Giant Alien Planet

Astronomers have detected a hidden planet by examining the orbits of the known worlds in the star system known as Kepler-139. The newfound alien planet, Kepler-139f, is a gigantic world roughly twice the mass of Neptune and 35 times the mass of Earth. It takes 355 days to orbit its star. Despite its giant size, Kepler-139f had evaded detection until now.

NASA’s Kepler space telescope discovered nearly 3,000 planets in the nine years it operated. But it relied on worlds transiting, that is, passing between their star and Earth. When they do that, the resulting dimming of the star allowed astronomers to identify planets and calculate their size. But Kepler couldn’t see planets traveling above or below the wedge of space between it and the star, so any outliers remained unseen.

But when the hidden world is part of a multiplanet system, astronomers could maybe find it despite its inclined orbit. And Kepler-139 has three rocky transiting super-Earths; later a fourth gas giant was discovered. Gaps between their orbits suggested that other worlds might be present. Precise measurements of the orbits allowed the astronomers to infer the existence of at least one more planet. It seems the problem is not exactly in finding non-transiting planets, but in finding situations where they can deduce where the non-transiting planet is located.

After Kepler initially identified a world, observations from the ground often followed. By using a planet’s radial velocity, astronomers could measure the amount the planet tugged on its star, which allowed them to determine the planet’s mass. Radial velocity measurements could also reveal new worlds, which is what happened with the outermost gas giant, Kepler-139e.

Each planet is pulled not only by its star but also by other planets in the system, even if that planet cannot be seen from Earth. These pulls can affect how swiftly a planet transits, which creates ‘transit timing variations’. Such variations can reveal worlds that don’t cross the star.

Scientists looked for gaps in known systems. Then they used both radial velocity and transit timing variation measurements to hunt for a missing planet. While the radial velocity observations did not conclusively point toward another planet, when combined with the transit timing variations they revealed a fifth planet in the system, Kepler-139f, which was between the outermost super-Earth and the gas giant.

The discovery of Kepler-139f helped answer a question about Kepler-139c, the outermost super-Earth. Originally, the reports for 139c showed an unusually large density for a sub-Neptune-sized planet. Because the scientists didn’t yet know about 139f, they had attributed some of its pull on its star to 139c. But the new data suggests a more typical density for 139c while leaving the densities for 139d and 139b unchanged. These revisions provide indirect evidence for 139f.

It is possible that there may be other hidden worlds around Kepler-139. For instance, there is a prominent gap between 139b and 139c.

Both Kepler and NASA’s more recent exoplanet hunting mission (the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) were sensitive to planets orbiting close to their star. Inner worlds made more transits, which allowed scientists to confirm the planet’s existence. But transiting planets with wider orbits made fewer passes in front of their sun, so they were harder to observe and confirm.

In addition, the radial velocity method tends to find larger planets, because massive worlds tug stronger on their stars. Also, the closer a planet is to its sun, the stronger its tug. That’s why so many of the discovered exoplanets were Jupiter-sized worlds whose orbit only took a few days.

All of these factors mean it’s harder to discover smaller planets that are farther away, especially if they don’t transit their star. But by combining various methods, astronomers can find smaller worlds orbiting farther from their star.

And soon it will be harder for those planets to hide. In 2026, the European Space Agency will launch the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) mission. It will conduct its own survey of transiting planets, as well as revisit Kepler’s field. By providing additional transit times for planets detected by Kepler more than a decade earlier, PLATO will enable the discovery of more misaligned worlds.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/astronomers-discover-giant-alien-planet-35-times-more-massive-than-earth-hiding-in-a-known-star-system/ar-AA1IE595?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=feaec06498da45f787cb55fd4cd8125e&ei=15

FOUND: the Universe’s Missing Matter

There are two kinds of matter in the universe. There is dark matter, which is invisible to us. It is known only because of its gravitational effects on a grand scale. And there is ordinary matter, which we are all familiar with; it makes up gases, dust, stars, planets, and earthly things like cake batter and camping gear.

Scientists have estimated that ordinary matter makes up only 15% of all matter. But they have struggled to document where all of the matter is located, since only about half of it is accounted for. Now, with the help of powerful bursts of radio waves emanating from 69 locations in the cosmos, researchers have found the “missing” matter.

It was primarily hiding as thinly distributed gas spread out in the vast expanses between galaxies and was detected because of the effect the matter has on the radio waves traveling through space. This tenuous gas is the intergalactic medium, a sort of fog between galaxies.

Scientists had previously determined the total amount of ordinary matter using a calculation involving light observed that was left over from the Big Bang. But they could not actually find half of this matter.

Researchers found that a smaller slice of the missing matter resides in the halos of diffuse material surrounding galaxies, including our Milky Way.

Ordinary matter is composed of baryons, which are the subatomic particles needed by protons and neutrons to build atoms. Dark matter, on the other hand, is a mysterious substance. Scientists do not know what new particle or substance makes up dark matter.

How did so much ordinary matter end up in the middle of nowhere? Vast amounts of gas are ejected from galaxies when massive stars explode as supernovas of when supermassive black holes inside galaxies “burp,” expelling material after consuming stars or gas.

If the universe were a more boring place, or the laws of physics were different, ordinary matter would all fall into galaxies, cool down and form stars until every proton and neutron were a part of a star.

