Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Gisele Bundchen´s Dog called "Lua"

Gisele Bundchen´s Dog called "Lua"
Gisele Bundchen´s Dog called "Lua"


Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Monster Sunspot Erupts with an X-Class Flare

Monster Sunspot Erupts with an X-Class Flare:
Image of the X1.2 class solar flare from the Sun on January 7, 2014, as seen from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Monster Sunspot Erupts with an X-Class Flare
Image of the X1.2 class solar flare from the Sun on January 7, 2014, as seen from the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Solar astronomers have been keeping an eye on giant sunspot AR1944, and as it turned towards Earth today, the sunspot erupted with a powerful X1.2-class flare. NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said the flare sparked a “strong radio blackout” today, and they have issued a 24 hour “moderate” magnetic storm watch indicating a coronal mass ejection (CME) associated with the flare may be heading towards Earth. A CME is a fast moving cloud of charged particles which can interact with Earth’s atmosphere to cause aurora, so observers in northern and southern latitudes should be on the lookout for aurora, possibly through January 10.
Here’s a video of the flare from the Solar Dynamics Observatory:

(...)
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Gravitational Lens Seen for the First Time in Gamma Rays

Gravitational Lens Seen for the First Time in Gamma Rays:
An artist's concept of an active galactic nuclei hosting an energetic blazar. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
Gravitational Lens Seen for the First Time in Gamma Rays
An artist’s concept of an active galactic nuclei hosting an energetic blazar. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.
An exciting new discovery was unveiled early this week at the 223rd  meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held in Washington D.C., when astronomers announced that a gravitational lens was detected for the first time at gamma-ray wavelengths.(...)
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Dark Sky Regulations Bring Zodiacal Light to Rhode Island Observatory

Dark Sky Regulations Bring Zodiacal Light to Rhode Island Observatory:
Zodiacal light over Charleston, RI (Scott MacNeill, Frosty Drew Observatory)
Dark Sky Regulations Bring Zodiacal Light to Rhode Island Observatory
Zodiacal light over Charlestown, RI (Scott MacNeill, Frosty Drew Observatory)
The result of sunlight reflected off fine particles of dust aligned along the plane of the Solar System, zodiacal light appears as a diffuse, hazy band of light stretching upwards from the horizon after sunset or before sunrise. Most people have never seen zodiacal light because it’s very dim, and thus an extremely dark sky is required. But thanks to recent dark sky regulations that were passed in the coastal Rhode Island town of Charlestown, this elusive astronomical phenomenon has become visible — to the delight of one local observatory.
(...)
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Chandra’s Verdict on the Demise of a Star: “Death by Black Hole”

Chandra’s Verdict on the Demise of a Star: “Death by Black Hole”:
A composite x-ray and optical image of a dwarf galaxy showing the x-ray transcient in the inset. Credit-CFHT (Optical), NASA/CXC/University of Alabama/GSCF/UMD/W.P. Maksym, D.Donato et al.
Chandra’s Verdict on the Demise of a Star: “Death by Black Hole”
A composite x-ray and optical image of a dwarf galaxy showing the x-ray transcient in the inset. Credit-CFHT (Optical), NASA/CXC/University of Alabama/GSCF/UMD/W.P. Maksym, D.Donato et al.
This week, astronomers announced the detection of a rare event, a star being torn to shreds by a massive black hole in the heart of a distant dwarf galaxy. The evidence was presented Wednesday January 8th at the ongoing 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society being held this week in Washington D.C.(...)
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Stunning Astrophotos: Kilimanjaro at Night

