Friday, December 13, 2013

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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Foom! Morpheus Project Lander Roars In Free Flight Test

Foom! Morpheus Project Lander Roars In Free Flight Test:
NASA's Morpheus Project -- a prototype for vertical landing and takeoff for other planets -- during a free flight test Dec. 10, 2013. Credit: NASA (@MorpheusLander Twitter feed)
Foom! Morpheus Project Lander Roars In Free Flight Test
NASA’s Morpheus Project — a prototype for vertical landing and takeoff for other planets — during a free flight test Dec. 10, 2013. Credit: NASA (@MorpheusLander Twitter feed)
What an otherworldly experience, without having to leave Earth! The Morpheus Project wrapped up a successful free-flight test yesterday. That picture above is just to whet your appetite for the actual video, which you can see (and definitely hear) after the jump below.
“WOOOOHOOOOO! How about them apples?!” the @MorpheusLander Twitter feed said shortly after the test wrapped up with a takeoff, hover and landing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. ”Successful #FREEFLIGHT @NASAKennedy today!” the feed added later. “Get ready for us to #increasetheawesome as we progress through our tests!”
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The Search For Life On Europa Could Center On Celestial Party-Crashers

The Search For Life On Europa Could Center On Celestial Party-Crashers:
Jupiter's moon, Europa, appears to have clay-like minerals on it (visible in blue in the false-color patch, amid red-colored water ice). The information came from new data analysis from NASA's Galileo mission, which concluded in 2003. The backdrop is a mosaic of visual-light images from Galileo's Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI
The Search For Life On Europa Could Center On Celestial Party-Crashers
Jupiter’s moon, Europa, appears to have clay-like minerals on it (visible in blue in the false-color patch, amid red-colored water ice). The information came from new data analysis from NASA’s Galileo mission, which concluded in 2003. The backdrop is a mosaic of visual-light images from Galileo’s Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI
The cool thing about space missions is long after they conclude, the data can yield the most interesting information. Here’s an example: Jupiter’s moon Europa may have a ripe spot for organic materials to take root.
Scouring the data from NASA’s past Galileo mission — which ended a decade ago — scientists unveiled an area with “clay-like minerals” on it that came to be after an asteroid or comet smashed into the surface. The connection? These celestial party-crashers often carry organics with them.
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Astronauts Safe As NASA Investigates Space Station Cooling Problem, Agency Says

Astronauts Safe As NASA Investigates Space Station Cooling Problem, Agency Says:
A view of the International Space Station as seen by the last departing space shuttle crew, STS-135. Credit: NASA
Astronauts Safe As NASA Investigates Space Station Cooling Problem, Agency Says
A view of the International Space Station as seen by the last departing space shuttle crew, STS-135. Credit: NASA
A cooling problem on the International Space Station has resulted in partial shutdowns of noncritical systems on the Harmony node, Columbus Laboratory and Japanese Kibo laboratory, NASA said yesterday (Dec. 11).
The agency emphasized that the six-person Expedition 38 crew is not in danger and that its ground control teams are working as quickly as possible to resolve the issue. While a spacewalk is a possibility to fix the problem, it’s too early to say what NASA and other space station partners will decide to do, officials added.
Update, 11:16 a.m. EST: After spending the night moving critical systems to a single cooling loop and verifying the configuration was stable, controllers on the ground plan to move the troublesome valve to several positions and monitor the effect on cooling temperatures, according to a NASA TV update. The crew is going about their activities as much as possible, although they’re on a “reduced timeline” because some non-critical payloads aren’t running as usual. NASA also said it’s looking at whether the expected Dec. 18 launch of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft to station can proceed as planned.
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Hubble Discovers Water Plumes Erupting from Europa

Hubble Discovers Water Plumes Erupting from Europa:
UV observations from Hubble show the size of water vapor plumes coming from Europa's south pole (NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser)
Hubble Discovers Water Plumes Erupting from Europa
UV observations from Hubble show the size of water vapor plumes coming from Europa’s south pole (Artist’s impression. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Kornmesser)
It’s been known since 2005 that Saturn’s 300-mile-wide moon Enceladus has geysers spewing ice and dust out into orbit from deep troughs that rake across its south pole. Now, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, we know of another moon with similar jets: Europa, the ever-enigmatic ice-shelled moon of Jupiter. This makes two places in our Solar System where subsurface oceans could be getting sprayed directly into space — and within easy reach of any passing spacecraft.
The findings were announced today during the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
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Argon – The First Noble Gas Molecules Discovered In Space

Argon – The First Noble Gas Molecules Discovered In Space:
Messier 1 Hubble Image: Credit - NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
Argon – The First Noble Gas Molecules Discovered In Space
Messier 1 Hubble Image: Credit – NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
There are only six of them: radon, helium, neon, krypton, xenon and the first molecules to be discovered in space – argon. They are all odorless, colorless, monatomic gases with very low chemical reactivity. So where did a team of astronomers using ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory make their rather unusual discovery? Try Messier 1… The “Crab” Nebula! (...)
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Fast Radio Bursts May Originate Closer to Home Than Previously Thought

Fast Radio Bursts May Originate Closer to Home Than Previously Thought:
Fast Radio Bursts May Originate Closer to Home Than Previously Thought
Fast Radio Bursts May Originate Closer to Home Than Previously Thought
Our active sun imaged in Sept. 1999. Image Credit: NASA/SDO
Fast radio bursts — eruptions of extreme energy that occur only once and last a thousandth of a second — are continuing to defy astronomers.  At first observations suggested they came from billions of light years away. A new study, however, points to sources much closer to home: nearby flaring stars.
“We have argued that fast radio burst sources need not be exotic events at cosmological distances, but rather could be due to extreme magnetic activity in nearby Galactic stars,” said Harvard professor Abraham Loeb in the study.
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This Picture Symbolizes The Changing Mission Of One Plucky Spacecraft

This Picture Symbolizes The Changing Mission Of One Plucky Spacecraft:
The Helix nebula is visible in the center of this image, surrounded by tracks of asteroids that are much closer to Earth (yellow dots). Click on the image to see them. The streaks you see are from satellites or cosmic rays. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
This Picture Symbolizes The Changing Mission Of One Plucky Spacecraft
The Helix nebula is visible in the center of this image, surrounded by tracks of asteroids that are much closer to Earth (yellow dots). Click on the image to see them. The streaks you see are from satellites or cosmic rays. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
Besides being a darn pretty picture of the Helix nebula, this snapshot is a bit of symbolism for NASA. The spacecraft that nabbed this view is called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. If you look very carefully — you may have to click on the picture for a closer view — you can see little dots showing the paths of asteroids in the picture. (The streaks are cosmic rays and satellites.)
WISE has an interesting history. It began as a telescope seeking secrets of the universe in infrared light, but ran out of coolant in 2010 and was repurposed for asteroid searching under the NEOWISE mission. It wrapped up its mission, was put into hibernation in February 2011, then reactivated this August to look for asteroids again for at least the next three years. You can see some pictures and data WISE collected during its mission below the jump.
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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

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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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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Astrophoto: Zodiacal Light at Dawn

Astrophoto: Zodiacal Light at Dawn:
The morning zodiacal as seen from near Rodeo, New Mexico, looking east at 5:00 am December 6, 2013. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.
Astrophoto: Zodiacal Light at Dawn
The morning zodiacal as seen from near Rodeo, New Mexico, looking east at 5:00 am December 6, 2013. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.
Sometimes, if you are lucky, dawn comes before the dawn. The zodiacal light – or false dawn, as it is sometimes called – is an ethereal light extending up from the horizon, sometimes seen about an hour before sunrise or an hour after sunset. At one time, it was thought this was an atmospheric phenomenon, but it’s more cosmic than that! Zodiacal light is sunlight reflecting off dust grains in space. These dust grains are likely left over from the same process that created Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago.
Alan Dyer captured this beautiful view of the zodiacal light on a recent trip to New Mexico. If you look closely you can see some other cosmic phenomena as well: “Mars is above centre and Saturn is just rising over the mountain ridge,” Alan wrote on Flickr. “Comet Lovejoy C/2013 R1 is at far left. The image includes the position (left of centre, above the mountains left of the Zodiacal Light) where Comet ISON (C/2012 S2) would have been had it survived passage around the Sun.”
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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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Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Hubble Finds ‘Clear Signal’ of Water in 5 Exoplanet Atmospheres

