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astropixie
12 Mar 2010, 08:43 UTC
the astronomy picture of the day recently featured an amazing image of M87, the 87th object in the messier catalog. M78 is a stellar nursery; a large cloud of gas and dust where new stars are born. the bright regions of blue and white show surfaces of gas clouds that are being illuminated by young stars. there are probably only a couple newborn stars that the produce enough light for the clouds to glow. the dark patches show dense dust clouds that block this light from our view. M78 is about five light-years across - it takes light five years to go from one side to the other! you can view M78 through a small telescope, but remember that the image you see is what this reflection nebula looked like about 1600 years ago because M78 is about 1600 light years away from us and it takes that long for light to travel from there to here!
reflection nebula: m78
12 Mar 2010, 08:43 UTC
the astronomy picture of the day recently featured an amazing image of M87, the 87th object in the messier catalog. M78 is a stellar nursery; a large cloud of gas and dust where new stars are born. the bright regions of blue and white show surfaces of gas clouds that are being illuminated by young stars. there are probably only a couple newborn stars that the produce enough light for the clouds to glow. the dark patches show dense dust clouds that block this light from our view. M78 is about five light-years across - it takes light five years to go from one side to the other! you can view M78 through a small telescope, but remember that the image you see is what this reflection nebula looked like about 1600 years ago because M78 is about 1600 light years away from us and it takes that long for light to travel from there to here!
EAAE News
12 Mar 2010, 08:41 UTC
Source: SLAC – National Accelerator Laboratory Jets of particles streaming from black holes in far-away galaxies operate differently than previously thought, according to a study published today in Nature. The new study reveals that most of the jet’s light—gamma rays, the universe’s most energetic form of light—is created much farther from [...]
Extreme Jets Take New Shape
12 Mar 2010, 08:41 UTC
Source: SLAC – National Accelerator Laboratory Jets of particles streaming from black holes in far-away galaxies operate differently than previously thought, according to a study published today in Nature. The new study reveals that most of the jet’s light—gamma rays, the universe’s most energetic form of light—is created much farther from [...]
One-Minute Astronomer
12 Mar 2010, 08:10 UTC
A good pair of binoculars gives you grab-and-go convenience on nights when you don’t have much time to observe. Binoculars give you an expansive view of the sky, let you see in “3D” with both eyes, and cost far less than a telescope. Even a modest pair lets you see as many as 100,000 stars, hundreds of star clusters and nebula, supernovae remnants, and dozens of galaxies. Some find the features and specifications of binoculars a little confusing. So here are the basics you need to know to understand and use a decent pair. *** Highly Recommended *** Get a personal tour of the northern and near-southern sky. Stargazing for Beginners: A Binocular Tour of the Night Sky shows you stars and constellations, along with brighter galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae visible with the unaided eye and a simple pair of binoculars. Here’s your opportunity to learn the night sky. Click here to learn more… * * * * * * * * * * All binoculars are marked with two key numbers, magnification and aperture. A pair marked “7×50″, for example, magnifies 7 times and has objective lenses 50 mm in diameter. Bigger lenses let you see dimmer objects. ...
Binocular Basics
12 Mar 2010, 08:10 UTC
A good pair of binoculars gives you grab-and-go convenience on nights when you don’t have much time to observe. Binoculars give you an expansive view of the sky, let you see in “3D” with both eyes, and cost far less than a telescope. Even a modest pair lets you see as many as 100,000 stars, hundreds of star clusters and nebula, supernovae remnants, and dozens of galaxies. Some find the features and specifications of binoculars a little confusing. So here are the basics you need to know to understand and use a decent pair. *** Highly Recommended *** Get a personal tour of the northern and near-southern sky. Stargazing for Beginners: A Binocular Tour of the Night Sky shows you stars and constellations, along with brighter galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae visible with the unaided eye and a simple pair of binoculars. Here’s your opportunity to learn the night sky. Click here to learn more… * * * * * * * * * * All binoculars are marked with two key numbers, magnification and aperture. A pair marked “7×50″, for example, magnifies 7 times and has objective lenses 50 mm in diameter. Bigger lenses let you see dimmer objects. ...
Space Fellowship
12 Mar 2010, 07:57 UTC
(NASA) - The region of interest located in Mare Crisium is a compelling Exploration site for many reasons. First, this site was visited by several Soviet landers - Luna 23 and Luna 24 both touched down in Crisium. Luna 24 succeeded in returning a 170 gram sample in 1976. Though the amount was small, it provided a wealth of information and an interesting mystery. The Luna 24 basalt has a titanium dioxide content of about 1%, placing it among the lowest abundances of any lunar basalt sampled. [...]
