Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Universe News : Two Observing Challenges: Catch Venus Passing Neptune And Occulting a Bright Star

Two Observing Challenges: Catch Venus Passing Neptune And Occulting a Bright Star:



The Milky Way, The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, Zodiacal Light, and Venus as seen from the Karoo Desert in South Africa early this month. Credit: Cory Schmitz.
Universe News : Two Observing Challenges: Catch Venus Passing Neptune And Occulting a Bright Star
The Milky Way, The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, Zodiacal Light, and Venus as seen from the Karoo Desert in South Africa early this month. Credit: Cory Schmitz.
 Have you been following the planet Venus this season? 2014 sees the brightest planet in our Earthly skies spend a majority of its time in the dawn. Shining at magnitude -3.8, it’s hard to miss in the morning twilight. But dazzling Venus is visiting two unique celestial objects over the next week, and both present unique observing challenges for the seasoned observer.(...)
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How CERN’s Discovery of Exotic Particles May Affect Astrophysics

How CERN’s Discovery of Exotic Particles May Affect Astrophysics:



The difference between a neutron star and a quark star (Chandra)
How CERN’s Discovery of Exotic Particles May Affect Astrophysics
The difference between a neutron star and a quark star (Chandra)
You may have heard that CERN announced the discovery of a strange particle known as Z(4430).  A paper summarizing the results has been published on the physics arxiv, which is a repository for preprint (not yet peer reviewed) physics papers.  The new particle is about 4 times more massive than a proton, has a negative charge, and appears to be a theoretical particle known as a tetraquark.  The results are still young, but if this discovery holds up it could have implications for our understanding of neutron stars.(...)
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Universe News : Supernova Sweeps Away Rubbish In New Composite Image

Supernova Sweeps Away Rubbish In New Composite Image:



The supernova remnant G352.7-0.1 in a composite image with X-rays from the Chandra X-Ray Telescope (blue), radio waves from the Very Large Array (pink), infrared information from the Spitzer Space Telescope (orange) and optical data from the Digital Sky Survey (white). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Morehead State Univ/T.Pannuti et al.; Optical: DSS; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Radio: NRAO/VLA/Argentinian Institute of Radioastronomy/G.Dubner
Universe News : Supernova Sweeps Away Rubbish In New Composite Image
The supernova remnant G352.7-0.1 in a composite image with X-rays from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (blue), radio waves from the Very Large Array (pink), infrared information from the Spitzer Space Telescope (orange) and optical data from the Digital Sky Survey (white). Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Morehead State Univ/T.Pannuti et al.; Optical: DSS; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Radio: NRAO/VLA/Argentinian Institute of Radioastronomy/G.Dubner
Shining 24,000 light-years from Earth is an expanding leftover of a supernova that is doing a great cleanup job in its neighborhood. As this new composite image from NASA reveals, G352.7-0.1 (G352 for short) is more efficient than expected, picking up debris equivalent to about 45 times the mass of the Sun.

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Backup Computer Glitches On Space Station But Crew Safe, NASA Says

Backup Computer Glitches On Space Station But Crew Safe, NASA Says:



The International Space Station. Credit: NASA
Backup Computer Glitches On Space Station But Crew Safe, NASA Says
The International Space Station. Credit: NASA
A backup computer that controls “some systems associated with robotics” on the International Space Station is not “responding to commands”, NASA said in a late-night statement Eastern time Friday (April 11).

The crew is safe, there’s no “immediate” change to space station operations, and because the primary computer is working, there’s also no alteration to the SpaceX Dragon launch to the station on Monday – which requires the robotic Canadarm2 for berthing. NASA added, however, that there are “further evaluations” going on, meaning the date could change depending on what controllers figure out.

If the computer does need to be replaced, crew members of Expedition 39 will need to do at least one spacewalk, the agency added. NASA is allowing contingency spacewalks in American spacesuits to go forward as the agency addresses problems raised in a report about a life-threatening spacesuit leak in July.

Below the jump is the statement NASA put out tonight concerning the situation.

