Saturday, December 28, 2013

‘Tis the Season to Spot Jupiter: A Guide to the 2014 Opposition

‘Tis the Season to Spot Jupiter: A Guide to the 2014 Opposition:
Jupiter+moon imaged recently by Paul Cotton (@paultbird66) of Lincolnshire, England. Used with permission.
Jupiter+moon imaged recently by Paul Cotton (@paultbird66) of Lincolnshire, England. Used with permission.
Lovers of planetary action rejoice; the king of the planets is returning to the evening skies.
One of the very first notable astronomical events for 2014 occurs on January 5th, when the planet Jupiter reaches opposition. You can already catch site of Jove in late December, rising in the east about an hour after local sunset. And while Venus will be dropping faster than the ball in Times Square on New Year’s Eve to the west in early 2014, Jupiter will begin to dominate the evening planetary action.(...)
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Happy Holidays from Cassini!

Happy Holidays from Cassini!:
Saturn makes a beautifully striped ornament in this natural-color image, showing its north polar hexagon and central vortex (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Saturn makes a beautifully-striped ornament in this natural-color image, showing its north polar hexagon jet stream and central vortex (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)
Cassini couldn’t make it to the mall this year to do any Christmas shopping but that’s ok: we’re all getting something even better in our stockings than anything store-bought! To celebrate the holiday season the Cassini team has shared some truly incredible images of Saturn and some of its many moons for the world to “ooh” and “ahh” over. So stoke the fire, pour yourself a glass of egg nog, sit back and marvel at some sights from a wintry wonderland 900 million miles away…
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Prebiotic Molecules May Form in Exoplanet Atmospheres

Prebiotic Molecules May Form in Exoplanet Atmospheres:
Image Credit: NASA/JPL
An artist’s conception of an exoplanet with a thick atmosphere. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
Before there was life as we know it, there were molecules. And after many seemingly unlikely steps these molecules underwent a magnificent transition: they became complex systems with the capability to reproduce, pass along information and drive chemical reactions. But the host of steps leading up to this transition has remained one of science’s beloved mysteries.
New research suggests that the building blocks of life — prebiotic molecules — may form in the atmospheres of planets, where the dust provides a safe platform to form on and various reactions with the surrounding plasma provide enough energy necessary to create life.
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Astrophoto: Comet Love, Joy and Santa

Astrophoto: Comet Love, Joy and Santa:
Close up of Comet Lovejoy ... wait a minute that's no comet! Image and photoshop credit: Lee Jennings.
Close up of Comet Lovejoy … wait a minute that’s no comet! Image and photoshop credit: Lee Jennings.
A closeup of Comet Lovejoy reveals a little known secret! Thanks to astrophotographer Lee Jennings for his holiday handiwork!
Best wishes to all for a wonderful holiday season from all of us at Universe Today!
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Astrophoto: Nova Centauri 2013 Turns Pink

Astrophoto: Nova Centauri 2013 Turns Pink:
This image taken on Dec. 28, 2013 from New Zealand shows Nova Centauri 2013, a bright naked eye nova in the Southern constellation of Centaurus. The nova appears pink because of emissions from ionised hydrogen. Credit and copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen.
This image taken on Dec. 28, 2013 from New Zealand shows Nova Centauri 2013, a bright naked eye nova in the Southern constellation of Centaurus. The nova appears pink because of emissions from ionised hydrogen. Credit and copyright: Rolf Wahl Olsen.
A recent naked-eye visible nova that erupted the first week in December 2013 is still showing its stuff, and this new “hot off the press” image from Rolf Wahl Olsen in New Zealand reveals its unusual color. “I managed to grab a close-up of Nova Centauri 2013 with my new 12.5″ f/4 scope,” Rolf said via email to Universe Today. “Curiously, I have only so far seen wide field images of this nova, and none that actually show it’s very unusual strong pink colour.”
Nova Centauri 2013 (in the Southern constellation of Centaurus) was discovered by John Seach from Australia on December 2, 2013, and it was visible at about magnitude 5.5. It subsequently brightened to reach a peak at magnitude 3.3.
Rolf’s image was taken today (it’s already Dec. 28, 2013 in New Zealand!) when the nova had faded to around magnitude 4.5.
Why is it pink?
(...)
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Venus Slip-Slides Away – Catch it While You Can!