Stunning Astrophotos: Kilimanjaro at Night:
 At the break of dawn the southern Milky Way is photographed over Mount Kilimanjaro, as seen from Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The Great Carina Nebula is the red cloud at top. Constellation Crux or the Southern Cross appear on the left. On the Earth is the second peak of Mount Kilimanjaro reaching 5149 m high, known as Mawenzi (meaning the moon in Swahili). Credit and copyright:  Babak A. Tafreshi.
Stunning Astrophotos:  Kilimanjaro at Night
At the break of dawn the southern Milky Way is photographed over Mount Kilimanjaro, as seen from Amboseli National Park, Kenya. The Great Carina Nebula is the red cloud at top. Constellation Crux or the Southern Cross appear on the left. On the Earth is the second peak of Mount Kilimanjaro reaching 5149 m high, known as Mawenzi (meaning the moon in Swahili). Credit and copyright: Babak A. Tafreshi.
You might find yourself humming Paul Simon’s “Under African Skies” after seeing these stunning images! The World At Night photographer Babak Tafreshi has just returned from a trip to Kenya and has amassed a gorgeous collection of astrophotography showing Mt. Kilimanjaro by night (and some in the day, as well). Below you can see a panoramic view of Kilimanjaro in the moonlight, flanked by giraffes (can you spot the zebra, too?) and starry skies.
“His path was marked by the stars in the southern hemisphere

and he walked his days under African skies…”
(...)
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Millisecond Pulsar Discovered In Rare Triple Star System

Millisecond Pulsar Discovered In Rare Triple Star System:
An illustration of the triple millisecond pulsar with its two white dwarf companions. According to the new model, this remarkable system has survived three phases of mass transfer and a supernova explosion, and yet it remained dynamically stable. Credit: Thomas Tauris
Millisecond Pulsar Discovered In Rare Triple Star System
An illustration of the triple millisecond pulsar with its two white dwarf companions. According to the new model, this remarkable system has survived three phases of mass transfer and a supernova explosion, and yet it remained dynamically stable. Credit: Thomas Tauris
If you’re looking for something truly unique, then check out the cosmic menage aux trois ferreted out by a team of international astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). This unusual group located in the constellation of Taurus includes a pulsar which is orbited by a pair of white dwarf stars. It’s the first time researchers have identified a triple star system containing a pulsar and the team has already employed the clock-like precision of the pulsar’s beat to observe the effects of gravitational interactions. (...)
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New Findings from NuSTAR: A New X-Ray View of the “Hand of God” and More

New Findings from NuSTAR: A New X-Ray View of the “Hand of God” and More:
The "Hand ( or Fist?) of God" nebula enshrouding pulsar PSR B1509-58. The upper red cloud structure is RCW 89. The image is a composite of Chandra observations (red & green), while NuSTAR observations are denoted in blue.
New Findings from NuSTAR: A New X-Ray View of the “Hand of God” and More
The “Hand ( or Fist?) of God” nebula enshrouding pulsar PSR B1509-58. The upper red cloud structure is RCW 89. The image is a composite of Chandra observations (red & green), while NuSTAR observations are denoted in blue. (Credit-NASA/JPL-Caltech/McGill).
One star player in this week’s findings out of the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society has been the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array Mission, also known as NuSTAR. On Thursday, researchers revealed some exciting new results and images from the mission, as well as what we can expect from NuSTAR down the road.(...)
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What a Star About to Go Supernova Looks Like

What a Star About to Go Supernova Looks Like:
SBW2007 is a nebula with a giant star at its center. All indications are that it could explode as a supernova at any time. Credit: ESA/NASA, acknowledgement: Nick Rose.
What a Star About to Go Supernova Looks Like
SBW2007 is a nebula with a giant star at its center. All indications are that it could explode as a supernova at any time. Credit: ESA/NASA, acknowledgement: Nick Rose.
No, this isn’t a distant view of the London Eye. This nebula with a giant star at its center is known as SBW2007. Astronomers say it has striking similarities to a star that went supernova back in 1987, SN 1987A. Both stars had identical rings of the same size and age, which were travelling at similar speeds; both were located in similar HII regions; and they had the same brightness. We didn’t have the telescopic firepower back before 1987 like we do now, so we don’t have a closeup view of how SN 1987A looked before it exploded, but astonomers think SBW2007 is a snapshot of SN1987a’s appearance, pre-supernova.

