Clipmarks | JohnWaterman's Astronomy collection

Hubble Advent Calendar

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:38:09 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Once more, we enter the month of December and the traditional western Holiday Season, and once again, I'd like to present a Hubble Space Telescope imagery Advent Calendar for 2009. Keep checking this page, because every day, for the next 25 days, a new photo will be revealed here from the Hubble Space Telescope, some old and some new. I have felt extremely fortunate to have been able to share photographs and stories with you all this year, and I wish for a Happy Holiday to all those who will celebrate, and for Peace on Earth to everyone. - Alan (25 photos total - eventually) [previously: the 2008 calendar]

Saving Hubble

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:46:14 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

[Video]

In a world where you have just one chance to save a dying explorer, the only hope is a space shuttle mission …(said in my deepest, most dramatic voice….) Enjoy this movie-like trailer for the upcoming NOVA special on PBS stations in the US, "Hubble's Amazing Rescue." It looks like a great show, providing the chance to re-live the exciting 12-day Hubble Servicing Mission 4 and its five pressure-filled spacewalks. Hubble's Amazing Rescue premieres Tuesday, October 16th at 8PM ET/PT on PBS. Find out more about the show and check local listings for your area here.

If We Live in a Multiverse, How Many Are There?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:22:57 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Apparently "The total amount of information that can be absorbed by one individual during a lifetime is about 10^16 bits."

A visit to the source article is recommended.

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Theoretical physics has brought us the notion that our single universe is not necessarily the only game in town. Satellite data from WMAP, along with string theory and its 11- dimensional hyperspace idea has produced the concept of the multiverse, where the Big Bang could have produced many different universes instead of a single uniform universe. The idea has gained popularity recently, so it was only a matter of time until someone asked the question of how many multiverses could possibly exist. The number, according to two physicists, could be "humongous."

Using all of this (and more – see their paper here) Linde and Vanchurin calculate that the number of universes in the multiverse and could be at least 10^10^10^7,

The next question, then, is how many universes could we actually see?

the properties of the observer become an important factor

a limit to the amount of information that can be contained within any given volume of space, and by the limits of the human brain

50 trippy years of space trips

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:43:22 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

In October of 1957, the Soviet Union started the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik. Since then, a lot of spacecraft have wended their way through the solar system and beyond. Trying to visualize all those trips can be mind-bending, so what better way to do so then to make a mind-bending graphic?

The good folks at National Geographic have done just that. Check this out:

This clever image displays all the space missions to various bodies. If an object (like the Moon) has a thicker spiral wound around it, then that means it’s been visited more times. Here’s some detail:

This shows a stylized view of the 73 missions that went to the Moon in the past 5 decades, and has some info on each. The original map is zoomable and pannable, so you can spend some time fooling around there

Take a look at the bottom, too, and you’ll find a scaled view of the solar system with spacecraft positions. Look how far away Voyager 1 is! There’s also a static version of the image online,

Black Holes Face Off In Galactic Death Match

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:14:37 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

In a few million years, in a galaxy far, far away, two black holes will collide, generating gravitational waves of epic proportions. Hold tight, this fight is about to get super-massive.

In NGC 6240, a galaxy located 400 million light-years from the Milky Way, two supermassive black holes are locked in a battle that will eventually end in a mammoth collision

In fact, the collision of two supermassive black holes is as energetic as it can get, generating powerful ripples through the fabric of space. The two supermassive black holes in NGC 6240 are expected to merge as one super-supermassive black hole once the dust has eventually settled.

ripples are known as gravitational waves

In this striking image, optical light (from the Hubble Space Telescope) and X-ray data (from the Chandra X-ray Observatory) have been combined, highlighting the two supermassive black holes as they stare at each other across the chaos of disturbed stars, dust and hot gas in the center of NGC 6240.

Why We All Love HiRISE

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:47:26 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

My description of this image: "Holy moly — what a gorgeous shot!" NASA's description of this image: "Layers in the lower portion of two neighboring buttes within the Noctis Labyrinthus formation on Mars are visible in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."

Absolutely beautiful. Click the image for access to larger versions. 'Nuf said.

Two Hubble Stunners

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:05:29 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

reset your awe-meter. Check. This. Out.

D’ya like that? Huh? Do ya? Had enough? No? Then check THIS out!

Jeebus. Click either to brobdingnangate. In fact, you can get massively huge versions here and here. We’re talking 30 and 40 Mb each, so be ye fairly warned, says I

If they look funny to you, then good! The Virgo Cluster is massive, and has a lot of gravity. The galaxies bound to it are moving like bees surrounding a hive, each in its own orbit going every which way. These galaxies are screaming through the cluster at speeds of 10 million kilometers per hour, a truly terrifying velocity.

These pictures are incredible. Poke around them; you can see amazing detail in the galaxies themselves, as well as hundreds, maybe thousands of background galaxies.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen deep, glorious pictures of spiral galaxies from Hubble. Now that ACS is working again, and it’s being joined by the equally powerful Wide Field Camera 3, we’ll be seeing lots more of these

Behold, Saturn!

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:21:05 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Not getting enough Holy crap! in your life? Then try this on for size

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Not getting enough Holy crap! in your life? Then try this on for size:

Holy crap!

