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aamukherjee A Slice of Entropie -
alchymista Alchymista -
crownedrose Fading Like A Dead Star -
expose-the-light Quarks to Quasars -
ikenbot CWL -
abluegirl A Blue Girl -
perscientiamlibertas A Matter of the Most Pleasant Fraternal Confidence
Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth’s atmosphere, the International Space Station is seen from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation. Earlier the STS-119 and Expedition 18 crews concluded 9 days, 20 hours and 10 minutes of cooperative work onboard the shuttle and station. Undocking of the two spacecraft occurred at 2:53 p.m. (CDT) on March 25, 2009.
ikenbot
Summer is slowly coming to Saturn’s northern hemisphere. The north pole, which was in the midst of a 7-year-long winter when Cassini arrived in 2004, is now seen basking in the sunlight of mid-spring. Cassini is taking full advantage of the sunlight to capture these amazing views of the north polar hexagon and the myriad of storms, large and small, that comprise the weather systems in the polar region.
This view is centered on terrain at 75 degrees north latitude, 322 degrees west longitude. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on Feb. 26, 2013 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light centered at 752 nanometers.
The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 383,000 miles (616,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a Sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 48 degrees. Image scale is 21 miles (33 kilometers) per pixel.
So Long, Kepler: NASA’s Crack Exoplanet-Hunter Falls to Mechanical Failure
In the science press, the obituaries are already rolling out. Though many scientific experiments teach us something new about the world, few have been able to so clearly redefine our place in the universe as Kepler. Decades ago, the planets in our solar system were all we knew. Now, we’re practically swimming in them
abluegirl
A U.S. Spy Agency’s Leftover, Hubble-Sized Satellite Could Be on Its Way to Mars:
Last year the National Reconnaissance Office—the U.S. government’s spy satellite program—surprised the world when it let on that it had two unwanted, Hubble-sized spy satellites just sort of sitting around. The Hubble Space Telescope, the great eye in the sky that has given us some of the best photographs in the universe, has a 7.9 foot-wide mirror. The NRO’s two leftover spy satellites also had 7.9 foot-wide mirrors. For satellites, the bigger the mirror the more detail in the photo.
Where Hubble was designed to look off into space, the spy satellites were meant to look down at us. Some rough calculations by UNC-Charlotte associate professor Greg Gbur (otherwise known as Dr Skyksull) let us known that this telescope would be able to see things that are just 5 inches across. With some computer processing, you could probably pick out things on the ground that are just 2.5 inches wide. From space.
But, the spy agency doesn’t want these satellites anymore, so they gave them to NASA. For the better part of a year, says Astronomy Now, NASA has been trying to figure out what exactly to do with these new satellites. Now, says Space.com, the idea is being floated that one of the satellites could be shipped to Mars.
Scientists have proposed sending one of the powerful telescopes to Mars orbit, where it could look both up and down, giving researchers great views of the Red Planet’s surface as well as targets in the outer solar system and beyond.
From orbit around Mars, says Space.com, researchers expect the satellite would be able to take photos that capture around 3.1 inches of the Red Planet per pixel. Such high-resolution imagery could help them build maps and study the planet in unprecedented detail.
But that’s just one possible future for the NRO’s leftover satellites. NASA might also use them to hunt for dark energy or search for exoplanets. Or use them for any one of a number of other projects. Trust us, NASA has plenty of ideas for what to do with two gigantic satellites.
Shot Through the Heart
Credit: ESO/Yuri Beletsky
Three of the four 8.2-m telescopes forming ESO’s VLT are seen dimly, with a laser beaming out from Yepun, Unit Telescope number 4. The laser points at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way, our galaxy. The bright object at center is Jupiter, while the other is Antares.
expose-the-light
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 24, 1990. Since then, it has provided us with some amazing images of stars, nebulae, galaxies and other objects. It is expected to function until 2014, when it will be replaced by the James Webb Telescope.
