Clipmarks | invictus's Astronomy collection

Space Balls. An accurate model of Planets to Sun etc

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 17:57:41 GMT

clipped by: sohil

Clip Source: webisto.com

Tags: science, space, photoshop, planets, sun, astronomy

Rare dead star found near Earth

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:22:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Neutron stars form when massive stars exhaust their fuel

Astronomers have spotted a space oddity in Earth's neighbourhood - a dead star with some unusual characteristics.

The object, known as a neutron star, was studied using space telescopes and ground-based observatories.

But this one, located in the constellation Ursa Minor, seems to lack some key characteristics found in other neutron stars.

Details of the study, by a team of American and Canadian researchers, will appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

If confirmed, it would be only the eighth known "isolated neutron star" - meaning a neutron star that does not have an associated supernova remnant, binary companion, or radio pulsations.

Either Calvera is an unusual example of a known type of neutron star, or it is some new type of neutron star, the first of its kind

Robert Rutledge, McGill University

The object has been nicknamed Calvera, after the villain in the 1960s western film The Magnificent Seven.

Tags: space, neutron star, calvera, science

Moon is younger and more Earth-like than thought

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:29:42 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

It's a good thing the Moon doesn't have any feelings to hurt. New research suggests it is actually 30 million years younger than anyone had thought, and that it is merely a 'chip off the old block' of Earth rather than being made up of the remnants of a Mars-sized body that slammed into Earth billions of years ago.

That violent impact was thought to have taken place 30 million years after the solar system began to condense from a disc of gas and dust 4.567 billion years ago. The event was thought to have melted the Earth, generating a magma ocean that covered the planet and allowed iron and other metals to sink to its centre, forming a core.

At the same time, the Moon was thought to have coalesced from a disc of molten debris blasted off the Earth and the Mars-sized interloper.

But new research led by Mathieu Touboul of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich suggests that picture is not so simple.

Tags: moon, earth, space, science

'Hundreds of worlds' in Milky Way

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 01:52:48 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Scientists say there may be many more worlds in our solar system

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.

New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.

There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.

Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

New findings about planets were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Tags: astronomy, space, milky way, galaxies, life, science

Close Encounter with Mars

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 23:56:56 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

Ready your telescopes! On Tuesday evening, Dec. 18th, Mars makes its closest approach to Earth until the year 2016. At a distance of only 55 million miles, Mars outshines every star in the night sky (it is slightly brighter than Sirius) and draws attention to itself with its distinctive red color. Plus, it looks great through a backyard telescope:

Tags: astronomy, planets, backyard astronomy, mars, science

"Night Shining Clouds" over Europe

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 19:21:36 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

NLC ATTACK: Last night, a wide expanse of electric-blue noctilucent clouds (NLCs) appeared over Europe. "It was a beautiful display," says Martin McKenna of Maghera, N.Ireland. "Wonderful twisting bands and waves were begging for attention." Paul Evans of Larne, N. Ireland, snapped this picture:

Noctilucent clouds are a mystery. They were first reported in the 19th century after the eruption of super-volcano Krakatoa. In those days the clouds were confined mainly to high latitudes, but they have intensified and spread with sightings in recent years as far south as Colorado and Utah. What causes NLCs? A NASA spacecraft named AIM is in orbit right now on a mission to find out.

One thing is known: Summer is the season for NLCs. Sky watchers in Europe have seen hints of NLC activity in recent weeks, but "this is the finest display so far," says Evans. The cloud was approximately 25^o high x 100^o wide." Consider it official: NLC season has begun.

Tags: atmospheric sciences, clouds, nlc, science

Celestial show begins this weekend

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 20:22:44 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The annual Perseid meteor shower will reach its peak during the early hours of Monday, but it will be visible from Saturday night until Tuesday morning.

The celestial show will be most apparent in the north-eastern part of the sky near the Perseus constellation.

If the skies remain clear, it will offer stargazers the best opportunity for a few years to see the Perseids.

The shower this year coincides with a new Moon, providing sky watchers with the dark skies necessary for excellent observing conditions.

The best viewing conditions will be where the sky is clearest and darkest. However, meteors should be visible, to a lesser degree, in cities despite light pollution and smog.

Both hemispheres will receive good views but the prime locations will be Western Europe and North America.

As an added bonus, watchers should be able to see Mars, which will be in view as a bright red dot in the eastern sky after midnight.

Tags: astronomy, night sky, meteor shower, perseids, backyard astronomy

The Sun Flies Like a Bullet

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:17:42 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

The Sun Flies Like a Bullet

Our solar system, which careers around our galaxy’s center at nearly half a million miles per hour, isn’t round. It isn’t even symmetrical. Instead, says George Mason University astrophysicist Merav Opher, the sun’s domain is shaped like a slightly squashed bullet and tilts up to 90 degrees away from the plane of the magnetic field of the rest of the Milky Way.

Opher got her results by working with particle and radio-wave data from the two Voyager probes, which are now more than 100 times as far from Earth as we are from the sun, near a boundary known as the termination shock. There, the barrage of particles blasting out from the sun—the solar wind—is slowed by our motion through the galaxy. Using the Voyager data, researchers can now monitor the magnetic field at the edge of our solar system.

Tags: astronomy, sun, solar system, milky way, science

"Exploding Comet" Photo Gallery

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:20:07 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Many good shots of Comet 17P/Holmes, taken by backyard astronomers around the world.

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

Summary: Comet 17P/Holmes shocked astronomers on Oct. 24, 2007, with a spectacular eruption. In less than 24 hours, the 17th magnitude comet brightened by a factor of nearly a million becoming a naked-eye object in the evening sky. Look for a golden 2.5th magnitude fuzzball in the constellation Perseus after sunset.

