Astronomy Archives

March 12, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

Astronomers Identify the Largest Yellow “Hypergiant” Star Known

A stellar monster lurks in heart of the Centaur.

A recent analysis of a star in the south hemisphere constellation of Centaurus has highlighted the role that amateurs play in assisting with professional discoveries in astronomy.

The find used of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope based in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile — as well as data from observatories around the world — to reveal the nature of a massive yellow “hypergiant” star as one of the largest stars known.

The stats for the star are impressive indeed: dubbed HR 5171 A, the binary system weighs in at a combined 39 solar masses, has a radius of over 1,300 times that of our Sun, and is a million times as luminous. Located 3,600 parsecs or over 11,700 light years distant, the star is 50% larger than the famous red giant Betelgeuse. Plop HR 5171 A down into the center of our own solar system, and it would extend out over 6 astronomical units (A.U.s) past the orbit of Jupiter.

The field around HR 5171 A (the brightest star just below center). Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Researchers used observations going back over 60 years – some of which were collected by dedicated amateur astronomers – to pin down the nature of this curious star. A variable star just below naked eye visibility spanning a magnitude range from +6.1 to +7.3, HR 5171 A also has a relatively small companion star orbiting across our line of sight once every 1300 days. Such a system is known as an eclipsing binary. Famous examples of similar systems are the star Algol (Alpha Persei), Epsilon Aurigae and Beta Lyrae. The companion star for HR 5171 is also a large star in its own right at around six solar masses and 400 solar radii in size. The distance from center-to-center for the system is about 10 A.U.s – the distance from Sol to Saturn – and the surface-to-surface distance for the A and B components of the system are “only” about 2.8 A.U.s apart. This all means that these two massive stars are in physical contact, with the expanded outer atmosphere of the bloated primary contacting the secondary, giving the pair a distorted peanut shape.

“The companion we have found is very significant as it can have an influence on the fate of HR 5171 A, for example stripping off its outer layers and modifying its evolution,” said astronomer Olivier Chesneau of the Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice France in the recent press release.

Knowing the orbital period of a secondary star offers a method to measure the mass of the primary using good old Newtonian mechanics. Coupled with astrometry used to measure its tiny parallax, this allows astronomers to pin down HR 5171 A’s stupendous size and distance.

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Along with luminous blue variables, yellow hypergiants are some of the brightest stars known, with an absolute magnitude of around -9. That’s just 16x times fainter than the apparent visual magnitude of a Full Moon but over 100 times brighter than Venus – if you placed a star like HR 5171 A 32 light years from the Earth, it would easily cast a shadow.

Astronomers used a technique known as interferormetry to study HR 5171 A, which involves linking up several telescopes to create the resolving power of one huge telescope. Researchers also culled through over a decade’s worth data to analyze the star. Though much of what had been collected by the American Association of Variable Star Observers (the AAVSO) had been considered to be too noisy for the purposes of this study, a dataset built from 2000 to 2013 by amateur astronomer Sebastian Otero was of excellent quality and provided a good verification for the VLT data.

The discovery is also crucial as researchers have come to realize that we’re catching HR 5171 A at an exceptional phase in its life. The star has been getting larger and cooling as it grows, and this change can be seen just over the past 40 year span of observations, a rarity in stellar astronomy.

“It’s not a surprise that yellow hypergiants are very instable and lose a lot of mass,” Chesneau told Universe Today. “But the discovery of a companion around such a bright star was a big surprise since any ‘normal’ star should at least be 10,000 times fainter than the hypergiant. Moreover, the hypergiant was much bigger than expected. What we see is not the companion itself, but the regions gravitationally controlled and filled by the wind from the hypergiant. This is a perfect example of the so-called Roche model. This is the first time that such a useful and important model has really been imaged. This hypergiant exemplifies a famous concept!”

Indeed, you can see just such photometric variations as the secondary orbits its host in the VLTI data collected by the AMBER interferometer, backed up by observations from GEMINI’s NICI chronograph:

Credit: ESO/VLT/GEMINI/NICI — Looking at the bizarre system of HR 5171. Credit: Olivier Chesneau/ESO/VLT/GEMINI/NICI

The NIGHTFALL program was also used for modeling the eclipsing binary components.

