Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Hubble Images Reveal Plethora of Interacting Galaxies

59 new images from the Hubble Space Telescope show some very unusual but incredibly spectacular colliding galaxies. Colliding or interacting galaxies are found throughout the Universe, and sometimes these collisions trigger bursts of star formation, or the mergers form new galaxies. The image above shows the aftermath of an encounter between two galaxies, resulting in a ring-shaped galaxy and a long-tailed companion. Officially called Arp 148, it also has the nickname ‘Mayall’s object.’ It is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, approximately 500 million light-years away. These images are the largest collection from Hubble ever published simultaneously, and they celebrate the 18th anniversary of Hubble’s launch. And there’s more….


This is a stunning snapshot of a celestial dance performed by a pair of similar sized galaxies. ESO 77-14 is in the constellation of Indus, the Indian, some 550 million light-years away from Earth. The galaxy on the right has a long, bluish arm while its companion has a shorter, redder arm.

The Hubble Site has a video about colliding galaxies.

For the entire collection of these images see the Hubble site.

Original News Source: ESA press release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Mars Was Recently Blanketed By Glaciers

Mars is a dead world, unchanging for billions of years. Right? Maybe not. Researchers from Brown University have found evidence for thick, recurring glaciers on the surface of Mars. This means that the climate on Mars might be much more dynamic than previously believed. Perhaps the climate could change again. And liquid water underneath these glaciers might have given life a refuge over the eons.

Around 3.5 billion years ago, Mars was a completely different world, with liquid water right there on its surface. And then something happened that made it cold, dry, and quiet – too quiet. Apart from the occasional meteorite impact, planetary geologists thought that very little has happened on Mars since then.

In an article published in the journal Geology, scientists from Brown University released images showing how dynamic Mars might be. They found evidence that thick ice packs, at least 1 km (0.6 miles) thick and maybe 2.5 km (1.6 miles) thick coated Mars’ mid-latitude regions.

These ice sheets weren’t there last year, but they were there 100 million years ago, and maybe localized glaciers were flowing as recently as 10 million years ago. That’s yesterday, geologically speaking.

With activity this recent on Mars, that could mean that its climate might change often, and it could happen again. Maybe Mars wasn’t so dead for the last 3.5 billion years.

The images captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed a box canyon in a low-lying plain. The canyon clearly has moraines – deposits of rock that mark the end of the glacier, or the path of its retreat.

This discovery increases the possibility of life on the surface of Mars. At the bottom of the glaciers, crushed under kilometres of ice, liquid water would have formed into vast reservoirs. These could have served as sanctuaries for life.

Original Source: Brown University News Release

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Magnetic Fields Shape the Jets Pouring Out of Supermassive Black Holes (with video)

Artist's impression of a supermassive black hole. Credit: NRAO

The cores of galaxies contain supermassive black holes, containing hundreds of millions of times the mass of Sun. As matter falls in, it chokes up, forming a super hot accretion disk around the black hole. From this extreme environment, the black hole-powered region spews out powerful jets of particles moving at the speed of light. Astronomers have recently gotten one of the best views at the innermost portion of the jet.

A team of astronomers led by Alan Marscher, of Boston University, used the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) to peer at the central region of a galaxy called BL Lacertae.

“We have gotten the clearest look yet at the innermost portion of the jet, where the particles actually are accelerated, and everything we see supports the idea that twisted, coiled magnetic fields are propelling the material outward,” said Alan Marscher, of Boston University, leader of an international research team. “This is a major advance in our understanding of a remarkable process that occurs throughout the Universe,” he added.

Here’s how the theory goes. As material falls into the supermassive black hole faster than it can consume it, an accretion disk forms. This is a flattened, rotating disk that circles the black hole. The spinning interaction with the black hole creates powerful magnetic fields that twist and form into a tightly-coiled bundle. It’s these magnetic fields that blast out particles into focused beams.

The theorists expected that the region inside the acceleration region would follow a corkscrew-shaped path inside the twisting magnetic fields. Furthermore, researchers expected that light and material would brighten when it was pointed directly towards Earth. And finally, the astronomers expected that there should be a flare when material hits a stationary shock wave called the “core” after it comes out of the acceleration region.

