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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Astrophoto: Star Trails Over Kitt Peak

Astrophoto: Star Trails Over Kitt Peak:
162 images combined to create star trails in this image taken of Kitt Peak in November 2013. Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.
Astrophoto: Star Trails Over Kitt Peak
162 images combined to create star trails in this image taken of Kitt Peak in November 2013. Credit and copyright: Robert Sparks.
Our pal Rob Sparks said he had always wanted to try creating a star trails picture and this is his first attempt. Very nice! Of course, he had a great view of the telescopes on Kitt Peak in Arizona as a stunning foreground, (the lights of Tucson are to the right) but had to deal with a “nearly full Moon that night which illuminated the observatory and limited the exposure times,” Rob said on Flickr. “However, I am reasonably happy for a first try.”
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This Exoplanet Is Turning Planetary Formation Scenarios Upside Down

This Exoplanet Is Turning Planetary Formation Scenarios Upside Down:
Artist's conception of a planet like HD106906 b. Visible in the picture is a debris disk and its distant host star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This Exoplanet Is Turning Planetary Formation Scenarios Upside Down
Artist’s conception of a planet like HD 106906 b. Visible in the picture is a debris disk and its distant host star. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
What the heck is that giant exoplanet doing so far away from its star? Astronomers are still trying to figure out the curious case of HD 106906 b, a newly found gas giant that orbits at an astounding 650 astronomical units or Earth-sun distances from its host star. For comparison, that’s more than 20 times farther from its star than Neptune is from the sun.
“This system is especially fascinating because no model of either planet or star formation fully explains what we see,” stated Vanessa Bailey, a graduate astronomy student at the University of Arizona who led the research.
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Subaru Telescope Captures the Fine Details of Comet Lovejoy’s Tail

Subaru Telescope Captures the Fine Details of Comet Lovejoy’s Tail:
Comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) imaged by the Subaru Telescope on Dec. 3. Image credit: NAOJ with data processing by Masafumi Yagi (NAOJ)
Subaru Telescope Captures the Fine Details of Comet Lovejoy’s Tail
Comet C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy) imaged by the Subaru Telescope on Dec. 3. Image credit: NAOJ with data processing by Masafumi Yagi (NAOJ)
Comet ISON may be no more than just a cloud of icy debris these days but there’s another comet that’s showing off in the morning sky: C/2013 R1 (Lovejoy), which was discovered in September and is steadily nearing its Christmas Day perihelion. In the early hours of Dec. 3, astronomers using the 8.2-meter Subaru Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii captured this amazing image of Lovejoy, revealing the intricate flows of ion streamers in its tail. (Click the image above for extra awesomeness.)
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Little Big Universe: Tilt-Shifted Astro Images Make Space Look Tiny

Little Big Universe: Tilt-Shifted Astro Images Make Space Look Tiny:
Hubble image of the Horsehead Nebula, "tilt-shifted" by Imgur user ScienceLlama (Original image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))
Little Big Universe: Tilt-Shifted Astro Images Make Space Look Tiny
Hubble image of the Horsehead Nebula, “tilt-shifted” by Imgur user ScienceLlama (Original image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))
Aww, how cute! What an adorable little… nebula?
Although here it may look like it could fit in your hand, the Horsehead Nebula is obviously quite a bit larger – about 1.5 light-years across from “nose” to “mane.” But given a tilt-shift effect by Imgur.com user ScienceLlama, the entire structure takes on the appearance of something tiny — based purely on our eyes’ natural depth-of-field when peering at a small object close up. Usually done with Photoshop filters these days, it’s a gimmick, yes… but it works!
The original image was captured in infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope and released in April 2013, in celebration of its 23rd anniversary.
Check out more of ScienceLlama’s “tiny universe” images below:
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This Spooky X-Ray ‘Hand’ Demonstrates A Pulsar Star Mystery