These latest measurements place HR 5171 A firmly in the “Top 10” for largest stars in terms of size known, as well as the largest yellow hypergiant star known This is due mainly to tidal interactions with its companion. Only eight yellow hypergiants have been identified in our Milky Way galaxy. HR 5171 A is also in a crucial transition phase from a red hypergiant to becoming a luminous blue variable or perhaps even a Wolf-Rayet type star, and will eventually end its life as a supernova.

Enormous stars: From left to right, The Pistol Star, Rho Cassiopeiae, Betelgeuse and VY Canis Majoris compared with the orbits of Jupiter (in red) and Neptune (in blue). Remember, HR 5171 A is 50% larger than Betelgeuse! Credit: Anynobody under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license.

HR 5171 A is also known as HD 119796, HIP 67261, and V766 Centauri. Located at Right Ascension 13 Hours 47’ 11” and declination -62 degrees 35’ 23,” HR 5171 culminates just two degrees above the southern horizon at local midnight as seen from Miami in late March.

HR 5171 A: a finder chart. Click to enlarge. Credit: Stellarium

HR 5171 A is a fine binocular object for southern hemisphere observers.

But the good news is, there’s another yellow hypergiant visible for northern hemisphere observers named Rho Cassiopeiae:

Rho Cass is one of the few naked eye examples of a yellow hypergiant star, and varies from magnitude +4.1 to +6.2 over an irregular period.

It’s amusing read the Burnham’s Celestial Handbook entry on Rho Cass. He notes the lack of parallax and the spectral measurements of the day — the early 1960s — as eluding to a massive star with a “true distance… close to 3,000 light years!” Today we know that Rho Cassiopeiae actually lies farther still, at over 8,000 light years distant. Robert Burnham would’ve been impressed even more by the amazing nature of HR 5171 as revealed today by ESO astronomers!

– The AAVSO is always seeking observations from amateur astronomers of variable stars.

March 12, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Did Old Galaxies Grow Up Quicker Than New Ones?

This image shows the Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2012, an improved version of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image featuring additional observation time. The new data have revealed for the first time a population of distant galaxies at redshifts between 9 and 12, including the most distant object observed to date. These galaxies will require confirmation using spectroscopy by the forthcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope before they are considered to be fully confirmed. — The space between the galaxies is expanding. How big is it? Credit: NASA/HST

Did some of the oldest galaxies grow up quickly? That’s an intriguing possibility raised by a research team that found “mature” galaxies some 12 billion light years away, when the universe was less than 2 billion years old.

“Today the universe is old and filled with galaxies that have largely stopped forming stars, a sign of galactic maturity,” stated Caroline Straatman from the Netherlands’ Leiden University, a graduate student who led the research. “However, in the distant past, galaxies were still actively growing by consuming gas and turning it into stars. This means that mature galaxies are expected to be almost non-existent when the universe was still young.”

Using data from the Magellan Baade Telescope’s FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey and combining with other observatories, researchers looked at the young universe using near infrared wavelengths and found 15 galaxies at an average of 12 billion light-years away. While the galaxies are faint using visual wavelengths, they were easy to spot in infrared — and hosted as many as 100 billion stars per galaxy, on average.

The Milky Way over the ESO 3.6-metre Telescope, a photo submitted via Your ESO Pictures Flickr Group. Credit: ESO/A. Santerne

These galaxies each have a similar mass to the Milky Way, but stopped making stars when the universe was “only 12 percent of its current age”, researchers said. This implies that star-forming happened much more quickly in the past than right now, since the rate is estimated at several hundred times higher than what is observed in the Milky Way now.

It’s not clear what caused the rapid aging, but you can be sure researchers will look into this further. You can read the research in Astrophysical Journal Letters or in preprint version on Arxiv. Other databases used include Hubble’s Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey.

Source: Netherlands Research School for Astronomy

March 11, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

This Video Is The Closest You’ll Get To Experiencing Warp Drive

A simulation of the "cosmic web" believed to connect galaxies. A galaxy can move into and out of this web throughout its lifetime. A void is visible in the center of the image, a spot where researchers found galaxy "tendrils." Credit: Cunnama, Power, Newton and Cui (ICRAR).