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Failed Space Station Computer Spurs Contingency Spacewalk Plans

Failed Space Station Computer Spurs Contingency Spacewalk Plans:



A view of the International Space Station as seen by the last departing space shuttle crew, STS-135. Credit: NASA
Failed Space Station Computer Spurs Contingency Spacewalk Plans
A view of the International Space Station as seen by the last departing space shuttle crew, STS-135. Credit: NASA
NASA is preparing a contingency spacewalk to deal with a broken backup computer component on the International Space Station, the agency said in an update Saturday (April 12). While there’s no timeline yet for the spacewalk, the agency must consider carefully when to do it given a cargo ship is supposed to arrive at station on Wednesday.

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft — already delayed due to an unrelated radar problem — is still scheduled to launch Monday at 4:58 p.m. EDT (8:58 p.m. UTC) to arrive at station two days later. Although the computer controls some robotic systems, NASA added the Canadarm2 that will grapple Dragon has other redundancies in place. The question is if the station itself has enough redundancy for the launch to go forward.

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Universe News : Spin! Crab Pulsar Speed Jumps Linked To Billions Of Tiny Vortices

Spin! Crab Pulsar Speed Jumps Linked To Billions Of Tiny Vortices:



Artist's conception of a gamma-ray pulsar. Gamma rays are shown in purple, and radio radiation in green. Credit: NASA/Fermi/Cruz de Wilde
Universe News : Spin! Crab Pulsar Speed Jumps Linked To Billions Of Tiny Vortices
Artist’s conception of a gamma-ray pulsar. Gamma rays are shown in purple, and radio radiation in green. Credit: NASA/Fermi/Cruz de Wilde
Pulsars — those supernova leftovers that are incredibly dense and spin very fast — may change their speed due to activity of billions of vortices in the fluid beneath their surface, a new study says.

The work is based on a combination of research and modelling and looks at the Crab Nebula pulsar, which has periodic slowdowns in its rotation of at least 0.055 nanoseconds. Occasionally, the Crab and other pulsars see their spins speed up in an event called a “glitch”. Luckily for astronomers, there is a wealth of data on Crab because the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the United Kingdom looked at it almost daily for the last 29 years.

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ECLIPSE : Webcasts and Forecasts for Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse

Webcasts and Forecasts for Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse:



The December 21st 2010 Solstice eclipse. Photos by author.
ECLIPSE : Webcasts and Forecasts for Tonight’s Total Lunar Eclipse
The December 21st 2010 Solstice eclipse. Photos by author.
Are you ready for some eclipse action? We’re now within 24 hours of the Moon reaching its ascending node along the ecliptic at 13:25 Universal Time (UT)/ 9:25 AM EDT on Tuesday morning and meeting the shadow of the Earth just over seven hours earlier.(...)
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Universe news : Comet ISON Photo Contest Winners Rock the House!

Comet ISON Photo Contest Winners Rock the House!:



Universe news : Comet ISON Photo Contest Winners Rock the House!
Universe news : Comet ISON Photo Contest Winners Rock the House!
“Comet ISON” — People’s Choice award winner: Eric Cardoso, Setúbal, Portugal. Credit: Eric Cardoso
Comet ISON’s gone but positively not forgotten. The National Science Foundation today shared the results of their Comet ISON Photography Contest. You’ll recognize many of the names because so many of their photos have graced stories written for Universe Today. (...)
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UNIVERSE NEWS : Is Saturn Making a New Moon?

Is Saturn Making a New Moon?:

A 750-mile (1,200-km) -long feature spotted on Saturn's A ring by Cassini on April 15, 2013
UNIVERSE NEWS : Is Saturn Making a New Moon?
A 750-mile (1,200-km) -long feature spotted on Saturn’s A ring by Cassini on April 15, 2013
Congratulations! It’s a baby… moon? A bright clump spotted orbiting Saturn at the outermost edge of its A ring may be a brand new moon in the process of being born, according to research recently published in the journal Icarus.

“We have not seen anything like this before,” said Carl Murray of Queen Mary University in London, lead author of the paper. “We may be looking at the act of birth, where this object is just leaving the rings and heading off to be a moon in its own right.”

(...)

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Sunday, March 30, 2014

AMAZING PHOTO : Amazing Aurora in Alaska, March 2014

Amazing Aurora in Alaska, March 2014:

Aurora seen near Fairbanks, Alaska on March 21, 2014. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.