(...)
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One Percent Measure of the Universe

One Percent Measure of the Universe:
An artist's concept of the latest, highly accurate measurement of the Universe from BOSS. The spheres show the current size of the
One Percent Measure of the Universe
An artist’s concept of the latest, highly accurate measurement of the Universe from BOSS. The spheres show the current size of the “baryon acoustic oscillations” (BAOs) from the early universe, which have helped to set the distribution of galaxies that we see in the universe today. Galaxies have a slight tendency to align along the edges of the spheres — the alignment has been greatly exaggerated in this illustration. BAOs can be used as a “standard ruler” (white line) to measure the distances to all the galaxies in the universe. Credit: Zosia Rostomian, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
When it comes to accuracy, everyone strives for a hundred percent, but measuring cosmic distances leaves a bit more to chance. Just days ago, researchers from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) announced to the world that they have been able to measure the distance to galaxies located more than six billion light-years away to a confidence level of just one percent. If this announcement doesn’t seem exciting, then think on what it means to other studies. These new measurements give a parameter to the properties of the ubiquitous “dark energy” – the source of universal expansion.(...)
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A Distant View of Janus, One of Saturn’s ‘Dancing Moons’

A Distant View of Janus, One of Saturn’s ‘Dancing Moons’:
Cassini narrow-angle camera image of Janus from Sept. 10, 2013 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
A Distant View of Janus, One of Saturn’s ‘Dancing Moons’
Cassini narrow-angle camera image of Janus from Sept. 10, 2013 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)
One of 62 moons discovered thus far orbiting giant Saturn, Janus is a 111-mile (179-km) -wide pockmarked potato composed of rock and ice rubble. The image above shows Janus as seen with Cassini’s narrow-angle camera on September 10, 2013, from a distance of 621,000 miles (1 million km), floating against the blackness of space.
Despite its apparent isolation in the image above, though, Janus isn’t alone. It shares its orbit around Saturn with its slightly smaller sister moon Epimetheus, and they regularly catch up to each other — and even switch places.
(...)
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Astrophotos: Venus at Inferior Conjunction

Astrophotos: Venus at Inferior Conjunction:
Venus, 0.4% illuminated and 5.1 degrees from the Sun, as seen about 12:30 pm local noon time from Sri Damansara, Malaysia (0430 UTC) on January 11, 2014, about about 8 hours before inferior conjunction. Credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad.
Astrophotos: Venus at Inferior Conjunction
Venus, 0.4% illuminated and 5.1 degrees from the Sun, as seen about 12:30 pm local noon time from Sri Damansara, Malaysia (0430 UTC) on January 11, 2014, about about 8 hours before inferior conjunction. Credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad.
Venus has now gone from being that bright “star” you’ve been seeing around sunset to later this month being the bright object you’ll see in the early morning pre-dawn hours. On January 11, Venus passed between Earth and the Sun in what is known as inferior conjunction. We challenged our readers to try and capture it, and Shahrin Ahmad in Malaysia nabbed the tiny crescent Venus about 8 hours before inferior conjunction, in what he said was a personal record!
Around 12.30 p.m. local noon time, there was a brief of good seeing, and probably the best one so far,” Shahrin said via email. “Suits nicely as a parting shot. After that the sky seeing began to deteriorate really fast!”
Venus was about 0.4% illuminated and 5.1 deg from the Sun.
“Even without stretching the original photo, we can easily see how the crescent has reach beyond 180 degrees around Venus,” he said. “This is the closest Venus I’ve ever imaged.”
But take a look at this: here’s a great series of images from Paul Stewart:
Venus inferior conjunction timeline from January 7 to 13th, missing January 12 due to clouds. Credit and copyright: Paul Stewart.
Venus inferior conjunction timeline from January 7 to 13th, missing January 12 due to clouds. Credit and copyright: Paul Stewart.
Wow! That’s exceptional work!
Thanks to both Shah and Paul for sharing their photos!
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.

