Space and astronomy news
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As the week begins, keep an eye out for members of the Draconid meteor shower as we begin a in-depth look at globular cluster – M15. There will be plenty to explore, so get out your optics and head for the stars, because…
Here’s what’s up!
Continue reading “What’s Up this Week: October 9 – October 15, 2006”
“Mom, I want to be an astronaut just like you!”. Such a line could be a great lead-in to an emotional and technical discussion. For parents and educators less experienced, it could present a real dilemma. Space travel and rocket science have been the fiefdom of nerds and calculator fiends. However, Lonnie Jones Schorer in her book ‘Kids to Space – A Space Traveler’s Guide’ removes the concern. After all, children do ask the darndest questions. But no matter what, they should always get the best possible answer.
Continue reading “Kids to Space – A Space Traveler’s Guide”
Like shards of shattered glass caught in a spotlight, the stars appear deceptively passive in the night sky. Yet, each one is an object of extraordinary ferocity. Stellar surface temperatures can reach 50,000 degrees Celsius- over ten times hotter than our Sun – and on a few it can reach over one million degrees! The heat within a star reaches even higher levels that typically exceed several million degrees – enough to tear apart atomic nuclei and transform them into new types of matter. Our casual glances upward not only fails to reveal these extreme conditions but it only hints at the enormous variety of stars that exist. Stars are arranged in pairs, triplets and quartets. Some are smaller than Earth while others are larger than our entire solar system. However, since even the nearest star is 26 trillion miles distant, almost everything we know about them, including those in the accompanying picture, has been gleaned only from their light.
Continue reading “Astrophoto: The Cocoon Nebula by Dan Kowall”
The Hubble Space Telescope turned its gaze towards a relatively nearby Jupiter-sized world recently. The planet orbits the Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani, which is located only 10.5 light-years away. This makes the planet so close that it could be directly observable by Hubble, and large ground-based observatories. The best opportunity will come in 2007, when the planet makes its closest approach to its parent star, and the reflected light should make it observable with our best instruments.
Continue reading “Hubble Examines the Closest Known Extrasolar Planet”
Ever wonder how many black holes are nearby? Well, NASA has gone and counted them for you. According to data gathered by NASA’s Swift satellite, there are about 200 supermassive black holes within about 400 million light-years of the Earth. Swift’s first job is to scan the skies for gamma ray bursts, but during downtime, the spacecraft hunts for objects that emit X-rays. And supermassive black holes are one of the most powerful sources of X-rays out there.
Continue reading “Survey of Nearby Black Holes”
This false-colour mosaic of Saturn was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in February, 2006. The strange red colour is the glow of thermal radiation from inside Saturn’s warm interior, which is visible on the night-side of the planet. The northern hemisphere is brighter because the atmosphere is relatively clear – this reveals the turbulent lower clouds. Cassini took this image when it was 1.6 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn.
Continue reading “Saturn’s Clouds in Silhouette”
New images from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory show the environment around the supermassive black hole at the heart of M87, a nearby giant elliptical galaxy. Chandra detected loops and rings in the hot gas that surrounds the galaxy. These loops are evidence of periodic eruptions near the supermassive black hole, which send shockwaves through the surrounding gas. These outbursts happen every few million years, and prevent the gas in the cluster from cooling to create stars.
Continue reading “Black Hole Stops Star Formation in Elliptical Galaxy”
Quasars are some of the brightest objects in the Universe, and astronomers believe they’re caused by the outpouring of radiation from the environment around an actively feeding supermassive black hole. New research using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has looked inside a quasar, to see the disk of material spiraling into the black hole. Astronomers used the gravity from a relatively nearby galaxy as a gravitational lens to focus the light from the more distant quasar, giving this impressive view.
Continue reading “Astronomers Peer Inside a Quasar”
The first test images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been difficult to appreciate, since they don’t show any familiar landmarks or give a sense of scale. But today the spacecraft delivered the goods, with a photograph from orbit of NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover, perched at the edge of Victoria Crater. It’s possible to make out the shape of the silver rover, and see its tracks in the Martian soil. By using both the aerial and ground level views, planetary scientists will be able to plot out the rover’s next moves in search of evidence of past water.
Continue reading “Spacecraft Sees Mars Rover from Orbit”
This Cassini photograph shows the southern polar region of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is the region of the moon that is known to be geologically active, spraying water ice into orbit around Saturn. It has deep folds and ridges, clearly visible at the top of the image. Cassini took this image on September 9, 2006 when it was approximately 66,000 kilometers (41,000 miles) from Enceladus.
Continue reading “Folds on the Surface of Enceladus”