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The interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua might be an alien spaceship, at least according to one prominent researcher, but now there is a much more reasonable explanation

Earth observation image of the week: Copernicus Sentinel-2 brings you jewels of the Maldives for Valentine’s week

For Valentine’s week, Copernicus Sentinel-2 takes us to one of the most romantic destinations in the world: the Maldives

On 17 January 2019 ESA signed a study contract with Comex and its partners DITF and OeWF. Pextex is a two-year project to identify materials and textiles that could be used for future lunar mission space suits. The project aims to develop solutions that could be based on existing space suit materials, but also identify novel types of textiles with self-healing functions or repulsing lunar dust and smart textiles for example.

Vol. 622
In section 2. Astrophysical processes Kinetic modeling of the electromagnetic precursor from an axisymmetric binary pulsar coalescence by B. Crinquand, B. Cerutti, and G. Dubus, 2019, A&A, 622, A161 Neutron stars merging in a gravitational-wave emitting death spiral is no longer speculation: now begins the task of understanding the collective multiwavelength phenomenology. This paper presents a simulation - schematic but not unrealistic - of the merger of two field-aligned neutron stars along their lines of center. Although orbital motion is not included and the fields are axisymmetric, the magnetospheres and toroidal field and accelerating potentials are self-consistently treated within a relativistic PIC code. The antiparallel case shows a plateau-like precursor in the high energy emission, and in situ particle acceleration is studied in the resulting current sheet connecting the magnetospheres. Although these simulations are still too idealized for direct comparison with current observation, they are a harbinger of things to come.

The option to measure the gravitational waves of two merging neutron stars has offered the chance to answer some of the fundamental questions about the structure of matter....

An international study led by researchers from the Institute of Space Sciences, from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya has discovered that carbonaceous chondrites, a class of meteorites, incorporated hydrated minerals along with...

The detection of laser radiation originating from space is a positive indicator of Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (ETI)....

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) will soon begin a new round of observations. Now you can find out about the discoveries as they happen. The post Listen Up: Get Gravitational-wave Alerts appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

Authors: J. I. Campos Rozo, D. Utz, S. Vargas Domínguez, A. Veronig and T. Van Doorsselaere.
Astronomy & Astrophysics Vol. 622 , page A168
Keywords: Sun: photosphere ; Sun: granulation ; Sun: evolution ; Sun: magnetic fields ; sunspots.