Engage! This video shows some results of the the Galaxy and Mass Assembly catalogue, including the real positions of galaxies. The simulated flythrough, with galactic bodies whizzing by, appears like the view from the Starship Enterprise going at high speed.

Unlike that science fiction series, however, the data you’re seeing has charted information in it (although the galaxies have been biggified for our “viewing pleasure.”)

It’s all part of new research showing that galaxies in “vast empty regions” of the Universe are “aligned into delicate strings,” stated the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

“The spaces in the cosmic web are thought to be staggeringly empty,” stated Mehmet Alpaslan, a Ph.D. candidate at St Andrews University, Scotland who led the research. “They might contain just one or two galaxies, as opposed to the hundreds that are found in big clusters.”

His team discovered faint galaxies lined up in areas of space believed to hold practically nothing. The work is part of an emerging set of research looking at voids in the “cosmic web”, or the filaments that are believed to hold galaxies together across great distances.

Alpaslan’s team used a galaxy census — the biggest ever — of the skies in the south created with observations of Australia’s Anglo-Australian Telescope. The arrangement of galaxies in these voids was surprising to researchers.

“We found small strings composed of just a few galaxies penetrating into the voids, a completely new type of structure that we’ve called ‘tendrils’,” stated Alpaslan.

It will be interesting to see what further research reveals. As the press release accompanying this news states, “These aren’t the voids you’re looking for.”

Alpaslan’s study will be published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. You can read the research in preprint version on Arxiv.

Source: International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research

March 10, 2014April 26, 2016 by David Dickinson

How to Watch an Asteroid Occult a Bright Star on March 20th

Live in the New York City tri-state area, or anywhere near the path above? One of the most unusual big ticket astronomical events of 2014 occurs on in the morning hours of Thursday March 20th, when the asteriod 163 Erigone “blocks” or occults the bright star Regulus.

This is brightest star to be occulted by an asteroid for 2014, and has a potential to be observed by millions.

Occultations of stars by asteroids are often elusive events, involving faint stars and often occurring over remote locales. Not so with this one. In fact, the occultation of Regulus on March 20^th will result in an “asteroid shadow” passing over viewers across the populous areas of New York and adjoining states in the U.S. northeast before racing into Canada.

And unlike most asteroid occultations, you won’t need any special equipment to detect this event. Shining at magnitude +1.3, Regulus is an easy and familiar naked eye object and is the 22nd brightest star in the sky. And heck, it might be interesting just to catch a view of the constellation Leo minus its brightest star!

Asteroid 163 Erigone shines at magnitude+12.4 during the event. At 72 kilometres in diameter and 1.183 A.U.s distant during the occultation, 163 Erigone was discovered by French astronomer Henri Joseph Perrotin on April 26^th, 1876.

There’s a great potential to learn more not only about 163 Erigone during the event, but Regulus itself. Amateur observations will play a key role in this effort. The International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA) seeks observations from this and hundreds of events that occur each year. Not only can such a precise measurement help to pin down an asteroid’s orbit, but precise timing of the occultation can also paint a “picture” of the profile of the asteroid itself.

Example credit: — An example of an asteroid shape profile created by observers during the occultation of a star by asteroid 55 Pandora in 2007. Each cord represents an observer. Credit- The IOTA.

Regulus also has a faint white dwarf companion, and it’s just possible that it may be spied a fraction of a second before or after the event. Does 163 Erigone have a moon? Several asteroids are now known to possess moons of their own, and it’s just possible that 163 Erigone could have a tiny unseen companion, the presence of which would be revealed by a small secondary event. Observers along and outside the track from Nova Scotia down to Kentucky are urged to be vigilant for just such a surprise occurrence:

Wide map (credit) — A widened map of the March 20th event, noting the span over which an unseen “moon” of 163 Erigone could be potentially observed. Credit: IOTA/Ted Blank/Google Earth.

The maximum duration for the event along the centerline is 14.3 seconds, and the rank for the event stands at 99%, meaning the path is pretty certain.

