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Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 30.09.2020

Stellar explosion in Earth’s proximity
Discovery of iron-60 and manganese-53 substantiates supernova 2.5 million years ago When the brightness of the star Betelgeuse dropped dramatically a few months ago, some observers suspected an impending supernova - a stellar explosion that could also cause damage on Earth. While Betelgeuse has returned to normal, physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have found evidence of a supernova that exploded near the Earth around 2.5 million years ago.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 09.09.2020

Revealing the secrets of high-energy cosmic particles
P-ONE: Initiative for a new, large-scale Neutrino Observatory in the Pacific Ocean The "IceCube" neutrino observatory deep in the ice of the South Pole has already brought spectacular new insights into cosmic incidents of extremely high energies. In order to investigate the cosmic origins of elementary particles with even higher energies, Prof. Elisa Resconi from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now started an international initiative to build a neutrino telescope several cubic kilometers in size in the northeastern Pacific.

Astronomy / Space Science - 10.08.2020

Dwarf Planet Ceres: Evidence of Active Cryovolcanism
Until a million years ago, dwarf planet Ceres, the largest body in the asteroid belt, was the scene of cryovolcanic eruptions: below the Occator Crater, subsurface brine pushed upward; the water evaporated, leaving behind bright, salty deposits. This process is probably still ongoing. A team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany comes to these conclusions after evaluating high-resolution camera images of Ceres from the final phase of NASA's Dawn mission.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 28.07.2020

How stony-iron meteorites form
SAPHiR multi-anvil press solves mystery of the solar system Meteorites give us insight into the early development of the solar system. Using the SAPHiR instrument at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), a scientific team has for the first time simulated the formation of a class of stony-iron meteorites, so-called pallasites, on a purely experimental basis.

Astronomy / Space Science - 21.07.2020

Largest stony meteorite of Germany found: Researchers at the University of Münster confirm
Even in science, chance sometimes produces more thrilling discoveries that the most ambitious plans. In 1989, a homeowner was digging a cable trench on his property in Blaubeuren, in the German region of Swabia, when his spade hit a rock measuring 28 by 25 by 20 centimetres. Upon lifting it half a metre to the surface, he found that it was remarkably heavy.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 25.06.2020

Super-Earths discovered orbiting nearby red dwarf
International researchers led by University of Göttingen find multiple planet system orbiting Gliese 887 The nearest exoplanets to us provide the best opportunities for detailed study, including searching for evidence of life outside the Solar System. In research led by the University of Göttingen, the RedDots team of astronomers has detected a system of super-Earth planets orbiting the nearby star Gliese 887, the brightest red dwarf star in the sky.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 17.06.2020

Surprising Signal in the XENON1T Dark Matter Experiment
Scientists from the international XENON collaboration under participation of the University of Münster announced today that data from their XENON1T, the world's most sensitive dark matter experiment, show a surprising excess of events. The scientists do not claim to have found dark matter. Instead, they say to have observed an unexpected rate of events, the source of which is not yet fully understood.

Astronomy / Space Science - Chemistry - 16.06.2020

If there is life out there, can we detect it?
Scientists at Freie Universität Berlin publish two experimental studies in journal Astrobiology No 101/2020 from Jun 16, 2020 Instruments on-board future space missions are capable of detecting amino acids, fatty acids, and peptides, and even identify ongoing biological processes on ocean moons in our Solar System.

Astronomy / Space Science - 15.05.2020

Like Thunder Without Lightning
Mergers between black holes and neutron stars in dense star clusters are quite unlike those that form in isolated regions where stars are few. Their associated features could be crucial to the study of gravitational waves and their source. Dr Manuel Arca Sedda of the Institute for Astronomical Computing at Heidelberg University came to this conclusion in a study that used computer simulations.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 17.02.2020

First research results on the "spectacular meteorite fall" of Flensburg
Planetologists from Münster University show that the meteorite contains minerals that formed under the presence of water on small planetesimals in the early history of our solar system. A fireball in the sky, accompanied by a bang, amazed hundreds of eyewitnesses in northern Germany in mid-September last year.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 08.01.2020

