The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of NGC 7049 in the constellation of Indus, in the southern sky. Credit: NASA, ESA and W. Harris (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada)
Credit: NASA, ESA and W. Harris (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada)
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new image of NGC 7049, a mysterious looking galaxy that blurs the boundary between spiral and elliptical galaxies.
This picture, taken with a small ground-based camera, shows on its central-left portion the constellation of Indus, in the southern sky. Credit: A. Fujii
NGC 7049 is found in the constellation of Indus, and is the brightest of a cluster of galaxies, a so-called Brightest Cluster Galaxy. They represent some of the oldest and most massive galaxies, and they allow astronomers to study the elusive globular clusters lurking within.
Globular clusters are very dense and compact groupings of a few hundreds of thousands of young stars bound together by gravity. The globular clusters in NGC 7049 are seen as the sprinkling of small faint points of light in the galaxy’s halo. The halo – the ghostly region of diffuse light surrounding the galaxy – comprises myriad individual stars and provides a luminous background to the remarkable swirling ring of dust lanes surrounding NGC 7049’s core. The dust lanes appear as a lacy ring.
The image was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on Hubble, which is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the remote and ancient Universe, at a time when our cosmos was very young.
The constellation of Indus, or the Indian, is one of the least conspicuous in the southern sky. It was named in the 16th century by Dutch astronomer Petrus Plancius from observations made by Dutch navigator Pieter Dirkszoon Keyser and Dutch explorer Frederick de Houtman.
Artist’s impression of the proto-planetary disk, courtesy of NASA.
[/caption]
Who would have guessed astrophysics could save lives? But it’s true. Planetary geologists studying how molten metal coagulates at the center of planets while they are forming have discovered that their research can also be used to investigate blood flow in the human heart. Using the methods developed by astrophysicists, surgeons were able to find the location of a potentially life-threatening blood clot in a patient’s heart.
Planetary geologists use sophisticated computer modeling to explore the flow of liquid metal through rocks. Using the same type of model, the scientists were able to show doctors in the UK where the patient’s blood was gathering in a pool in their heart due to a blood clot. Doctors confirmed the clot and successfully treated the patient.
The researchers now hope to conduct more detailed clinical studies on the technique to see if it could be used routinely as a way of identifying dangerous blood clots in heart patients.
Professor Nick Petford, a geologist at Bournemouth University, who led the research, said, “We were examining how liquid metal accumulates in the core of a planet like the Earth over just a few million years, which is quite fast in geological terms. The metal flows through cracks and fissures that open up in the rock as the planet is deformed by impacts from outer space during its early period.”
Petford said he and his colleagues by chance were talking with clinicians at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, and found commonalities in that the vascular system was just like the cracks and fissures they were studying in meteorite samples. “We were able to look at blood flow in the same way we looked at the flow of metal,” he said.
The technology uses a computer to scan images of cracks in a meteorite or arteries in the heart to produce an accurate simulation of how liquid will flow through them.
Petford worked with radiologist Dr. Roger Patel to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of a patient’s heart to analyze the blood flow.
Surgeons already suspected there was an area of stagnant blood that could cause a blood clot but could not be sure where. By scanning the images from the MRI scan into the computer simulation, the researchers were able to predict the clot’s location.
Professor Petford said: “All vascular systems are different so previous attempts to model the heart don’t give information on what is going on in that individual patient, particularly if their heart is irregular or deformed in some way.
“By using real MRI scans we are able to produce an exact replica of what is going on in the patient’s body.”
Doctors now hope the technology can be developed so it can be used routinely to analyze scans from heart patients. “We are hoping to improve the model over the next few years and perhaps have a technique that can be used alongside scans in the next five to ten years,” said Patel.
Heart disease is the UK’s biggest killer and accounts for around 200,000 deaths each year, and in the US, the someone dies from the disease every 34 seconds.
NASA introduced the first seven astronauts on April 9, 1959.
[/caption]
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the “Mercury Seven;” NASA’s first seven astronauts. On April 9, 1959 NASA held a press conference in Washington, DC to introduce the men — Gus Grissom, Alan Shephard, Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, Deke Slayton, John Glenn and Gordon Cooper. They would become household names in the US and media sensations. “I can’t believe it’s been that long,” John Glenn said in an interview with an Ohio newspaper, the Zanesville Times Recorder. “The experience back then of being selected and participating in the early flights is so vivid to me, it seems like this all happened a couple of weeks ago.
NASA has created a very cool interactive feature to celebrate this 50th anniversary, including an interactive “press conference,” a transcript and video clips of the original press conference, and a gallery of pictures.
The Mercury flights proved than humans could survive in space, and paved the way for the Gemini and Apollo flights.