This Spooky X-Ray ‘Hand’ Demonstrates A Pulsar Star Mystery:
This X-ray nebula appears to look like a human hand. The ghostly shape comes courtesy of a pulsar star called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short) that is just 12 miles or 19 kilometers in diameter. The nebula itself is 150 light-years across. Image taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/P. Slane et al.
This Spooky X-Ray ‘Hand’ Demonstrates A Pulsar Star Mystery
This X-ray nebula appears to look like a human hand. The ghostly shape comes courtesy of a pulsar star called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short) that is just 12 miles or 19 kilometers in diameter. The nebula itself is 150 light-years across. Image taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. Credit: NASA/CXC/CfA/P. Slane et al.
That spooky hand in the image above is producing questions for scientists. While the shape only coincidentally looks like a human hand, scientists are still trying to figure out how a small star produced such a large shape visible in X-rays.
Pulsar star PSR B1509-58 (or B1509 for short) is a 12-mile (19-kilometer) remnant of a much larger star that exploded and left behind a quickly spinning neutron star. Energy leaves mostly via neutrino (or neutral particle) emission, with a bit more coming out via beta decay, or a radioactive process where charged particles leave from atoms.
Using a new model, scientists found that so much energy comes out from neutrino emission that there shouldn’t be enough left for the beta decay to set off the X-rays you see here in this image, or in other situations. Yet it’s still happening. And that’s why they’re hoping to take a closer look at the situation.
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Get Ready for the 2013 Geminid Meteor Shower

Get Ready for the 2013 Geminid Meteor Shower:
The rising radiant of the Geminids-Looking east at 9PM local from latitude 30 degrees north. (Credit-Stellarium).
Get Ready for the 2013 Geminid Meteor Shower
The rising radiant of the Geminids-Looking east at 9PM local from latitude 30 degrees north. (Credit-Stellarium).
One of the best annual meteor showers occurs this coming weekend.
The 2013 Geminid meteors peak this coming Saturday on December 14th. This shower has a broad maximum, assuring that observers worldwide get a good look. In 2013, the maximum for the Geminids is forecast to span from 13:00 Universal Time (UT) on Friday, December 13th to 10:00UT/5:00AM EST on Saturday, December 14th, with a projected maximum centered a few hours earlier at 2:00 UT Saturday morning.(...)
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‘Glowing Wreck Of A Star’ Reveals Cosmic Cannibalism

‘Glowing Wreck Of A Star’ Reveals Cosmic Cannibalism:
Composite image of Circinus X-1, which is about 24,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Circinus. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S. Heinz et al; Optical: DSS; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA
‘Glowing Wreck Of A Star’ Reveals Cosmic Cannibalism
Composite image of Circinus X-1, which is about 24,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Circinus. Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/S. Heinz et al; Optical: DSS; Radio: CSIRO/ATNF/ATCA
Circinus X-1 may look like a serene place from a distance, but in reality this gassy nebula is quite a busy spot. Embedded in the nebula is the neutron star that is also a leftover of the supernova that produced the gas. Not only that, but the neutron star is still locked on to a companion and is in fact “cannibalizing” it, astronomers said.
The “glowing wreck of a star”, as the team called it, is exciting because it demonstrates what systems look like in the first stages after an explosion. The nebula is an infant in cosmic terms, with an upper limit to its age of just 4,500 years. To put that in human terms, that’s around the time of the first civilizations (such as in Mesopotamia).
“The fact that we have this remnant along with the neutron star and its companion means we can test all kinds of things,” stated Sebastian Heinz, an astronomy professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who led the research.
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Take a Virtual Spin Around Mars’ North Pole

Take a Virtual Spin Around Mars’ North Pole:

Get a satellite’s-eye view of the Martian north pole in this new animation from the Mars Express spacecraft, using data from the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding instrument, MARSIS. This instrument allows for studying the surface heights, providing a 3-D view of the Mars’ north pole.
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Astronomy Cast Ep. 325: Cold Fusion

Astronomy Cast Ep. 325: Cold Fusion:

The Universe is filled with hot fusion, in the cores of stars. And scientists have even been able to replicate this stellar process in expensive experiments. But wouldn’t it be amazing if you could produce energy from fusion without all that equipment, and high temperatures and pressures? Pons and Fleischmann announced exactly that back in 1989, but things didn’t quite turn out as planned…
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See What the Moon Will Look Like in All of 2014 in Just 5 Minutes

See What the Moon Will Look Like in All of 2014 in Just 5 Minutes:

Here’s how the Moon will look to us on Earth during the entire year of 2014. Using data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio can project how the Moon will appear, and compresses one month into 24 seconds and a year to about 5 minutes. Above is the video where Celestial north is up, corresponding to the view from the northern hemisphere, and below is how the Moon will look from the southern hemisphere.
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And the Coldest Place on Earth Is …

And the Coldest Place on Earth Is …:
With remote-sensing satellites, scientists have found the coldest places on Earth, just off a ridge in the East Antarctic Plateau. The coldest of the cold temperatures dropped to minus 135.8 F (minus 93.2 C) -- several degrees colder than the previous record. Image Credit: Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center.
And the Coldest Place on Earth Is …
With remote-sensing satellites, scientists have found the coldest places on Earth, just off a ridge in the East Antarctic Plateau. The coldest of the cold temperatures dropped to minus 135.8 F (minus 93.2 C) — several degrees colder than the previous record.
Image Credit: Ted Scambos, National Snow and Ice Data Center.
What is the coldest place on Earth? Scientists say it’s a place so cold that ordinary mercury or alcohol thermometers won’t work there. At this place, the new record of minus 136 F (minus 93.2 C) was set on Aug. 10, 2010. Researchers analyzed data from several satellite instruments and found the coldest place on Earth in the past 32 years is … (...)
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Mapping Molecular Clouds Changes Astronomers Outlook On Starbirth

Mapping Molecular Clouds Changes Astronomers Outlook On Starbirth:
Molecular hydrogen in the Whirlpool Galaxy M51. The blueish features show the distribution of hydrogen molecules in M51, the raw material for forming new stars. The PAWS team has used this data to create a catalogue of more then 1,500 molecular clouds. The background is a color image of M51 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Superimposed in blue is the CO(1-0) radiation emitted by carbon monoxide (CO) molecules, as measured for the PAWS study using the millimeter telescopes of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique. The CO molecules are used as tracers for molecular hydrogen. Credit: PAWS team/IRAM/NASA HST/T. A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Mapping Molecular Clouds Changes Astronomers Outlook On Starbirth
Molecular hydrogen in the Whirlpool Galaxy M51. The blueish features show the distribution of hydrogen molecules in M51, the raw material for forming new stars. The PAWS team has used this data to create a catalogue of more then 1,500 molecular clouds. The background is a color image of M51 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Superimposed in blue is the CO(1-0) radiation emitted by carbon monoxide (CO) molecules, as measured for the PAWS study using the millimeter telescopes of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique. The CO molecules are used as tracers for molecular hydrogen. Credit: PAWS team/IRAM/NASA HST/T. A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)
It didn’t happen overnight. By studying the properties of giant molecular clouds in the Whirlpool Galaxy for several years with the millimeter telescopes of IRAM, the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique, astronomers have been given a whole, new look at star formation. Encompassing 1,500 maps of molecular clouds, this new research has found these building blocks of future suns to be encased in a sort of molecular hydrogen mist. This ethereal mixture appears to be far denser than speculated and is found throughout the galactic disc. What’s more, it would appear the pressure created by the molecular fog is a critical factor in determining whether or not stars are able to form within the clouds. (...)
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New Project Aims To Improve Galaxy Simulation — And Help Us Understand More About The Universe