Aurora seen near Fairbanks, Alaska on March 21, 2014. Credit and copyright: John Chumack.
Every year, our friend and astrophotographer extraordinaire John Chumack co-leads a tour to Alaska on how to photograph the northern lights and the night sky, and this year they hit paydirt. “Absolutely amazing aurora about 30 minutes outside Fairbanks, Alaska!!!!” John wrote via email. “I took over 450 photos of it, I watched it dance and sway from 9:30pm until 4:00am!!! It got so bright at times it turn the snow green, to red to purple too!”

Sounds incredible, and here are some great pictures to showcase what John and his friends saw. If you have an aurora trip on your bucket list, you can find out more about the Alaskan astrophotography tour here.

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PHOTO : Seen From Space! Crew’s Rocket Launch Spotted By NASA Astronaut In Orbit

Seen From Space! Crew’s Rocket Launch Spotted By NASA Astronaut In Orbit:

The launch of Expedition 39/40's Steve Swanson, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev in Kazakhstan as seen from space. Picture captured by NASA's Rick Mastracchio aboard the International Space Station on March 25, 2014. Credit: Rick Mastracchio

The launch of Expedition 39/40′s Steve Swanson, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev in Kazakhstan as seen from space. Picture captured by NASA’s Rick Mastracchio aboard the International Space Station on March 25, 2014. Credit: Rick Mastracchio
Seriously, how cool is this picture? The International Space Station crew caught an incredible view of their three future crewmates rocketing up to meet them today around 5:17 p.m. EDT (9:17 p.m. UTC).

Expedition 39′s Rick Mastracchio (from NASA) shared this on Twitter, casually mentioning that he will expect more crewmates to arrive later today. Upon the rocket were Steve Swanson (NASA), Alexander Skvortsov (Roscosmos) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos).

Check out the launch video and some NASA pictures of the activities below the jump.

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Rocky Alien Planet Leftovers ‘Polluted’ White Dwarf Stars With Metal

Rocky Alien Planet Leftovers ‘Polluted’ White Dwarf Stars With Metal:

Artist’s impression of a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star. Credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech / T. Pyle (SSC)

Artist’s impression of a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star. Credit: NASA-JPL / Caltech / T. Pyle (SSC)
What’s with all the metals in the atmosphere of white dwarfs, those things that are corpses of stars like our own Sun? While before scientists had theories about levitating star layers that “polluted” the white dwarfs, new research shows it’s more likely due to rocky material. More specifically, material left over from planet formation.

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Surprise! Asteroid Hosts A Two-Ring Circus Above Its Surface

Surprise! Asteroid Hosts A Two-Ring Circus Above Its Surface:

Artist's impression of what the rings of the asteroid Chariklo would look like from the small body's surface. The rings' discovery was a first for an asteroid. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)

Artist’s impression of what the rings of the asteroid Chariklo would look like from the small body’s surface. The rings’ discovery was a first for an asteroid. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)
Rings are a tough phenomenon to spot. As late as 1977, astronomers thought that the only thing in the solar system with rings was the planet Saturn. Now, we can add the first asteroid to the list of ringed bodies nearby us. The asteroid 10199 Chariklo hosts two rings, perhaps due to a collision that caused a chain of debris circling its tiny surface.

Besides the 250-kilometer (155-mile) Chariklo, the only other ringed bodies known to us so far are (in order of discovery) Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and Neptune.

“We weren’t looking for a ring and didn’t think small bodies like Chariklo had them at all, so the discovery — and the amazing amount of detail we saw in the system — came as a complete surprise,” stated Felipe Braga-Ribas  of the National Observatory (Observatório Nacional) in Brazil, who led the paper about the discovery.

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PHOTO : Discovery! Possible Dwarf Planet Found Far Beyond Pluto’s Orbit

Discovery! Possible Dwarf Planet Found Far Beyond Pluto’s Orbit:

Artist's conception of Sedna, a dwarf planet in the solar system that only gets within 76 astronomical units (Earth-sun distances) of our sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Artist’s conception of Sedna, a dwarf planet in the solar system that only gets within 76 astronomical units (Earth-sun distances) of our sun. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
What is a dwarf planet? Some astronomers have been asking that question after Pluto was demoted from planethood almost a decade ago, partly due to discoveries of other worlds of similar proportions.