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See the Smallest Full Moon of 2014: It’s the “Return of the Mini-Moon”

See the Smallest Full Moon of 2014: It’s the “Return of the Mini-Moon”:
Last month's rising
See the Smallest Full Moon of 2014: It’s the “Return of the Mini-Moon”
Last month’s rising “Mini-Moon” of 2013. (Photo by Author)
 Last month, (and last year) we wrote about the visually smallest Full Moon of 2013. Now, in a followup  act, our natural satellite gives  us an even more dramatic lesson in celestial mechanics with an encore performance just one lunation later with the smallest Full Moon of 2014.(...)
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A Possible Meteor Shower from Comet ISON?

A Possible Meteor Shower from Comet ISON?:
A Possible Meteor Shower from Comet ISON?
A Possible Meteor Shower from Comet ISON?
The position of the radiant for any possible “ISON-ids” in Leo. Note the nearby Full Moon the night of January 15th. Credit-Stellarium
Hey, remember Comet C/2012 S1 ISON? Who can forget the roller-coaster ride that the touted “Comet of the Century” took us on last year. Well, ISON could have one more trick up its cosmic sleeve –although it’s a big maybe — in the form of a meteor shower or (more likely) a brief uptick in meteor activity this week.(...)
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Astrophoto: Space Station on the Moon

Astrophoto: Space Station on the Moon:
The International Space Station captured as it passed in front of the Moon on Dec. 6, 2013, as seen from Puerto Rico. Credit and copyright: Juan Gonzalez-Alicea.
Astrophoto: Space Station on the Moon
The International Space Station captured as it passed in front of the Moon on Dec. 6, 2013, as seen from Puerto Rico. Credit and copyright: Juan Gonzalez-Alicea.
We can dream, right? … because we’d all love to have a space station on the Moon. But this is as close as we’re going to get for the foreseeable future, anyway. Juan Gonzalez-Alicea of Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe in Puerto Rico captured this great image of the International Space Station crossing in front of the crescent Moon on Dec. 6, 2013. He used a Canon 7D with a 300 mm lens, and actually got a fair amount of detail. A shot like this is tricky, as from our vantage point on Earth, it takes just a half second for the International Space Station to fly across the face of the Moon, so timing is everything!

(...)
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Tuesday, January 7, 2014

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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Videopalooza Shows Off Phobos Flyby As Moon’s Mysterious Origins Probed

Videopalooza Shows Off Phobos Flyby As Moon’s Mysterious Origins Probed:

There won’t be any pictures out of this close encounter, but the animations sure were spectacular. The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft skimmed just 45 kilometers (28 miles) above the surface of the moon Phobos yesterday, and through these various videos you can see what the orbital trajectory would have looked like during that time.
(...)
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Jan. 16 May Be Last Best Chance to Search for Comet ISON’s Remains

Jan. 16 May Be Last Best Chance to Search for Comet ISON’s Remains:
Comet ISON revolves around the sun in steeply inclined orbit. Earth will pass through the plane of that orbit on Jan. 16. As we look
Jan. 16 May Be Last Best Chance to Search for Comet ISON’s Remains
Comet ISON revolves around the sun in steeply inclined orbit. Earth will pass through the plane of that orbit on Jan. 16. As we look “up” toward the comet, ISON’s dust stacks up along our line of sight and could appear temporarily brighter. Credit: solarsystemscope.com with annotations and additions by Bob King
Is there any hope of detecting what’s left of Comet ISON after the sun proved too much for its delicate constitution? German amateur astronomer Uwe Pilz suggest there remains a possibility that a photographic search might turn up a vestige of the comet when Earth crosses its orbital plane on January 16, 2014. (...)
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See the Youngest Moon of Your Life Tonight

See the Youngest Moon of Your Life Tonight:
A 24-hour-old moon photographed from Duluth, Minn. U.S. on in May 2010. Credit: Bob King
See the Youngest Moon of Your Life Tonight
A 24-hour-old moon photographed from Duluth, Minn. U.S. on in May 2010. Credit: Bob King
The new year starts out with a bang, offering the chance to spy an exceptionally thin crescent moon shortly after sunset. Here’s how to find it. (...)
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Astrophoto: Crecent Venus in the Afternoon