And that’s just what the observations show. The VLBA was used to study how a knot of material was ejected out of the black hole’s environment. As the knot moved through the stationary shock wave, it flared just as the theorists had predicted.

Original Source: NRAO News Release

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Opportunity’s Robotic Arm Stalls

NASA engineers say Opportunity’s robotic arm, which has been intermittently problematic since 2005, has worsened recently. A small motor in the shoulder joint of the Mars Exploration Rover’s arm stalled on April 14, and engineers are diagnosing the problem and assessing whether the motor can possibly be used again. They are also trying to determine the impact on Opportunity’s work if the motor were no longer usable.

The motor is one of five in the robotic arm and it controls sideways motion of the shoulder joint. The stall last week occurred after being used briefly, and after much less motion than earlier stalls. Engineers believe the problem is electrical rather than mechanical, and additional tests are being performed to determine whether the is trouble is intermittent or a permanent failure.

The arm is used to place a microscopic imager and spectrometer in contact with rocks and soils to study their composition and texture.

“Even under the worst-case scenario for this motor, Opportunity still has the capability to do some contact science with the arm,” said JPL’s John Callas, project manager for the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit. “The vehicle has quite a bit of versatility to continue the high-priority investigations in Victoria Crater and back out on the Meridiani plains after exiting the crater.”

The two Mars rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, have been studying the Red Planet since January 2004, and each have shown some signs of aging.

When Opportunity’s shoulder motor began stalling occasionally in November 2005, engineers increased the voltage to the motor, and that allowed the motor to still be operational. Additionally, the engineering changed the standard procedure by unstowing the arm at the end of each day’s drive rather than leaving it stowed overnight. This keeps the arm available for use even if the motor then stops working.

This spring, Opportunity began crossing an inner slope of Victoria Crater to reach the base of a cliff portion of the crater rim, a promontory called “Cape Verde.” On April 14, Opportunity was backing out of a sandy patch encountered on the path toward Cape Verde from the area where the rover descended into the crater. As usual, the commands included unstowing the arm at the end of the day’s short drive. The shoulder motor barely got the arm unstowed before stalling.

“We’ll hold off backing out of the sand until after we’ve completed the diagnostic tests on the motor,” Callas said. “The rover is stable and safe in its current situation, and not under any urgency. So we will take the time to act cautiously.”

Original News Source: JPL Press Release

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Nova Sagittarius 2008 Is Brightening!

Nova Sagittarius Region

In case you didn’t catch the New Nova In Sagittarius alert the other day… You might want to pay a little closer attention because it is brightening by leaps and bounds! Captured 4 days ago by our friends at Macedon Ranges Observatory and shared exclusively with UT Readers, the up-to-the-minute reports show it is now clearly a binocular object and may have even reached unaided eye visibility.

AAVSO Special Notice #106
April 25, 8:09 am EST

According to reports, Nova Sgr 2008 continues to brighten,
with the last measurements from Alexandre Amorim
indicating about V=6.5 on 20080423.0993.

Luckily, many AAVSO program stars are in Saggitarius,
and if you use a B-scale or larger field with VSP, you
will find many sequence stars from which to choose.
Keep watching this nova as it brightens; few professional
telescopes can observe this bright, while with a pair
of binoculars it is an easy target. We will be uploading
a BVRI calibration in a few days, in plenty of time
to follow the decline.

This nova’s coordinates are RA 18:05:58.90 Dec -27:13:56.3 . For those who would like to try their hand with binoculars? Aim just a couple of fingerwidths north of the tip of the “teapot” spout. It will by far be the brightest in the field. Use the included map – the circled area is the rough location and the magnitudes are set so that anything that appears brighter than what you see in the circle will be the nova.

Be sure to drop our friends at Macedon Ranges Observatory a few lines and let them know how much we all appreciate seeing this well ahead of the rest of the world’s news!

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Podcast: Detectors

Our senses can only detect a fraction of the phenomena happening in the Universe. That’s why scientists and engineers develop detectors, to let us see radiation and particles that we could never detect with our eyes and ears. This week we’ll go through them all, so you can understand how we see what we can’t see.

