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| The Moon, captured by Apollo 11 astronauts. Image credit: NASA. Click to enlarge. |
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| What's Up This Week - September 12 - September 18, 2005 |
Sep 12, 2005 - Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! This week is a sure sign of the Fall season as we welcome back the "Harvest Moon". While Selene will be the major focus of our studies this week, we can still take the opportunity to enjoy double star Gamma Delphini, find out why Vega is so "hot", and have a look at variable Beta Lyrae. So, head out under the moonlit skies, because ...
Here's what's up! (Full Story) |
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| Book Review: Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies |
| Sep 12, 2005 - September arrives and with it come all the sweet memories of anticipation, trepidation and expectation of new school years. These days, I relive these feelings through my children but many of my own emotions still lie close to the surface. There won't be any astronomy texts yet for my two young ones, but others may find on their list the introductory text by Andrew Fraknoi, David Morrison, and SidneyWolff entitled Voyages to the Stars and Galaxies. For those so fortunate, a good memory may be more practical than a sweet memory, for this book is chalkfull of pertinent astronomical information. (Full Story) |
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| The SuperNova/Acceleration Probe, SNAP. Image credit: Berkeley Lab Click to enlarge |
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| Audio: The Fate of the Universe |
| Sep 12, 2005 - How will the Universe end? Right now cosmologists have two equally distressing scenarios mapped out for the long term fate of the Universe. On the one hand, gravity might slow down the expansion of our Universe so that it coasts to a stop and possibly even collapses back down into a Big Crunch. On the other hand, the expansion of the Universe could continue indefinitely thanks to the acceleration of dark energy. We would face a cold, lonely future as other galaxies fade away into the distance. My guest today is Eric Linder from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and he's proposing experiments that could help us learn which of these two fates await us. (Full Story) |
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| Color image of Saturn's largest satellite, Titan. Image credit: NASA Click to enlarge |
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| Exotic Life Could Survive on Titan |
| Sep 12, 2005 - Saturn's moon Titan has long held a special fascination to astrobiologists. Its thick atmosphere is largely composed of nitrogen and organic molecules which are the building blocks of life. At a frigid -178 C (-289 F), however, it's much too cold to support life. But there could be some habitable locations on Titan, you just have to look carefully. Methane clouds around Titan indicate that it probably has an active cycle similar to the water cycle here on Earth. There could be areas where get warm enough on Titan for life to gain a foothold. (Full Story) |
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| Artist's concept of Jupiter-like planet orbiting a star. Image credit: NASA Click to enlarge |
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| Planets Are Born Quickly |
| Sep 12, 2005 - The time frame for the formation of new planets appears to be getting shorter than previously believed. Astronomers have discovered gaps in protoplanetary disks that suggest there are gas giants forming there. One star, GM Aurigae, is a younger version of our own Sun and the gap in its disk is at about the same location as our own gas giant planets. Since GM Aurigae is only 1 million years old, these results challenge the traditional theories that planets slowly formed over many millions of years. (Full Story) |
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| Most Powerful Explosion Ever Seen |
| Sep 12, 2005 - An Italian team of astronomers have found a gamma ray burst that blew up 12.7 billion light-years away. Since it's so far away, it's also the most powerful blast ever seen. Astronomers have calculated that it exploded with 300 times more energy than our Sun will put out in its entire 10+ billion year lifespan. The blast was discovered by NASA's Swift satellite, which is dedicated to discovering these powerful explosions. (Full Story) |
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