“The early flights got so much attention because they were open to the world, they were not secrets,” Glenn said. “When the Soviets sent up Gagarin, the data and information was secret. We had international press at the Cape (Canaveral) for the launch, and the Soviets hadn’t had that; it wasn’t permitted. President Eisenhower decided he wanted the program open for the whole world; he said we were going to succeed or fail with the world watching, and I think that was a good decision.”
For further information about each of the six Mercury missions, see our Mercury section in Universe Today’s Guide to Space.
This could be titled “87 Days of Fermi,” or “Blazing Galaxies:” This movie is made from the first 87 days of data gathered by Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT), showing all the gamma ray sources detected so far, with active galaxies called blazars flaring and fading in this all-sky movie. “The movie shows counts of gamma rays seen by Fermi’s LAT, and each frame shows the gamma rays collected in one day,” said Elizabeth Hays, an astrophysicist on the Fermi team. Visible are rapid and dramatic flashes, which underscores one of the most valuable things Fermi does. “We watch the sky all the time and alert other telescopes, in space and on the ground, when something interesting is going on,” Hays said. Continue reading “Now Showing: Fermi All-Sky Movie”
Irregular Galaxy NGC 55. Credit: ESO. Click for larger version.
[/caption]
As part of the International Year of Astronomy project, 100 Hours of Astronomy, the ambitious “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” event had a live webcast, going around the globe to some of the most advanced observatories on and off the planet. In celebration of this world tour of observatories, many of the telescopes are releasing wonderful, and previously unseen, astronomical images. Here are two observed by telescopes at the La Silla and Paranal observatories. Above is the irregular galaxy NGC 55, a galaxy that is about 70,000 light-years across, just a tad smaller than our own Milky Way, and below is NGC 7793, about half that size.
NGC 55 is a member of the prominent Sculptor group of galaxies in the southern constellation of Sculptor. By studying about 20 planetary nebulae in this image, a team of astronomers found that NGC 55 is located about 7.5 million light-years away. Planetary nebulae are the final blooming of Sun-like stars before their retirement as white dwarfs.
This striking image of NGC 55, obtained with the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, is dusted with a flurry of reddish nebulae, created by young, hot massive stars. A large number of individual stars that can be counted within NGC 55. Spiral Galaxy NGC 7793. Credit: ESO. Click for larger version.
The second image shows another galaxy belonging to the Sculptor group. This is NGC 7793, which has a chaotic spiral structure, unlike the class of grand-design spiral galaxies to which our Milky Way belongs. The image shows how difficult it is to identify any particular spiral arm in these chaotic structures, although it is possible to guess at a general rotating pattern. NGC 7793 is located slightly further away than NGC 55, about 12.5 million light-years from us.
NGC 7793 was observed with one of the workhorses of the ESO Paranal Observatory, the FORS instrument, attached to the Very Large Telescope.
This data visualization from the AMSR-E instrument on the Aqua satellite show the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, which occurred on Feb. 28, 2009. Credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio
[/caption]
The latest satellite observations of sea ice in the Arctic shows the ice cover appears to be shrinking: the ice cap is getting smaller, and thinner as well. The ice has been receding more in the summers and not growing back to its previous size and thickness during the winters. Scientists say the ice is profoundly important, as ice is the defining characteristic for the eco-system of the Arctic region. But it is also important for the entire planet, as far as constraining the Earth’s heat budget, and affecting ocean flows and planetary weather.
Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. Ice naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. In recent years, Arctic sea ice has been declining at a surprising rate. As ice melts it is replaced with darker sea water that absorbs more sunlight and heats up the ocean and the planet overall.
According to researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., the maximum sea ice extent for 2008-09, reached on Feb. 28, was 5.85 million square miles (15,151,430 square kilometers). That is 278,000 square miles (720,016 square kilometers) less than the average extent for 1979 to 2000. This is the fifth lowest maximum ice extent on record. The six lowest maximum events since satellite monitoring began in 1979 have all occurred in the past six years (2004-2009). Maps show the relative age of Arctic sea ice at the end of February 2009 and over time. Thin, first-year ice is the predominant type covering the Arctic Ocean this winter. Credit: From NSIDC, courtesy Chuck Fowler and Jim Maslanik, University of Colorado
Until recently, the majority of Arctic sea ice was multi-year ice, which means it survived at least one summer and often several winters. This multi-year ice is thicker and can survive longer than the seasonal ice that melts and re-freezes every year. But things have changed dramatically. According to the scientists, the thin, seasonal ice now makes up about 70 percent of the Arctic sea ice in wintertime, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. Thicker ice, which survives two or more years, now comprises just under 10 percent of wintertime ice cover, down from 30 to 40 percent.
“9.8 percent of the ice is greater than 2 years old,” said Walt Meier, research scientist with NSIDC, at a teleconference with reporters today. “So, it’s about a third of what it used to be in terms of really old thick ice.”
