A supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy has been caught in the act of consuming a star. In fact, NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer was able to watch the entire process, from the beginning to the end. A some point in the recent past, a star got too close to the supermassive black hole, and was torn apart. The shreds swirled around the black hole, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer spotted the bright blast of ultraviolet light.
Continue reading “Supermassive Black Hole Mashes Up and Consumes a Star”
Podcast: Where Do Stars Go When They Die?
We’ve celebrated the birth of new stars, but the stellar lifecycle doesn’t end there. Stars like our Sun will spend billions of years fusing together hydrogen and pumping out energy. And when the fuel runs out, their death is as interesting as their birth. This week Fraser and Pamela trace out this stellar evolution, and explain what the future holds for stars, large and small.
Continue reading “Podcast: Where Do Stars Go When They Die?”
Astrophoto: The Great Andromeda Galaxy- M31 by Takayuki Yoshida
Our lives in the early 21st Century can be characterized by many words and phrases. One of them, surely, is our sense of instantaneousness! For the first time in human history, practically any person on the planet can have a live conversation with anyone else using the now ubiquitous cell phone, as one example. Our voices, text messages, pictures and, increasingly, streaming media bounce effortlessly at the speed of light from hand held devices through ground based repeaters to satellite transponders and vice versa. I suspect, our great grandparents would be stupefied by all of this because we have essentially managed to bring the distance between all points on Earth to a practical zero point. Yet, we are surrounded (no, we are engulfed) by circumstances that are in stark contrast to our modern sense of reality. To understand what I am referencing, look up at the sky or take a peek at the accompanying picture.
Continue reading “Astrophoto: The Great Andromeda Galaxy- M31 by Takayuki Yoshida”
Book Review: Space Race
History isn’t the recitation of facts and dates. It’s about bringing to life the spirit and passion of those who’ve gone before. Deborah Cadbury in her book “Space Race – The Epic Battle Between America and the Soviet Union for Dominion of Space” shows the power and grace of reliving bygone events. With her book, returning to those bygone days is great fun.
Continue reading “Book Review: Space Race”
NASA Announces Long Term Plans for the Moon
NASA announced new details about its lunar ambitions today, providing details about other nations will get involved in a return to the Moon, and the concept of a future lunar base. The Global Exploration Strategy involved 1,000 people from 14 space agencies, non-governmental agencies, and commercial companies. The Lunar Architecture Team decided that the best spot for a permanent lunar base would be at one of the Moon’s poles, which is bathed in eternal sunlight.
Continue reading “NASA Announces Long Term Plans for the Moon”
NASA’s Spirit Rover… From Space
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is peering down at spacecraft on the surface of Mars again. This time it’s turning its optics on the Spirit Rover and the two Viking Landers that reached the surface of Mars in 1976. Scientists understand the terrain from ground level, so these high resolution images will help them understand the context of what the rovers and landers see around them. The view is so detailed that scientists can identify specific rocks that were seen by the Viking landers more than 30 years ago.
Continue reading “NASA’s Spirit Rover… From Space”
What’s Up this Week: December 4 – December 10, 2006
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! While things are cooling down in the northern hemisphere, they’re heating up for the south as our “friends down under” are up for two meteor showers this week. We’ll have a look a double stars, the distant Neptune, and practice judging stellar magnitudes. Be sure to read closely, because there just might be a suprise or two hidden in here! So, turn an eye to the sky because…
Here’s what’s up!
Continue reading “What’s Up this Week: December 4 – December 10, 2006”
First Negatively Charged Space Molecules Discovered
Until now, all the molecules discovered in space were either neutral or positive in charge. But astronomers have turned up a rare negative molecule called C6H-. Molecules like this are thought to be extremely rare in space, because the ultraviolet light radiated from stars easily knocks electrons off molecules, changing their polarity. The molecule was discovered in the vicinity of two nebulae by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.
Continue reading “First Negatively Charged Space Molecules Discovered”
Organic Material Found in an Ancient Meteorite
NASA researchers have discovered organic material inside a meteorite the recently fell in Canada’s Tagish Lake. The meteorite is especially valuable because scientists collected it shortly after it crashed in 2000, ensuring it wasn’t contaminated by local bacteria. The meteorite seems to contain many small hollow organic globules, which probably formed in the cold molecular cloud of gas and dust that gave birth to the Solar System. Meteorites like this have been falling to Earth for billions of years, and probably seeded the early planet with organic material.
Continue reading “Organic Material Found in an Ancient Meteorite”
The Great Observatories View Supernova Remnant N49
Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer – NASA’s three Great Observatories – teamed up to create this beautiful photograph of supernova remnant N49. Under visible light, this is the brightest remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It has a strange lopsided shape; unusual because most supernova remnants are spherical. The new data from the triplet of telescopes have revealed that the strange shape is happening because the remnant is expanding into a region of denser gas on one side.
Continue reading “The Great Observatories View Supernova Remnant N49”