Black holes are hungry

Scientists have discovered that giant black holes have been devouring extremely large quantities of matter.  Supermassive black holes grow to be millions and billions times the mass of the sun by consuming tremendous amounts of gas and dust.  The ones that consume a particularly extreme amount are known as quasars.  However, some scientists might have underestimated these quasars’ capabilities in the past.  "Even for famously prodigious consumers of material, these huge black holes appear to be dining at enormous rates, at least five to ten times faster than typical quasars," said Bin Luo of Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, the leader of the study.  Luo studied 51 quasars with weak emissions from particular atoms at ultraviolet wavelengths.  In his study, Luo discovered that around 65 percent of the 51 quasars were much weaker in x-rays than expected.  This information could help figure out how supermassive black holes attract matter.  "This picture fits with our data," said co-author Jianfeng Wu of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "If a quasar is embedded in a thick donut-shaped structure of gas and dust, the donut will absorb much of the radiation produced closer to the black hole and prevent it from striking gas located further out, resulting in weaker ultraviolet atomic emission and X-ray emission."  The equilibrium between the gravitational pull and the radiation emitted would change.  "More radiation would be emitted in a direction perpendicular to the thick disk, rather than along the disk, allowing material to fall in at higher rates”.  The fast consumption of matter could clarify how their were such massive black holes in the early universe.     

Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150503091810.htm

How do planets form?

Recently, an inexplicable exoplanet has been discovered orbiting a small star 500 light years away, forcing us to question how planets really form.  "We have found a small star, with a giant planet the size of Jupiter, orbiting very closely," said researcher George Zhou from the Research School of Astrophysics and Astronomy at The Australian National University.  “It must have formed further out and migrated in, but our theories can't explain how this happened."  This exoplanet is one of the thousands of exoplanets discovered in the past 20 years.  The host star most recent exoplanet, known as HATS-6, is an m-dwarf.  M-dwarf stars are hard to examine since their cool temperature makes them darker.  The scientists were able to tell that the star had an exoplanet revolving around due to the change in its brightness when the planet circulated in front of the star.  “The planet has a similar mass to Saturn, but its radius is similar to Jupiter, so it's quite a puffed up planet. Because its host star is so cool it's not heating the planet up so much, it's very different from the planets we have observed so far," Mr Zhou said.  "The atmosphere of this planet will be an interesting target for future study.”

Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150501095951.htm

The Colors of Mercury

NASA has created a device that enables them to learn more about Mercury by investigating its surface and its exosphere, which is its uppermost region of atmosphere.  They sent the Mercury Atmosphere and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) along with the Messenger spacecraft to investigate the minerals and Mercury’s surface in general.  For the past 4 years, the device has been gathering surface measurements and now, the characteristics of Mercury’s wide surface as well as the smaller landscapes can be examined.  The measurments “have been overlain on the monochrome mosiac from the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), an instrument with wide- and narrow-angle cameras to map the rugged landforms and spectral variations on Mercury's surface”.  Although the Messenger spacecraft is the first of its kind to orbit Mercury, it has proven to be very successful.  Since it first entered orbit around the planet, the craft has captured over 250,000 images along with the data it has gathered utilizing its variety of devices.   

Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150428165120.htm

Information isn't gone forever once it enters a black hole

Although many scientists believe that information vanishes when it enters a black hole, researchers at the University of Buffalo have recently contradicted this idea by stating that the information isn’t erased at all.  “According to our work, information isn't lost once it enters a black hole," says Dejan Stojkovic, PhD, associate professor of physics at the University at Buffalo. "It doesn't just disappear."  In his new study, "Radiation from a Collapsing Object is Manifestly Unitary," Stojkovic discusses how particles produced by black holes interact with each other, showing us different features about the information that has entered the black hole.  Until this point, it was difficult to prove that information isn’t erased when it enters a black hole.  Now, Stojkovic has included calculations his the study to support the idea that the information is conserved.  In this study, the exchanges between the particles were examined and the scientists determined that you can potentially retrieve the information once it enters the black hole. 

Citation: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150402132708.htm

Asteroid Juno spotted traveling through space

Extraordinary new images of Juno, the third asteroid ever discovered, have been created with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), displaying the rotation of the asteroid as it travels through space.   "In contrast to optical telescopes, which capture the reflected light from the Sun, the new ALMA images show the actual millimeter-wavelength light emitted by the asteroid," said Todd Hunter, an astronomer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Charlottesville, Va.  Since the ALMA is able to view the thermal glow of Juno, we will now be capable of learning about more specific features of the asteroid.  10 images have been created depicting Juno’s rotation from approximately 295 million kilometers from earth.  In November of 2018, the asteroid will be much closer to the earth than it has been in previous created images, so the resolution and quality of the images will only get better during that time.  "This new observation clearly demonstrates that ALMA will be a very powerful tool for studying asteroids," said NRAO astronomer Arielle Moullet. "At its highest resolution, ALMA is powerful enough to resolve the surface of many asteroids."

Citation:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150407095348.htm