Venus Slip-Slides Away – Catch it While You Can!:
Venus reflected in the Pacific Ocean late this fall seen from the island of Maui, Hawaii. The planet is now quickly dropping toward the sun. Credit: Bob King
Venus Slip-Slides Away – Catch it While You Can!
Venus reflected in the Pacific Ocean late this fall from the island of Maui in Hawaii. The planet is now quickly dropping toward the sun. Credit: Bob King
I put down down the snow shovel to give my back a rest yesterday evening and couldn’t believe what I saw. Or didn’t see. Where was Venus? (...)
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Sunday, December 22, 2013

Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes

Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes:
Earth eclipses the sun from Chang'e 3's location in the Sea of Rains on April 15, 2014. At the same time, we'll see a total lunar eclipse from the ground. Stellarium
Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes
Earth eclipses the sun from Chang’e 3′s location in the Sea of Rains on April 15, 2014. At the same time, we’ll see a total lunar eclipse from the ground. Stellarium
Last night I used my telescope to eye-hike the volcanic plains of the Sea of Rains (Mare Imbrium) where the Yutu rover and lander sit beneath a blistering sun. With no atmosphere to speak of and days that last two weeks, noontime temperatures can hit 250 degrees Fahrenheit (122 C) . That’s hot enough that mission control at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center has decided to draw the shades and give the rover a nap from science duties until December 23 when things cool down a bit.
While studying the subtle gray hues of the Imbrium lava flows I got to wondering what the sky might look like if I could don a spacesuit and visit the landing site “where the skies are not cloudy all day” (to quote a famous song). (...)
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Friday, December 20, 2013

When Science is Art: a New Map of Wind Patterns

When Science is Art: a New Map of Wind Patterns:
When Science is Art: a New Map of Wind Patterns
When Science is Art: a New Map of Wind Patterns
A screen capture of the Earth’s surface wind patterns over the Atlantic Ocean.
A new map of wind patterns is so visually stunning it’s easily mistaken for art.
This interactive visualization of wind patterns — modeled from the U.S. National Weather Service’s Global Forecast System database — provides nearly current weather conditions on the global scale. And it’s beautiful.
(...)
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Is the Solar System Really a Vortex?

Is the Solar System Really a Vortex?:
Is this really how the Solar System works? (Rendering by DjSadhu)
Is the Solar System Really a Vortex?
Is this really how the Solar System works? (Rendering by DjSadhu)
The short answer? No. Not in the way that a popular animated gif insinuates, at least.
If you’re even a casual space fan you may have seen a viral gif animation showing our solar system traveling through space, the motions of the planets tracing corkscrew “vortex” paths around a line-driving Sun. While it’s definitely intriguing to watch (in that mesmerizingly-repetitive gif fashion) and rendered with a talented flair for design, there’s are two fundamental problems with it. One: it’s not entirely correct, scientifically, and two: its creator’s intention is to illustrate a decidedly un-scientific point of view about the Solar System and the Universe as a whole.
For the long answer, I now offer up the stage to astrophysicist Rhys Taylor, who recently posted an in-depth article describing why the planets do yet move… just not like that.
(...)
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Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes

Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes:
Earth eclipses the sun from Chang'e 3's location in the Sea of Rains on April 15, 2014. At the same time, we'll see a total lunar eclipse from the ground. Stellarium
Visions of Earth through the Yutu Rover’s Eyes
Earth eclipses the sun from Chang’e 3′s location in the Sea of Rains on April 15, 2014. At the same time, we’ll see a total lunar eclipse from the ground. Stellarium
Last night I used my telescope to eye-hike the volcanic plains of the Sea of Rains (Mare Imbrium) where the Yutu rover and lander sit beneath a blistering sun. With no atmosphere to speak of and days that last two weeks, noontime temperatures can hit 250 degrees Fahrenheit (122 C) . That’s hot enough that mission control at the Beijing Aerospace Command and Control Center has decided to draw the shades and give the rover a nap from science duties until December 23 when things cool down a bit.
While studying the subtle gray hues of the Imbrium lava flows I got to wondering what the sky might look like if I could don a spacesuit and visit the landing site “where the skies are not cloudy all day” (to quote a famous song). (...)
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Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Lithopanspermia: How Earth May Have Seeded Life on Other Solar System Bodies