The shadow touches down on Earth in the mid-Atlantic at 5:53 Universal Time (UT), and grazes the island of Bermuda before making landfall over Long Island New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and northeastern Pennsylvania just after 6:06 UT/2:06 AM EDT. From there, the shadow of the asteroid heads to the northwest and crosses Lake Ontario into Canada before passing between the cities of Ottawa and Toronto just before 6:08 UT. Finally, it crosses out over Hudson Bay and Nunavut before departing the surface of our fair planet at 6:22 UT.

The path is about 117 kilometres wide, and the “shadow” races across the surface of the Earth at about 2.8 kilometres per second from the southeast to the northwest.

Timing an occultation can be accomplished via audio or video recording, though accurate time is crucial for a meaningful scientific observation. The IOTA has a complete explanation of tried and true methods to use for capturing and reporting the event.

We had a chance to catch up with veteran asteroid occultation observer Ted Blank concerning the event and the large unprecedented effort underway to capture it.

He notes that Regulus stands as the brightest star that has been observed to have been occulted by an asteroid thus far when 166 Rhodope passed briefly in front of it on October 19^th, 2005.

“This is the best and brightest occultation ever predicted to occur over a populated area, and that covers the entire 40 years of predictive efforts,” Mr. Blank told Universe Today concerning the upcoming March 20^th event.

The general public can participate in the scientific effort for observations as well.

“We’re trying to make a “picket fence” of thousands of observers to catch this asteroid, so the best thing to do is to go out and observe. If they live anywhere near or in the path, just step outside (or watch from a warm house through a window). Make sure they are looking at the right star,” Mr. Blank told Universe Today. “If they can travel an hour or so to be somewhere in the predicted path, by all means do so – they’ll be home and back in bed well before rush hour starts! Then report what they saw at the public reporting page. If no occultation was seen, report a miss. This is more important that people think, since “miss” observations define the edges of the asteroid.”

There is also a handy “Occultation 1.0” timing app now available for IPhone users for use during the event.

Mr. Blank also plans to webcast the occultation live via UStream, and urges people to check the Regulus2014 Facebook page for updates on the broadcast status, as well as the final regional weather prospects leading up event next week. For dedicated occultation chasers, mobility and the ability to change observing locale at the last moment if necessary may prove key to nabbing this one. One of our preferred sites to check the cloud cover forecast prior to observing any event is the Clear Sky Chart.

This promises to be a historic astronomical event. Thanks to Ted Blank and Brad Timerson at the IOTA for putting the public outreach project together for this one, and be sure not to miss the occultation of Regulus on March 20^th!

March 10, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Rise And Shine! Rosetta’s Comet Emerges From Behind Sun, Much Brighter Than Before

Artist's impression (not to scale) of the Rosetta orbiter deploying the Philae lander to comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. Credit: ESA–C. Carreau/ATG medialab.

After four months behind the sun from Earth’s perspective, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is back in view — and brighter than ever! New pictures of the comet reveal it is 50 percent brighter than the last images available from October 2013. You can see the result below the jump.

“The new image suggests that 67P is beginning to emit gas and dust at a relatively large distance from the Sun,” stated Colin Snodgrass, a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany. Snodgrass added that this confirms previous work he and his colleagues did showing that in March 2014, the comet’s activity could be seen from Earth.

Pictures were taken with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope from 740 million kilometers (460 million miles) away. As you can see in the image below, several exposures were taken to obtain the fainter comet. And we know that scientists are eager to take a closer look with Rosetta.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on images obtained Feb. 28th, 2014 with the Very Large Telescope. Left: Several exposures were obtained of the faint comet, and superimposed upon each other, making stars appear as streaks. Right: The comet in an image processed to remove the stars. Credit: MPS/ESO

In January, the Rosetta spacecraft woke up after 31 months of hibernation (a little later than expected, but still healthy as ever.) It’s en route to meet up with the comet in August and will stay alongside it at least until 2015’s end. The next major step is to wake up its lander, Philae, which will happen later this month.

Should all go to plan, Philae will make a daring landing on the comet in November to get an up-close view of the activity as the comet flies close to the sun. You can read more details in this past Universe Today story.

