Release

New simulations carried out in part on the ATERUI II supercomputer in Japan have found that the reason ions exist at higher temperatures than electrons in space plasma is because they are better able to absorb energy from compressive turbulent fluctuations in the plasma. These finding have important implications for understanding observations of various astronomical objects such as the images of the accretion disk and shadow of the M87 supermassive black hole captured by the Event Horizon Telescope.

Researchers from Kobe University and the National Institute of Technology, Oshima College discovered that ancient tectonic troughs on Ganymede are concentrically distributed across almost the entire surface. This global distribution indicates that these troughs may actually be part of one giant crater covering Ganymede. Based on a computer simulation, it is speculated that this giant crater could have resulted from the impact of an asteroid with a radius of 150 km. If so, this is the largest impact structure identified in the Solar System so far.

Computer simulations conducted by astrophysicists at Tohoku University in Japan, have revealed a new theory for the origin of supermassive black holes. In this theory, the precursors of supermassive black holes grow by swallowing up not only interstellar gas, but also smaller stars as well. This helps to explain the large number of supermassive black holes observed today.

Numerical simulations showed that the temperature gradient in the disk of gas around a young gas giant planet could play a critical role in the development of a satellite system dominated by a single large moon, similar to Titan around Saturn. Researchers found that dust in the circumplanetary disk can create a “safety zone,” which keeps the moon from falling into the planet as the system evolves.

The origin of how the Universe created its voids and filaments can now be studied within seconds after researchers developed an artificial intelligence tool called Dark Emulator.

"I have seen the dark universe yawning,
Where the black planets roll without aim;
Where they roll in their horror unheeding, without knowledge or lustre or name."
--H.P. Lovecraft, Nemesis

Theoreticians in two different fields defied the common knowledge that planets orbit stars like the Sun. They proposed the possibility of thousands of planets around a supermassive black hole.

Capturing an image of a black hole has been one of the greatest missions of modern astronomy. The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an interferometer array of eight radio telescopes spread across the Earth, designed to obtain images of a black hole. The first results of the EHT observations in 2017 were released today.

Scientists have used simulations to show that the photons emitted by long gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful electromagnetic phenomena in the Universe, originate at the visible surface of high-speed jets emitted by exploding stars.

A team of experts in nuclear fusion and astronomy has computed high-accuracy atomic data for analyzing light from a kilonova, a birth place of heavy elements. They found that their new data set could predict kilonovae brightness with much better accuracy than before. This aids our understanding of the cosmic origins of heavy elements.

Based on computer simulations by "ATERUI" and new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers have found that the rings of gas surrounding active supermassive black holes are not simple donut shapes. Instead gas expelled from the center interacts with infalling gas to create a dynamic circulation pattern, similar to a water fountain in a city park. (November 30, 2018 press release)