Crisium's Region of Interest
12 Mar 2010, 07:57 UTC
(NASA) - The region of interest located in Mare Crisium is a compelling Exploration site for many reasons. First, this site was visited by several Soviet landers - Luna 23 and Luna 24 both touched down in Crisium. Luna 24 succeeded in returning a 170 gram sample in 1976. Though the amount was small, it provided a wealth of information and an interesting mystery. The Luna 24 basalt has a titanium dioxide content of about 1%, placing it among the lowest abundances of any lunar basalt sampled. [...]
Space Fellowship
12 Mar 2010, 07:50 UTC
(NASA) - Meet asteroid 1999 RQ36, a chunk of rock and dust about 1,900 feet in diameter that could tell us how the solar system was born, and perhaps, shed light on how life began. It also might hit us someday. "This asteroid is a time capsule from before the birth of our solar system," said Bill Cutlip of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., one of the leaders of Goddard's effort to propose a mission called OSIRIS-REx that will return a sample from RQ36. If selecte [...]
Proposed Mission Would Return Sample from Asteroid "Time Capsule"
12 Mar 2010, 07:50 UTC
(NASA) - Meet asteroid 1999 RQ36, a chunk of rock and dust about 1,900 feet in diameter that could tell us how the solar system was born, and perhaps, shed light on how life began. It also might hit us someday. "This asteroid is a time capsule from before the birth of our solar system," said Bill Cutlip of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., one of the leaders of Goddard's effort to propose a mission called OSIRIS-REx that will return a sample from RQ36. If selecte [...]
Spaceports
11 Mar 2010, 23:17 UTC
The international space station (ISS) partners have begun reviewing their on-board hardware with the goal of certifying it for use until 2028 even as they seek ways to reduce the annual operating costs of the orbital complex, the partners said in a joint statement March 11, 2010, reports SpaceNews.Commerce space launch firms in the United States will have a greater opportunity to provide services to the ISS with a neraly 20-year extended life of the hardware. Russia, Japan, and Europe each have cargo spacecraft with planned missions to the ISS.American firms Orbital Sciences Corporation and SpaceX both have commercial contracts set to commence within the next few months following the space shuttle fleet retirement later this year. Jack@JackKennedy.net Spaceports?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0">
Space Station to Orbit Until 2028 or Later
11 Mar 2010, 23:17 UTC
The international space station (ISS) partners have begun reviewing their on-board hardware with the goal of certifying it for use until 2028 even as they seek ways to reduce the annual operating costs of the orbital complex, the partners said in a joint statement March 11, 2010, reports SpaceNews.Commerce space launch firms in the United States will have a greater opportunity to provide services to the ISS with a neraly 20-year extended life of the hardware. Russia, Japan, and Europe each have cargo spacecraft with planned missions to the ISS.American firms Orbital Sciences Corporation and SpaceX both have commercial contracts set to commence within the next few months following the space shuttle fleet retirement later this year. Jack@JackKennedy.net Spaceports?d=l6gmwiTKsz0" border="0">
Universe Today
11 Mar 2010, 21:52 UTC
In a manner somewhat like the formation of an alliance to defeat Darth Vader's Death Star, more than a decade ago astronomers formed the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope consortium to understand Nature's Death Ray Gun (a.k.a. blazars). And contrary to its at-death's-door sounding name, the GASP has proved crucial to unraveling the secrets of how [...] Recent observations of blazar jets require researchers to look deeper into whether current theories about jet formation and motion require refinement. This simulation, courtesy of Jonathan McKinney (KIPAC), shows a black hole pulling in nearby matter (yellow) and spraying energy back out into the universe in a jet (blue and red) that is held together by magnetic field lines (green). In a manner somewhat like the formation of an alliance to defeat Darth Vader's Death Star, more than a decade ago astronomers formed the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope consortium to understand Nature's Death Ray Gun (a.k.a. blazars). And contrary to its at-death's-door sounding name, the GASP has proved crucial to unraveling the secrets of how Nature's "LHC" works."As the universe's biggest accelerators, blazar jets are important to understand," said Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) Research Fellow Masaaki Hayashida, corresponding author on ...