Source: Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

March 8, 2014December 23, 2015 by Bob King

Watch a Bright Star Disappear Behind the Moon Monday Night

Lambda Geminorum at 10:43 p.m. March 11 just two minutes before disappearing behind the moon as seen from Minneapolis, Minn. US. Stellarium

Ever dabbled in the occult? You’ll have your chance Monday night March 10 when the waxing gibbous moon glides in front of the star Lambda Geminorum for much of North America, occulting it from view for an hour or more. Occultations of stars by the moon happens regularly but most go unnoticed by casual skywatchers. Lambda is an exception because it’s one of the brighter stars that happens to lie along the moon’s path. Shining at magnitude +3.6, any small telescope and even a pair of 10×50 or larger binoculars will show it disappear along the dark edge of the moon.

Map showing where the occulation of Lambda Gem will be visible. Credit: International Occultation Timing Assn. (IOTA) — Map showing where the disappearance (right half of tube-like figure) and reappearance of Lambda Gem will be visible. Credit: International Occultation Timing Assn. (IOTA)

With a telescope you can comfortably watch the star creep up to the moon’s edge and better anticipate the moment of its disappearance. The fun starts a few minutes before the impending black out when the moon, speeding along its orbit at some 2,280 mph (3,700 km/hr), draws very close to the star. During the final minute, Lambda may seem to hover forever at the moon’s invisible dark limb, and then – PFFFT – it’s gone! Whether you’re looking through telescope or binoculars, the star will blink out with surprising suddenness because the moon lacks an atmosphere.

Disappearance and reappearance seen from Minneapolis, Minn. Monday night. I've lightened the moon so you can see the dark limb. You'll likely not see this edge in a telescope because of glare. Stellarium — Disappearance and reappearance seen from Minneapolis, Minn. Monday night. I’ve lightened the moon so you can see the dark limb. You’ll likely not see this edge in a telescope because of glare. Stellarium

If there was air up there, Lambda would gradually dim and disappear. Even without special instruments, early astronomers could be certain the moon had little if anything to protect it from the vacuum of space by observing occultations.

As the moon moves approximately its own diameter in an hour, you can watch Lambda re-emerge along the bright limb roughly an hour later, though its return will lack the drama and contrast of a dark limb disappearance. While occultations allow us to see how swiftly the moon moves in real time as well as provide information on its atmosphere or lack thereof, real science can be done, too.

Planets also are occasionally occulted by the moon. Time lapse of Venus’ disappearance on May 16, 2010

Observers along the occultation boundary in the southern U.S. can watch the star pop in and out of view as it’s alternately covered and uncovered by lunar peaks jutting from the moon’s limb. Before spacecraft thoroughly mapped the moon, careful timings made during these “grazing occultations” helped astronomers refine the profile of the moon’s limb as well as determine elevations of peaks and crater walls in polar regions. They can still be useful for refining a star’s position and motion in the sky.

The moon’s limb can also be used much like a doctor’s scalpel to split unsuspected double stars that otherwise can’t be resolved by direct observations. Take Lambda Gem for instance. We’ve known for a long time that it totes around a magnitude +10.7 companion star 10 arc seconds to its north-northeast, but previous occultations of the star have revealed an additional companion only a few hundredths of an arc second away orbiting the bright Lambda primary. The star plays a game of hide-and-seek, visible during some occultations but not others. Estimated by some as one magnitude fainter than Lambda, keep an eye out for it Monday night in the instant after Lambda goes into hiding.

Lunar occultation and reappearance of Antares Oct. 21, 2009

I watched just such a “two-step” disappearance of Antares and it fainter companion some years back. With brilliant Antares briefly out of view behind the moon’s limb, I easily spotted its magnitude +5.4 companion just 2.5 arc seconds away – an otherwise very difficult feat at my northern latitude.

Want to know more about things that disappear (and reappear) in the night? Make a visit to the International Occultation Timing Association’s website where you’ll find lists of upcoming events, software and how to contribute your observations. If you’re game for Monday night’s occultation, click HERE for a list of cities and times. Remember that the time show is Universal or Greenwich Time. Subtract 4 hours for Eastern Daylight, 5 for Central, 6 for Mountain and 7 for Pacific. Wishing you clear skies as always!

