Interesting Astronomy & Astrophysics news from the week of 10/25/2020

Next week’s night sky:

On November 5, the Southern Taurids Meteor Shower peaks just after midnight! Stay up that late and you will be rewarded with almost 10 colorful meteors an hour! On Saturday, November 7, the moon will not rise for a few hours after sunset. This is a great time for some casual stargazing, as the moon will not ruin the view.

Water on the Moon

NASA’s flying Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) has detected water molecules on the surface of the moon! Researchers found traces of the life-sustaining substance in one of the largest lunar craters visible from Earth, the Clavius Crater. This ancient impact site receives a significant portion of sunlight compared to other areas of the Moon. This suggests that lunar water might not be limited to shadowy sites at the Moon’s poles. 

The key to how water could survive such a harsh lunar environment might be related to another harsh reality on the Moon: micrometeorites. These small pieces of space rock rain down on the lunar surface, potentially forming beadlike glass structures upon impact. 

It’s these structures that the researchers think could trap and protect water molecules from sunlight. Alternatively, grains of lunar soil could have caught the water and protected it from the sunlight. . Astronomers may even be able to mine this water.

However, it’s important to note that the amount of surface uncovered is still rather small. Researchers say that the amount to 100 times less than is found in the Sahara Desert. So, researchers aren’t quite sure what these findings mean for supporting a sustainable human presence on the Moon. 

To learn more, go here: Molecular water detected on the sunlit Moon by SOFIA

Early Galaxy Formation

Researchers expected galaxies forming in the early universe to have less dust and the heavy elements made from supernova blasts. That process takes time, and most infant galaxies could be expected to experience rapid growth spurts in their development.

But in a survey of 118 young galaxies dating back to within 1 billion to 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang, researchers were surprised to find many more mature galaxies than expected.

Using the ALMA telescopes,  researchers detected star formation hidden by thick dust, finding “Hubble-dark galaxies” that even the space telescope cannot see.

Researchers want to compare the dusty galaxies to others at the same distance and figure out if there might be something special about their environments.

Dangerous red dwarfs

Small red dwarf stars, the most common in the Milky Way, may be more inhospitable than previously thought. Researchers have found that periodic blasts of high-energy ultraviolet and X-ray emissions that could erode the atmospheres or otherwise roast any nearby planets.

Using NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers focused on Barnard’s Star. The star features one known planet, a hellish world about three times as massive as Earth that orbits at roughly the same distance as Mercury from the Sun.

The new observations of Barnard’s Star show that about 25 percent of the time, the star unleashes powerful flares. These sort of outbursts, if typical of all red dwarfs, would pose a threat to the atmospheres of close-orbiting planets.

Researchers say that this type of activity is unusual for a star of this type, and will certainly affect if an exoplanet is considered habitable.

Do you have any cool astronomy research news from this week? Share it in the comments below!