Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
21 Sep 2017, 14:06 UTC
Cambridge, MA - When fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first detected in 2001, astronomers had never seen anything like them before. Since then, astronomers have found a couple of dozen FRBs, but they still don’t know what causes these rapid and powerful bursts of radio emission.
Fast Radio Bursts May Be Firing Off Every Second
21 Sep 2017, 14:06 UTC
Cambridge, MA - When fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first detected in 2001, astronomers had never seen anything like them before. Since then, astronomers have found a couple of dozen FRBs, but they still don’t know what causes these rapid and powerful bursts of radio emission.
Europlanet Research Infrastructure
21 Sep 2017, 10:00 UTC
European Planetary Science Congress 2017 Press Notice Thursday, 21st September Solar eruption ‘photobombed’ Mars encounter with Comet Siding Spring When Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) passed just 140,000 kilometres from Mars on 19th October 2014, depositing a large amount of debris in the martian atmosphere, space agencies coordinated multiple spacecraft to witness the largest meteor shower in recorded history. It was a rare opportunity, as this kind of planetary event occurs only once every 100,000 years. However, scientists analysing the data have found that a very powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) launched by the Sun also arrived at Mars 44 hours before the comet, creating significant disturbances in the martian upper atmosphere and complicating analysis of the data. Results describing the combined effects of the comet and the CME throughout the martian atmosphere are being presented in a special session at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2017 in Riga on Thursday, 21st September. Dr Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, of the University of Leicester and co-organiser of the session, explains: “Comet Siding Spring flew very close to Mars, at one third of the Earth-Moon distance. This is one of the most exciting planetary events that we’ll see in our lifetime. Mars was ...
Solar eruption ‘photobombed’ Mars encounter with Comet Siding Spring
21 Sep 2017, 10:00 UTC
European Planetary Science Congress 2017 Press Notice Thursday, 21st September Solar eruption ‘photobombed’ Mars encounter with Comet Siding Spring When Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) passed just 140,000 kilometres from Mars on 19th October 2014, depositing a large amount of debris in the martian atmosphere, space agencies coordinated multiple spacecraft to witness the largest meteor shower in recorded history. It was a rare opportunity, as this kind of planetary event occurs only once every 100,000 years. However, scientists analysing the data have found that a very powerful Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) launched by the Sun also arrived at Mars 44 hours before the comet, creating significant disturbances in the martian upper atmosphere and complicating analysis of the data. Results describing the combined effects of the comet and the CME throughout the martian atmosphere are being presented in a special session at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) 2017 in Riga on Thursday, 21st September. Dr Beatriz Sanchez-Cano, of the University of Leicester and co-organiser of the session, explains: “Comet Siding Spring flew very close to Mars, at one third of the Earth-Moon distance. This is one of the most exciting planetary events that we’ll see in our lifetime. Mars was ...
SETI Institute
20 Sep 2017, 21:25 UTC
Presented by the SETI Institute and SRI, the next SETI Talks will feature SETI Institute scientist Matt Tiscareno. Matt has been working on Cassini since 2004, studying Saturn’s rings using images from the main camera. In the past few years, Matt took a leading role in planning Cassini’s close-up images of Saturn’s rings during the Ring Grazing Orbits and the Grand Finale.
SETI Talks Presents Cassini: A Look Back and a Fond Farewell
20 Sep 2017, 21:25 UTC
Presented by the SETI Institute and SRI, the next SETI Talks will feature SETI Institute scientist Matt Tiscareno. Matt has been working on Cassini since 2004, studying Saturn’s rings using images from the main camera. In the past few years, Matt took a leading role in planning Cassini’s close-up images of Saturn’s rings during the Ring Grazing Orbits and the Grand Finale.
HubbleSite NewsCenter -- Latest News Releases
20 Sep 2017, 17:00 UTC
An Asteroid That Split in Two 5,000 Years Ago Is Spouting a Comet Tail Astronomers categorize the minor bodies in the solar system according to their location and physical composition. Comets are a loose collection of ice and dust that fall in toward the Sun from beyond the orbits of the major planets, and grow long tails of dust and gas along the way. Asteroids are rocky or metallic and are relegated to a zone between Mars and Jupiter. But nature isn't that tidy. The Hubble Space Telescope photographed a pair of asteroids orbiting each other that have a tail of dust, which is definitely a comet-like feature. The odd object, called 2006 VW139/288P, is the first known binary asteroid that is also classified as a main-belt comet. Roughly 5,000 years ago, 2006 VW139/288P probably broke into two pieces due to a fast rotation.
Comet or Asteroid? Hubble Discovers that a Unique Object is a Binary
20 Sep 2017, 17:00 UTC
An Asteroid That Split in Two 5,000 Years Ago Is Spouting a Comet Tail Astronomers categorize the minor bodies in the solar system according to their location and physical composition. Comets are a loose collection of ice and dust that fall in toward the Sun from beyond the orbits of the major planets, and grow long tails of dust and gas along the way. Asteroids are rocky or metallic and are relegated to a zone between Mars and Jupiter. But nature isn't that tidy. The Hubble Space Telescope photographed a pair of asteroids orbiting each other that have a tail of dust, which is definitely a comet-like feature. The odd object, called 2006 VW139/288P, is the first known binary asteroid that is also classified as a main-belt comet. Roughly 5,000 years ago, 2006 VW139/288P probably broke into two pieces due to a fast rotation.
