Cosmic Rays from the Telescope Array
An array of cosmic ray telescopes in western Utah is determining the origin of the most energetic particles in the Universe.
The Ring Nebula in 3D
Recent images from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal a much more complex structure of the Ring Nebula than previously thought. The team presents a 3-D model of lobes and rings, with multiple ionization fronts and knots.
The Great Disco Ball in the Sky
Frame Dragging is a phenomenon predicted by General Relativity, but its effects have been difficult to measure. A small, round satellite called LARES aims to change that.
How to Confirm a (Tiny) Exoplanet Candidate
Barclay et al. find a “candidate” planet smaller than Mercury in the Kepler data…will it pass their tests and be confirmed as the smallest known planet?
Gas and Dust in a Protoplanetary Disk: Turning 2D Data into 3D Models
There’s a lot going on in the HD 142527 protoplanetary disk — accretion, gap opening, and a horseshoe-shaped dust ring. The authors of this paper used ALMA to take a closer look at the gas and dust in this busy disk.
Probing the Ionization Rate of Molecular Hydrogen Near the Galactic Center
In this article, the authors measure the cosmic ray ionization rate within a few parsecs of the galactic center. They find that the cosmic ray ionization rate is an order of magnitude larger than the galactic standard and also that the molecular gas near the galactic center is much warmer than the typical galactic molecular cloud.