Meier said the thickest and oldest ice has been on a big decline the past couple of years. “Right now, this is the lowest we’ve had,” he said. “Last year, multi-year ice made up 14 percent of the Arctic ice cap. In 2007, it was about the 25% range. That is a pretty sharp decrease. We did see some recovery in 1-2 year old ice, which is up from a low of 5 %. In theory that ice could survive, if it doesn’t get exported out of the Arctic.” The solid blue line indicates daily sea ice extent from late 2008 to early 2009. The dashed green line indicates sea ice extent in winter 2006-07 (leading up to the record-low minimum in summer 2007). The solid gray line indicates average extent from 1979 to 2000. This year’s maximum winter ice extent occurred on February 28, 2009. Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Winds and ocean flows also “flushes” ice out of the Arctic region, Meier said.
Data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) has now produced first map of sea ice thickness over the entire Arctic basin.
Ron Kwok from JPL who works with ICEsat said, “This is the first time we’ve had Arctic-wide ice thicknesses at the scale. During the 70’s and 80’s the average ice thickness was about 1.5-2 meters thicker than what we’re seeing at the current time.” Those measurements were taken using submarines and drill holes. Using ICEsat allows for the entire ice cap to be measured from space. ICEsat has been taking data for five years, and only the first two years of data (2005 and 2006) has been fully processed, but preliminary results show the decline is continuing.
During the teleconference, a journalist from northern Canada said their region has been experiencing colder winters the past couple of years, and asked if that was a good sign. “The ice is still in a precarious position,” said Meier, “and we can’t focus on short term trends of one or two years. Long terms trends show a warmer Arctic and thinner sea ice. It will take several cold years in a row to get back to where it was and to get the thick multi-year ice that can survive longer. This is not something that can be turned around in a couple of cool summers and colder winters.”
When asked if they could determine the ice depletion has come from natural or man-made causes, Meier said, “Sea ice certainly varies a lot over time, and we have fairly good records on how it has varied back to the early 1900’s, and we are confident it is much lower than it ever has been in the past half century. It’s clear the sea ice changes we are seeing go hand-in-hand with the warming planet, and the sea ice changes are entirely consistent with that. There isn’t another mechanism that could cause the long term changes we’ve seen.”
The first-generation Taepoding-1 missile (Reuters)
[/caption]On Sunday, North Korea carried out its promise of launching a rocket carrying a satellite, as part of their peaceful space program. Naturally, this move has drawn massive international condemnation, prompting US President Barack Obama make a statement in Prague during his European tour. Japan has also reacted angrily, tightening sanctions against the state.
Although a rocket was launched, it was far from being a success, but it wasn’t a failure either. If the world were to listen to the official line coming out of Pyongyang, one would think Kim Jong-il has his first communications satellite in orbit, but the reality is a little more pedestrian. The Taepoding-2 rocket didn’t make it into space at all, and rather than orbiting the Earth, the communications satellite now rests at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. However, this is a worrying development, the missile had a successful first-staging, propelling the rocket over Japanese airspace, a technical success in itself…
“North Korea broke the rules, once again, by testing a rocket that could be used for long-range missiles,” President Obama said in Prague. “It creates instability in their region, around the world. This provocation underscores the need for action, not just this afternoon in the U.N. Security Council, but in our determination to prevent the spread of these weapons.”
The North Korean rocket launch may not have successfully put a satellite into orbit, but Pyongyang’s actions have certainly sent international politics into a spin. North Korea isn’t known for its subtlety when it comes to international relations, and when you have a state that is so secretive about its nuclear ambitions (we know they have the beginnings of a nuclear weapons program after the 2006 underground nuclear bomb test), it is little wonder surrounding nations will be getting tense. In this case, Japan bore the brunt of Pyongyang’s sabre rattling, saying that if Japanese forces intercepted the rocket, the North Korea army would strike “major targets” in the country.
Ahead of Sunday’s launch, the US and allies neighbouring North Korea warned that should the launch go ahead, there would be serious political and economic consequences. Unfortunately, Jong-il’s government didn’t budge and launched anyway. Apart from causing world-wide condemnation, did the rocket actually succeed? According to one expert, the Taepoding-2 rocket launch was a “partial success.”
“It says, first of all, they had successful first staging and (were) able to control the rocket through staging,” said retired General Henry Obering, former director of the US missile defense agency. “That is a significant step forward for any missile program because often times the missiles become unstable as they go through the staging events.”
Although the first stage of the rocket launch was a success, showing that North Korea is slowly improving their long-range missile capabilities, the rest of the stages failed, causing pieces of the rocket to fall into the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean.