Oh yes, you definitely want to click on that to embiggen the heck out of it. This teeny 610 pixel wide version does nothing to give you the sense of awe and glory in this spectacular picture. The full size image is a whopping 7227 x 3847 pixels! Warning: you’ll lose an hour of your life gaping at it

This picture keeps on giving, too. You can spot several moons if you look in the embiggenatisized version (most obvious is Janus on the left; all of the moons have had their brightness enhanced to make them more easily visible in this image). You can also see the subtle swirls and whorls of storms in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. And what’s that dark line on Saturn’s equator? That’s the shadow of the rings themselves, narrowed to a thin line due to the Sun angle.

Check. This. Out.

This is an old image

a long streak, which I’ve highlighted with red arrows

expanding cloud of debris from the impact of a small meteoroid

GigaGalaxy Zoom

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:37:20 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: 340 Million Pixels

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Second image from GigaGalaxy Zoom

The GigaGalaxy Zoom project was create especially for the International Year of Astronomy.

Clip Source: www.gigagalaxyzoom.org

Hubble. Is. Back!

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:34:14 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

After a long and nervous wait for those of us stuck on Earth, the world’s most famous observatory is back on the job! Behold!

Click to embiggen. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team

W00t!

That’s NGC 6217, a spiral galaxy as seen by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, a workhorse detector on Hubble that went on the fritz in January 2007. But when the STS-125 brought the Space Shuttle Atlantis to Hubble, it also carried two new cameras and the tools to fix two older, busted ones, including ACS. After a daring series of repairs and upgrades, Hubble is now back up to speed

But there’s more! Check out this deep image of the cluster Omega Centauri:

Wow! This picture is from the newly installed Wide Field Camera 3

a giant ball of millions of stars that orbits the Milky Way

stars at all stages of evolution, from slowly glowing yellow to furiously churning red — stars at the ends of their lives, about to fizzle out into tiny, hot white dwarfs — and finally sapphire blue stars

Spectacular new ISS picture… from the ground!

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:09:45 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

The very talented astrophotographer Ralf Vandebergh has done it again! He’s captured an astonishing view of the International Space Station:

Wow. You may remember Ralf’s earlier ISS shot, or when he caught an astronaut doing an EVA.

This image was taken on August 29, before the current Discovery mission, and shows the station gleaming in sunlight.

Mind you, this shot was taken with a 10 inch telescope, which is considered small-to-moderate in size these days. Even more amazing, Ralf manually tracks the telescope while taking pictures of the station! No fancy computers autoguiding or anything like that. Just good old-fashioned steady hands and lots and lots of practice.

Congrats to Ralf for another incredible shot!

I’ve taken my family to a local dimly lit parking lot a couple of times to see ISS pass overhead, in the evening.

One time in particular I think Endeavour was docked and there was an EVA underway. To think that bright dot moving across the sky had people inside (and even outside)

Two moons, circling

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:38:52 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

All the planets in the solar system orbit the Sun roughly in the same plane

from the side, the orbits of the planets would all be very close to falling on the same line

As it happens, Jupiter’s poles are almost perfectly perpendicular to the line. In other words, its equator lines up with the plane of the solar system

and its big moons also orbit the planet right above the equator.

when we look at Jupiter, the moons appear to orbit the giant planet on a line, too

if you watch Jupiter for long enough you’ll certainly see a moon pass directly over the planet’s face, and sometimes you can see the moon’s shadow as well

It’s much less common to catch the shadow of one moon falling on another; the moons are small and it’s a rare thing to see such an event. But amateur astronomer Christopher Go caught exactly that on August 16, 2009: the shadow of the moon Io going right over the moon Ganymede.

That. Is. So. Cool.

look at Ganymede: you can see surface features!

amazing that we can see things like this

Apollo 14 Mystery Solved by Latest LRO Image

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:29:28 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Cropped image of LRO's image from Apollo 14 landing site and Cone Crater. Tracks from the astronauts can be seen. Click for larger version.

During the second EVA of the Apollo 14 mission on the moon, astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell had a goal of hiking to the rim of nearby Cone Crater in the Fra Maura highlands. But the steep terrain made the going difficult, elevating the astronauts' heart rates. Additionally, without landmarks it was difficult to judge distances and the rolling terrain was filled with similar-looking ridges, so Shepard and Mitchell couldn't really tell if they were close to the rim or not. Realizing time and available oxygen were getting short, Mission Control told the astronauts to head back to the Lunar Module, and although disappointed, the astronauts agreed. But how close did they actually come to the crater? No one knew for sure, until now.

look closely at the image above

you can clearly follow the trail of the astronauts on their "radial traverse

[Video]

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 05:52:19 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: scienceblogs.com

The universe is a really big place

Watch this movie to get a little taste.

[Video]

Top 10 Most Important Supernovae

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:38:53 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: Visit the site for interesting info. on each.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

A woman stands small and exposed beneath a clear night sky. As she gazes up at the vast mist of stars, one point suddenly burns immeasurably brighter. She may not realize it, but this pinprick of brilliance hails from the furthermost reaches of our Milky Way Galaxy: a distant exploding star. It has taken nearly a hundred millennia for this light to speed across the void, a vision of the ancient past finally glimpsed by human eyes.

No celestial event stresses the universe's gulfs of distance and time more than a supernova. These dying stars can burn as bright as a billion suns, outshining whole galaxies and releasing the very energy and materials required to give birth to new cosmic bodies.

Needless to say, when one of these explosions comes to our attention, we tend to take notice.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

10. The Guest Star (SN 185)

Astronomers estimate that supernovae occur in the Milky Way Galaxy a mere two or three times a century

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

9. Tycho's Supernova (SN 1572)

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

8. Kepler's Supernova (SN 1604)

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com