106 results for Astrophysics
What Do Your Bones, Wedding Bands, and Atomic Bombs Have in Common?
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/what-do-your-bones-wedding-bands-and-atomic-bombs-have-in-common/
Nov 13, 2017... Jets and Debris from a Neutron Star Collision. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab. This animation captures phenomena observed over the course of nine days following the neutron star merger known as GW170817. They include gravitational waves (pale arcs); a near-light-speed jet that produced gamma rays (magenta); expanding debris from a "kilonova" that produced ultraviolet (violet), optical, and infrared (blue-white to red) emissions; and, once the jet directed toward us expanded into our view from Earth, X-rays (blue).
TAGS: Astrophysics, Culture, Space, Technology
Kilauea and Keck: The Volcano and the Telescopes
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/kilauea-and-keck-the-volcano-and-the-telescopes/
May 11, 2018... The 6.9-magnitude earthquake that freed Kilauea's lava also damaged the island's telescopes. Is volcano goddess Pele angry about the construction of a massive new telescope? Credit: USGS
You have likely seen the stunning images of Kilauea erupting on Hawaii's Big Island – the 2,000-plus-degree lava inexorably consuming everything in its path, the mighty expulsions of fire and matter.
But there's another reason to keep an eye on the eruption: the island's telescopes. The Big Island's mean elevation of 3,030 feet and its crystalline skies – typically calm, dry, and free of light pollution – make Hawaii prized by astronomers, including those at the Weizmann Institute. Indeed, some of the world's most busiest, most powerful telescopes live on the Big Island, not far from the erupting Kilauea, with the W.M. Keck Observatory perhaps the most famous.
TAGS: Astrophysics, Culture, Earth
Followed by a Moonshadow: The Great American Solar Eclipse
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/blog/followed-by-a-moonshadow-the-great-american-solar-eclipse/
Aug 17, 2017... This map shows the path the Moon's dark inner shadow will take August 21, 2017. Source: Astronomy: Richard Talcott and Roen Kelly
What will you be doing on August 21? If you're like millions of other Americans, you'll be watching the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse since 1908.
Over 12 million of us are lucky enough to live within the 70-mile-wide band of "totality" – when the moon will cover 100 percent of the sun – which will cut a diagonal swath across the continent, beginning a bit south of Portland, Oregon, then sweeping across the country before heading out to sea from the South Carolina coast.
Saturn's Atmosphere Proves Deep, Its Rings Young
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/saturn-s-atmosphere-proves-deep-its-rings-young/
Jan 17, 2019... Cassini's view from orbit around Saturn on Jan. 2, 2010. This natural-color view is a composite of images taken in visible light with the spacecraft's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 1.4 million mi (2.3 million km) from Saturn. Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
REHOVOT, ISRAEL—January 17, 2019—Grand Finale was the official name of Cassini's last act: a risky orbit between Saturn's rings and atmosphere in a daring attempt to view the planet up close, just before going down in flames. Prof. Yohai Kaspi and Dr. Eli Galanti of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences led one of the studies on Cassini's final mission: revealing the depth of Saturn's jet streams ‒ the strongest measured in the Solar System, with winds of up to 1,500 km (about 932 mi) per hour ‒ and found them to reach a depth of around 9,000 km (about 5,600 mi). Teaming up with research partners in Italy and the U.S., their study also helped reveal the age of the planet's iconic rings. The findings of these studies were published in Science.
TAGS: Astrophysics, Physics
A Scientific First: A Supernova Explosion is Observed in Real-Time
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/news-releases/a-scientific-first-a-supernova-explosion-is-observed-in-real-time/
May 22, 2008... REHOVOT, ISRAEL—Thursday, May 22, 2008—An ordinary observation with NASA's Swift research satellite recently led to the first real-time sighting of a star in the process of exploding. Astronomers have surveyed thousands of these supernova explosions in the past, but their observations have always begun some time after the main event is underway. The information gained from catching a supernova at the very onset is already being hailed as the "Rosetta Stone" of star explosion, and it is helping scientists to form a detailed picture of the processes involved.
TAGS: Astrophysics, Space
Two Planets Which Might Support Life Found Orbiting a Red Sun
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/two-planets-which-might-support-life-found-orbiting-a-red-sun/
Jun 19, 2019... The planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System, is seen in an undated artist's impression. (photo credit: REUTERS)
Twelve light years away from Earth is Teegarden's Star, a star roughly twice as big and twice as old as our Sun.
Now, an international team of scientists, which included Israeli scientists from the Weizmann Institute, say that this red sun has two planets nearby which could possibly contain life. Claiming that both planets "are potentially habitable," Dr. Ignasi Ribas from the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia told the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics that eventually we will see "if they are actually habitable and, perhaps, even inhabited," National Geographic reported.
A Day in the Life of Saturn, Revealed
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/a-day-in-the-life-of-saturn-revealed/
Mar 26, 2015... Saturn. (photo credit:TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY)
Israeli scientists have solved the longtime puzzle of when the sun rises on the planet Saturn.
Planetary sciences experts at Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot published a paper on the matter in the prestigious journal Nature on Wednesday night.
To the layman, it would seem that the length of the day on a planet can be obtained from a clear and unmistakable physical measurement. But it turns out that for Saturn, the situation is different. Even today, in 2015, scientists lack the certain and final information on how long a day is.
TAGS: Astrophysics, Space, Mathematics
NASA to Help Israeli Firm Launch First Moon Mission
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/in-the-news/nasa-to-help-israeli-firm-launch-first-moon-mission/
Oct 03, 2018... Opher Doron, general manager of Israel Aerospace Industries' space division, speaks beside the SpaceIL lunar module, in a special "clean room" where the space craft is being developed, during a press tour of their facility near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 10, 2018. (AP Photo/Ilan Ben Zion)
The Israel Space Agency said Wednesday that NASA had signed a deal with the SpaceIL group to help it launch a unmanned rocket at the moon in the coming months, in Israel's first-ever moonshot.
TAGS: Astrophysics, Space, Technology
Searching for Dark Matter
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/searching-for-dark-matter/
Sep 23, 2014... Dr. Ran Budnik
Dark matter is one of the most striking unsolved mysteries in physics today. Scientists have yet to detect it directly, but almost all measurements of the motion of galaxies, the evolution of the universe, and the behavior of matter in the known universe have led scientists to believe that there must be a tremendous amount of mass in the universe that is not made of conventional matter.
Seeing the Light: Experimental Astrophysics and the Hunt for Supernovae
https://www.weizmann-usa.org/news-media/feature-stories/seeing-the-light-experimental-astrophysics-and-the-hunt-for-supernovae/
Mar 01, 2008... It's open season on supernovae, as the Weizmann Institute of Science brings experimental astrophysicist and supernova hunter Dr. Avishay Gal-Yam to campus. Dr. Gal-Yam joins the Department of Astrophysics, which is expanding to include experimental astrophysics alongside its existing theoretical astrophysics research.
What is the difference between the experimental and theoretical fields? To understand, it helps to know that astrophysics examines how the universe—and the stars, galaxies, and other astronomical objects within it—works. Theoretical astrophysicists rely on the basic laws of nature to develop a physical understanding of the diverse phenomena that exist in the universe. Experimental astrophysicists collect information about the precise nature of these phenomena, providing their theoretical colleagues with the data to construct and test their models, as well as motivation for additional theoretical investigations to explain new and surprising observational results.