Universe Today - January 9, 2002
A note from Fraser... Happy Birthday Stephen Hawking!
Here's a little piece of inspiration: Stephen Hawking, you know, the brilliant astrophysicist who's been living with Lou Gehrig's disease, celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday. In case you haven't watched the right episodes of Star Trek, Futurama, or the Simpsons, Stephen Hawking is best known for his research on black holes, including the theory of "Hawking Radiation" - the concept that black holes actually emit radiation and eventually evaporate and disappear.
Hawking was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease 38 years ago, but that hasn't stopped him from making a tremendous contribution to scientific research. More importantly, in my opinion, he's one of those special people (like Carl Sagan) who've helped popularize science among the general public - an inspiration for me.
So, congratulations Stephen Hawking, here's to 60 more birthdays. :-)
On a completely unrelated note, I've added a new feature to Universe Today: bigger pictures. One of the comments I've received in the past is that the images on the site are a little small. I do that out of respect for those of you with slower Internet connections. However, for those of you who want a bigger image, but don't want to try and search it out at the originating source, you should like this. Now, many of the photos on the site will be clickable, so if you want to see something bigger, there you go. I say many, because I won't always be able to provide a high-resolution image that you can visit. If I can find one, I'll provide it, if not... I won't. Sorry.
This is an experiment, so please give me your feedback. Is this a totally irrelevant feature and a waste of my valuable time? Is the photo still too small? Anyway, let me know what you think.
Fraser Cain, Publisher - Universe Today
 Keck |
Astronomers Snap Picture of Brown Dwarf
Using the adaptive optics of the Gemini North and Keck telescopes, astronomers have taken a picture of a brown dwarf orbiting a nearby star. The team estimates the dwarf is 55 to 78 times the mass of Jupiter, and lies 14 astronomical units away from the star (it would be between the orbits of Saturn and Uranus in our Solar System). An image of the object was possible because of the new optics system at Keck/Gemini that cancel out the distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere.
Original Source:
Keck News Release
Other Coverage: CNN Space - Cosmiverse - MSNBC - Spaceflight Now Similar Stories: Astronomy Related Sites: Astronomy Related Books: Astronomy |
 Hubble |
Hubble Helps Understand Early Star Formation
New data gathered with the Hubble Space Telescope has let astronomers to believe that the first generation of stars exploded into life much sooner than previously estimated. Kenneth Lanzetta of the State University of New York believes that the universe simultaneously created most of its early stars just a few hundred million years after the big bang - at a rate that would dwarf today's star formation in galaxies like the Milky Way. |
 2Mass |
New Image of the Early Universe
Light emitted by the early Universe has been detected with the Two-Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), and from what astronomers can tell, the intensity is two to three times what they were expecting. The astronomers used a collection of instruments which view infrared light, a spectrum invisible to conventional optical telescopes. After they removed the light from visible stars, they were left with the background glow of cosmic radiation that helped them uncover the shape and structure of the Universe over 8 billion years ago.
Original Source:
NASA News Release
Other Coverage: Cosmiverse - Spaceflight Now Similar Stories: Astronomy Related Sites: Astronomy Related Books: Astronomy |