The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the globular cluster NGC 6544 , a dense swarm of tens of thousands of stars that lies more than 8000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius . Globular clusters are ancient relics of the early universe, containing some of the oldest stars in the galaxy. They orbit around the center of the Milky Way, forming a spherical halo that extends far beyond the galactic disk. NGC 6544 is one of the closest globular clusters to the galactic plane, making it an interesting target for astronomers who want to study its origin and evolution. The image of NGC 6544 combines data from two of Hubble's instruments — the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 — as well as two separate astronomical observations. The first observation was designed to find a visible counterpart to the radio pulsar discovered in NGC 6544. A pulsar is the rapidly spinning remnant of a dead star, emitting twin beams of e...
A team of researchers from Denmark, Sweden and China has published a new study in Nature that reveals the composition and formation of the two most habitable planets in the Solar System: Earth and Mars. The study is based on the analysis of silicon isotopes, which are variations of the same element with different numbers of neutrons, in different types of meteorites. Silicon is the most abundant refractory element in rocky planets, and its isotopic composition can trace the origin and evolution of planetary building blocks. The researchers found that Earth and Mars have distinct silicon isotopic signatures that differ from those of chondrites, which are primitive meteorites that represent the undifferentiated material of the early Solar System. This means that chondrites are not the main source of material for terrestrial planets, as previously thought. Instead, the study suggests that Earth and Mars were formed from material similar to early-formed differentiated asteroids, which are...
The European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, which is on its way to explore the mysteries of Mercury, has captured some breathtaking images of the planet during its third and closest flyby on June 19, 2023. The spacecraft flew within 150 miles (236 kilometers) of Mercury's surface at 3:34 p.m. EDT (1934 GMT), taking advantage of the planet's gravity to adjust its trajectory towards its final destination. During the flyby, BepiColombo collected data on Mercury's environment and geology, and sent them back to Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first of these new images on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after the closest approach. The images reveal a geology bounty: a plethora of craters, ancient volcanic ridges and lava flows. Image credit ESA, JAXA One of the most curious features in the images is a crater that has only just received a new name: Edna Manley , after a Jamaican/British artist who died in 1987. "During our image planning for the flyby, we reali...
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