A slow, steady rain of cosmic space dust is always falling through the Earth’s atmosphere. These particles from space are infused with a rare isotope of helium that makes it immediately identifiable compared to a more common isotope of helium we find here on Earth. Scientists recently drilled an ice core in Antarctica containing a record of this dust fall that goes back 30,000 years. This new data gives scientists another line of data to study global climate history as the ratio between the isotopes varies between interglacial periods.
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The Universe Could Be Larger Than Previously Thought
Astronomers recently calculated the distance to the relatively nearby galaxy M33 (aka the Triangulum Galaxy) as being about 15% further than previously estimated. They analyzed the distance using several telescopes, fine tuning their instruments very carefully. This measurement means that the Hubble constant – which astronomers use to measure distances in the Universe – could be off as well. The Universe might actually be 15% larger than previously believed.
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Proton Launches Eutelsat Satellite
A Proton Breeze M rocket blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Friday night, carrying the Eutelsat Hot Bird 8 broadcast satellite. The rocked lifted off at 2148 GMT (5:48 pm EDT), and released its satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit about 9 hours later. Hot Bird 8 will provide broadcast television to customers in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
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False Colour View of Hyperion
This view of Saturn’s moon Hyperion has been given false colour enhancements to highlight its geologic features. Photographs in ultraviolet, green, and infrared were combined together on computer, and then superimposed over a clear-filter image to preserve brightness. Scientists don’t fully understand why Hyperion has the variations, but it could be due to the size of the ice grains on its surface.
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SMART-1’s Final Days
After 16 months of successful observations, ESA’s SMART-1 is about to make its final contribution to lunar science. On September 3, 2006, it’ll crash into the Moon in full view of Earth- and space-based telescopes, giving astronomers a glimpse of what’s underneath the surface. In its final orbits, the spacecraft will be flying so low that it might crash into a hill on a previous pass, giving different Earth-based telescopes a better view. The final crater is expected to be 3-10 metres (10-33 feet) wide and 1 metre (3 feet) deep.
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Dark Energy Mission Chosen
A new space telescope concept has been chosen by NASA to help uncover the source of dark energy; the mysterious force accelerating the expansion of the Universe. Called Destiny, or the Dark Energy Space Telescope, the orbiting observatory would detect and observe more than 3,000 supernovae over the course of 2 years. This data will help astronomers trace back the expansion of the Universe, and calculate if the rate of acceleration has changed over time. If all goes well, it’ll launch in 2013.
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Twin Planemos Discovered
Astronomers have turned up plenty of extrasolar planets, but a newly discovered binary pair of planets is quite the find. The system consists of a 7-Jupiter mass planet and a 14-Jupiter mass planet… but no star. These planets – or “planemos” – just orbit each other. Their discovery challenges the current theory that planets are thought to form out of the disks of gas and dust that surround newborn stars.
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Brown Dwarf Lived Inside Another Star
ESO’s Very Large Telescope has uncovered an interesting stellar pair: a hot white dwarf and a brown dwarf orbiting each other every two hours. In the past, the heavier star was actually a bloated red giant, and the brown dwarf orbited inside its envelope. The friction of moving through the red giant caused the brown dwarf to spiral in to its current position. Finally, the star collapsed down to a white dwarf, leaving the two objects in this embrace.
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Podcast: A Puzzling Difference
Imagine looking at red houses, and sometimes you see a crow fly past. But every time you look at a blue house, there’s always a crow flying right in front of the house. The crow and the house could be miles apart, so this must be impossible, right? Well, according to a new survey if you look at a quasar, you’ll see a galaxy in front 25% of the time. But for gamma ray bursts, there’s almost always an intervening galaxy. Even though they could be separated by billions of light years. Figure that out. Dr. Jason X. Prochaska, from the University of California, Santa Cruz speaks to me about the strange results they’ve found, and what could be the cause.
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Astrophoto: NGC 6755 and 6756 by Bernhard Hubl
Stars arise at the heart of great interstellar clouds that have collapsed under their own weight. These free-floating clouds are comprised principally of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, plus a smaller amount of dust from previous generations of suns. The size of a typical cloud is so enormous that it takes light many years to travel from one end to the other. The amount of material within an interstellar cloud is also staggering to imagine- so much material is brought together that multiple star births are common. Seen from the outside, a collapsed cloud can appear dark and foreboding. But, inside they are full of light from the hot, newly formed stars that have been incubated. Over time, the cloud will part or dissipate to reveal a new group of stars, similar to the two clusters seen in the accompanying picture.
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