Click here to download the episode

Detectors – Show notes and transcript

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Celestron SkyScout Review

Celestron SkyScout

My initial reaction to the Celestron SkyScout was why in heaven – and on Earth – would someone want a personal planetarium when they have the real deal at their disposal? Like most folks my age, I can’t resist new technology and the more I read and heard about what the Celestron Sky Scout could do, the more I wanted to examine one. Could a little piece of equipment provide as much information, knowledge and entertainment as a live astronomer? Could an electronic box take the place of a book? But most of all… What can the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium really do?

When I saw the Celestron SkyScout in person, the young man who let me examine it told me, “Ma’am? You’d be much better off getting a book of star charts or finding someone to teach you about the stars.” Ultimately, I love it when someone doesn’t recognize me or simply sees the blond hair and doesn’t think there’s much going on underneath it. Although a secret part of me agreed with him, I simply flashed him my best vacant smile and gave him the line that all of us techno geeks use when we’re caught out buying a new toy… “It’s a present.”

Grinning wickedly, I snatched the box from him and hurried off where I could examine the SkyScout in private. On the way, I picked up a jumbo package of batteries and sat down to see how much of its operation was intuitive and how often I’d have to refer to the instructions. Surprisingly enough, anyone who has mastered an iPod and has at least a passing knowledge of the written English language would be well on their way to using a Celestron SkyScout. My second point of curiosity was its resemblance to a digital camcorder… Another techno-gadget I’m familiar with. After a quick consultation with the instructions, all I needed was dark.

Personal Planetarium? Snort. Show me what you can do…

Turn it on and GPS technology takes over. Within minutes, the Celestron Sky Scout had pinpointed my location on Earth and was aware of every movement in right ascension and declination of the unit. It knew where I was at, and it knew where it was pointed. Aiming the Celestron SkyScout is precisely like using a camcorder. Inside of its viewfinder you’ll see a red “bullseye” that’s adjustable in brightness so it doesn’t overpower dimmer stars. When you get the object you’re aiming at centered, you just push a button on top and it fixes the position and displays a screen of options as to what you’re looking at. Well, duh! I know it’s Mars… But when the soothing, melodic female voice started whispering stories in my ear? I knew I was hooked.

Needless to say, I took off on my own tour of the heavens with the Celestron SkyScout, happily eating up all of the information it gave me. Not all things have audio to accompany them, only 200. But, for many of us having RA, Dec, magnitudes and more at the push of a button is simply the cat’s asteroid. While you’ll never visually see all 6000 objects the Celestron SkyScout is capable of, what matters most is that it’s in there… And just waiting on you to release it.

Next up? Show me tonight’s “Must See” list. With the cool, calculated precision that only a data base could deliver, the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium gave me a tour that even I would have been proud of. It virtually walked me star by star through constellation lessons that impressed even me. What’s best? I know that it can also tell me when the ISS is passing by or where the latest comet is located. How many friends can you carry around in a backpack that can tell you that? True. These are all things I know, things I present in astronomy outreach programs, but the Celestron SkyScout is much more than that.

For seasoned astronomers? Don’t laugh the Celestron SkyScout off. Instead, tell me how many times you’ve had difficulty distinguishing Pi and Xi Draconis from background stars. If you’re a star hopper, what would you give if you could just point a little box at the star in question and have it immediately tell you that it is indeed Delta Librae you’re aimed at and you’re ready to head to your charts? Ah… You’re getting the real picture now, aren’t you?!

But, I told you these Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium thingies were a lot more didn’t I? Yes. And I meant it. My teenage son once enjoyed telescoping with me, but there came an age when it simply wasn’t “cool” to be seen with Mom, and I understood. Yet, when I handed him the SkyScout, he and his girlfriend took off in the dark together and had a wonderful astronomy experience alone that I couldn’t give them. At star parties, I’ve handed the Celestron SkyScout to people that I knew were too afraid to ask questions… and hours later they’d hand it back with the most wonderful smiles on their faces. They’d tell me how much they enjoyed using it and how much they learned. Even the most hard-core astronomers I know have found something undeniably “cool” about this gadget.

So why the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium and not the competitor model with its “stunning” full color images? Reality check. I use the astronomy equipment I buy and I use it hard. I buy the brands I want and I put them to the test. Over the years I’ve dropped, I’ve kicked, I’ve banged, I’ve slammed, I’ve traveled, I’ve shared, I’ve abused and I have absolutely loved and appreciated the long term durability and quality of Celestron products. Why should the Celestron SkyScout be any different? Eight months and countless hands later…

It’s still on the original batteries.

