mnogima nije jasno i zato nauka kaska i blokirana je na granicama brzine svjetlosti za koju nauka tvrdi da je konacna STO APSOLUTNO NIJE TACNO!
    I HAVE STRICTLY MATHEMATICAL EDIDENCEA AND PFOOFS FOR FOLLOWED ABOWE.
    Sklopicemo ugovor o know-how and copyright i rijesiti mnoge zagonetke.
    Kada bih ja imao potrebne podatke , koje ima npr. NASA mogao bih jednostavno odrediti jako mnogo ciklusa npr za sunspots (11,18181818 years)
    Spostovanjem ,
    Milovic N.

    [HERE IS THE GOOGLE TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE COMMENT]

    It is amazing that science and scientists have not found all the causes that cause this phenomenon in our Suncu.Svi possible instruments will not be able to figure out and find out what is it that get such strong reactions in both sun and HIM.
    I repeatedly wrote to NASA and other scientific institutions and tried to inform and persuade me to have some mathematical ratios and evidence of what is it that causes all these phenomena. M edjutim, nobody zaintereasovan to hear and see what I have. And that’s what I have, in my belief can serve to determine and define all cycles at all times for sunspots, magnetic reconnecting Sun’s poles and istalih almost endless cycle and phenomena.
    If you have any influence on these forums who are struggling to explain these phenomena and can not, I ask you to do that I have a korespondenciu with these teams and to try to guess for all the causes of these phenomena on the Sun, so that all around the world could to know the basic laws that God established in the universe and our solar system.
    INTUITION AND MEMORY LINK WITH SPACE recipient is more powerful than all the world INSTRUMENTS FOR NATURAL ZAKONA.To logical cognition is not clear to many, and because science is lagging behind and blocked at the borders of the speed of light to which science claims that the final which is absolutely not true!
    I HAVE AND STRICTLY MATHEMATICAL EDIDENCEA PFOOFS FOR ABOWE followed.
    Sklopić contract and know-how, copyright and solve many puzzles.
    If I had the necessary data, which has, for example. NASA could simply set such a lot of sunspots cycle (11.18181818 years)
    Sincerely,
    Milovic N.

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