In a post-launch statement however, the Korea Central News Agency quoted Kim Jong-il as saying “It is a striking demonstration of the might of our juche-oriented science and technology that our scientists and technicians developed both the multistage carrier rocket and the satellite with their own wisdom and technology . . . 100% and accurately put the satellite into orbit at one go.” Whether the statement actually came from Jong-il is open to debate, but the report is woefully wrong, the satellite didn’t come close to orbit.
Apart from the obvious propaganda, the launch will cause concern. The missile system is known to have an optimum range of 4200 miles, possibly with the ability to reach Hawaii and Alaska. Although the rocket failed and dropped into the Pacific, this episode clearly demonstrates the direction of North Korea’s technological advancements.
On April 6, 2009 the IYA Live Telescope was busy broadcasting from the Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting facility and fulfilling your “100 Hours of Astronomy” requests. Are you ready to take a look at the video that came from the adventure and to add it to our library? Then tell Jamie in Edinburgh that Aunty Ren said to wake up as we view Ana Tomsa of Croatia’s suggestion of NGC 2516…
The following factual information is a cut and paste from Wikipedia:
NGC 2516: Constellation – CARINA
Southern open cluster NGC 2516 – The Diamond Cluster – was discovered by Abbe Lacaille in 1751-1752.
Called The Diamond Cluster because of its stellar clarity. The cluster itself is easily visible with the naked eye from dark skies but binoculars will yield a much better view. The Diamond Cluster contains two beautiful 5th magnitude red giants and three double stars. A small telescope would be required to split the double stars. It contains about 100 stars that appear about the same size as a full moon.
NGC 2516 and the recently discovered nearby star cluster Mamajek 2 in Ophiuchus have similar age and metallicity. Recently, kinematic evidence was presented by E. Jilinksi and coauthors that suggests that these two stellar groups may have formed in the same star-forming complex some 135 million years ago
We would very much like to thank Ana M. Tomsa of Croatia (for Jamie in Edinburgh, from Aunty Ren) for her suggestion of NGC 2516 and we hope you like the view! As always, you can visit the remote telescope by clicking on the IYA “LIVE Remote Cam” Logo to your right. We’ll be broadcasting whenever skies are clear and dark in Central Victoria! Enjoy…
The Triangulum Galaxy. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona
[/caption]
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has captured this new image of M33, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy, and released it as part of the “Around the World in 80 Telescopes” event for the International Year of Astronomy.
Besides the pretty colors, the new image reveals something else about M33: it’s more than meets the eye.
M33 is located about 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum. It is a member of what’s known as our Local Group of galaxies. Along with our own Milky Way and Andromeda, the group of about 50 galaxies travels together in the universe, bound to one another by gravity. In fact, M33 is one of the few galaxies that is moving toward the Milky Way despite the fact that space is expanding, causing most galaxies in the universe to grow farther and farther apart.
The new image reveals M33 to be surprising large – bigger than its visible-light appearance would suggest. With its ability to detect cold, dark dust, Spitzer can see emission from cooler material well beyond the visible range of M33’s disk. Exactly how this cold material moved outward from the galaxy is still a mystery, but winds from giant stars or supernovas may be responsible.
The image is a three-color composite showing infrared observations from two of Spitzer instruments. Stars appear as glistening blue gems (several of which are actually foreground stars in our own galaxy), while dust rich in organic molecules glows green. The diffuse orange-red glowing areas indicate star-forming regions, while small red flecks outside the spiral disk of M33 are probably distant background galaxies.
As for the technical details, the blue parts of the image represents combined 3.6- and 4.5-micron light, and green shows light of 8 microns, both captured by Spitzer’s infrared array camera. Red is 24-micron light detected by Spitzer’s multiband imaging photometer.
On April 6, 2009 the IYA Live Telescope was busy broadcasting from the Southern Galactic Telescope Hosting facility and fulfilling your “100 Hours of Astronomy” requests. Are you ready to take a look at the video that came from the adventure and to add it to our library? Then come along as we view Denny and Robby Bauer’s suggestion of NGC 4833…
The following factual information is a cut and paste from Wikipedia:
NGC 4833: Constellation – MUSCA
NGC 4833 is a globular cluster discovered by Abbe Lacaille during his 1751-1752 journey to South Africa, and catalogued in 1755. It was subsequently observed and catalogued by James Dunlop and Sir John Herschel whose instruments could resolve it into individual stars.
The globular cluster is situated in the very southerly constellation Musca at a distance of 21,200 light years from earth. It is partially obscured by a dusty region of the galactic plane. After corrections for the reddening by dust, evidence was obtained that it is in the order of 2 billion years older than globular clusters M5 or M92.
We would very much like to thank Denny and Robby Bauer for their suggestion of NGC 4833 and we hope you like the view! As always, you can visit the remote telescope by clicking on the IYA “LIVE Remote Cam” Logo to your right. We’ll be broadcasting whenever skies are clear and dark in Central Victoria! Enjoy…