Lithopanspermia: How Earth May Have Seeded Life on Other Solar System Bodies:
Image Credit: NASA
Lithopanspermia: How Earth May Have Seeded Life on Other Solar System Bodies
An artist’s conception of a rock fragment colliding with Europa’s icy surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL
With the recent discovery that Europa has geysers, and therefore definitive proof of a liquid ocean, there’s a lot of talk about the possibility of life in the outer solar system.
According to a new study, there is a high probably that life spread from Earth to other planets and moons during the period of the late heavy bombardment — an era about 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago — when untold numbers of asteroids and comets pummeled the Earth. Rock fragments from the Earth would have been ejected after a large meteoroid impact, and may have carried the basic ingredients for life to other solar system bodies.
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How Scientists Confirmed The Mass Of An Invisible Exoplanet

How Scientists Confirmed The Mass Of An Invisible Exoplanet:
Artist's conception of Kepler-88. Credit: Center for Astrophysics of the University of Porto
How Scientists Confirmed The Mass Of An Invisible Exoplanet
Artist’s conception of Kepler-88. Credit: Center for Astrophysics of the University of Porto
Planets are so very tiny next to stars outside of the solar system, making it really hard to spot exoplanets unless they transit across the face of their star (or if they are very, very big). Often, astronomers can only infer the existence of planets by their effect on the host star or other stars.
That’s especially true of the curious case of Kepler-88 c, which researchers using the Kepler space telescope said was a possible planet due to its effects on the orbit of Kepler-88 b, a planet that goes across the host of its host star. European astronomers just confirmed the Kepler data using the SOPHIE spectrograph  at France’s Haute-Provence Observatory.
It’s the first time scientists have successfully used a technique to independently verify a planet’s mass based on what was found from the transit timing variation, or how a planet’s orbit varies from what is expected as it goes across the face of its sun. That means TTV can likely be used as a strong method on its own, advocates say.
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Comet Tourism Flight Trades ISON For Lovejoy

Comet Tourism Flight Trades ISON For Lovejoy:
Bright, brighter, brightest: these views of Comet ISON after its closest approach to the sun Nov. 28 show that a small part of the nucleus may have survived the comet's close encounter with the sun. Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/GSFC
Comet Tourism Flight Trades ISON For Lovejoy
Although Comet ISON briefly brightened after its closest encounter with the sun in November 2013, these days astronomers are classifying it more as an ex-comet of dust and debris. Images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Credit: ESA/NASA/SOHO/GSFC
When Comet ISON entered its zombie stage a few weeks ago, the effects were not only felt in the astronomical community, but also on astronomy tourists as the comet faded from the view of amateurs.
German company ”Eclipse-Reisen” (Eclipse Travel) had to make a last-minute change in plans for a Dec. 8 flight for some 75 tourists planning to observe ISON, which morphed into a travelling dust blob after skimming too close to the sun in late November. Fortunately, Comet Lovejoy is still a strong astronomical object, providing an alternate thing to watch.
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Watch a Star Blast Out Waves of Light

Watch a Star Blast Out Waves of Light:
Hubble image of variable star RS Puppis (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team)
Watch a Star Blast Out Waves of Light
Hubble image of variable star RS Puppis (NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team)
6,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Puppis an enormous star pulses with light and energy, going through the first throes of its death spasms as it depletes its last reserves of hydrogen necessary to maintain a stable, steady radiance. This star, a Cepheid variable named RS Puppis, brightens and dims over a 40-day-long cycle, and newly-released observations with Hubble reveal not only the star but also the echoes of its bright surges as they reflect off the dusty nebula surrounding it.
The image above shows RS Puppis shining brilliantly at the center of its dusty coccoon. (Click the image for a super high-res version.) But wait, there’s more: a video has been made of the variable star’s outbursts as well, and it’s simply mesmerizing. Check it out below:
(...)
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Saturday, December 14, 2013

Why Our Universe is Not a Hologram

Why Our Universe is Not a Hologram:
Superstrings may exist in 11 dimensions at once. Via National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli.
Why Our Universe is Not a Hologram
Superstrings may exist in 11 dimensions at once. Via National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by Brian Koberlein on G+, and it is republished here with the author’s permission.
There’s a web post from the Nature website going around entitled “Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram.” It’s an interesting concept, but suffice it to say, the universe is not a hologram, certainly not in the way people think of holograms. So what is this “holographic universe” thing?
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When Is a Star Not a Star?

