Thursday, November 7, 2013

Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa

Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa:
A solar halo seen over Klerksdorp, South Africa on Nov. 6, 2013. Credit: Daniël Engelbrecht
Spectacular Halo Around the Sun Seen in Africa
A solar halo seen over Klerksdorp, South Africa on Nov. 6, 2013. Credit:
Daniël Engelbrecht
Fresh off seeing a solar eclipse on Sunday, people across the southern parts of Africa witnessed another solar spectacle today, a sun halo. “It was so beautiful, everyone was taking pictures and sharing them on Facebook,” said Daniël Engelbrecht from Klerksdorp, South Africa, sending in his picture to Universe Today via email.
These halos are quite the sight to see, but unlike an eclipse, they can’t be predicted. Conditions in the atmosphere have to be just right, with moisture or ice crystals creating a “rainbow” effect around the Sun. Sometimes the halos surround the Sun completely, other times, they appear as arcs around the Sun creating what is known as sundogs. Basically, sunlight is reflecting off moisture in the atmosphere.
Ice crystals in Earth’s atmosphere can also cause rings around the Moon, and moondogs(as well as sundogs) and even Venus pillars. News reports indicate sun halos were seen just a few days ago in Africa as well, on Nov. 1, 2013.
A few other people sent in images from their phones, too of today’s sun halo:
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Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch

Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch:
The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Crew Launches to Space Station with Olympic Torch
The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos launched on a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:14 p.m. EST (04:14:00 UTC, 10:14 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time). They’ll use the accelerated “fast-track” trajectory and arrive at the station in just a few hours, at 10:31 UTC (5:31 a.m. EST Thursday.)
In an usual situation, when the new crew arrives, there will be nine crew members and three Soyuz vehicles at the ISS. The timing of crew exchange works to enable a complicated “relay race” of a special Olympic torch from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. (...)
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India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery:
Clouds on the ground ! The sky seems inverted for a moment ! Blastoff of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Credit: ISRO
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Rising to Red Planet – Glorious Launch Gallery
Clouds on the ground !
The sky seems inverted for a moment ! Blastoff of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on Nov. 5, 2013 from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Credit: ISRO
With India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) safely and flawlessly injected into her initial elliptical Earth parking orbit following Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) spectacular launch, the flight has quickly transitioned to the next stage – the crucial series of thruster firings to raise MOM’s orbit around Earth dubbed “Midnight Maneuvers” and achieve escape velocity.
Barely a day after blastoff, ISRO engineers successfully completed the first of six orbit raising “Midnight Maneuver” burns at 01:17 hrs IST today (Nov. 6) with MOM’s liquid fueled thruster – see graphic below.(...)
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Astronomy Cast 320: Layers of the Sun

Astronomy Cast 320: Layers of the Sun:

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22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone

22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone:
The "Goldilocks" zone around a star is where a planet is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water. Illustration by Petigura/UC Berkeley, Howard/UH-Manoa, Marcy/UC Berkeley.
22% of Sun-like Stars have Earth-sized Planets in the Habitable Zone
The “Goldilocks” zone around a star is where a planet is neither too hot nor too cold to support liquid water. Illustration by Petigura/UC Berkeley, Howard/UH-Manoa, Marcy/UC Berkeley.
How common are planets like Earth? That’s been a question astronomers and dreamers have pondered for decades, and now, thanks to the Kepler spacecraft, they have an answer. One in five Sun-like stars in our galaxy have Earth-sized planets that could host life, according to a recent study of Kepler data.
“What this means is, when you look up at the thousands of stars in the night sky, the nearest sun-like star with an Earth-size planet in its habitable zone is probably only 12 light years away and can be seen with the naked eye. That is amazing,” said UC Berkeley graduate student Erik Petigura, who led the analysis of the Kepler and Keck Observatory data.
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A Hybrid Solar Eclipse Seen From Earth… and Space

