Search Results for: very large telescope

The Sun is heating up, and in 4 billion years from now it will swell up to become a red giant – Earth and the rest of the inner planets will be destroyed. But the deadly conditions that destroy the Earth will mean warmer temperatures in the outer Solar System, possibly supporting life. The region from Saturn to Pluto will warm up to the point that frozen water will melt on moons and planets. Scientists think the best chances for life will be found on Pluto and its moon Charon as well as Neptune’s moon Triton because they’re rich in organic chemicals.

After 15 years of observation, over the course of more than 1,000 nights, a European team of astronomers has collected the most thorough survey of our local stellar neighborhood. The team performed an analysis of more than 14,000 stars to calculate their distance, age, chemical analysis, velocity and orbit around the Milky Way. Each star was measured 4 times over the course of this period. It turns out that the motion of stars through the Milky Way is much more chaotic and turbulent than previously thought.

An international team of astronomers have mapped a sizable region of space around the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and have found the wreckage of many galaxies, torn apart by its massive gravity. One stream of stars has been found stretching back 50,000 to a satellite galaxy which is in the process of being consumed. They also found 14 globular star clusters floating far from Andromeda’s centre; the remnants of destroyed galaxies. By studying these galactic fossils, astronomers can better understand the evolution of Andromeda.

Amateur astronomer Jay McNeil made a lucky discovery last month when he noticed a new smudge of dust in the constellation of Orion using his 3-inch telescope – it turned out McNeil had discovered a nebula surrounding a newborn star that was illuminated when the star flared up. After his discovery, observatories around the world turned their larger instruments on “McNeil’s Nebula” to get a better understanding of what’s happening in this stellar nursery. This latest image was taken by the 8-metre Gemini observatory in Hawaii.

One of the largest astronomy catalogs ever created was released to the public today by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The released data contains six terabytes of images and catalogs, containing 88 million celestial objects and detailed spectra on 350,000 objects. Many discoveries have been made with previously released SDSS data, including the most distant quasars, coolest stars, properties of galaxies, and the locations of many asteroids. The photographs were taken using the SDSS’ 2.5 metre telescope, which records images digitally using 5 filters.

Caltech and Cornell have begun a $2 million study to build a 25-metre telescope in the Atacama desert of northern Chile. The telescope will observe the sky in the submillimeter spectrum, which will allow it to see objects which don’t emit much visible or infrared light. This would be a significant improvement over the 10.4-metre instrument that Caltech already operates, giving up to 12 times the light gathering power. If construction of the instrument goes ahead, it should be completed by 2012.