To celebrate the launch date of the HST, here are some Hubble facts, via space.com:
Hubble facts
The Hubble Space Telescope is a joint project between NASA and the European Space Agency. Here are some basic facts about the telescope and the mission, courtesy the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates Hubble for NASA:
Telescope size
- Length: 43.5 ft (13.2 m)
- Weight: 24,500 lb (11,110 kg)
- Maximum Diameter: 14 ft (4.2 m)
Mission facts
- Launch: April 24, 1990 from space shuttle Discovery (STS-31)
- Deployment: April 25, 1990
- Servicing Mission 1: December 1993
- Servicing Mission 2: February 1997
- Servicing Mission 3A: December 1999
- Servicing Mission 3B: February 2002
- Servicing Mission 4: May 2009
Spaceflight stats
- Orbit: Average altitude of 307 nautical miles (569 km, or 353 miles), inclined 28.5 degrees to the equator.
- Time to Complete one orbit: 97 minutes
- Speed: 17,500 mph (28,000 kph)
Data data
Hubble transmits about 120 gigabytes of science data every week. That would be roughly 3,600 feet (1,097 meters) of books on a shelf. The collection of pictures and data is stored on magneto-optical disks.
Power
- Energy Source: The Sun
- Mechanism: Two 25-foot solar panels
- Power usage: 2,800 watts
- Batteries: 6 nickel-hydrogen (NiH), with a storage capacity equal to 20 car batteries
Optics
- Primary Mirror Diameter: 94.5 in (2.4 m)
- Primary Mirror Weight: 1,825 lb (828 kg)
- Secondary Mirror Diameter: 12 in (0.3 m)
- Secondary Mirror Weight: 27.4 lb (12.3 kg)
Dark Matter Signal Possibly Registered on International Space Station:
A $2-billion particle detector mounted on the International Space Station has registered an excess of antimatter particles in space, the experiment’s lead scientist announced April 3. That excess could come from fast-spinning stellar remnants known as pulsars and other exotic, but visible sources within the Milky Way galaxy. Or the antiparticles might have originated from the long-sought dark matter, the hypothetical massive particles that constitute some 27 percent of the universe.This is really exciting news, because up until now scientists have been unable to directly observe dark matter. Dark matter is really important. Not only is there four times more of it than regular matter, but due to the gravitational force it exerts on galaxies, it plays an important role in galaxy formation and in determining the structure of the universe itself. Yet, scientists still aren’t really sure what it is, exactly. Gaining direct evidence of its existence goes a long way to figuring that out.
Just keep in mind that dark matter is one possible reason for these results there are of reasons to be suspicious of any conclusions that are drawn from them.
Some beautiful night shots on our visit to Hastings Natural Reserve. While we only got to see this one night, seasonal researchers who live on the reserve get to see these views for several months of the year!
ucresearchThen & Now: Photographing the Moon
Top Image: a stereo card from the late 1800s taken by Joseph L. Bates.
Bottom Image: an image taken by elementary school students using a a camera attached to NASA’s GRAIL satellites (part of the MoonKAM project, led by Sally Ride Science and UCSD).
![This Weird Green Rock Is From Mercury
Well, Mercury or a “Mercury-like body.” It’s unlike any other meteorite ever found on Earth.
Last year, a group of 35 meteorite samples was found in Morocco. One of them was this guy, a curiously green sample given the name NWA 7325. Further analysis indicates that its color isn’t the only unusual thing about it—this meteorite isn’t like any we’ve ever seen before.
NWA 7325 has a few very odd qualities. Its magnetic intensity is extremely low, for one thing, which has been an integral fact in figuring out just what the hell this thing is. Magnetic intensity is shared by rocks and the planet they originate from; Earth rocks have a magnetic intensity that can be tied to Earth, for example. This one’s magnetic intensity is highly similar to that of Mercury, which was confirmed by Messenger, the spacecraft currently in orbit around the closest planet to the sun. There are some other clues; the meteorite is also very low in iron, like the planet, and it doesn’t have any of the chemical signifiers that would identify it as, say, a Martian rock.
It’s the first meteorite to be identified as coming from Mercury, or (as is possible, though not likely) a Mercury-like body. It’s estimated that this meteorite (and the others found with it) are about 4.65 billion years old.
[via Space.com]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d1e96a57231b0d011f5d58a2cbb27259/tumblr_mki7rx3Lnn1qbn6nco1_500.jpg)
Last year, a group of 35 meteorite samples was found in Morocco. One of them was this guy, a curiously green sample given the name NWA 7325. Further analysis indicates that its color isn’t the only unusual thing about it—this meteorite isn’t like any we’ve ever seen before.