Today, astronomers announced the discovery of 2012 VP113, a world that, assuming its reflectivity is moderate, is 280 miles (450 kilometers) in size and orbiting even further away from the sun than Pluto or even the more distant Sedna (announced in 2004). If 2012 VP113 is made up mostly of ice, this would make it large (and round) enough to be a dwarf planet, the astronomers said.

Peering further into 2012 VP113′s discovery, however, brings up several questions. What are the boundaries of the Oort Cloud, the region of icy bodies where the co-discoverers say it resides? Was it placed there due to a sort of Planet X? And what is the definition of a dwarf planet anyway?

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Rosetta Spacecraft Spies Its Comet As It Prepares For An August Encounter

Rosetta Spacecraft Spies Its Comet As It Prepares For An August Encounter:

The Rosetta spacecraft saw its destination (Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko) on March 20, 2014 from about three million miles (five million kilometers) away. The comet is in the small circle next to the globular star cluster M107. ESA/MPS for OSIRIS-Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

The Rosetta spacecraft saw its destination (Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko) on March 20, 2014 from about three million miles (five million kilometers) away. The comet is in the small circle next to the globular star cluster M107. ESA/MPS for OSIRIS-Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
As Rosetta limbers up for its close-up encounter with a comet, we have visual confirmation that it’s on the right track! The comet spied its destination – Comet 67P/Churymov-Gerasimenko — using its OSIRIS wide-angle camera and narrow-angle camera on March 20 and March 21.

“Finally seeing our target after a 10 year journey through space is an incredible feeling,” stated OSIRIS principal investigator Holger Sierks from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. “These first images taken from such a huge distance show us that OSIRIS is ready for the upcoming adventure.”

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VIDEO : Stunning 3D Tours of Two Well-Known Nebulae

Stunning 3D Tours of Two Well-Known Nebulae:



Two videos recently released by the Hubble team take us on a tour of two famous and intriguing cosmic objects: the stellar wind-blown “celestial snow angel” Sharpless 2-106 and the uncannily equine Horsehead Nebula, imaged in infrared wavelengths by the HST.

Using Hubble imagery complemented with data from the Subaru Infrared Telescope and ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy — VISTA, for short — the videos show us an approximation of the three-dimensional structures of these objects relative to the stars surrounding them, providing a perspective otherwise impossible from our viewpoint on Earth.

The stellar nursery Sharpless 2-106 is above; hop on the Horsehead Nebula tour below:

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PHOTO : What Does the Grand Canyon Look Like from Space?

What Does the Grand Canyon Look Like from Space?:

Image of the Grand Canyon from the International Space Station on March 26, 2014. Credit: NASA/JAXA Koichi Wakata.

Image of the Grand Canyon from the International Space Station on March 26, 2014. Credit: NASA/JAXA Koichi Wakata.
Can you spot the Grand Canyon in this picture? It is surprisingly hard to see. Astronaut Koichi Wakata took this picture on March 26, 2014 from the International Space Station, and thankfully he provided a clue: look bottom center portion in the photo.

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Slip-Sliding Away: Solar Flare’s Magnetic Lines Go For A Loop In This Video

Slip-Sliding Away: Solar Flare’s Magnetic Lines Go For A Loop In This Video:



When will the next big solar flare occur? How much damage could it cause to power lines and satellites? These are important questions for those looking to protect our infrastructure, but there’s still a lot we need to figure out concerning space weather.

The video above, however, shows magnetic lines weaving together from the surface of the Sun in 2012, eventually creating an eruption that was 35 times our planet’s size and sending out a surge of energy. It’s these energetic flares that can hit Earth’s atmosphere and cause auroras and power surges.

While models of this have been made before, this is the first time the phenomenon was caught in action. Scientists saw it using NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

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PHOTO : An Afternoon on Mars

An Afternoon on Mars:

A post-processed mosaic of MSL Mastcam images from Sol 582 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Edit by Jason Major)

A post-processed mosaic of MSL Mastcam images from Sol 582 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Edit by Jason Major)
Here’s a pretty picture for your Friday: a mosaic of Mastcam images acquired by Curiosity on mission Sol 582, also known to us Earthlings as Thursday, March 27, 2014. Barsoom sure looks lovely this time of year!

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Sunday, March 23, 2014

Hubble Captures Starbirth In A Monkey’s Head As Telescope Approaches 24 Years In Space

Hubble Captures Starbirth In A Monkey’s Head As Telescope Approaches 24 Years In Space:



A 2014 image of NGC 2174 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

A 2014 image of NGC 2174 by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Billowing gas clouds and young stars feature in this February Hubble Space Telescope image, released as the telescope approaches its 24th birthday this coming April. The telescope has seen a lot of drama over the years, but in this case, thankfully the excitement is taking place 6,400 light-years away. Here you can see starbirth in action in the nebula NGC 2174, which is sometimes called the Monkey Head Nebula.

“This region is filled with young stars embedded within bright wisps of cosmic gas and dust. Dark dust clouds billow outwards, framed against a background of bright blue gas. These striking hues were formed by combining several Hubble images taken through different coloured filters, revealing a broad range of colours not normally visible to our eyes,” the European Space Agency wrote.

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Dusty Galaxies Shine Across The Universe In New Herschel Survey

Dusty Galaxies Shine Across The Universe In New Herschel Survey:



A portion of a collage of galaxies included in the Herschel Reference Survey, in false color to show different dust temperatures. (Blue is colder, and red is warmer). Credit: ESA/Herschel/HRS-SAG2 and HeViCS Key Programmes/L. Cortese (Swinburne University)

A portion of a collage of galaxies included in the Herschel Reference Survey, in false color to show different dust temperatures. (Blue is colder, and red is warmer). Credit: ESA/Herschel/HRS-SAG2 and HeViCS Key Programmes/L. Cortese (Swinburne University)
While dust is easy to ignore in small quantities (says the writer looking at her desk), across vast reaches of space this substance plays an important role. Stick enough grains together, the theory goes, and you’ll start to form rocks and eventually planets. On a galaxy-size scale, dust may even effect how the galaxy evolves.

A new survey of 323 galaxies reveals that dust is not only affected by the kinds of stars in the vicinity, but also what the galaxy is made of.

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First Microlensing Detection of a Planet Circling a Brown Dwarf Candidate

First Microlensing Detection of a Planet Circling a Brown Dwarf Candidate:



This artist's conception could resemble a planetary system in front of a background star. Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Francis Reddy

This artist’s conception could resemble a planetary system in front of a background star. Image Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Francis Reddy
When astronomers detect new exoplanets they typically do so using one of two techniques. First, there’s the famous transit technique, which looks for slight dips in light as a planet passes in front of its host star, and second is the radial velocity technique, which senses the motion of a star due to the gravitational pull of its planet.

But then there is gravitational microlensing, the chance magnification of the light from a distant star by the mass of a foreground star and its planets due to the distortion in the fabric of spacetime. While this technique sounds almost improbable, it is so accurate that every detection skips nominating planets as candidates and immediately verifies them as bona-fide worlds.

But without follow-up observations, the microlensing technique struggles with characterizing the incredibly faint host star. Now, a team of international astronomers led by PhD candidate Jennifer Yee from Ohio State University has detected the first microlensing signature, lovingly called MOA-2013-BLG-220Lb, that looks like a confirmed planet orbiting a candidate brown dwarf — an object so faint because it isn’t massive enough to kick-off nuclear fusion in its core.

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Surf’s Up on Titan! Cassini May Have Spotted Waves in Titan’s Seas

Surf’s Up on Titan! Cassini May Have Spotted Waves in Titan’s Seas:



Cassini VIMS image of specular reflections in one of Titan's lakes from a flyby on July 24, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Jason W. Barnes et al.)

Cassini VIMS image showing specular reflections in one of Titan’s many lakes during the T85 flyby on July 24, 2012 (NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/Jason W. Barnes et al.)
It’s no surprise that Titan’s north polar region is covered with vast lakes and seas of liquid methane — these have been imaged many times by Cassini during its ten years in orbit around Saturn. What is surprising though is just how incredibly smooth the surfaces of these lakes have been found to be.

One would think that such large expanses of surface liquid — some of Titan’s seas are as big the Great Lakes — would exhibit at least a little surface action on a world with an atmosphere as dense as Titan’s. But repeated radar imaging has shown their surfaces to be “as smooth as the paint on a car.” Over the past several years scientists have puzzled over this anomaly but now they may have truly seen the light — that is, reflected light from what could actually be waves on Titan!

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