A Hybrid Solar Eclipse Seen From Earth… and Space:
The Elektro-L satellite's view of how the Nov. 3, 2013 solar eclipse effected Earth. Blackness from the eclipse covers Africa. Credit: Elektro-L/Vitaliy EgorovVitaliy Egorov.
Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures
The Electro-L satellite’s view of the November 3rd, 2013 solar eclipse, as the shadow of the Moon crosses central Africa. Credit: Elektro-L/Vitaliy Egorov.
The final eclipse for 2013 was a grand event, witnessed across the Atlantic and the heart of Africa this past Sunday. Like so many other photographers along the North American east coast, we were at the ready to greet the partially eclipsed Sun at dawn. And as the shadow of the Moon touched down, teams on land, air and sea were ready to meet with the fleeting umbra as it raced eastward towards sunset over the Horn of Africa region.
But a fleet of spacecraft were also on hand to witness the rare spectacle as well. Turned earthward and sunward, these spacecraft documented not only the passage of the Moon’s shadow over the Earth, but recorded multiple partial solar eclipses from orbit as well.
The first view comes from the Roscosmos Electro-L satellite based in a geostationary orbit over the Indian Ocean:
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Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures

Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures:
A part of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA's Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. Credit: NASA.
Chandra Infographic Shows Where The Color Comes From In Space Pictures
A part of the Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is dazzling in this new view from NASA’s Great Observatories. The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is a small galaxy about 200,000 light-years way that orbits our own Milky Way spiral galaxy. Credit: NASA.
For your daily space zing, check out an infographic recently highlighted on the Chandra X-ray Observatory’s Google+ page. Called “How to Color the Universe” (see it below), it explains why the colors we see from space telescope pictures are added in after the data is gathered.
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Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image

Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image:
Saturn's moons (from left to right) Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea. Rhea is on top of Saturn from the perspective of the Cassini spacecraft, which snapped the family portrait. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Five Saturn Moons Stun In Cassini Spacecraft Archival Image
Saturn’s moons (from left to right) Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas and Rhea. Rhea is on top of Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
This picture is from a couple of years ago, but still worth the extra look. The Cassini spacecraft — busily circling Saturn and gathering data on the ringed planet and its moons — managed to grab five of Saturn’s 62 known moons in one shot. The European Space Agency highlighted the picture on its home page this week.
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Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article)

Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article):
The Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein burning up on Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabitated part of the Pacific Ocean. This picture was snapped from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA
Here’s What A Spacecraft Looks Like Burning Up (Plus Correction of Past Article)
The Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein burning up on Nov. 2, 2013 at 12:04 GMT over an uninhabitated part of the Pacific Ocean. This picture was snapped from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA
Flame and fireworks. That’s what the Automated Transfer Vehicle Albert Einstein appeared to astronauts to be like as it made a planned dive into Earth’s atmosphere Nov. 2. The European Space Agency ship spent five months in space, boosting the International Space Station’s altitude several times and bringing a record haul of stuff for the astronauts on board the station to use.
According to the European Space Agency, this is the first view of an ATV re-entry that astronauts have seen since Jules Verne, the first, was burned up in 2008. Controllers moved the spacecraft into view of the Expedition 37 crew to analyze the physics of breakup.
Also, yesterday you may have seen an article concerning a picture a photographer snapped of the ATV burning up on Earth. We were in error with that information. Senior Editor Nancy Atkinson writes:
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Monday, November 4, 2013

Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions

Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions:
Artist's depiction of TESS. Image Credit: TESS team.
Life After Kepler: Upcoming Exoplanet Missions
Artist’s depiction of the transiting exoplanet survey satellite. Image Credit: MIT/TESS team.
Last week I held an interview with Dr. Sara Seager – a lead astronomer who has contributed vastly to the field of exoplanet characterization. The condensed interview may be found here. Toward the end of our interview we had a lengthy conversation regarding the future of exoplanet research. I quickly realized that this subject should be an article in itself.
The following is a list of approved missions that will continue the search for habitable worlds, with input from Dr. Seager about their potential for finding planets that might harbor life.
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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013

Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013:
The November 3, 2013 partial solar eclipse is seemingly dripping into the ocean, as seen from Sullivan's Island, South Carolina. Credit and copyright: Jeff Jackson
Hybrid Solar Eclipse Images from Around the World, November 3, 2013
The November 3, 2013 partial solar eclipse is seemingly dripping into the ocean, as seen from Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Credit and copyright: Jeff Jackson
Many lucky people around the world were treated to a an unusual “hybrid” solar eclipse today — so called because the extent to which the Sun was blocked out varied around the world. Those along North America’s east coast and the northern half of South America saw a brilliant Sun partially eclipsed by the Moon just at dawn, as in our lead image from South Carolina, USA. But regions like equatorial Africa had a total eclipsed Sun for about a minute, while those in southern Europe, the Middle East, were able to see an “annular” or partial, eclipse. This type of variable eclipse is rare — the last time one occurred was Nov. 20, 1854 and the next one won’t happen until Oct. 17, 2172! This was also the last eclipse of the year, and photographers were out to capture the views.
See more below, and we’ll continue to add images as they come in.
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Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”

Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”:
Totality! As seen during the November 13th, 2012 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: Narayan Mukkavilli, used with permission).
Watch Live: Sunday’s “Hybrid Solar Eclipse”
Totality! As seen during the November 13th, 2012 total solar eclipse. (Image credit: Narayan Mukkavilli, used with permission).
The chase is on. On Sunday, November 3rd, the shadow of the Moon will cross the Earth for one last time in 2013. We recently wrote about the prospects for viewing this “hybrid” annular-total solar eclipse as it crosses the Atlantic and central Africa. Viewers from northern South America across the U.S. Eastern Seaboard up into the Canadian Maritimes will also be treated to a brilliant rising partial eclipse over the Atlantic at sunrise. Tickets are already in hand for many, as umbraphiles wing their way (cue Indiana Jones music) to dusty and exotic far off locales to stand briefly in the shadow of our Moon…
But what if it’s cloudy?
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Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae

Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae:
The auroral view while driving up Atigun Pass, North Slope Borough County, Alaska, US on November 1, 2013. Credit and copyright: Jason Ahrns.
Recent Sun Activity Spawns Stunning Aurorae
The auroral view while driving up Atigun Pass, North Slope Borough County, Alaska, US on November 1, 2013. Credit and copyright: Jason Ahrns.
Over the past several days the Sun has unleashed more than half a dozen major flares including four X-class events. The resulting aurora in some parts of the world have been beautiful. Here’s a collection of recent images taken by Jason Arhns in Alaska. It seems the aurora is just blanketing not only the sky, but the landscape as well!
See more below, as well as a video showing 23 of the 26 M- and X-class flares on the sun between Oct. 23 and Oct. 28, 2013, as captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory. It also shows the coronal mass ejections — great clouds of solar material bursting off the sun into space — during that time as captured by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
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Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses

Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses:
Comet Lovejoy on November 2, 2013, as seen from Singapore. Credit and copyright: Justin Ng.
Morning Comets Continue to Dazzle in New Images, Timelapses
Comet Lovejoy on November 2, 2013, as seen from Singapore. Credit and copyright: Justin Ng.
While many are anticipating seeing Comet ISON, there’s more in the sky these days than just one comet. There are actually four comets now in the skies in the mornings — in addition to ISON, there’s comets 2013 R1 Lovejoy, 2P/Encke and 2012 X1 LINEAR! Unfortunately, none of these are visible to the naked eye — yet anyway.
Here are some great recent images and video of these comet taken by amateur astrophotographers. Above is Comet Lovejoy, just taken by Justin Ng from Singapore . “Comet Lovejoy will share the same part of the sky as Comet ISON this month and it presents a cool astrophotography opportunity for skywatchers and astronomers,” Justin told Universe Today via email. “This image is a result of stacking 9 images together and each image was captured using a 3 inch telescope at 5 minutes exposure time for about an hour before dawn.”
See more below:
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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween Astrophoto: The Witch Head Nebula

Halloween Astrophoto: The Witch Head Nebula:

The Witch Head Nebula, taken on October 24, 2013. Credit and copyright: ftherrmann2012 on Flickr.
The Witch Head Nebula, taken on October 24, 2013. Credit and copyright: ftherrmann2012 on Flickr.
Boo! Here’s a great shot of the Witch Head nebula, so named because it resembles the profile of a wicked witch. This nebula’s ‘official’ name is IC 2118, and it is just a cloud of interstellar gas and dust — nothing to be afraid of! The eerie shape is sculpted in part by radiation from the supergiant star Rigel, the brightest star of Orion. In fact, Rigel illuminates the nebula by reflecting off the dust grains, making it glow. Inside the nebula, young stars are being born.  This image was taken last week by ftherrmann2012 on Flickr — who was obviously thinking ahead to Halloween! You can see an infrared image of this same nebula taken by the WISE spacecraft.
You can see more great images on Universe Today’s Flickr group page (click here to access, or see the new “Photos” tab at the top of our page) and feel free join the group and upload any astronomical images you have taken.