March 7, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

TV Show ‘Cosmos’ Gets An Epic Reboot This Sunday

Sunday is going to be a once-in-a-generation moment. For those of us who were too young to remember the original Cosmos (writer puts hand up) or those who are eager to see the classic 1980 Carl Sagan series updated with discoveries since then, we’re all in luck. A new series starring astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson is premiering on Fox.

NASA hosted a sneak preview of the series at several NASA centers, and the early reviews on Twitter indicated a heck of a lot of excited people in the audience. In the video above, you can watch the Q&A with the main players after the premiere concluded.

“Watching Cosmos, I saw a Brooklyn-born researcher pull back the curtain on a world of seemingly dense scientific concepts, which, with the flair of P.T. Barnum, he managed to present in ways that made them accessible to those of us lacking a degree in mathematics or physics,” Seth MacFarlane, the executive producer of Cosmos (who is best known for creating Family Guy), said in a statement.

“He was able to make a discussion of the most distant stellar objects suddenly become relevant to our small, day-to-day lives. And he did so with such obvious passion, enthusiasm, and love for the knowledge he imparted that even those who had little interest in science found it impossible not to want to go along for the ride.”

The original Cosmos series premiered in 1980 and won three primetime Emmys. Sagan — who was involved in NASA missions such as the Voyagers — combined his worktime experiences with more meditative thoughts on the cosmos, the role of intelligence and the future of the universe. It’s still easy to purchase the original series, despite its age, so we’re sure Fox is hoping for the same kind of longevity with the reboot.

deGrasse Tyson, for those who don’t know, is the engaging director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York. Like Sagan, he’s a New York City-based popularizer of science who appears regularly on shows that aren’t necessarily science focused — such as The Colbert Report, where he has spoken several times and is often cited as one of Colbert’s most-returning guests, if not the most returning one.

We’ll be eagerly watching the series as it comes out. For more information, you can check out Fox’s website.

March 7, 2014December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Giant Planet May Be Lurking In ‘Poisonous’ Gas Around Beta Pictoris

Artist's conception of a hypothetical giant planet (left) in Beta Pictoris. The gas giant would sweep up comets into a swarm, causing frequent collisions. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) are calling this the "preferred model" for observations they made. Credit: Goddard Space Flight Center/F. Reddy

A Saturn-mass planet might be lurking in the debris surrounding Beta Pictoris, new measurements of a debris field around the star shown. If this could be proven, this would be the second planet found around that star.

The planet would be sheparding a giant swarm of comets (some in front and some trailing behind the planet) that are smacking into each other as often as every five minutes, new observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) show. This is the leading explanation for a cloud of carbon monoxide gas visible in the array.

“Although toxic to us, carbon monoxide is one of many gases found in comets and other icy bodies,” stated Aki Roberge, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland who participated in the research. “In the rough-and-tumble environment around a young star, these objects frequently collide and generate fragments that release dust, icy grains and stored gases.”

ALMA captured millimeter-sized light from carbon monoxide and dust around Beta Pictoris, which is about 63 light-years from Earth (relatively close to our planet). The gas seems to be most prevalent in an area about 8 billion miles (13 kilometers) from the star — the equivalent distance of three times the length of Neptune’s location from the sun. The carbon monoxide cloud itself makes up about one-sixth the mass of Earth’s oceans.

Ultraviolet light from the star should be breaking up the carbon monoxide molecules within 100 years, so the fact there is so much gas indicates something must be replenishing it, the researchers noted. Their models showed that the comets would need to be destroyed every five minutes for this to happen (unless we are looking at the star at an unusual time).

While the researchers say they need more study to see how the gas is concentrated, their hypothesis is there is two clumps of gas and it is due to a big planet behaving similarly to what Jupiter does in our solar system. Thousands of asteroids follow behind and fly in front of Jupiter due to the planet’s massive gravity. In this more distant system, it’s possible that a gas giant planet would be doing the same thing with comets.

If the gas turns out to be in just one clump, however, another scenario would suggest two Mars-sized planets (icy ones) smashing into each other about half a million years ago. This “would account for the comet swarm, with frequent ongoing collisions among the fragments gradually releasing carbon monoxide gas,” NASA stated.