When Is a Star Not a Star?:
Artist's impression of a Y-dwarf, the coldest known type of brown dwarf star. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
When Is a Star Not a Star?
Artist’s impression of a brown dwarf. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
When it’s a brown dwarf — but where do we draw the line?
Often called “failed stars,” brown dwarfs are curious cosmic creatures. They’re kind of like swollen, super-dense Jupiters, containing huge amounts of matter yet not quite enough to begin fusing hydrogen in their cores. Still, there has to be some sort of specific tipping point, and astronomers (being the scientists that they are) would like to know: when does a brown dwarf stop and a star begin?
Researchers from Georgia State University now have the answer.
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China’s Chang’e-3 Moon Rover Descends to Lower Orbit Sets Up Historic Soft Landing

China’s Chang’e-3 Moon Rover Descends to Lower Orbit Sets Up Historic Soft Landing:
China's lunar probe Chang'e-3 is expected to land on Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) of the moon in mid-December 2013. Credit: Xinhua
China’s Chang’e-3 Moon Rover Descends to Lower Orbit Sets Up Historic Soft Landing
China’s lunar probe Chang’e-3 is expected to land on Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows) of the moon in mid-December 2013. Credit: Xinhua
All systems appear to be “GO” for the world’s first attempt to soft land a space probe on the Moon in nearly four decades.
China’s maiden moon landing probe – Chang’e 3 – is slated to attempt the history making landing this weekend in the Bay of Rainbows, or Sinus Iridum region.
Chinese space engineers at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) paved the way for the historic touchdown by successfully commanding Chang’e-3 to descend from (...)
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Friday, December 13, 2013

Ready For Your Closeup, Ceres? NASA Spacecraft Gets Closer To Dwarf Planet

Ready For Your Closeup, Ceres? NASA Spacecraft Gets Closer To Dwarf Planet:
Artist's conception of the Dawn spacecraft approaching the asteroid Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Ready For Your Closeup, Ceres? NASA Spacecraft Gets Closer To Dwarf Planet
Artist’s conception of the Dawn spacecraft approaching the dwarf planet Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The next few years will be banner ones for learning about dwarf planets. While the high-profile New Horizons spacecraft zooms towards a Pluto date in 2015, the Dawn spacecraft is making a more stealthy (in terms of media coverage) run at Ceres, which is the smallest and closest dwarf planet to Earth.
The Dawn spacecraft, as readers likely recall, made its first port of call at fellow protoplanet Vesta. What excites scientists this time around is the likelihood of water ice on Ceres’ surface. Vesta, by contrast, was very dry.
Here’s Dawn’s agenda once it gets to Ceres in April 2015:
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Speedy Particles Whip At Nearly The Speed Of Light In Earth’s Radiation Belts

Speedy Particles Whip At Nearly The Speed Of Light In Earth’s Radiation Belts:
Artist's conception of NASA’s Van Allen Probes twin spacecraft. Credit: Andy Kale, University of Alberta
Speedy Particles Whip At Nearly The Speed Of Light In Earth’s Radiation Belts
Artist’s conception of NASA’s Van Allen Probes twin spacecraft. Credit: Andy Kale, University of Alberta
The radiation-heavy Van Allen Belts around Earth contain particles that can move at almost the speed of light across vast distances, new research reveals. The information came from an instrument flown aboard the Van Allen Probes twin NASA spacecraft, which launched in 2012.
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Galaxy May Host ‘Death Spiral’ Of Two Black Holes Becoming One

Galaxy May Host ‘Death Spiral’ Of Two Black Holes Becoming One:
Artist's conception of two black holes gravitationally bound to each other. Credit: NASA
Galaxy May Host ‘Death Spiral’ Of Two Black Holes Becoming One
Artist’s conception of two black holes gravitationally bound to each other. Credit: NASA
Two black holes in the middle of a galaxy are gravitationally bound to each other and may be starting to merge, according to a new study.
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How Do We Learn About An Alien Planet’s Size And Atmosphere?