Happy Halloween from all of us here at Universe Today!
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What Are The Odds Of Spotting A Milky Way Supernova From Earth?

What Are The Odds Of Spotting A Milky Way Supernova From Earth?:

Artist illustration of supernova. Credit: NASA
Artist illustration of supernova. Credit: NASA
An exploding star in our home galaxy might be visible to Earth in the next 50 years, astronomers say in a new calculation of the odds of a nearby supernova.
This explosion would be too faint to prove a hazard to Earthlings, and in fact it may not even be visible with the naked eye in the starry sky. Its heat signature, however, would be seen in the right kind of camera as long as we could swing a telescope there fast enough.
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SpaceX Signs Pact To Start Rocket Testing At NASA Stennis

SpaceX Signs Pact To Start Rocket Testing At NASA Stennis:


The SpaceX Dragon capsule is snared by the International Space Station's Canadarm 2. Credit: NASA
The SpaceX Dragon capsule is snared by the International Space Station’s Canadarm 2. Credit: NASA
SpaceX — the maker and operator of the Dragon spacecraft that runs periodic cargo flights to the International Space Station — has signed a contract to research, develop and test Raptor methane rocket engines at the NASA Stennis Space Center in southern Mississippi.
The California-based company plans to use the E-2 test stand at Stennis, which is able to support both vertical and horizontal rocket engine tests. (Here are some more technical details from NASA on its capabilities.)
“We have been talking with SpaceX for many years about working at Stennis Space Center, and I am pleased to officially welcome them to our Mississippi family. I hope this is just the beginning of their endeavors in our state,” stated U.S. Senator Thad Cochran (R-Miss) in response to the news. A press release from his office said the presence of the private space company would boost jobs in the region.
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Rocky Earth-sized World is a ‘Sungrazing’ Exoplanet

Rocky Earth-sized World is a ‘Sungrazing’ Exoplanet:

This illustration compares our Earth with the newly confirmed lava planet Kepler-78b. Kepler-78b is about 20 percent larger than Earth, with a diameter of 9,200 miles, and weighs roughly 1.8 times as much as Earth. David A. Aguilar (CfA)
Rocky Earth-sized World is a ‘Sungrazing’ Exoplanet
This illustration compares our Earth with the newly confirmed lava planet Kepler-78b. Kepler-78b is about 20 percent larger than Earth, with a diameter of 9,200 miles, and weighs roughly 1.8 times as much as Earth.
David A. Aguilar (CfA)
A newly verified planet found in data from the Kepler mission delivers on the space telescope’s task of finding Earth-size planets around other stars. The new planet, called Kepler-78b, is the first Earth-sized exoplanet discovered that has a rocky composition like that of Earth. Similarities to Earth, however, end there. Kepler-78b whizzes around its host star every 8.5 hours at a distance of about 1.5 million kilometers, making it a blazing inferno and not suitable for life as we know it.
“We’ve been hearing about the sungrazing Comet ISON that will go very close to the Sun next month,” said Andrew Howard, of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Institute for Astronomy. “Comet ISON will approach the Sun about the same distance that Kepler-78b orbits its star, so this planet spends its entire life as a sungrazer.”
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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

New Dark Matter Detector Draws A Blank In First Test Round

New Dark Matter Detector Draws A Blank In First Test Round:

Dark Energy
New Dark Matter Detector Draws A Blank In First Test Round
The Hubble Space Telescope image of the inner regions of the lensing cluster Abell 1689 that is 2.2 billion light?years away. Light from distant background galaxies is bent by the concentrated dark matter in the cluster (shown in the blue overlay) to produce the plethora of arcs and arclets that were in turn used to constrain dark energy. Image courtesy of NASA?ESA, Jullo (JPL), Natarajan (Yale), Kneib (LAM)
We keep saying dark matter is so very hard to find. Astronomers say they can see its effects — such as gravitational lensing, or an amazing bendy feat of light that takes place when a massive galaxy brings forward light from other galaxies behind it. But defining what the heck that matter is, is proving elusive. And considering it makes up most of the universe’s matter, it would be great to know what dark matter looks like.
A new experiment — billed as the most sensitive dark matter detector in the world — spent three months searching for evidence of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), which may be the basis of dark matter. So far, nothing, but researchers emphasized they have only just started work.
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Closest Star To Our Sun Beckons In New Hubble Image

Closest Star To Our Sun Beckons In New Hubble Image:

A Hubble Space Telescope image of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Closest Star To Our Sun Beckons In New Hubble Image
A Hubble Space Telescope image of Proxima Centauri, the closest star to Earth. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Remember that planet discovered near Alpha Centauri almost exactly a year ago? As you may remember, it’s the closest system to Earth, making some people speculate about how quickly we could get a spacecraft in that general direction. Four light years is close in galactic terms, but it’s a little far away for the technology we have now — unless we wanted to wait a few tens thousands of years for the journey to complete.
Meanwhile, we can at least take pictures of that star system. The Hubble Space Telescope team has released a new picture of Alpha Centauri’s sister star, Proxima Centauri. While Proxima is technically the closest star to Earth, it’s too faint to be seen by the naked eye, which is not all that surprising given it is only an eighth of the sun’s mass. Sometimes, however, it gets a little brighter.
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Rare ‘Hybrid’ Solar Eclipse on November 3, 2013: How to See It

Rare ‘Hybrid’ Solar Eclipse on November 3, 2013: How to See It:

A partially eclipsed setting Sun as seen from Dallas, Texas on May 20th, 2012. This weekend's eclipse will offer U.S. East Coast residents a similar sunrise view. (Credit: Jason Major/Lights in the Dark).
Rare ‘Hybrid’ Solar Eclipse on November 3, 2013: How to See It
A partially eclipsed setting Sun as seen from Dallas, Texas on May 20th, 2012. This weekend’s eclipse will offer U.S. East Coast residents a similar sunrise view. (Credit: Jason Major/Lights in the Dark).
It’s almost upon us. The final eclipse of 2013 occurs this coming weekend on Sunday, November 3rd. This will be the fifth eclipse overall, and the second solar eclipse of 2013. This will also be the only eclipse this year that features a glimpse of totality.(...)
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Weekend Comet Bonanza!

Weekend Comet Bonanza!:

Color image of Comet ISON on October 27, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.
Color image of Comet ISON on October 27, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.
Astrophotographers were out in full force this weekend to try and capture the bonanza of comets now visible in the early morning skies! You’ll need a good-sized telescope to see these comets for yourself, however, but with the Moon now waning means darker skies and better observing conditions. Above is an absolutely gorgeous image of Comet ISON taken by Damian Peach. See below for more images of not only Comet ISON, but also Comet Encke, Comet Lovejoy and Comet LINEAR — now in outburst.
In fact, one of our “regular” contributors, John Chumack, captured all four comets in one morning, on Saturday October 26!
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‘Shockwave Of Fire’ Rained Down After Old Comet Strike On Earth, Scientists Say

‘Shockwave Of Fire’ Rained Down After Old Comet Strike On Earth, Scientists Say:

Artist's conception of a comet exploding in the Earth’s atmosphere above Egypt. Credit: Terry Bakker
‘Shockwave Of Fire’ Rained Down After Old Comet Strike On Earth, Scientists Say
Artist’s conception of a comet exploding in the Earth’s atmosphere above Egypt. Credit: Terry Bakker
Speak about destruction. A comet slammed into Earth’s atmosphere 28 million years ago and basically killed everything with fire below, leaving a huge deposit of yellow silica glass in its wake, a team of astronomers say.
The evidence — a black pebble found by an Egyptian geologist within this vast tract of glass — is believed to be a part of the comet’s nucleus or heart and not just an ordinary meteorite. The team says this could be the first hard evidence, so to speak, of a comet striking Earth.
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Read the rest of ‘Shockwave Of Fire’ Rained Down After Old Comet Strike On Earth, Scientists Say (227 words)
© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |One comment |
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