Space and astronomy news
Pandora had her box. Adam and Eve had their apple. Physicists have the expanding universe. Whether the universe expands forever into a deep freeze or eventually contracts back into a hellish speck containing all energy, the future looks grim. Michio Kaku in his book Parallel Worlds doesn’t let these portends cause any dismay as he …
Uranus and its faint ring system which was discovered this week in 1977. Image credit: NASA/JPL. Click to enlarge. If you haven’t had the chance to catch bright comet Pojmanski, the time is now. Head out this week to catch lunar features, bright stars and open clusters. Keep on looking because… Here’s what’s up! Monday, …
Continue reading “What’s Up This Week – March 6 – March 12, 2006”
Andromeda Galaxy taken in ultraviolet. Image credit: GALEX Click to enlarge Astronomers have long believed that the Andromeda galaxy had a different upbringing from our own Milky Way, but now it seems we aren’t so different after all. An international team of researchers have completed a survey of the metal content in Andromeda’s halo, and …
Continue reading “Andromeda’s Origin is Similar to That of the Milky Way”
Artist’s illustration represents tightly-wound magnetic field confining jet. Image credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF. Click to enlarge Radio astronomers have uncovered a dying star with twin jets of material confined by a powerful magnetic field. The star is located about 8,500 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Aquila, and it’s in the process of forming a …
Continue reading “Magnetic Fields Confine a Dying Star’s Jets”
The radio pulsar PSR B1259-63. Image credit: ESA Click to enlarge ESA astronomers have witnessed something very unusual; a pulsar crashing through a ring of gas surrounding a companion star. As the pulsar passed through ring, it lit up the area in gamma and X-rays, visible to ESA’s XMM-Newton observatory. This companion star is several …
NASA’s Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) astronomy satellite has returned to service after being offline for about 10 months. 3 of the spacecraft’s 4 reaction wheels had failed; these allow it to point at precise locations in the sky. Even though it only has a single reaction wheel, engineers were able to create a technique which allows it to orient itself. FUSE has already had its original 3-year mission extended twice, so any further science it can gather is a bonus.
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Start your week out “hot” as we take a look at AE Aurigae – The Flaming Star. If you still carry a torch for an old “Flame” then come along as we have a look at NGC 2024. We’ll round up the horses, head out for Abell 426, lasso some wild star clusters and ride off into the moonrise as the week ends. All you have to do is turn an eye to the sky, because…
Here’s what’s up!
NASA’s Swift satellite is continuing to send back surprising information about gamma ray bursts. On February 18, 2006, it discovered something completely unique; a burst that originated 440 million light-years away and lasted about 30 minutes. This event is very similar to the more common bursts that have been seen in the past; however, it was about 25 times closer, and lasted 100 times longer than a typical burst.
Pluto and its three moons were likely formed together when two large objects collided millions of years ago. Charon has been observed for decades, but the two new smaller moons, discovered last year, also orbit in the same plane as Charon and have a similar orbital resonance. It’s even possible that Pluto has a ring system. Astronomers now believe that many Kuiper Belt Objects have multiple moons, and even higher order systems will probably be discovered in the years to come.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered a hot extrasolar planet orbiting a nearby star. Planet HD 189733b orbits its parent star only 63 light-years from Earth, making it the closest extrasolar planet ever detected directly. It moves in an extremely tight orbit – less than 3% of the distance from the Earth to the Sun – completing a tour around its star in just over 2 days. And it’s scorching hot, reaching temperatures of 844 Celsius (about 1,551 Fahrenheit) on its surface.