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zslepian
Seeing Galaxy formation before reionization: baryon-dark matter relative velocity helps!
Relative velocity in the early Universe between regular matter (baryons) and dark matter enhances an otherwise hard-to-detect signal and makes it likely we can look back even farther into the past.
Planck and the Hubble constant: how fast are things flying apart, and what does it mean?
A quick discussion of Planck’s new value of the Hubble constant, as part of our series on the Planck results.
Ram pressure stripping: a classic paper
A classic 1972 paper by Jim Gunn and J. Richard Gott, III describing the growth of clusters from primordial density perturbations and, most famously, the importance of ram pressure stripping in explaining the observed lack of spiral galaxies towards the center of clusters.
Super-simple supernovae: a simple model for Type Ia light curves
A simple analytical model for the light curves of Type Ia supernovae.
Keep calm and carry on: planet formation in close binaries
Roman Rafikov finds that planets can form around close binaries out of proto-planets much smaller than previously thought, helping alleviate a long-standing problem in planet formation. The gravity of the dusty disk the proto-planets are in damps their speeds down enough to permit bodies that meet to accrete!
The Hole-y Grail: Looking into (near) the singularity
Title: Jet Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87 Authors: Sheperd S. Doeleman, Vincent L. Fish, David E. Schenck, Christopher Beaudoin, Ray Blundell, Geoffrey C. Bower, Avery E. Broderick, Richard Chamberlin, Robert Freund, Per Friberg, Mark A. Gurwell, Paul T. P. Ho, Mareki Honma, Makoto Inoue, Thomas P. Krichbaum, James Lamb, Abraham [...]
Feeling diplomatic? Become an astronomy ambassador!
Scientists have, historically, not mixed well with politics. Lavoisier, the man who discovered (debatably) hydrogen and oxygen, was executed in the Terror during the French Revolution for being a tax collector. Liebniz, co-inventor (debatably!) of calculus, spent many weeks on the roads of Europe traveling in diplomatic service for German princes, only for the great [...]
Looking for insight into Mars? NASA can help
Astrophysics is a discipline where much of the time we are studying light emitted billions of years ago from stars that may now be long-dead. So it is always exciting to be able to announce breaking news. Today NASA approved a $425 million mission called InSight, designed to explore Mars’ crust and interior. The mission [...]
Is God right-handed? Spiral galaxies’ rotation and isotropy
Title: Handedness asymmetry of spiral galaxies with z<0.3 shows cosmic parity violation and a dipole axis Authors: L. Shamir First Author’s Institution: Lawrence Technological University A cherished principle of cosmology is isotropy—that things look the same whatever direction you look. The cosmic microwave background, radiation left over from 300,000 years after the Big Bang, is [...]
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