Related topics: stars · star formation

A surprisingly simple explanation for 'Oumuamua's weird orbit

In 2017, a mysterious comet dubbed 'Oumuamua fired the imaginations of scientists and the public alike. It was the first known visitor from outside our solar system, it had no bright coma or dust tail, like most comets, and ...

Newly discovered carbon may yield clues to ancient Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Mars on Aug. 6, 2012, and since then has roamed Gale Crater taking samples and sending the results back home for researchers to interpret. Analysis of carbon isotopes in sediment samples taken ...

New 3-D map will help solve long-standing cosmic mysteries

A new study led by ANU has created a 3D map of the magnetic field in a small wedge of the Milky Way galaxy, paving the way for future discoveries that will improve our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe.

Microscopic messengers from the depths of space

(Phys.org)—In 1990, an important space probe was launched, tasked with the ambitious mission of orbiting the sun and scanning our star at all latitudes. However, the much-publicized mission was not solar research but the ...

Planck: Gravitational waves remain elusive

Despite earlier reports of a possible detection, a joint analysis of data from ESA's Planck satellite and the ground-based BICEP2 and Keck Array experiments has found no conclusive evidence of primordial gravitational waves.

VLT clears up dusty mystery

A group of astronomers has been able to follow stardust being made in real time—during the aftermath of a supernova explosion. For the first time they show that these cosmic dust factories make their grains in a two-stage ...

In the heart of Cygnus, NASA's Fermi reveals a cosmic-ray cocoon

(PhysOrg.com) -- The constellation Cygnus, now visible in the western sky as twilight deepens after sunset, hosts one of our galaxy's richest-known stellar construction zones. Astronomers viewing the region at visible wavelengths ...

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Cosmic dust

Cosmic dust is a type of dust composed of particles in space which are a few molecules to 0.1 mm in size. Cosmic dust can be further distinguished by its astronomical location; for example: intergalactic dust, interstellar dust (potentially concentrated in a nebula), interplanetary dust (such as in a circumstellar disk) and circumplanetary dust (such as in a planetary ring).

In our own Solar System, interplanetary dust causes the zodiacal light. Sources include comet dust, asteroidal dust, dust from the Kuiper belt, and interstellar dust passing through our solar system.

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