How Common are Terrestrial, Habitable Planets Around Sun-Like Stars?

How Common are Terrestrial, Habitable Planets Around Sun-Like Stars?:

Artist concept of the Kepler telescope in orbit. Image Credit: NASA

Once again news from the Kepler mission is making the rounds, this time with a research paper outlining a theory that Earth-like planets may be more common around class F, G and K stars than originally expected.

In the standard stellar classification scheme, these type of stars are similar or somewhat similar to our own Sun (which is a Class G star); Class F stars are hotter and brighter and Class K stars are cooler and dimmer. Given this range of stars, the habitable zones vary with different stars. Some habitable planets could orbit their host star at twice the distance Earth orbits our Sun or in the case of a dim star, less than Mercury’s orbit.

How does this recent research show that small, rocky, worlds may be more common that originally thought?

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Sunny Side Up: New Image of the Fried Egg Nebula Reveals a Rare Yellow Hypergiant Star

Sunny Side Up: New Image of the Fried Egg Nebula Reveals a Rare Yellow Hypergiant Star:

An image from the Very Large Telescope of IRAS 17163-3907, which has a huge dusty double shell surrounding a rare hypergiant star. The star and its shells resemble an egg white around a yolky center, leading astronomers to nickname the object the Fried Egg Nebula. Credit: ESO/E. Lagadec

A new look at the Fried Egg Nebula has revealed one of the rarest classes of stars in the Universe, a yellow hypergiant. This “sunny-side-up” view shows for the first time a huge dusty double shell surrounding this huge star.

“This object was known to glow brightly in the infrared but, surprisingly, nobody had identified it as a yellow hypergiant before,” said Eric Lagadec from the European Southern Observatory, who led the team that produced the new images.

And there’s good reason to keep an eye on this star: it will likely soon die an explosive death, and will be one of the next supernova explosions in our galaxy.

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What’s That Very Bright Star – Is it the Planet Jupiter?

What’s That Very Bright Star – Is it the Planet Jupiter?:

Jupiter Credit: John Talbot

Have you seen a very bright star rising in the East every night the past few months? If you’re a night owl, you may have noticed it moves across they sky from the East into the West, shining brightly throughout the night. However this object is not a star! It’s the planet Jupiter and it is the brightest object in the night sky at the moment, apart from the Moon.

At the end of October Jupiter will be at opposition. This means the mighty planet (the largest in our solar system) will be directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth and it will also be at its closest point to Earth in the two planets’ orbits around the Sun. This makes Jupiter or any other object at opposition appear brighter and larger. The opposition of Jupiter occurs on October 29, 2011.

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ALMA Opens Her Eyes — With Stunning Results

ALMA Opens Her Eyes — With Stunning Results:

ALMA's first light: a view of the Antennae Galaxies. Credit: ESO

There’s a new telescope in town that just opened up for business. It’s the long awaited ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Although it is still under construction, the science teams have released the first “early science” image, showing a pair of interacting galaxies called the Antenna Galaxies. ALMA’s view reveals a part of the Universe that just can’t be seen by visible-light and infrared telescopes. “From the formation of the first galaxies, stars, and planets to the merging of the first complex molecules, the science of ALMA is a vast spectrum of investigation,” said Tania Burchell, the ALMA Public Information Officer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, on today’s 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.

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DISNEY CHANNEL & MUSIC

Astrophoto: The Great Orion Nebula by Arturo Montesinos

Astrophoto: The Great Orion Nebula by Arturo Montesinos:

The Great Orion Nebula. Credit: Arturo Montesinos

Arturo Montesinos captured this photo of the Great Orion Nebula using 100 30-second exposures shot under computer control with a Nikon D40 camera at the prime focus of a Celestron NexStar 102 SLT 4-inch refractor.

“I used the astrometry.net software to solve each of the 100 photos, then the Swarp program to reproject and co-add the 100 red images, 100 green images, and 100 blue images in “SUM” mode.

The resulting three 32-bit FITS files (one per channel) were converted to a single 16-bit RGB TIFF file using ImageMagick convert, and then loaded into qtpfsgui to tone map as an HDR, using the Mantiuk algorithm with contrast 0.01, saturation 1.5, detail 4.0, and gamma 0.8. Some minor post-processing with The Gimp.”

Check out Arturo’s Flickr page for more interesting astrophotos.

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Astrophoto: Trifid Nebula by Jeanette Dunphy

Astrophoto: Trifid Nebula by Jeanette Dunphy:

Trifid Nebula. Credit: Jeanette Dunphy

Jeanette Dunphy of Queensland, Australia captured this photo of Trifid Nebula on June 9, 2011.

Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is an H II region approximately 7,600 light years away in Sagittarius. The nebula is where you’ll find a combination of an open cluster of stars, an emission nebula, a reflection nebula and a dark nebula.