New Project Aims To Improve Galaxy Simulation — And Help Us Understand More About The Universe:
Image of NGC 6872 (left) and companion galaxy IC 4970 (right) locked in a tango as the two galaxies gravitationally interact. The galaxies lie about 200 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pavo (the Peacock). Image credit: Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club, Travis Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage), Ángel López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory/Macquarie University), and the Australian Gemini Office.
New Project Aims To Improve Galaxy Simulation — And Help Us Understand More About The Universe
Image of NGC 6872 (left) and companion galaxy IC 4970 (right) locked in a tango as the two galaxies gravitationally interact. The galaxies lie about 200 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pavo (the Peacock). Image credit: Sydney Girls High School Astronomy Club, Travis Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage), Ángel López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory/Macquarie University), and the Australian Gemini Office.
Galaxy modelling is complicated, and even more so when different computer models don’t agree on how the factors come together. This makes it hard to understand the nature of our universe. One new project called AGORA (Assembling Galaxies of Resolved Anatomy) aims to resolve the discrepancies and make the results more consistent. Basically, the project aims to compare different codes against each other and also against observations.
“The physics of galaxy formation is extremely complicated, and the range of lengths, masses, and timescales that need to be simulated is immense,” stated Piero Madau, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz and co-chair of the AGORA steering committee.
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Young Boy’s Discovery Confirmed as a Peculiar Supernova Explosion

Young Boy’s Discovery Confirmed as a Peculiar Supernova Explosion:
Artist's sketch of a supernova explosion (credit: Adam Burn / Deviant art).
Young Boy’s Discovery Confirmed as a Peculiar Supernova Explosion
An artist’s sketch of a supernova explosion (credit: Adam Burn / deviantART).
New observations confirm that young Nathan Gray’s discovery is indeed a supernova explosion, albeit a rather peculiar one.  Nathan Gray, age 10, discovered a new cosmic source on October 30th that emerged in the constellation of Draco, and it was subsequently classified as a supernova candidate.  Evidence available at the time was sufficiently convincing that Nathan was promptly heralded as the youngest individual to discover a supernova.
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Stunning Movie Shows What Earth Looks Like to an Incoming Spacecraft

Stunning Movie Shows What Earth Looks Like to an Incoming Spacecraft:

When NASA’s Juno spacecraft flew past Earth in October of this year, it focused some of its cameras on the Earth-Moon system. Immediately after the flyby, images taken by the Junocam were released, but today, NASA released an amazing video taken by the Advanced Stellar Compass (ASC) camera, a low-light camera that is primarily used as a star tracking a navigation tool. Over the course of three days, it captured the orbital ballet-like dance between the Earth and Moon.
“This is profound, and I think our movie does the same thing as “Pale Blue Dot” image from Voyager, except it’s a movie instead of an image,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator, speaking during a press briefing from the American Geophysical Union conference today in San Fransisco. “Like Carl Sagan said, everything we know is on this dot. To me this says, ‘we’re all in this together.’”
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Space Shuttle-Sized Asteroid 2013 XY8 to Fly Past Earth on Dec. 11

Space Shuttle-Sized Asteroid 2013 XY8 to Fly Past Earth on Dec. 11:
Asteroid 2013 XY8 imaged on 2013, December 10, 2013 by E. Guido, N. Howes and M. Nicolini/Remanzacco Observatory.
Space Shuttle-Sized Asteroid 2013 XY8 to Fly Past Earth on Dec. 11
Asteroid 2013 XY8 imaged on 2013, December 10, 2013 by E. Guido, N. Howes and M. Nicolini/Remanzacco Observatory.
A newly-discovered asteroid about the size of a space shuttle will fly past Earth on December 11, 2013 at a very safe distance of 760,000 kilometers (470,000 miles). The closest approach of Asteroid 2013 XY8 will be 11:14 UT, and its size is estimated between 31 – 68 meters. This asteroid is zipping along at about 14 kilometers per second, and of course at about 2 lunar distances away, there is no danger of this asteroid hitting Earth. The asteroid was discovered on Dec. 7 by the team at the Catalina Sky Survey, and our friends Ernesto Guido, Nick Howes and Martino Nicolini from the Remanzacco Observatory have provided a follow-up image of the asteroid, taken just this morning.
You can see an animation of it here, and more information at their website.
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