The research was published yesterday (March 6) in the journal Science and is led by Bill Dent, a researcher at the Joint ALMA Office in Chile. You can read more information in press releases from NASA, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and European Southern Observatory.

March 7, 2014April 26, 2016 by Markus Pössel

See Light Pollution in Action

Like anyone else who’s ever looked up at the night sky in any but the smallest cities, I’ve seen light pollution first-hand. Like anyone else even marginally involved in amateur astronomy, I know about the fight against light pollution. And I know that, what with new LED lights and everything, it’s not going to be easy.

When, the other day, I was looking around for images demonstrating the effects of light pollution, it didn’t take me long to find some scary examples – the satellite images tracing human presence on Earth by its light pollution are rather unequivocal, and on Wikimedia Commons, there was an impressive image showing the same region of the night sky when viewed from a dark and from a lighter location:

The images were taken by Jeremy Stanley and are available via Wikimedia Commons under the CC BY 2.0 license. According to the author’s comment, he tried to match the two images’ sky brightness to his memory of how bright the sky appeared to his eyes.

What I didn’t find was an image showing a comparison of two images with the same specs (same camera and lens, same ISO, aperture and exposure time) under different viewing conditions. In the end, I found that I could produce such an example myself, using images I had taken during a trip to South Africa last spring.

During the first leg of our trip, we had visited South Africa’s national science festival, SciFest Africa, which is held annually in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province. Grahamstown has a population of 70.000, and there is some visible light pollution. I took an image of the Milky Way, including the Southern Cross, from the reasonably well-lit courtyard of our hotel:

Some days later, we visited the Sutherland site of South Africa’s National Observatory SAAO, home, among other things, to the 10 m South African Large Telescope (SALT). In the small city of Sutherland, with a population of only about 3000, the observatory a mere 7 miles away and a spirit of cooperation with the astronomers’ needs, light pollution levels are low.

When we took some images of the sky from the backyard of our hotel, the biggest light pollution problem was the moon. Here’s an image that shows, among other objects, the Southern Cross, Alpha Centauri and Carina:

It was only much later that I realized that these images could be used for the light pollution comparison I was looking for. They were both taken with the same camera (Canon EOS 450D = EOS Rebel XSi), the same lens (Tokina 11-16 mm at 11 mm) with the same settings (ISO 1600, aperture 2.8, exposure time 10 seconds). Whatever difference you see is really due to the viewing conditions. To show what you can do with a dark, high-contrast sky, I added a third image. Its only difference to the second image is the exposure time (20 seconds to 10 seconds), which brings out the Milky Way much more strongly.

I combined the images, used GIMP to increase the contrast and saturation on the combined image (to make sure I treated all three images the same), and separated the images again. Here is the result:

The difference between the first two images is fairly drastic. And keep in mind that, as far as light pollution goes, Grahamstown is likely to be fairly harmless, compared with a big, brightly-lit city. (And yes, if I should get the chance, I’ll try to take an image with the same set-up in a larger city!)

This is just one of all too many examples. Through careless lighting, many of us are missing out on one of humanity’s most fundamental experiences: an unobstructed view of the enormity of what’s out there, far beyond space-ship Earth.

March 6, 2014December 23, 2015 by David Dickinson

A Natural Planetary Defense Against Solar Storms

Planetary shields up: solar storms inbound…

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have identified a fascinating natural process by which the magnetosphere of our fair planet can — to use a sports analogy — “shot block,” or at least partially buffer an incoming solar event.

The study, released today in Science Express and titled “Feedback of the Magnetosphere” describes new process discovered in which our planet protects the near-Earth environment from the fluctuating effects of inbound space weather.

Our planet’s magnetic field, or magnetosphere, spans our world from the Earth’s core out into space. This sheath typically acts as a shield. We can be thankful that we inhabit a world with a robust magnetic field, unlike the other rocky planets in the inner solar system.

But when a magnetic reconnection event occurs, our magnetosphere merges with the magnetic field of the Sun, letting in powerful electric currents that wreak havoc.

Now, researchers from NASA and MIT have used ground and space-based assets to identify a process that buffers the magnetosphere, often keeping incoming solar energy at bay.