Jeanette also provided us with the camera specs she used in taking the photo:

2hr 5min of 5 min subs

Canon 550D @ ISO400

ED 80 , HEQ5Pro mount

Guided QHY5

Check out more photo at Jeanette’s Flickr page.

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Red Alert! Space Station Aurora

Red Alert! Space Station Aurora:

Astronauts had this view of the aurora on September 26, 2011. Credit: NASA


We’ve had some great views of the aurora submitted by readers this week, but this one taken from the International Space Station especially highlights the red color seen by many Earth-bound skywatchers, too. Karen Fox from the Goddard Space Flight Center says the colors of the aurora depend on which atoms are being excited by the solar storm. In most cases, the light comes when a charged particle sweeps in from the solar wind and collides with an oxygen atom in Earth’s atmosphere. This produces a green photon, so most aurora appear green. However, lower-energy oxygen collisions as well as collisions with nitrogen atoms can produce red photons — so sometimes aurora also show a red band as seen here.

Source: Goddard Space Flight Center Flickr




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Bending The Rules – Exploring Gravitational Redshift

Bending The Rules – Exploring Gravitational Redshift:

Researchers have analyzed measurements of the light from galaxies in approximately 8,000 galaxy clusters. Galaxy clusters are accumulations of thousands of galaxies (every light in the image is a galaxy), which are held together by their own gravity. This gravity affects the light that is sent out into space from the galaxies. Credit: Hubble Space Telescope

Hey. We’re all aware of Einstein’s theories and how gravity affects light. We know it was proved during a total solar eclipse, but what we’ve never realized in observational astronomy is that light just might get bent by other gravitational influences. If it can happen from something as small as a star, then what might occur if you had a huge group of stars? Like a galaxy… Or a group of galaxies! (...)
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New Research Finds Venus’ Winds, They Are A-Changin’

New Research Finds Venus’ Winds, They Are A-Changin’:

Image of Venus in ultraviolet light by ESA's Venus Express. (ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA)

Venus, Earth’s hotheaded neighbor, may have more variability in its weather patterns than previously believed. Using infrared data obtained by ground-based telescopes in Hawaii and Arizona researchers have found that Venus’ mesosphere and thermosphere are less consistent in temperature than layers closer to its surface.(...)
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Where In The Universe Challenge #152

Where In The Universe Challenge #152:

Here’s a new image for the Where In The Universe Challenge, to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. You know what to do: take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft/telescope responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until later. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.

The answer for the previous WITU challenge can be found here.




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Human Mission to an Asteroid: Getting There With the New Space Launch System

Human Mission to an Asteroid: Getting There With the New Space Launch System:

The new SLS on the launchpad. Credit: NASA

With NASA’s announcement of its new, mammoth Space Launch System (SLS), preparations can begin in earnest for the first human mission to an asteroid. The SLS will take the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) on the first human forays into deep space, out of the Earth/Moon system. “We are definitely excited about it,” Laurence Price, Lockheed Martin’s Orion deputy program manager told Universe Today during a briefing last week. “It is very good to get this baselined and be able to move forward.”

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Astrophoto: Galactic Center by Drew Medlin

Astrophoto: Galactic Center by Drew Medlin:

Galactic Center. Credit: Drew Medlin

Drew Medlin captured this photo of the Galactic Center on September 18, 2009.

“That photo was (taken) in the Atacama desert near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile on 2009.09.18. I used a Canon 5D Mark II at ISO1600 and a Sigma 50mm lens at f/4. A Takahashi EM-200 mount I rented time on from SPACE (spaceobs.com) provided the tracking. This is a stack of three 1.5-min and three 2-min exposures. Processed with Lightroom and Photoshop.”

The Galactic Center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy located 26,000 light years from the Earth. It was confirmed recently by the researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany that there exists a supermassive black hole at the galactic center. The observation was made using the 3.5m New Technology Telescope and the 8.2m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

Check out Drew’s Flickr page for more photos.

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China Blasts First Space Lab Tiangong 1 to Orbit

China Blasts First Space Lab Tiangong 1 to Orbit:

A Long March-2FT1 carrier rocket loaded with Tiangong-1 unmanned space lab module blasts off from the launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 29, 2011. (Xinhua/Wang Jianmin)

China launched their first space station module into orbit today (Sept. 29), marking a major milestone in the rapidly expanding Chinese space program. The historic liftoff of the man rated Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace 1) space lab on a Long March 2F rocket took place at 9:16 p.m. local time (9:16 a.m. EDT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in Gansu province in northwest China and is an impressive advance for China.

