Fraser Cain, Author at Universe Today

June 28, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Neutron Stars Have Jets Too

One time, astronomers thought that only black holes had jets of material pouring out of them. Something to do with the event horizon, and a lack of a solid surface. Well, step aside black holes, neutron stars seem to have them too.

This is according to new images captured by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which imaged a system called Circinus X-1. This is actually a binary system, consisting of a massive star with several times the mass of our Sun, and a neutron star. The neutron star is feeding on material from the star, and has gathered together an accretion disk around itself. It’s consuming so much material from the star that it backs up into this disk, which glows hot in the X-Ray spectrum.

And just like with a black hole, the centre of the accretion disk acts like an engine, firing material out into space along these jets. But the power from this engine comes from the neutron star.

In the Chandra image in the upper left, you can see what looks like cones on the two sides of the neutron star. This neutron star could be wobbling like a top, with the jets tracking out these larger arcs.

Original Source: Chandra News Release

June 28, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Strange Features on Mars at Aeolis Mensae

This is a cool photograph taken by ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft. It shows the Aeolis Mensae region on Mars, an area known to be on a tectonic transition zone. This might be an explanation for the long linear features and carved valleys.

The area is nearby the volcanic region of Elysium, which separates the southern highlands and the northern lowlands. Aeolis Mensae is right at the transition zone between these two regions, and there’s a 3 km (1.8 mile) elevation difference between the two regions. Why there’s such a steep drop is still a matter of discussion between planetary scientists.

The three-dimensional view was created on computer based on Mars Express’ stereo view, which was captured on March 26th and 29th, 2007.

Original Source: ESA News Release

June 28, 2007January 24, 2021 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for June 28, 2007

Astrosp-here and astro there, astro everywhere.

First, the picture. Isn’t that incredible? Today’s astrophoto comes from Filippo Ciferri. He took this and several other pictures from light-polluted Rome if you can believe it.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait debunks a story proposing the Sun came from another galaxy.

Centauri Dreams has an article on the work being done to save the Arecibo observatory. You know, that big dish in the jungle in Contact?

Space.com teaches you how to make a comet. Put that in your cookbook.

Daily Galaxy asks, if we suffered another “K/T” asteroid impact, would humanity survive?

June 27, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for June 27, 2007

Just give you all a warning, I’m going to be moving back to Vancouver, Canada in 2 days, so there might be a few interruptions. I’ll try to keep it to a minimum.

Today’s astrophoto comes from Paul F. Campbell. It’s a series of pictures of the Moon stitched together into a mosaic.

John Moore has created a detailed poster of the Moon.

Scientific American has an interesting story about Transient Lunar Phenomena. They’re not UFOs, just outgassing on the Moon.

Steinn Sigurdsson reports that a planet has been discovered orbiting a white dwarf.

What’s worse, a fast moving star moving through the Solar System, or a slow moving one? systemic has the surprising answer.

Pamela Gay continues blogging about The Universe on The History Channel. If only we had that kind of budget for Astronomy Cast.

I agree with George Dvorsky on his Sentient Developments blog. If aliens wanted us dead, they’d have done it a long time ago.

June 26, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Gamma Ray Observatory Will Launch in December

NASA has Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra to cover visible, ultraviolet, infrared and X-ray portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The next wavelength to get its own space telescope is gamma rays. When NASA’s Gamma ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST) launches in December, there will be a powerful new observatory in space, capturing more gamma rays than any space observatory to date.

GLAST is currently living in a “clean room” at General Dynamics in Arizon. This is a special enclosed environment with very low levels of contaminants or environmental pollutants. It will remain in this clean room until it’s transfered to the launch pad later this year.

When GLAST finally makes it into orbit, it’ll be the most powerful and sensitive gamma ray observatory ever launched, gathering photons that can contain hundreds of billions of times more energy than we perceive with our eyes. These gamma rays are generated in the most extreme events in the Universe, such as the disks of gas swirling around black holes.

Unlike the other space-based observatories, GLAST doesn’t have a mirror to focus the photons; gamma rays don’t work that way. Instead, it’s got a large detector capable of detecting any gamma rays in 20% of the sky. It’ll orbit the Earth every 95 minutes, and image most of the sky 16 times a day. It can also be directed to stare in a specific direction to image an event, such as the afterglow from a gamma ray burst.