The results came from NASA’s Time History Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) constellation of spacecraft and was backed up by data gathered over the past decade for MIT’s Haystack Observatory.

Observations confirm the existence of low-energy plasma plumes that travel along magnetic field lines, rising tens of thousands of kilometres above the Earth’s surface to meet incoming solar energy at a “merging point.”

“The Earth’s magnetic field protects life on the surface from the full impact of these solar outbursts,” said associate director of MIT’s Haystack Observatory John Foster in the recent press release. “Reconnection strips away some of our magnetic shield and lets energy leak in, giving us large, violent storms. These plasmas get pulled into space and slow down the reconnection process, so the impact of the Sun on the Earth is less violent.”

The study also utilized an interesting technique known as GPS Total Electron Content or GPS-TEC. This ground-based technique analyzes satellite transmitted GPS transmissions to thousands of ground based receivers, looking for tell-tale distortions that that signify clumps of moving plasma particles. This paints a two dimensional picture of atmospheric plasma activity, which can be extended into three dimensions using space based information gathered by THEMIS.

And scientists got their chance to put this network to the test during the moderate solar outburst of January 2013. Researchers realized that three of the THEMIS spacecraft were positioned at points in the magnetosphere that plasma plumes had been tracked along during ground-based observations. The spacecraft all observed the same cold dense plumes of rising plasma interacting with the incoming solar stream, matching predictions and verifying the technique.

Launched in 2007, THEMIS consists of five spacecraft used to study substorms in the Earth’s magnetosphere. The Haystack Observatory is an astronomical radio observatory founded in 1960 located just 45 kilometres northwest of Boston, Massachusetts.

How will this study influence future predictions of the impact that solar storms have on the Earth space weather environment?

“This study opens new doors for future predictions,” NASA Goddard researcher Brian Walsh told Universe Today. “The work validates that the signatures of the plume far away from the Earth measured by spacecraft match signatures in the Earth’s upper atmosphere made from the surface of the Earth. Although we might not always have spacecraft in exactly the correct position to measure one of these plumes, we have almost continuous coverage from ground-based monitors probing the upper atmosphere. Future studies can now use these signatures as a proxy for when the plume has reached the edge of our magnetic shield (known as the magnetopause) which will help us predict how large a geomagnetic storm will occur from a given explosion from the Sun when it reaches the Earth.”

The structure of Earth's magnetosphere. Credit- — The structure of Earth’s magnetosphere. Credit-NASA graphic in the Public Domain.

Understanding how these plasma plumes essentially hinder or throttle incoming energy during magnetic reconnection events, as well as the triggering or source mechanism for these plumes is vital.

“The source of these plumes is an extension of the upper atmosphere, a region that space physicists call the plasmasphere,” Mr. Walsh told Universe Today. “The particles that make the plume are actually with us almost all of the time, but they normally reside relatively close to the Earth. During a solar storm, a large electric field forms and causes the upper layers of the plasmasphere to be stripped away and are sent streaming sunward towards the boundary of our magnetic field. This stream of particles is the ‘plume’ or ‘tail’”

Recognizing the impacts that these plumes have on space weather will lead to better predictions and forecasts for on- and off- the planet as well, including potential impacts on astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Flights over the poles are also periodically rerouted towards lower latitudes during geomagnetic storms.

“This study defines new tools for the toolbox we use to predict how large or how dangerous a given solar eruption will be for astronauts and satellites,” Walsh said. “This work offers valuable new insights and we hope these tools will improve prediction capabilities in the near future.”

Spaceweather is currently a hot topic, as we’ve recently seen an uptick in auroral activity last month.

And speaking of which, there’s a common misconception out there that we see reported every time auroral activity makes the news… remember that aurorae aren’t actually caused by solar wind particles colliding with our atmosphere, but the acceleration of particles trapped in our magnetic field fueled by the solar wind.

And speaking of solar activity, there’s also an ongoing controversy in the world of solar heliophysics as to the lackluster solar maximum for this cycle, and what it means for concurrent cycles #25 and #26.

It’s exciting times indeed in the science of space weather forecasting…

and hey, we got to drop in sports analogy, a rarity in science writing!