The beautiful nighttime liftoff occurred exactly on time and was carried live on China’s state run television – CCTV – and on the internet for all to see. Chinese President Hu Jintao and many of China’s other top government leaders witnessed the launch from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center as a gesture of confidence and support. Their presence was a clear sign of just how important China’s top leadership considers investments in research as a major driver of technological innovation (...)
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“Extreme” Solar Wind Blasts Mercury’s Poles

“Extreme” Solar Wind Blasts Mercury’s Poles:

Planet Mercury as seen from the MESSENGER spacecraft in 2008. Image Credit: NASA

According to data from the The Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) onboard NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, the solar wind is “sandblasting” the surface of Mercury at its polar regions.

Based on findings from one of seven different papers from the MESSENGER mission to be published in the Sept. 30th edition of Science, sodium and oxygen particles are charged in a manner similar to Earth’s own Aurora Borealis.

How are the University of Michigan researchers able to detect and study this phenomenon?

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Fires in the Sky, Fires on the Ground

Fires in the Sky, Fires on the Ground:

The aurora australis seen from the ISS on September 17, 2011. Credit: NASA.

With all of the activity that’s been occurring on the Sun recently, the aurorae have been exceptionally bright and have created quite a show to viewers – both on Earth as well as above it!

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Astrophoto: Aurora over the Cabin by Jason Ahrns

Astrophoto: Aurora over the Cabin by Jason Ahrns:

Aurora over the Cabin. Credit: Jason Ahrns

Jason Ahrns captured this incredible shot of the Aurora on April 9, 2011 in Alaska.

“The light on the trees is just the light out the windows of my cabin. The auroral arc was pretty much directly overhead so I was looking up into it, where you can see more structure than when you’re looking from the side.”

Jason used a Nikon D5000 and a Sigma 10-20mm f4/5.6 lens at 10mm. The exposure was 30 seconds at f4 and ISO 800.

Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group, post in our Forum 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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Astrophoto: Venus Setting by Rick Ellis

Astrophoto: Venus Setting by Rick Ellis:

Venus Setting. Credit: Rick Ellis

Rick Ellis of Toronto, Canada came up with this multiple-exposure image of Venus setting. The changing position of Venus from the observer’s point of view serves as a proof of the the Earth’s counter-clockwise rotation.

This image was generated from multiple shots captured by Rick using his Canon A460 camera.

“It was not created on a single frame. The camera was locked down on its tripod and the original background photo was taken with Venus in the upper left. Then at exactly 5 minute intervals exposures were taken at ISO 80 for 5 seconds. Twenty seven exposures were made in all and then compiled in Photoshop. The trick then was to

find where Venus was on each successive layer and “punch a hole” very accurately in the main image layer.”

Check out Rick’s website here.

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Astrophoto: Moon Halo by Earl Matenga

Astrophoto: Moon Halo by Earl Matenga:

Moon Halo. Credit: Earl Matenga

After Niki Giada’s photo of the Sun’s halo, here we are again with another impressive astrophoto. This time, it’s the Moon’s halo.

Earl Matenga captured this photo of the Moon and its halo on March 25, 2010 using a Pentax K-7.

Moon halos are brought about by the same phenomenon as Sun halos are. It’s caused by the refraction of light from tiny hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere.

This photo was shot through a Pentax fish eye lens mounted on tripod, bulb setting 2-3 sec exposure remotely fired. The red star on the left is Betelgeuse which is located in the constellation of Orion.

Check out Earl’s photos here.

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SpaceX: Next Dragon to Launch No-Earlier-Than Dec. 19

SpaceX: Next Dragon to Launch No-Earlier-Than Dec. 19:

SpaceX has announced that it will work to launch the next Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida no-earlier-than Dec. 19, 2011. Photo Credit: Alan Walters/awaltersphoto.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla – The launch date of the next Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon Spacecraft payload has been announced to occur no-earlier-than Dec. 19. This will mean that it will have been over a year since the last time that the NewSpace firm launched one of its rockets.(...)
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Astrophoto: The Hidden Galaxy by Don Scott

Astrophoto: The Hidden Galaxy by Don Scott:

The Hidden Galaxy. Credit: Don Scott

It’s one of the challenging subjects for astrophotography. But Don Scott of Arizona was able to obtain this amazing picture of The Hidden Galaxy, also known as IC 342.

IC 342 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Camelopardalis. Since it’s also located near the Galactic Equator, IC 342 is mostly covered by dust from the Milky Way. With that, it has been nicknamed the “Hidden Galaxy.”

“I obtained this image last winter (Dec & Jan) here in Arizona using my telescope (Takahashi 130) and CCD camera (SBIG ST-10XME). It was a time exposure: Luminosity 3 hours, Red, Green, and Blue components 1 hour each. So this photo required 6 hours of exposure time. The scope focal length is 1000 mm, objective lens diameter is 130 mm, for a focal ratio of f/7.69. All of the foreground stars are approximately 10th magnitude.”

Check out Don’s collection of astro-images.

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