#Carbon-rich exoplanets may be made of diamonds

“#Carbon-rich exoplanets may be made of diamonds” Illustration of a carbon-rich planet with diamond and silica as main minerals. Water can convert a carbide planet into a diamond-rich planet. In the interior, the main minerals would be diamond and silica (a layer with crystals in the illustration). The core (dark blue) might be iron-carbon alloy….

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#Finding magnetic eruptions in space with an AI assistant

“#Finding magnetic eruptions in space with an AI assistant” MMS look for explosive reconnection events as it flies through the magnetopause — the boundary region where Earth’s magnetic butts up against the solar wind that flows throughout the solar system. Credit: NASA Goddard/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith; NASA Goddard’s Conceptual Image Lab/Josh Masters/Joy Ng An alert pops…

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#Space debris observed for the first time during the day

“#Space debris observed for the first time during the day” The Zimmerwald Laser and Astrometry Telescope ZIMLAT in Zimmerwald, which is used for distance measurement to space debris objects. Credit: University of Bern, AIUB On the afternoon of February 10, 2009, the operational communications satellite Iridium 33 collided with the obsolete Cosmos 2251 communications satellite…

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#Hubble maps giant halo around Andromeda Galaxy

“#Hubble maps giant halo around Andromeda Galaxy” This illustration shows the location of the 43 quasars scientists used to probe Andromeda’s gaseous halo. These quasars–the very distant, brilliant cores of active galaxies powered by black holes–are scattered far behind the halo, allowing scientists to probe multiple regions. Looking through the immense halo at the quasars’…

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#Scientists determine ‘Oumuamua isn’t made from molecular hydrogen ice after all

“#Scientists determine ‘Oumuamua isn’t made from molecular hydrogen ice after all” Credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics The debate over the origins and molecular structure of ‘Oumuamua continued today with an announcement in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that despite earlier promising claims, the interstellar object is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all. The earlier…

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