New Hubble constant measurement using cosmic lenses
New measurement of the universe's expansion rate strengthens call for new physics Using cosmic lenses an international team of astrophysicists determined the universe's expansion rate, completely independent of any previous method. The researchers' result further strengthens a troubling discrepancy between the expansion rate calculated from measurements of the local universe and the rate as predicted from background radiation of the early universe.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 27.09.2019

More accurate than expected
Despite their extremely small mass, neutrinos play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. After evaluation of the first measurement results in the Karlsruhe Tritium Neutrino Experiment (KATRIN), it is now clear: The previously unknown mass of the neutrinos must be less than 1 electron volt. This result is more accurate than previous measurements and raises hopes of discovering new neutrino properties.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 16.09.2019

New results for the mass of neutrinos
Apart from photons, the fundamental quanta of light, neutrinos are the most abundant elementary particles in the universe. As they possess a small non-zero mass, these “light-weights of the universe? play a key role in cosmology and particle physics. The most precise scale for neutrinos in the world is the international experiment "KATRIN" at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, in which scientists of the University of Münster are also involved.

Physics - Astronomy / Space Science - 05.09.2019

Closing in on elusive particles
In the quest to prove that matter can be produced without antimatter, the GERDA experiment at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory is looking for signs of neutrinoless double beta decay. The experiment has the greatest sensitivity worldwide for detecting the decay in question. To further improve the chances of success, a follow-up project, LEGEND, uses an even more refined decay experiment.

Astronomy / Space Science - 18.07.2019

"It was the greatest adventure of the 1960s"
Professor Schreiber, how big an impression did the Moon landing make on you when you were young? It wasn't just the Moon landing as such. What amazed me most were the steps that led up to it. It was a huge technical challenge. For example the question: How do I accelerate a rocket to reach the Moon? Back then, the technical possibilities were still quite limited.

Astronomy / Space Science - Physics - 17.07.2019

Hunting for "ghost particles": Neutrino observatory at the South Pole will be extended
For almost ten years, scientists from all over the world have been using the large-scale experiment "IceCube" to search for neutrinos in the permanent ice of the South Pole. Neutrinos are the smallest particles that reach Earth as cosmic rays. Now the participating researchers, among them Prof. Alexander Kappes from the University of Münster, are pleased about a huge upgrade of the laboratory, which should contribute to measuring the properties of neutrinos much more accurately than before.

Astronomy / Space Science - Environment - 12.07.2019

New Findings on Early Bombardment of the Earth and Moon and Their Development
Freie Universität Researchers Contribute to International Study Published in Nature No 215/2019 from Jul 12, 2019 How did the Earth evolve from a fireball about 4.5 billion years ago to a habitable world? The key to this question lies in the early history of our planet, when the bombardment with cosmic bodies slowly declined.

Astronomy / Space Science - Earth Sciences - 11.06.2019

Dwarf planet Ceres: a new form of volcanism found
An international research team solves the mystery of how the mountain Ahuna Mons on Ceres was probably formed / Study in "Nature Geoscience" The scientists could hardly believe their eyes when they first saw this formation on the images acquired by their Framing Camera on board the Dawn space probe: a symmetrical mountain over 4000 metres tall and with steep, smooth sides rising over the crater-strewn surface of.

Astronomy / Space Science - 20.05.2019

Formation of the moon brought water to earth
The Earth is unique in our solar system: It is the only terrestrial planet with a large amount of water and a relatively large moon, which stabilizes the Earth's axis. Both were essential for Earth to develop life. Planetologists at the University of Münster have now been able to show, for the first time, that water came to Earth with the formation of the Moon some 4.4 billion years ago.

Environment - Astronomy / Space Science - 14.05.2019

EUMETSAT, Japanese space agency to cooperate on greenhouse gas monitoring
EUMETSAT and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) today signed an agreement which will result in the agencies working closely together to monitor greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Mr Kazuo Tachi, on behalf of the Direc tor General of JAXA's Space Technology Directorate 1 Ryoichi Imai, and EUMETSAT Director-General Alain Ratier signed the agreement at a ceremony at EUMETSAT's Darmstadt headquarters today.