NWA 7325 has a few very odd qualities. Its magnetic intensity is extremely low, for one thing, which has been an integral fact in figuring out just what the hell this thing is. Magnetic intensity is shared by rocks and the planet they originate from; Earth rocks have a magnetic intensity that can be tied to Earth, for example. This one’s magnetic intensity is highly similar to that of Mercury, which was confirmed by Messenger, the spacecraft currently in orbit around the closest planet to the sun. There are some other clues; the meteorite is also very low in iron, like the planet, and it doesn’t have any of the chemical signifiers that would identify it as, say, a Martian rock.
It’s the first meteorite to be identified as coming from Mercury, or (as is possible, though not likely) a Mercury-like body. It’s estimated that this meteorite (and the others found with it) are about 4.65 billion years old.
[via Space.com]
An Incredibly Hostile Universe
Astronomer Steve Vogt describes his search for extrasolar and Earth-like planets at the Lick Observatory.
“The first habitable planet that we’ve found, Gliese 581G, is right dead-on inhabitable on orbit. It’s a place of refuge from the — the unbelievable harshness of the universe. A place where you could stand and not, you know, fly off into space, where there would be gases to breath, water that would pool in liquid form, maybe oceans. Whether there’s something living there or not, we don’t know.”
Day in the Life of a Living Mars
An animation showing a day on a living Mars.
Generated using data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter aboard the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and satellite imagery from the Blue Marble Next Generation project.
Sea level was set non-scientifically, but such that it would flood much of Valles Marineris as well as provide shoreline near the top of the cliffs on the outer edges of Olympus Mons. The clouds are straight from NASA’s Blue Marble NG project and height mapped (rather arbitrarily, but looks good) by relative opacity (The more opaque a point, the higher up in the atmosphere I put it).
The main texture was “painted” in GIMP over a two dimensional DEM I had done using MOLA elevation data from the Mars Global Surveyor. This was rendered using a digital elevation modeling program I am writing, jDem846, with some extras baked in through it’s scripting interface, and encoded to video with ffmpeg. — Kevin Gill
Monster Black Holes Are Most Massive Ever Discovered
Scientists have discovered the largest black holes yet, and they’re far bigger than researchers expected based on the galaxies in which they were found. The discovery suggests we have much to learn about how monster black holes grow, scientists said.
All large galaxies are thought to harbor super-massive black holes at their hearts that contain millions to billions of times the mass of our sun. Until now, the largest black hole known was a mammoth dwelling in the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87. This black hole has a mass 6.3 billion times that of the sun.
Now research suggests black holes in two nearby galaxies are even bigger. The scientists used the Gemini and Keck observatories in Hawaii and the McDonald Observatory in Texas to monitor the velocities of stars orbiting around the centers of a pair of galaxies. These velocities reveal the strength of the gravitational pull on those stars, which in turn is linked with the masses of the black holes lurking there.
The new findings suggest that one galaxy, known as NGC 3842, the brightest galaxy in the Leo cluster of galaxies nearly 320 million light years distant, has a central black hole 9.7 billion solar masses large. The other, named NGC 4889, the brightest galaxy in the Coma cluster more than 335 million light years away, has a black hole of comparable or larger mass. Both encompass regions or “event horizons” about five times the distance from the sun to Pluto.
“For comparison, these black holes are 2,500 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy, whose event horizon is one-fifth the orbit of Mercury,” said study lead author Nicholas McConnell at the University of California, Berkeley. Astronomers had suspected that black holes more than 10 billion solar masses large exist, based on light from quasars, cosmic objects from the early universe that are no more than a light year or two across but are thousands of times brighter than our entire galaxy.
The light of quasars is thought to come from matter driven to incandescent brightness as it spirals at high speeds into supermassive black holes. This is the first time scientists have detected black holes approaching such theorized giants in size.
“These two new supermassive black holes are similar in mass to young quasars, and may be the missing link between quasars and the supermassive black holes we see today,” said study co-author Chung-Pei Ma, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley.
