Danny Roylance

I love theoretical and applied physics, especially high energy astrophysics, also photography and making things

[AAS Press Office @AAS_Press]

West Virginia University: Researcher Finds Surprising Phenomenon in NASA Data from Mars https://t.co/esTEYWEewY

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@MattGialich @leahy30xy Have you considered liquid heat pipes channeling to pieltizer chips?

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@AJamesMcCarthy How about Moon rising slowly behind the mountain range with a big beautiful pine trees that are creating a patterns across it as the moon rises against it. I found that accidentally through eyepiece one time, and it was breathtaking to watch the movement.

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@Rainmaker1973 I'd like to see the friction losses

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ExploreCosmos_ Wouldn't there be a large population of Gama-ray bursts to coincide with this epoch if these are fast evolving massive stars?

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ModdedQuad Do you know the progress of using it to treat PTSD type of issues?

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@elonmusk @SERobinsonJr @xai Then maybe we could get an answer to the last question

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ExploreCosmos_ @keckobservatory The sun has been and continuing to be very active this cycle and I wonder if this has been accurately included for the sun ward tail. It seems that it would induce a serious pressure against that.

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@winwithwinsome I do research in Gamma ray burst light curves and in another AI system I got flags for scientific words, like pulse, burst, emissions, and the like. Will your new interactions allow words based on the context?

[Erika  @ExploreCosmos_]

Astronomers have made a serendipitous discovery that helps explain a long-standing mystery about why silicon, despite being abundant in the universe, is hard to detect in the visible atmospheres of Jupiter, Saturn, and similar gas giants.

Around five years ago, a citizen scientist spotted a peculiar brown dwarf, an object called “The Accident” because of its odd mix of traits, using data from the NEOWISE mission. Brown dwarfs are gaseous bodies too massive to be planets but too small to sustain hydrogen fusion like stars.

Using the #JWST, researchers probed The Accident’s atmosphere and found silane (SiH₄), a molecule combining silicon and hydrogen, something expected theoretically but not previously observed in Jupiter, Saturn or other brown dwarfs.

The presence of silane there suggests that in many gas giants, silicon is there, but hidden. In environments rich in oxygen, silicon tends to bind with oxygen to form oxides, like quartz, and fall into deeper atmospheric layers, beneath water or ammonia clouds, making them essentially undetectable from above.

What makes The Accident different is its age: it likely formed 10 to 12 billion years ago, when the universe still had much less oxygen. That scarcity meant much of its silicon would bind with hydrogen instead, creating silane rather than oxides, so it remains visible in the upper atmosphere.

This accidental discovery thus offers a new piece of the puzzle: silicon might be present in gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn, but locked away in forms or depths we can’t easily observe, depending on oxygen availability and atmospheric chemistry.

👉 https://t.co/xitIcVgPzw

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ExploreCosmos_ @ehtelescope That's fantastic! Thanks for sharing.

[Erika  @ExploreCosmos_]

New observations from the @ehtelescope have revealed that the polarization signature, how light is aligned by magnetic fields, around the supermassive black hole M87* is not static, but changes in surprising ways over time.

Between 2017 and 2021, the magnetic field, as traced by polarization, was seen spiraling one way in 2017, then becoming more balanced in 2018, before reversing direction in 2021.

Despite these flips, the ring that marks the black hole’s shadow has remained stable, matching expectations from Einstein’s theory. Moreover, improved sensitivity, thanks to added telescopes and better calibration, has allowed detection of faint emission at the base of M87’s relativistic jet, bridging the region between the jet structure and the event-horizon ring.

All together, these findings indicate a much more dynamic, turbulent magnetic and plasma environment close to the black hole than previously thought, challenging existing theoretical models.

👉 https://t.co/MhbExm8Uw8

[Erika  @ExploreCosmos_]

Astronomers using @almaobs have for the first time clearly mapped magnetic fields in the protoplanetary disk around TW Hydrae, a nearby young star, revealing that magnetism may be a critical hidden force in how planets form.

By measuring subtle broadening in light from CN molecules, an effect known as the Zeeman Effect, they detected magnetic fields of about 10 milligauss threading regions some 60–120 astronomical units from the star.

These “invisible threads” appear to shift where gaps in the disk appear, suggesting that magnetic fields help sculpt the rings and voids in the disk that precede planet formation.

The findings offer the strongest evidence yet that magnetic fields are not just present, but actively influential in shaping the very architecture of emerging planetary systems, and help us understand how our own solar system may have taken shape.

👉 https://t.co/sXptqcRqKk

[ALMA Observatory📡 @almaobs]

📡Discovery of Protoplanetary Disk Caught in Explosion Driven by Stellar Jet. 🤯
This finding suggests that the disk, which serves as a seedbed for planets, is exposed to a harsher environment than previously thought.

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ExploreCosmos_ Don't forget Neutron star mergers as method of forming blackholes. Excellent post!

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@eelcodoornbos I recorded the local, ground geomagnetic feild before and during a eclipse and there was dramatic drop in Feild strength 30 minutes before and during eclipse.
Saved data if interested.

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@NASAJPL Awesome helicopter!
I say this calls for a rescue/repair mission! As a vetran helicopter mechanic, I'll volunteer.

[Liz Landau @lizlandau]

What happens when a bright burst of light from the distant universe comes toward us? My latest for @NASA:

https://t.co/CIZ93EPYCq

[Danny Roylance @RoylanceDanny]

@ZosoWL @chandraxray It's probably the dust and gas colliding mainly.

[Erika  @ExploreCosmos_]

Astronomers using the @ESO (VLT) and New Technology Telescope (NTT) have discovered a direct connection between the explosive demise of massive stars and the formation of black holes or neutron stars. 1/

👉 https://t.co/NvqDNwoOU8