Tags: astronomy, comets, comet holmes, images, photography

Radio burst from space mystifies astronomers

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:08:42 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Astronomers who stumbled upon a powerful burst of radio waves said on Thursday they had never seen anything like it before, and it could offer a new way to search for colliding stars or dying black holes.

They were searching for pulsars -- a type of rotating compacted neutron star that sends out rhythmic pulses of radiation -- when they spotted the giant radio signal.

It was extremely brief but very strong, and appears to have come from about 3 billion light-years away -- a light-year being the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.

"This burst appears to have originated from the distant universe and may have been produced by an exotic event such as the collision of two neutron stars or the death throes of an evaporating black hole," said Duncan Lorimer of West Virginia University and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Tags: astronomy, pulsars, radio signals, science

Exploding Comet update - New images

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:55:08 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: spaceweather.com

Exploding Comet 17P/Holmes is now larger than Jupiter. Astronomer Eric Allen of Quebec's Observatoire du Cégep de Trois-Rivières combined images he captured on three consecutive nights (Oct. 25, 26 and 27) and placed them beside a picture of Jupiter scaled to the same distance as the comet:

The diaphanous and curiously spherical cloud surrounding the comet's core is now large enough to physically swallow the King of Planets!

And that's just for starters. The growing comet subtends an angle (4 arcminutes) as large as the Moon's Sea of Tranquillity. Last night in Higham Ferrers, England, Dave Eagle photographed "the Moon and Comet Holmes with the same setup to show how big this strange comet is."

Although the comet is not as bright as Jupiter or a lunar mare, it is visible to the unaided eye. Look north after sunset for a magnitude +2.5 fuzzball in the constellation Perseus: sky map.

Tags: astronomy, comets, exploding comet, images, science

Asteroid flyby today - no impact risk

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 12:27:52 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.spaceweather.com

Asteroid 2007 TU24 is flying past Earth today. There's no danger of a collision, but the 250m-wide space rock is close enough (1.4 lunar distances) to photograph through backyard telescopes as it speeds through the constellation Cassiopeia glowing like a 10th magnitude star. NASA radars are monitoring the flyby and may produce new images of the rock by week's end. [ephemeris] [3D orbit]

Tags: astronomy, science, asteroids, space, solar system

A cosmic hall of mirrors

Sun, 17 Dec 2006 12:42:26 GMT

clipped by: Octane

Clip Source: physicsweb.org

A cosmic hall of mirrors

Most astronomers think that the universe is infinite, but recent measurements suggest that it could be finite and relatively small. Indeed, as Jean-Pierre Luminet describes, we could be living in an exotic universe shaped rather like a football

At a Glance: Cosmic topology

• There are three possibilities for the curvature of the universe: space can be flat, spherical or hyperbolic
• The geometry of the universe depends on its curvature and also on its topology, which governs the way space is connected and so determines if it is finite or infinite
• Measurements of the cosmic microwave background constrain the curvature of the universe and provide hints about its topology
• Recent data suggest that the universe might be multiply connected, like the left- and right-hand sides of the screen in a computer game
• Since the early 1990s the number of cosmo-topologists around the world has grown to more than 50

For centuries the size and shape of space has intrigued the human race. The Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle claimed that the universe was finite with a clear boundary. Democritus and Epicurus, on the other hand, thought that we lived in an infinite universe filled with atoms and vacuum. Today, 2500 years later, cosmologists and particle physicists can finally address these fundamental issues with some certainty.

Surprisingly, the latest astronomical data suggest that the correct answer could be a compromise between these two ancient viewpoints: the universe is finite and expanding but it does not have an edge or boundary. In particular, accurate maps of the cosmic microwave background - the radiation left over from the Big Bang - suggest that we live in a finite universe that is shaped like a football or dodecahedron, and which resembles a video game in certain respects.

Tags: space, time, universe, cosmology, physics, science

Saturn's ring mystery is solved

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:20:24 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Saturn's ring mystery is solved

Cassini images of Saturn's G ring captures its single, bright arc

Scientists have made a significant step forward in understanding the dynamics of Saturn's magnificent and mysterious system of rings.

The behaviour of one ring in particular - the G ring - has baffled experts.

Its dust particles should ebb away because there are no nearby moons to hold them in place or replenish them.

But the Cassini probe has shed new light on the faint, narrow ring; showing that it interacts with a much more distant Saturnian satellite.

The work, published in Science, also unveiled the ring's odd structure.

The G ring is one of Saturn's outermost rings: it is more than 168,000km from the centre of the planet and more than 15,000km from the nearest moon.

"It's a dusty ring," explained Matthew Hedman, a research associate at Cornell University and lead author of the study. "Like the E ring and F ring, it is primarily composed of tiny grains of ice just a few microns across."

Tags: astronomy, space, planets, saturn

Colossal tail trails dying star

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:49:59 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

"The fact that Mira's tail only glows with ultraviolet light might explain why other telescopes have missed it."

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A distant star that hurtles through space at extraordinary speeds has a huge, comet-like tail trailing in its wake, astronomers say.

The appendage, which measures a colossal 13 light years in length, was spotted by Nasa's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) space telescope.

The researchers said that nothing like it had ever been spotted around a star.

They believe the star, known as Mira, will help them to study what happens as stars meet their demise.

Mira (also called Mira A) has captivated astronomers for more than 400 years.

It sits about 350 light-years from Earth in a constellation known as Cetus, and is accompanied in orbit by a smaller secondary star, called Mira B, forming a binary system.

Billions of years ago, Mira would have been much like our Sun, but as it now enters its death-throes it has swollen into a type of star known as a red giant.

Yet despite centuries of study, its spectacular tail had remained undetected.

Tags: astronomy, space, mira, cetus, binary stars, science