Original Source: NASA News Release

June 26, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

New Rocket Could Launch Really Big Telescopes

If you’ve got a really big rocket, what should you use it for? If you’re an astronomer, you’ll want it used to launch really big telescopes; observatories that would dwarf the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA’s new Ares V launcher, is being developed as part of the Vision for Space Exploration. Once completed, this mighty launcher will deliver cargo all the way to the Moon. In fact, it’ll be capable of launching 8% more weight than the Saturn V rockets that put humans on the Moon during the Apollo missions.

Philip Stahl, an engineer at NASA’s Marchall Space Flight Center thinks it should also be used to launch gigantic telescopes. How big? According to Stahl, Ares could loft a telescope with a primary mirror 8+ metres across. This would provide a telescope that could see objects 3 times sharper than Hubble, but more important, it could see objects 11 times fainter.

The main telescope could be launched by Ares V, and follow on missions by smaller rockets could send up new scientific instruments that attach to the end of the mirror. In this way, the observatory could be used for 50 years, just like an Earth-based telescope.

Original Source: NASA

June 26, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Double Supernovae Discovered

Supernovae are rare events, only occurring once every 25-100 years in galaxy. So it came as a complete surprise when NASA’s Swift satellite turned up two supernovae going off at the same time in a galaxy – separated by only 16 days.

Until now, astronomers have never seen a supernova going off in the galaxy MCG +05-43-16, and then suddenly: kaboom kaboom. The twin supernovae have been categorized SN 2007ck and SN 2007co.

And they’re completely different events. The first, SN 2007ck, is a Type II supernova, where a star with many times the mass of our own Sun runs out of fuel and collapses catastrophically. This creates a black hole or neutron star, and blows the outer layers of the star into space.

The second, SN 2007co is a Type Ia event. This is where a white dwarf star steals material from a binary partner until it can’t hold any more material, and detonates in a massive blast.

This is a complete coincidence. The two events are separated by tens of thousands of light years of space. In fact, an astronomer in the galaxy might see the two events separated by thousands of years.

Original Source: NASA

June 26, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Astrosphere for June 26, 2007

I’m running out of clever ways to introduce the astrosphere. Uh… here are some links?

Today’s photograph comes from Chris Schur, and it contains both the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas. Click this link if you want to see more details, or just a really big version of it.

And here are some stories:

Daily Galaxy is reporting that Einstein was right… again.

Really Rocket Science has a Craiglist ad for a space station.

astropixie wants to you to know about a cool planetary alignment this week.

Jeff Faust has gotten a preview copy of NASA’s strategic communications plan. And now he communicates it to us.

Skepchick Rebecca has a great idea. Record a quick video of yourself demonstrating science and upload it to Youtube.

June 25, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Servicing Spacecraft Makes an Automated Fly Around

Launching a spacecraft is a big investment. If anything goes wrong, you’ve got hundreds of millions of dollars of junk in space. And even if the spacecraft is working perfectly, but just runs out of fuel, its communications equipment can’t be directed at the Earth properly.

Boeing took a step forward to solving that problem last week with a test of its Orbital Express system, a spacecraft that will validate on-orbit servicing. During a 5-hour test on June 16, the Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations (ASTRO) servicing spacecraft separated from another spacecraft, made an automated fly around, and then re-attached.

The important thing here is that the entire maneuver was done autonomously. It simulated the approach that a servicing spacecraft would take when docking with a spacecraft, making sure to avoid its antennas and cameras.

During its next test, ASTRO will depart and fly to a range of 4 km (2.5 miles) before approaching and performing a free-fly capture with its robotic arm.

Original Source: Boeing

June 25, 2007December 26, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Science Experiments that Astronauts will Deploy on the Moon

NASA announced that it has selected 7 new experiments that might be carried to the Moon as part of the Vision for Space Exploration. Each of these missions would be “suitcase science” experiments, which the astronauts could easily deploy them onto the surface of the moon as part of a mission.

The experiments include:

Autonomous Lunar Geophysical Experiment Package – NASA/JPL
Lunar Laser Transponder and Retroreflector Science – NASA/JPL
Volatile Analysis by Pyrolysis of Regolith on the Moon using Mass Spectrometry – NASA/Goddard
Seismology and Heat flow instrument package for Lunar Science and Hazards – NASA/Goddard
Lunar Radiation Environment and Regolith Shielding Experiment – SWRI
Lunar Suitcase Science: A Lunar Regolith Characterization Kit – U.S. Army
Autonomous Lunar Dust Observer – Ball Aerospace

NASA chose these winning proposals out of 70 submissions under the Lunar Sortie Science Opportunities Program.

Original Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory