Screenshot of a video of images from the GRAS telescopes in Mayhill Station, New Mexico on Oct. 21, 2011, showing what might be a diffuse blob of material, all that's left of Comet Elenin. Credit: Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes.
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A series of images of Comet Elenin taken on October 21, 2011 might show an “extremely faint and diffuse blob of light,” according to Ernesto Guido, Giovanni Sostero and Nick Howes, who used two remote telescopes in New Mexico to image again the field of view where Comet Elenin should be. Their first observing session with a 10” reflector showed no obvious moving object in the telescope’s field of view, while the second session a 0.1 meter refractor showed a hint of something moving in the background when images taken 2 hours apart were “blinked,” but interference from moonlight hasn’t been ruled out.
The trio of astronomers encourage other observers to confirm or refute this view with additional observations/images. “We suggest the use of wide-field, fast focal ratio scopes, possibly under very good sky conditions,” they said.
Soyuz launch through the Amazon jungle raindrops on 21 October 2011. Credit:Thilo Kranz/DLR - Special to Universe Today
Watch the video of today’s debut lift off of a Russian Soyuz rocket from the edge of the Amazon jungle at the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana as it successfully carried the first two Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites to space after an arduous 7 year struggle to mesh Russian and European technologies and cultures – a magnificent achievement that opens a wide realm of new commercial and science exploration possibilities to exploit space for humankind. Launch photos below and here.
Now have some real fun and enjoy this absolutely cool Rockin’ Russian music video showing a headless Soyuz rollout to the pad, an erection like you’ve never imagined and capping with the Galileo satellites. Guaranteed you’ve never seen struttin’ like this but will totally get the Soyuz experience in 2 minutes – give it a whirl. They never did it like this in Russia.
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“This historic first launch of a genuine European system like Galileo was performed by the legendary Russian launcher that was used for Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin, a launcher that will, from now on, lift off from Europe’s Spaceport,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.
“These two historical events are also symbols of cooperation: cooperation between ESA and Russia, with a strong essential contribution of France; and cooperation between ESA and the European Union, in a joint initiative with the EU”.
First Soyuz lift from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 October 2011. Credits: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE - Optique Video du CSG, Service OptiqueSoyuz inside the Mobile Launch Gantry after installation of Galileo satellites mounted inside Upper Composite. Credit: Claus Lippert/DLR
Based on an observation posted on the Near Earth Object confirmation page from an image taken by A. D. Grauer using the mount Lemmon observatory, Faulkes telescope team members Nick Howes, Giovanni Sostero and Ernesto Guido along with University of Glamorgan student Antos Kasprzyk and amateur astronomer Iain Melville, imaged what is potentially some of the first direct evidence for a Trojan Jupiter Comet
Comet P/2010 TO20 (LINEAR-GRAUER) was immediately recognised by the team from looking at the orbit to be a highly unusual object, but it was only when the images came through from the faulkes observations that the true nature of the object became clear
The observations showed a distinct cometary appearance, with a sharp central condensation, compact coma and a wide, fan-shaped tail.
This is no ordinary comet, and supports the theory and initial spectral observation work by a team using the keck telescope in Hawaii. Closer analysis of their object (part of a binary known as the Patroclus pair) showed that it was made of water ice and a thin layer of dust, but at the time of writing, no direct images of a Jupiter Trojan showing evidence of a coma and tail had been taken.
The Faulkes teams above image, combined with the original observations by Grauer clearly show a cometary object, thus confirming the Keck team’s hypothesis.
According to the CBET released today “After two nights of observations of Grauer’s comet had been received at the Minor Planet Center.
Spahr realized that this object was identical with an object discovered a year ago by the LINEAR project (discovery observation tabulated below; cf. MPS 351583) that appeared to be a Jupiter Trojan minor planet.”
The observations have now proved it is not a minor planet, but a comet.
This discovery could provide new clues about the evolution of the Solar System, suggesting that the Gas Giants formed closer to the Sun and as they moved further away, they caused massive perturbations with Kuiper Belt objects, trapping some in their own orbits.
Nick Howes on the Faulkes team said “When we first saw the preliminary orbit, we knew it was a quite remarkable object” Howes also added “To have a University Student also involved is terrific for the degree program at Glamorgan and also for the Faulkes project. We’d like to extend our congratulations to Al Grauer” for his detection of this groundbreaking new comet” and we’re immensely proud to be part of the CBET released by the IAU confirming its nature
Front view of the Wind Tunnel Model - Credit: Boeing
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Boeing recently began wind tunnel testing on its CST-100 (Crew Space Transport) capsule, designed to service destinations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), locations like the ISS and Bigelow Space Stations. These tests have been on going since Sept. 17th of this year, collecting data on “20 different positions to mimic the different phases of an aborted landing”, Boeing said in a press release. These tests may lead to extensive changes and are critical to the craft’s safety.
The tests will move onto analyze ”approaches to abort before liftoff, abort after separation from the rocket, abort in orbit, etc” said Paula Korn, media contact for space exploration at Boeing, in an email to Universe Today. All these abort modes place high aerodynamic stress on the capsule and each abort mode has it own stresses. Each of the modes must be balanced for an ideal space system.
“Each of these approaches involves various aspects of problem solving and design solutions and are based on lessons learned from our 50 years of human spaceflight, starting with the early Mercury missions,” Korn said. “We are also integrating innovative, new design aspects to optimize safety, reliability and affordability objectives”.
An engineering view of the model - Credit: BoeingRear View of the Wind Tunnel Model - Credit: Boeing
The test platform was a 1/14th scale representation of the crew module and service module – the cone that houses the crew connected the uninhabited cylinder that houses the engines and other support systems. Jutting out of the model of the service module there are four thruster doghouses in addition to one umbilical cover for the crew and service modules. Poking out of the back of the model are four LAS (Launch Abort System) thrusters.
This extensive detail in the model combined with “hundreds of pinhole-sized sensors” give Boeing engineers precise views of the aerodynamics of the CST-100. “As engineers, we like data and numbers, and you can take all of this and make something meaningful out of it,” said Boeing engineer Dustin Choe. “We can reduce it down and provide a clearer picture of what we will experience in flight.” Based on this data there will be further changes to the spacecraft.
The CST-100's Flight Path - Credit: Boeing
There are more tests in store for Boeing’s answer to NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program. Boeing and Bigelow have already “dropped a mock capsule off a moving truck,” Boeing said in the press release, “to test the external airbags the real spacecraft would deploy to cushion a landing on Earth.”. “In the first quarter 2012,” Korn confirmed that “we are planning to perform parachute drop tests”.
First Soyuz lift from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 October 2011. Credits:Thilo Kranz/DLR
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Russia’s legendary Soyuz rocket soared skywards today (Oct.21) on its historic 1st ever blastoff from a new European space base in the equatorial jungles of South America. The history making liftoff of the Soyuz ST-B launcher from French Guiana occurred at exactly 6:30:26 a.m. EST (10:30:26 GMT) and lofted the first two operational satellites of Europe’s new Galileo GPS navigation system.
The flawless liftoff of the Soyuz booster from the ELS pad in French Guiana marked the first time that a Soyuz was launched from outside of the six existing pads in Russia and Kazakhstan. The joint Russian-European project was started back in 2004 and culminated with today’s launch of the Soyuz-VSO1 mission.
“This launch represents a lot for Europe: we have placed in orbit the first two satellites of Galileo, a system that will position our continent as a world-class player in the strategic domain of satellite navigation, a domain with huge economic perspectives,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, Director General of ESA.
First Soyuz lift blastoff from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 October 2011. Mobile gantry at left. Credits:Thilo Kranz/DLR - Special to Universe Today
Soyuz lineage dates back to the beginning of the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik-1 in 1957 and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961. Soyuz had flown 1776 times to date.
First Soyuz lift from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 October 2011. Credits: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE - S. Corvaja, 2011
The launcher is based on the existing Soyuz design with a few changes to accommodate European safety standards and the construction of the ELS launch pad was modeled after the existing pads in Baikonur in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk in Russia. One significant difference is the construction of a 45 meter (170 foot) mobile gantry
A leaky valve delayed the flight by one day.
The duo of 700 kg Galileo satellites were mounted side by side on the Fregat upper stage atop the three stage Soyuz-2 rocket. These two Galileo In-orbit Validation (IOV) model satellites are experimental models that will be used to test the GPS technology.
Soyuz lifts off for the first time on 21 October 2011 from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana carrying the first two Galileo In-Orbit Validation satellites. Credits: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE - S. Corvaja, 2011
Two additional Galileo IOV satellites will be launched in 2012 as the initial segment of a 30 strong constellation of satellites in total.
The Galileo satelites will provide pinpoint accuracy to within about 1 meter (3 feet) compared to about 3 meters (10 feet) for the GPS system.
The 4 meter diameter payload fairing jettisoned as planned three minutes into the flight and the first of two firings of the Fregat upper stage was successfully completed after burnout of the lower stages. The second Fregat firing was accomplished about 4 hours after launch and injected the Galileo satellites into orbit some 23,000 km (14,000 miles) miles high.
The Fregat upper stage was designed to reignite and fire up to 20 times. It is fueled with nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH).
First Soyuz lift from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana on 21 October 2011. Credits: ESA/CNES/ARIANESPACE - S. Corvaja, 2011
By launching from near the equator (5°N), the Soyuz gains about a 50% performance boost from 1.7 tons to nearly 3 tons to geostationary orbit due to the Earth’s faster spin compared to Baikonur (46°N).
Manned Soyuz missions from South America could be possible at some future date if the political and funding go ahead was approved by ESA and Russia. It is technically possible to reach the ISS from the French Guiana pad and would require the installation of additional ground support equipment.
The next Soyuz launch from South America is set for Dec. 16, 2011. 17 contracts have already been signed for future liftoffs at a rate of 2 to 3 per year.
Artist's impression of a brown-dwarf object (left foreground) orbiting a distant white dwarf --the collapsed-core remnant of a dying star.
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Astronomers have located a planet-like star that’s barely warmer than a balmy summer day on Earth… it’s literally the coldest object ever directly imaged outside of our solar system!
WD 0806-661 B is a brown “Y dwarf” star that’s a member of a binary pair. Its companion is a much hotter white dwarf, the remains of a Sun-like star that has shed its outer layers. The pair is located about 63 light-years away, which is pretty close to us as stars go. The stars were identified by a team led by Penn State Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kevin Luhman using images from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Two infrared images taken in 2004 and 2009 were overlaid on top of each other and show the stars moving in tandem, indicating a shared orbit.
These two infrared images were taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2004 and 2009. They show a faint object moving through space together with a white dwarf. Credit: Kevin Luhman, Penn State University, October 2011. (Click to play.)
Of course, locating the stars wasn’t quite as easy as that. To find this stellar duo Luhman and his team searched through over six hundred images of stars located near our solar system taken years apart, looking for any shifting position as a pair.
The use of infrared imaging allowed the team to locate a dim brown dwarf star like WD 0806-661 B, which emits little visible light but shines brightly in infrared. (Even though brown dwarfs are extremely cool for stars they are still much warmer than the surrounding space. And, for the record, brown dwarfs are not actually brown.) Measurements estimate the temperature of WD 0806-661 B to be in the range of about 80 to 130 degrees Fahrenheit (26 to 54 degrees C, or 300 – 345 K)… literally body temperature!
“Essentially, what we have found is a very small star with an atmospheric temperature about cool as the Earth’s.”
– Kevin Luhman, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Penn State
Six to nine times the mass of Jupiter, WD 0806-661 B is more like a planet than a star. It never accumulated enough mass to ignite thermonuclear reactions and thus more resembles a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn. But its origins are most likely star-like, as its distance from its white dwarf companion – about 2,500 astronomical units – indicates that it developed on its own rather than forming from the other star’s disc.
There is a small chance, though, that it did form as a planet and gradually migrated out to its current distance. More research will help determine whether this may have been the case.
Brown dwarfs, first discovered in 1995, are valuable research targets because they are the next best thing to studying cool atmospheres on planets outside our solar system. Scientists keep trying to locate new record-holders for the coldest brown dwarfs, and with the discovery of WD 0806-661 B Luhman’s team has done just that!
A paper covering the team’s findings will be published in The Astrophysical Journal. Other authors of the paper include Ivo Labbé, Andrew J. Monson and Eric Persson of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, Calif.; Didier Saumon of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Mark S. Marley of the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; and John J. Bochanski also of The Pennsylvania State University.
Its name is GAIA and it’s perhaps the most ambitious project which has ever faced the European Space Agency. Scheduled to launch in 2013, this new breed of space telescope will stately progress to Lagrange Point 2, where it will spend the next five years. Its mission? To create the largest and most precise three dimensional chart of our Galaxy by providing unprecedented positional and radial velocity measurements for about one billion stars in our Galaxy and throughout the Local Group.
While this number represents perhaps only 1% of the Milky Way’s stellar population, the GAIA mission will be “seeing” far more than just stars. Its astrophysical information data base will work hand-in-hand with on-board multi-color photometry… providing an information set which has the precision necessary to quantify the early formation, and subsequent dynamical, chemical and star formation evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy. As a result of its tracking capabilities, GAIA will also capture information on asteroids, comets, extra-solar planets and even low temperature, low mass objects. Its sensitive equipment will sweep over neighboring galaxies and reach out into space for a half million quasars. GAIA will push the boundaries of general relativity and cosmology to the limits.
What’s inside? GAIA will carry twin telescopes complete with two camera arrays incorporating charge coupled devices – each one measuring 45.0mm by 59.0mm and encompassing 1,966 pixels by 4,500 pixels. “The mounting and precise alignment of the 106 CCDs is a key step in the assembly of the flight model focal plane assembly,” said Philippe Gare, ESA’s GAIA Payload Manager.
The diminutive sensors will be placed in rows across a silicon carbide framework and span an area just slightly under half a square meter. It’s a billion little eyes ready to be turned towards the skies…
However, no optical telescope is complete without a mirror assembly and GAIA delivers. It is crafted with a set of 10 mirrors… all with outstanding physical and optical characteristics. “Since the design process began in 2006, the GAIA team has learned how to produce a set of sintered silicon carbide mirrors which is not only extremely strong and ultra-stable – with about twice the rigidity of steel – but also lightweight and with a high thermal conductivity,” said Matthias Erdmann, ESA’s GAIA Payload Systems Engineer responsible for optics and ceramics.
“Although these are not the first silicon carbide mirrors that have been made for a space mission, no mirrors as large as the GAIA primary mirror have previously been coated using the CVD process,” he added. “The degree of similarity of the mirror pairs is also quite unique. This is particularly important for GAIA , since each telescope must have similar optical capabilities, with diffraction limited viewing and minimal wavefront errors. Their outstanding optical characteristics achieve new standards that will be of great value to the development of future space observatories. As a result of this programme, the European industrial team has been able to master all of the processes required for making state-of-the-art space mirrors, and become the world leader in silicon carbide mirror technology.”
GAIA Telescope Array - Credit: ESA
But getting GAIA into space hasn’t been an overnight process. From initial approval of the project to launch encompasses 13 years – and an additional 7 to 8 to analyze the resulting data. Just consider its downlink – about 5 Mbit/s during its daily passes. While that’s comparable to a home broadband system, GAIA isn’t doing it from home. It’s transmitting from a million and a half kilometers away.
“The raw data that has to be collected is about 100 terabytes, and when all the data are processed in the archive we are talking about up to one petabyte,” says Giuseppe Sarri, Esa’s Gaia project manager. “For the analysis, a supercomputer will be needed to get out all the numbers.”
Yet, Gaia is not the first space mission to chart the heavens. In 1989, ESA also took on Hipparcos – a catalog effort well known even to the amateur community. It produced a primary catalogue of about 118 000 stars, and a secondary catalogue, called Tycho, of over 2 million stars. Even these impressive numbers will pale next to GAIA, whose mirrors will collect thirty times more light and measure a star’s position and motion two hundred times more accurately. At the end of its five-year mission, the information will fill over 30,000 CD ROMs – filled with 1000 million celestial objects – and be freely distributed to the astronomical community.
The Apollo Guidance Computer hasa lot to offer many different types of readers. Photo Credit: Springer/Praxis
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Springer/Praxis has produced a small library’s worth of books about the Apollo Program. A recent offering from the publisher focuses in on the Apollo Guidance Computer. This topic, for the uninitiated, can be more than a little intimidating and if it is handled wrong veer off the path of a book about space flight and toward a pure “tech” book. This is not a problem that Springer/Praxis’ offering The Apollo Guidance Computer has, the book is well rounded, in-depth and easy-to-read.
Written by Frank O’Brien, The Apollo Guidance Computer is a thorough review of the computer system used during the Apollo missions. The Apollo Guidance Computer rings in at a whopping 430 pages – most readers will likely only pick out certain parts of the book to read. The book is, in a number of ways, many separate books in one – with details of the guidance computer, its development, the requirements to send astronauts to and from the Moon as well as the challenges that the engineers face in developing this revolutionary piece of equipment – all detailed within.
The book starts out by turning the clock back about 50 years to allow the reader to see what technology was like half a century ago. During this time period computers generally filled an entire room. This (obviously) was not possible in the case of Apollo’s guidance computer – and The Apollo Guidance Computer works to detail that story.
As far as O’Brien is concerned, he sees the book as something that techies, looking to learn how this computer system was developed, and space buffs who are seeking to learn the various intricacies of traveling to the Moon – can both enjoy.
While fairly primitive by today's standards, the Apollo guidance computer was revolutionary for its time. Photo Credit: NASA/Dryden
“It’s a bit different from other books that are found in spaceflight libraries, in that it is appealing to two very different groups,” said O’Brien during a recent interview. “Sometimes I joke that those interested in computers read it from the beginning till the end – whereas space enthusiasts –read it from the end to the beginning.”
For his part O’Brien acknowledges that not all parts of the book will interest all people. He is fine with that as long as readers enjoy the elements of the book that relate to them. He does hope that all readers pick up on how designers managed to pack away so much capability into a very limited structure. There was no disk, tape, or secondary storage – of any kind.
The book works to provide a link to demonstrate how the Apollo guidance computer allowed for one of the greatest accomplishments in human history. It details how difficult the actual lunar landing was and how the computer system was instrumental in accomplishing this feat.
Whereas many of Springer/Praxis’ offerings detail flight aspects of the Apollo era, this text takes a look at one of the essential elements that made those missions possible. While other books provide understanding of the Apollo Program in the broadest of strokes – this book allows readers to see the moon shot’s finest details. It also provides context into the era in which this machine was developed. Only in the 60s could an entry code be entitled BURNBABY (as in “Burn Baby Burn!”).
Frank O'Brien, the author of "The Apollo Guidance Computer" spoke to Universe Today about his thoughts on the book. Photo Courtesy of Frank O'Brien
A sample of ther mineral jarosite from a site in Greece. Photo Copyright: Steve Rust
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No. This isn’t an ancient raisin sponge cake you found at the back of your breadbox. It’s a closeup of a rare mineral called jarosite… a hydrated iron sulfate composite which takes on some very specific properties when it is exposed to a wet environment. It was discovered here on Earth in 1852 in ravines in the mountainous coast of southeastern Spain – and it turned up on Mars at a rocky outcropping, dubbed El Capitan, in the crater at Meridiani Planum where Opportunity landed. What makes this ruddy, crystalline structure so exciting is that it can “date” when liquid water may have existed.
If you thought jarosite looked like a left-over, then your assumption is close to correct. It’s actually a byproduct of the weathering of exposed rocks and forms when the right equation of oxygen, iron, sulfur, potassium and water are mixed.
In a recent study published in an October (v. 310) issue of Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Suzanne Baldwin, professor of Earth Sciences in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Joseph Kula, research associate and corresponding author for the study, established the “diffusion parameters” for argon in jarosite. From this, the crystalline structure then produces the noble gas, argon, when certain potassium isotopes in the crystals decay. Like carbon, this potassium decay rate is a radioactive process which has an established rate. By measuring the argon, scientists can then get a close determination on the age when the mineral interacted with liquid water. This bit of information could some day aid scientists in determining Mars’ water history when samples are returned.
“Our experiments indicate that over billion-year timescales and at surface temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) or colder, jarosite will preserve the amount of argon that has accumulated since the crystal formed,” Kula says, “which simply means that jarosite is a good marker for measuring the amount of time that has passed since water was present on Mars.”
Since water is critical for most life forms, knowing when, where and how long water might have existed on Mars will help clue us in to potential habitable sites. “Jarosite requires water for its formation, but dry conditions for its preservation,” Baldwin says. “We’d like to know when water formed on the surface of Mars and how long it was there. Studying jarosite may help answer some of these questions.”
But using argon as a “time clock” can still have some potential drawbacks. When exposed to temperature extremes, it is possible for some gas to escape the crystals. To help determine the validity of their hypothesis, the team is currently subjecting jarosite and its argon content to a battery of computer simulations. Fortunately, they have found it to exist over a wide range of conditions – those of which could very well have been a part of Martian history.
“Our results suggest that 4 billion-year-old jarosite will preserve its argon and, along with it, a record of the climate conditions that existed at the time it formed,” Baldwin says. The scientists haven’t stopped their studies yet, and they are conducting further experiments on jarosite that formed less than 50 million years ago in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. Through this research they hope to determine the timeline in which the minerals formed and how quickly environmental conditions changed from wet to dry. “The results can be used as a context for interpreting findings on other planets.”
Artist's Concept of Water Vapor in Black Hole Disk - Credit: Leiden University
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A eye-opening discovery has been made by an international team of scientists led by astronomer Paul van der Werf (Leiden University, The Netherlands). They have discovered a black hole in the early Universe located about 12 billion light years away that’s surrounded by a nearly impenetrable disk of gas and dust. The halo isn’t the surprise, however… but the presence of star formation in dense water vapor is.
Using the sensitive radio telescopes of IRAM (Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique) at the Plateau de Bure in the French Alps, the team was searching for the signs of water vapor around a quasar – a distant galaxy which gathers its luminosity from the growth of a black hole which weighs in at hundreds of millions times more mass than Sol.
“Water in cosmic clouds is normally frozen to ice, but the ice can be evaporated by the strong radiation of the quasar or of young stars. Therefore we decided to search for water vapor in this object.” says van der Werf. “It is located so far away that we are looking back in time, to an era where the Universe was only 10% of its present age. This is one of the first searches ever conducted to find water in the early Universe.”
A shocking revelation? Not really. Water vapor has been discovered before. In this instance, however, the water amounted to about 1,000 trillion times the volume found on Earth. What’s more… it’s forming stars. It’s a dense disk, so thick that light barely escapes, and star propagation is rapid.
“Water molecules are sensitive to infrared radiation, so we could use the water vapor detected as a cosmic infrared light meter. With this method we found that essentially all radiation is locked up in the gas disk surrounding the black hole.” team member Marco Spaans (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) explains. “This trapped radiation is so intense that it will build up enormous pressure and eventually blow away the gas and dust clouds surrounding the black hole.”
These findings add a new complexity to our understanding of black holes and the galaxies which hold them. Team member Alicia Berciano Alba (ASTRON, The Netherlands) says: “There is a mysterious relation between the masses of black holes in the centers of galaxies and the masses of the galaxies themselves, as if the formation of both is regulated by the same process. Our results show that these opaque gas disks, which will be ultimately blown away by the intense pressure of the trapped radiation, probably play a key role in this process.” IRAM director Pierre Cox, co-author of the paper, adds: “This discovery opens new possibilities for studying galaxies in the early Universe, using water molecules that probe regions closest to the central black hole, that are otherwise difficult to explore.”
Keep on going, because the IRAM team is up to the task and continuing to look for other sources of water vapor in the early Universe!