Hubble Finds ‘Clear Signal’ of Water in 5 Exoplanet Atmospheres:
To determine what’s in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, astronomers watch the planet pass in front of its host star and look at which wavelengths of light are transmitted and which are partially absorbed. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Hubble Finds ‘Clear Signal’ of Water in 5 Exoplanet Atmospheres
To determine what’s in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, astronomers watch the planet pass in front of its host star and look at which wavelengths of light are transmitted and which are partially absorbed. Credit:
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
For the first time, astronomers have found conclusive evidence of water in the hazy atmospheres of planets orbiting other stars. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, two teams of scientists found faint but clear signatures of water in the atmospheres of five exoplanets. All five are so-called ‘hot Jupiters,’ massive worlds that orbit close to their host stars.
“To actually detect the atmosphere of an exoplanet is extraordinarily difficult. But we were able to pull out a very clear signal, and it is water,” said Drake Deming from the University of Maryland, who led a study characterizing the atmospheres of two of the five planets.
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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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Monday, December 2, 2013

Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China’s First Rover ‘Yutu’ to the Moon

Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China’s First Rover ‘Yutu’ to the Moon:
Liftoff of China’s first ever lunar rover on Dec. 2 local China time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. Credit: CCTV
Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China’s First Rover ‘Yutu’ to the Moon
Liftoff of China’s first ever lunar rover on Dec. 2 local Beijing time from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, China. Credit: CCTV
Story updated
See stunning launch video and rover deployment animation below
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – China successfully launched its first ever lunar rover bound for the Moon’s surface aboard a Long March rocket today at 1:30 a.m. Beijing local time, Dec. 2, 2013 (12:30 p.m. EST, Dec. 1) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.
The spectacular night time blastoff of the Long March-3B carrier rocket with the ‘Yutu’ rover was carried live on China’s state run CCTV enabling viewers worldwide to watch the dramatic proceedings as they occurred in real time – including fantastic imagery of booster jettison, spacecraft separation, thruster firings and exquisite views of Earth from cameras aboard the booster.
See the stunning launch video below. (...)
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Gorgeous Astrophoto: Montage of Comet ISON

Gorgeous Astrophoto: Montage of Comet ISON:
A montage of images of Comet ISON taken from September 24 to November 15, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.
Gorgeous Astrophoto: Montage of Comet ISON
A montage of images of Comet ISON taken from September 24 to November 15, 2013. Credit and copyright: Damian Peach.
Astrophotographer Damian Peach has wowed us with his images of Comet ISON the past few months. Here’s a montage of some of his best images from September 24 to November 15.
“This may well be my final word on it.” Damian said via email, “but here it is growing in brightness on approach to its best in mid-late November.”
And while it appears there’s a ghost of ISON out there with a blob of dust in the latest views from the Sun-studying satellites, it won’t give us the views we had hoped for. But its been a fun experience the past few months, watching what unfolded. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride with your images, Damian!
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Sunday, December 1, 2013

India’s First Mars Probe ‘MOM’ Blasts Free of Earth Joining MAVEN in Race to Red Planet

India’s First Mars Probe ‘MOM’ Blasts Free of Earth Joining MAVEN in Race to Red Planet:
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) swings around Earth on its final orbit and breaks free of the Home Planet following final engine burn on Dec. 1 placing her on Mars Transfer Trajectory in this artists concept. Credit: ISRO
India’s First Mars Probe ‘MOM’ Blasts Free of Earth Joining MAVEN in Race to Red Planet
India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) swings around Earth on its final orbit and breaks free of the Home Planet following final engine burn on Dec. 1 placing her on Mars Transfer Trajectory in this artists concept. Credit: ISRO
CAPE CANAVERAL, FL – India’s first ever Mars probe ‘MOM’ successfully fired its main engine today (Dec. 1), blasting the craft free of the Earth’s sphere of influence forever to begin her nearly yearlong momentous voyage to the Red Planet.
Indian space engineers initiated the 440 Newton liquid fueled engine firing precisely as planned at 00:49 hrs (IST) on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013 during a critical nail-biting burn lasting some 22 minutes.
The Trans Mars Insertion (TMI) firing propelled India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) away from Earth forever and placed the spacecraft on course for a rendezvous with the Red Planet (...)
Read the rest of India’s First Mars Probe ‘MOM’ Blasts Free of Earth Joining MAVEN in Race to Red Planet (1,031 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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