World-wide Campaign Sheds New Light on Nature's "LHC"
11 Mar 2010, 21:52 UTC
In a manner somewhat like the formation of an alliance to defeat Darth Vader's Death Star, more than a decade ago astronomers formed the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope consortium to understand Nature's Death Ray Gun (a.k.a. blazars). And contrary to its at-death's-door sounding name, the GASP has proved crucial to unraveling the secrets of how [...] Recent observations of blazar jets require researchers to look deeper into whether current theories about jet formation and motion require refinement. This simulation, courtesy of Jonathan McKinney (KIPAC), shows a black hole pulling in nearby matter (yellow) and spraying energy back out into the universe in a jet (blue and red) that is held together by magnetic field lines (green). In a manner somewhat like the formation of an alliance to defeat Darth Vader's Death Star, more than a decade ago astronomers formed the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope consortium to understand Nature's Death Ray Gun (a.k.a. blazars). And contrary to its at-death's-door sounding name, the GASP has proved crucial to unraveling the secrets of how Nature's "LHC" works."As the universe's biggest accelerators, blazar jets are important to understand," said Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) Research Fellow Masaaki Hayashida, corresponding author on ...
On Orbit
11 Mar 2010, 21:29 UTC
By precisely tracking NASA's Cassini spacecraft on its low swoops over Saturn's moon Titan, scientists have determined the distribution of materials in the moon's interior. The subtle gravitational tugs they measured suggest the interior has been too cold and sluggish to split completely into separate layers of ice and rock. read more
Ice and Rock Mixture Inside Titan
11 Mar 2010, 21:29 UTC
By precisely tracking NASA's Cassini spacecraft on its low swoops over Saturn's moon Titan, scientists have determined the distribution of materials in the moon's interior. The subtle gravitational tugs they measured suggest the interior has been too cold and sluggish to split completely into separate layers of ice and rock. read more
The Once and Future Moon
11 Mar 2010, 20:33 UTC
Last fall, after much anticipation, the Augustine Committee presented us with their assessment of the future of space exploration. Its basic conclusion was that at currently envisioned budgets, the Program of Record (a.k.a. ESAS, Project Constellation) would not get us back to the Moon before many decades had passed, if then. This meme has been [...] The Moon is the key resource needed to open up the frontier of space Last fall, after much anticipation, the Augustine Committee presented us with their assessment of the future of space exploration. Its basic conclusion was that at currently envisioned budgets, the Program of Record (a.k.a. ESAS, Project Constellation) would not get us back to the Moon before many decades had passed, if then. This meme has been picked up by many in the space community to the point where is it now cliché to claim that we don’t have enough money to do anything in space. Hence, the direction proposed in the new budget takes NASA out of the space transportation business entirely, freeing up their budget to focus on technology development, and contracting with commercial providers to create access to low Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS). How ...
Stuck in Transit – Unchaining Ourselves From the Rocket Equation
11 Mar 2010, 20:33 UTC
Last fall, after much anticipation, the Augustine Committee presented us with their assessment of the future of space exploration. Its basic conclusion was that at currently envisioned budgets, the Program of Record (a.k.a. ESAS, Project Constellation) would not get us back to the Moon before many decades had passed, if then. This meme has been [...] The Moon is the key resource needed to open up the frontier of space Last fall, after much anticipation, the Augustine Committee presented us with their assessment of the future of space exploration. Its basic conclusion was that at currently envisioned budgets, the Program of Record (a.k.a. ESAS, Project Constellation) would not get us back to the Moon before many decades had passed, if then. This meme has been picked up by many in the space community to the point where is it now cliché to claim that we don’t have enough money to do anything in space. Hence, the direction proposed in the new budget takes NASA out of the space transportation business entirely, freeing up their budget to focus on technology development, and contracting with commercial providers to create access to low Earth orbit (LEO) and the International Space Station (ISS). How ...
Simostronomy
11 Mar 2010, 18:49 UTC
I don't do a lot of 'eye-candy' posts about pictures, but this one really caught my eye as I scanned my Google reader at lunch time today. I've blogged about this before, but this is just an awesome picture from the Hubble Space Telescope. One of the final stages of stellar evolution of a Sun-like star results in nebulae like this one, NGC 6302, also known as the Bug Nebula. This glowing, expanding shell of ionized gas is known as a planetary nebula.NGC 6302 The 'Bug Nebula'Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO TeamAt the end of the star's life, during the red giant phase, the outer layers of the star are expelled via pulsations and strong stellar winds. This is not a nice breeze on a cool day. We're talking winds up to 600,000 miles per hour. Eventually all that is left in the center is the ash of the previous star's core, a white dwarf. The hot white dwarf emits ultraviolet radiation that ionizes the ejected outer layers of the star. This energized shell radiates as a planetary nebula.They are a relatively short-lived phenomenon, lasting a few tens of thousands of years, as compared to a typical ...