ESA Top News
20 Sep 2017, 11:40 UTC
Proba-V captures Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt plain – its 10 500 sq km make it larger than some countries.
Flat land
20 Sep 2017, 11:40 UTC
Proba-V captures Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt plain – its 10 500 sq km make it larger than some countries.
ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration
20 Sep 2017, 09:00 UTC
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on a planetary geology course last week with a field trip to the Italian Dolomites.
Geological investigation
20 Sep 2017, 09:00 UTC
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on a planetary geology course last week with a field trip to the Italian Dolomites.
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Sky and Telescope
21 Sep 2017, 18:05 UTC
Particles traveling at fair fractions of the speed of light hit Earth all the time. These ridiculously energetic entities, called cosmic rays, are protons and larger atomic nuclei from space. Their energies range from about a billion to beyond 10 million trillion electron volts (109 to 1020 eV), or up to 10 million times higher than the energy at which the Large Hadron Collider smashes protons together. (Incidentally, this is why we know the LHC won’t create dangerous microscopic black holes.) Astronomers think the lower-energy cosmic rays (which are far more common) come from within the Milky Way, particularly from star-forming regions and supernova remnants. The more energetic ones — we’re talking 1,000 trillion eV — are thought to come from outside the galaxy.
Some Cosmic Rays Come from Outside the Galaxy
21 Sep 2017, 18:05 UTC
Particles traveling at fair fractions of the speed of light hit Earth all the time. These ridiculously energetic entities, called cosmic rays, are protons and larger atomic nuclei from space. Their energies range from about a billion to beyond 10 million trillion electron volts (109 to 1020 eV), or up to 10 million times higher than the energy at which the Large Hadron Collider smashes protons together. (Incidentally, this is why we know the LHC won’t create dangerous microscopic black holes.) Astronomers think the lower-energy cosmic rays (which are far more common) come from within the Milky Way, particularly from star-forming regions and supernova remnants. The more energetic ones — we’re talking 1,000 trillion eV — are thought to come from outside the galaxy.
Scientific American
21 Sep 2017, 17:00 UTC
The encounter will give the spacecraft a boost on its deep-space trip to fetch samples from the asteroid Bennu
En Route to Asteroid, NASA's OSIRIS-REx Mission Will Fly By Earth
21 Sep 2017, 17:00 UTC
The encounter will give the spacecraft a boost on its deep-space trip to fetch samples from the asteroid Bennu
Centauri Dreams
21 Sep 2017, 15:11 UTC
If New Horizons can make its flyby of Kuiper Belt Object MU69 at a scant 3500 kilometers, our imagery and other data should be much enhanced over the alternative 10,000 kilometer distance, one being kept in reserve in case pre-encounter observations indicate a substantial debris field or other problems close to the object. But both trajectories, according to principal investigator Alan Stern, have been moved closer following a ten-week study period, and both are closer than the 12,500 kilometers the spacecraft maintained in its flyby of Pluto.
New Horizons After 2014 MU69
21 Sep 2017, 15:11 UTC
If New Horizons can make its flyby of Kuiper Belt Object MU69 at a scant 3500 kilometers, our imagery and other data should be much enhanced over the alternative 10,000 kilometer distance, one being kept in reserve in case pre-encounter observations indicate a substantial debris field or other problems close to the object. But both trajectories, according to principal investigator Alan Stern, have been moved closer following a ten-week study period, and both are closer than the 12,500 kilometers the spacecraft maintained in its flyby of Pluto.
NPR
21 Sep 2017, 13:51 UTC
A project called the Event Horizon Telescope is analyzing data taken earlier this year using interferometry — and we may be remarkably close to "seeing" a black hole, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.(Image credit: J.A. Biretta, Hubble Heritage Team/NASA)
Are We About To See A Black Hole?
21 Sep 2017, 13:51 UTC
A project called the Event Horizon Telescope is analyzing data taken earlier this year using interferometry — and we may be remarkably close to "seeing" a black hole, says astrophysicist Adam Frank.(Image credit: J.A. Biretta, Hubble Heritage Team/NASA)
SPACE.com
21 Sep 2017, 12:11 UTC
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is zooming through the outer solar system with its eyes open once again. New Horizons woke from a five-month hibernation period — its first stretch of rest since before its epic Pluto flyby in July 2015 — last week, right on schedule, mission team members said.
New Horizons Probe Wakes from 5-Month Slumber
21 Sep 2017, 12:11 UTC
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is zooming through the outer solar system with its eyes open once again. New Horizons woke from a five-month hibernation period — its first stretch of rest since before its epic Pluto flyby in July 2015 — last week, right on schedule, mission team members said.
SPACE.com
21 Sep 2017, 12:00 UTC
Not one but two gigantic black holes lurk at the heart of the distant spiral galaxy NGC 7674, a new study suggests. These two supermassive black holes are separated by less than 1 light-year and together harbor about 40 million times the mass of the sun, researchers said.
2 Monster Black Holes Spotted at Galaxy's Heart
21 Sep 2017, 12:00 UTC
Not one but two gigantic black holes lurk at the heart of the distant spiral galaxy NGC 7674, a new study suggests. These two supermassive black holes are separated by less than 1 light-year and together harbor about 40 million times the mass of the sun, researchers said.
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