How Do We Learn About An Alien Planet’s Size And Atmosphere?:

The fun and challenge of exoplanet science is the planets are so far away and so tiny. Figuring out what they look like isn’t as simple as just pointing a telescope and observing. This new video from NASA explains how astronomers use the parent star to figure out the planet’s size, mass, atmosphere and more.
Alien planets are generally detected through blocking the light of their parent star (from the vantage point of Earth) or through their gravitational effects that cause the star to slightly “wobble” during each orbit. These methods can reveal the mass and size of the planet. As for the atmosphere, that takes a bit more work.
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Saturn’s Mysterious Hexagon Behaves Like Earth’s Ozone Hole

Saturn’s Mysterious Hexagon Behaves Like Earth’s Ozone Hole:
At Saturn, NASA's Cassini spacecraft snapped pictures showing a high-resolution view of a hexagon-shaped jet stream. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton
Saturn’s Mysterious Hexagon Behaves Like Earth’s Ozone Hole
At Saturn, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft snapped pictures showing a high-resolution view of a hexagon-shaped jet stream. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Hampton
A raging hurricane is creating a “suck zone” at Saturn’s north pole. The handy Cassini spacecraft recently captured a bunch of images of the six-sided jet stream surrounding the storm, which mission managers then put together into an awesome animation showing the wind currents shifting. (You can see the animation below the jump.)
The feature is pretty in a picture, but NASA has a special interest because there is nothing else like this anywhere in our solar system, the agency stated. The immense storm stretches 20,000 miles (30,000 kilometers) across with winds whipping in its jet stream at 200 miles per hour (322 kilometers per hour). And despite all the turbulence, the storm is staying put at the north pole for reasons scientists are still trying to understand.
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Could Particle ‘Spooky Action’ Define The Nature Of Gravity?

Could Particle ‘Spooky Action’ Define The Nature Of Gravity?:
Diagram of a wormhole, or theoretical shortcut path between two locations in the universe. Credit: Wikipedia
Could Particle ‘Spooky Action’ Define The Nature Of Gravity?
Diagram of a wormhole, or theoretical shortcut path between two locations in the universe. Credit: Wikipedia
Quantum physics is a fascinating yet complicated subject to understand, and one of the things that freaks out physics students every is the concept of entanglement. That occurs when physicists attempt to measure the state of a particle and that affects the state of another particle instantly. (In reality, the particles are in multiple states — spinning in multiple directions, for example — and can only be said to be in one state or another when they are measured.)
“Spooky action at a distance” is how Albert Einstein reportedly referred to it. Here’s the new bit about this: Julian Sonner, a senior postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, led research showing that when two of these quarks are created, string theory creates a wormhole linking the quarks.
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Is Anything Left of ISON? Spacecraft Continue to Monitor Comet’s Remains

Is Anything Left of ISON? Spacecraft Continue to Monitor Comet’s Remains:
This images from the STEREO A spacecraft shows Comet ISON (upper right) still visible on Dec. 3, 2013. Credit: NASA.
Astrophoto: Star Trails Over Kitt Peak
This images from the STEREO A spacecraft shows Comet ISON (upper right) still visible on Dec. 3, 2013. Credit: NASA.
Could Comet ISON possibly still be alive? The latest high-resolution images available from the STEREO spacecraft are still showing some remains of the comet, although each day seems to show less and less activity. “If anything of ISON’s nucleus is left, it’s an inactive husk of a nucleus now,” Karl Battams from the Comet ISON Observing Campaign told Universe Today. “The comet remnant is fading fast in the STEREO data.”
Carey Lisse, also from CIOC was a bit more hopeful. In a web posting yesterday (Dec. 4) he said, “At this time, scientists are not sure how much of the comet survived intact. We may be seeing emission from rubble and debris in the comet’s trail, along its orbit, or we may be seeing the resumption of cometary activity from a sizable nucleus-sized chunk of ISON.”
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