Thus, these violent processes throw ordinary matter across immense distances and consign it to the cosmic wilderness. This gas is not in its usual state; it is in the form of plasma, with its electrons and protons separated.

The missing ordinary matter was detected and measured by using phenomena called fast radio bursts, or FRBs. These are powerful pulses of radio waves emanating from faraway points in the universe. Their exact cause remains mysterious, but a leading hypothesis is that they are produced by highly magnetized neutron stars, which are compact stellar embers left over after a massive star dies in a supernova explosion.

As light in the radio wave frequencies travels from the source to Earth, it becomes dispersed into different wavelengths, just like a prism turns sunlight into a rainbow. The degree of dispersion depends on how much matter is in the light’s path. This provides the mechanism for pinpointing and measuring matter where it otherwise would remain unfound.

Scientists used radio waves traveling from 69 FRBs. Of these, 39 were discovered using a network of 110 telescopes located at Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop, California, which is called the Deep Synoptic Array. The remaining 30 FRBs were discovered using other telescopes.

The FRBs were located at distances up to 9.1 billion light-years from Earth, which is the farthest of these on record. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year (5.9 trillion miles/9.5 trillion km).

With all the ordinary matter accounted for, researchers were able to determine its distribution. About 76% resides in intergalactic space, approximately 15% in galaxy halos, with the remaining 9% concentrated within galaxies as stars or gas.

Now they can move on to other mysteries regarding ordinary matter. And beyond that, they still don’t know the nature of dark matter.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/astronomers-locate-universe-s-missing-matter/ar-AA1GPaMp?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=c615a1d5e8e948159c93cc31030732f0&ei=41

Mythical or Real? Part 5

 This week, we visit an ancient trading center and a Biblical pool.

8. Steinkjer, Norway -

Norse sagas tell of an ancient trading center that was, briefly, the largest in the Viking world, but no one knew where or if it had actually existed. In 2013, archaeologists found some intriguing evidence during an archaeological investigation conducted near Steinkjer. Researchers uncovered two separate boat graves associated with a wide variety of high-status trade goods, such as a silver button, a set of balance scales, imported jewelry, and amber beads.

These findings add to the area’s rich archaeological record, which includes twenty-two examples of a special trade-related Viking-age sword. Taken together, these artifacts suggest that Steinkjer was the major trading city described in the Norse sagas, and that its center was likely where its modern church stands today.

 

9. Pool of Siloam, Jerusalem – 700 BCE

In the New Testament, Jesus returns sight to a blind man at the Pool of Siloam in Jerusalem. Christians searched for the site for centuries before repair work on a water pipe south of the Temple Mount in 2004 revealed two ancient stone steps.

During the archaeological investigation that followed this find, researchers discovered a 2,000-year-old, 225-foot-long trapezoidal pool, which they believe to be the site where Jesus conducted his miracle. In addition to being an important part of early Jerusalem’s water system, the architectural feature was also likely a ritual bath used by visiting pilgrims.

Careful extraction and restoration work over the past twenty years have preserved the ancient Pool of Siloam. It was opened to the public as part of the City of David National Park.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/tripideas/nine-mythical-places-archaeologists-think-may-have-actually-existed/ar-AA1pZfYc?ocid=mailsignout&pc=U591&cvid=81421580eeb740c9bf0eb1832cd5508b&ei=66

Mythical or Real? Part 4

This week, we look into a famous temple and an infamous labyrinth.

6. Ain Dara (Solomon’s Temple), Syria – 1000 BCE

Armed conflict destroyed Ain Dara in northwestern Syria in 2018. In the 1980s, some archaeologists had identified it as the 3,000-year-old temple mentioned as Solomon’s Temple in the Bible. The ancient site shared more features with the temple described in the Book of Kings than any site uncovered before or since. It included walls carved in reliefs of lions and cherubs, a courtyard paved in flagstones, a monumental staircase guarded by sphinxes, and a multistory hallway. Even its location—on a raised platform overlooking a city—echoes the temple’s depiction in the Bible.

Although the bombing and plundering of the site prevents archaeologists from finding any more evidence of its history, some of its most important artifacts can be seen at the National Museum of Aleppo.

 

7. Kastelli (Minotaur’s Labyrinth), Greece – 2000 BCE

While building a new airport on the island of Crete, workers uncovered something unexpected. With a central circular building surrounded by eight stone rings intersected by walls, the site resembled the style of tomb constructed by the Minoan civilization around 2000 to 1700 BCE. But to anyone familiar with Greek mythology, it also looked like the Minotaur’s labyrinth.

The Minotaur was a ferocious creature with the head of a bull and the body of a man who was trapped in a maze built by the Greek architect Daedalus. Every seven years, Athens sacrificed seven young men and seven young women to the monster until Theseus, a prince of the city, volunteered to kill the creature. Marking his route with a ball of thread, Theseus made his way through the labyrinth, murdered the beast, rescued the not-yet-dead victims, then followed the thread back to safety.

Although archaeologists are still studying Kastelli, its architectural similarities to the mythical maze, combined with evidence of ceremonial offerings and communal feasting that was found at the site, suggest that it was part of the story’s origin.

Kastelli is not open to the public, but Knossos, the ancient palace that was previously believed to be the site of the Minotaur’s labyrinth, is.