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| Forum is Really Taking Off |
Jul 16, 2003 - Wow, what a response. In just one day more than 120 of you joined the forum and participated in some great conversations. I really appreciate everyone's support and participation. So far the conversations have been generous and thoughtful, there are some really nice people taking part.
I'm also gratified to see people from the space and astronomy industry taking part to help answer people's questions.
Here are some recent posts of interest:
Chandra Finds Wind Blowing Away From a Black Hole - Charles Bell wanted to know why material is streaming away from a black hole instead of getting sucked in. Dr. Patrick Ogle, the researcher who performed the research provided a great answer.
What Happened to Those Worms? - Ever wonder what happened to the worms that survived the Columbia disaster? I called NASA and got an answer right from the person who's taking care of their offspring.
What Does the Milky Way Look Like? - It's right over our head, but have you ever actually seen it? Maybe you need to go somewhere darker.
Anyway, I'll stop ranting. Check out the forum and participate. I'll tag some discussion summaries down at the bottom of future editions of the newsletter.
Take care,
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today |
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| Image credit: ANU |
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| Dust Galaxies Discovered |
| Jul 16, 2003 - An Australian astronomer has discovered 20 galaxies that contain mostly gas, rather than stars - revising the definition of "galaxy". These galaxies are giant discs of gas, tens of thousands of light-years across, and contain the mass of billions of sun, but for some reason their hydrogen hasn't coalesced into stars like regular galaxies. The discovery of these gas galaxies will help astronomers better understand what it takes for a galaxy to form. |
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| Image credit: SDSS |
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| Galaxies and Their Black Holes Grow Together |
| Jul 16, 2003 - After surveying 120,000 nearby galaxies as part of the Sloan Digital Survey, a team of astronomers have found evidence that the growth of supermassive black holes at the heart of most galaxies is closely matched to the rate of new star formation. The growth rate of the black holes was determined by measuring the amount of material being consumed at the heart of the galaxy. The actual nature of this relationship is still unknown, but future surveys will help to uncover more details. |
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| Image credit: UW-Madison |
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| Neutrino-Seeking Telescope Lodged in Ice |
| Jul 16, 2003 - A new telescope lodged in the ice of Antarctica has completed the first map of the high-energy neutrino sky. AMANDA II consists of 677 glass detectors in the shape of a cylinder sunk into the Antarctic ice at a depth greater than 500 metres. It actually looks down, through the entire Earth to view the Northern sky for neutrinos, which move at high velocity and pass through almost all matter unhindered. AMANDA II has discovered neutrinos with 100 times the energy of any produced in laboratory experiments on Earth. |
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