Astrophoto: Crecent Venus in the Afternoon:
Venus visible in the daytime skies over Kuala Lumpur on January 2, 2014. Credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad.
Astrophoto: Crecent Venus in the Afternoon
Venus visible in the daytime skies over Kuala Lumpur on January 2, 2014. Credit and copyright: Shahrin Ahmad.
In December, we challenged our readers to try and see Venus during the daytime. Sharin Ahmad from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia started off the new year by nailing this awesome picture of a crescent Venus at just after noon local time today (January 2, 2014). “The usual cloudy Kuala Lumpur sky is teasing me again, giving me crystal blue sky today!” Shahrin said via email.
Based on SkySafari, Venus was about 3.2% illuminated, and about 15 degrees from Sun.
Equipment: Skywatcher 120ED (F=1800mm), and IMG132E video camera.
Here are other recent images of Venus submitted to our Flickr page by our readers:
(...)
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Comets Prospects for 2014: A Look Into the Crystal Ball

Comets Prospects for 2014: A Look Into the Crystal Ball:
Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy starts the new year as the brightest comet in the sky at around magnitude 6. In this photo taken on Dec. 31, two tails are visible. The longer one is the ion or gas tail; the broader fan is the dust tail. Credit: Damian Peach
Comets Prospects for 2014: A Look Into the Crystal Ball
Comet C/2013 R1 Lovejoy starts the new year as the brightest comet in the sky at around magnitude 6. In this photo taken on Dec. 31, two tails are visible. The longer one is the ion or gas tail; the broader pale yellow fan is the dust tail. Credit: Damian Peach
As 2014 opens, most of the half dozen comets traversing the morning and evening sky are faint and require detailed charts and a good-sized telescope to see and appreciate. Except for Comet Lovejoy. This gift to beginner and amateur astronomers alike keeps on giving. But wait, there’s more. Three additional binocular-bright comets will keep us busy starting this spring.(...)
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Three-Meter Asteroid Hits Earth’s Atmosphere

Three-Meter Asteroid Hits Earth’s Atmosphere:
Projected path of 2014 AA south of the Cape Verde islands. (Credit: Asteroid Initiatives, LLC)
Three-Meter Asteroid Hits Earth’s Atmosphere
One projected path of 2014 AA south and west of the Cape Verde islands. (Credit: Asteroid Initiatives, LLC)
This was very likely the last trip around the Sun for the Earth-crossing asteroid 2014 AA, according to calculations by several teams of astronomers and published online earlier today on the IAU’s Minor Planet Center. Discovered just yesterday by the Catalina Sky Survey, the estimated 3-meter-wide Apollo asteroid was supposed to clear Earth today with the razor-thin margin of about 611 km (380 miles)… but it’s now looking like it didn’t quite make it.

(...)
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Gorgeous Astrophoto: Twin Crescents of the Moon and Venus at Sunset

Gorgeous Astrophoto: Twin Crescents of the Moon and Venus at Sunset:
The Moon and Venus, both in crescent phase, as seen from Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy on January 2, 2014. Credit and copyright: Giuseppe Petricca.
Gorgeous Astrophoto: Twin Crescents of the Moon and Venus at Sunset
The Moon and Venus, both in crescent phase, as seen from Sulmona, Abruzzo, Italy on January 2, 2014. Credit and copyright: Giuseppe Petricca.
2014 starts out with sunset view of a new Moon and a fading look at Venus, both captured together in this gorgeous image from astrophotographer Giuseppe Petricca.
“A wonderful sunset conjunction this evening from Central Italy,” Giuseppe wrote via email. “The Moon and Venus were both crescent, in an awesome sight! Some clouds entered the scene, and helped me filter the bright light of the ‘evening star’, revealing the little arch of the planet, from our point of view.” He added that this is “the youngest Moon I’ve ever captured, about 2% lit.”
Below is an image with an inset of Venus enlarged for a better view:
(...)
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