The Celestron SkyScout has the ability to have a green laser attached to it and external speakers so it can do a “show and tell” program for large groups. But the most awesome feature of all is the Celestron SkyScout really will put the Universe in your hands.

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Galaxy Zoo Gets a Makeover

In the near future, Galaxy Zoo will get a facelift. The project – which has already classified a large portion of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – will be moving to its second phase, and members will be helping the science community get better information on the formation and distribution of galaxies.

In the first phase, the science team wanted to make the task as simple as possible: is the galaxy you see an elliptical or spiral galaxy, and if it’s spiral, which way is it turning (clockwise or counter-clockwise)? As we reported the first results published using the Galaxy Zoo data showed that people have a bias for clicking on counter-clockwise images.

Galaxy Zoo 2.0 will probe more deeply some of the best classified images of the first stage. “The experience will be a bit different. Users will be asked a series of more detailed questions, and based on their answers they will be lead to answer different questions…One of the things we will incorporate is how to get people to answer the questions in a way that is interesting for them” said Chris Lintott a member of the Galaxy Zoo team and a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford.

The more detailed questions will focus on a few hundred thousand of the million galaxies used in the first phase. The researchers want users to answer questions such as where on the Hubble Diagram a galaxy is, how many spiral arms it has or how close together are the spiral arms are.

Galaxy Zoo 2.0 will also improve upon the ability for people to point out unusual galaxies or objects, including them even more in the science behind the project. The “poster child” of interesting objects from the site is Hanny’s Voorwerp (pictured).

It popped up as an unusual object in the forums, and the science team has since gotten time on the Swift and SARA telescopes for observation. The object turned out to be a ‘light echo’ from a long-dead quasar. More information (and pictures) can be found here and here.

From April 25th-29th, part of the science team will be observing a few of the over 500 overlapping galaxies pointed out by Galaxy Zoo members, using the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope at Kitt Peak, Arizona. Overlapping galaxies provide astronomers with a chance to study the interstellar dust in each galaxy, which aids in understanding how galaxies evolve.

“The new GZ will make it easier for people to point out what they think is interesting…One thing that the users are going to probably have the most fun with is a button that basically says, ‘Hey, somebody should look at this,'” Lintott said.

After they had asked users in the first few weeks of the project to email them with interesting finds – like ring galaxies, which they had thought were rare, but turned out to be rather abundant – the team received a barrage of emails. The new function for picking out interesting finds should streamline the process, making a shorter turnaround for observations of objects such as the Voorwerp.

“I like to compare Galaxy Zoo one to eating a bag of crisps. You start by eating one and then soon enough you’ve finished the whole bag. Galaxy Zoo two is like eating Michelin starred food: you want to spend time considering it and thinking about it and wondering about what is going on,” Lintott said.

The site will be connected to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – a robotic survey of 1/4 of the Northern sky, where the images on the site originate – so people can go there and check out the objects in more detailif they would like.

Harnessing the power of 125,000 registered users and counting, the site has become a powerful (and popular!) tool for classification. There are currently over 20 projects underway using the Galaxy Zoo data. Galaxy Zoo 3.0 is already in the planning stages, and will likely include a look at more sky surveys, such as the upcoming Pan-STARRS.

“People looking at the data should become something that happens to astronomy surveys, more as a matter of course. Some human beings should look at it, or we’ll never find things like the Voorwerp and overlapping galaxies. Things like Galaxy Zoo let people play a part in the science,” remarked Lintott.

Source: Interview with Chris Lintott, Galaxy Zoo Blog

Posted on by Ian O'Neill

Solar Sail Space Travel One Step Closer to Reality

An artist concept of the solar sail. The center package contains the solar panels powering an electron gun that keeps the many tethers charged. (Allt om vetenskap)

Solar sails were once thought to belong in the realms of science fiction. Huge canopies of lightweight tin foil catching the solar photon breeze, slowly allowing spacecraft to cruise around our solar system propelled by the small but continuous radiation pressure. Recent years however have shown that solar sail spacecraft could be engineered in reality, and a new solar sail invention from the Finnish Meteorological Institute could push this goal one step closer. Rather than using solar radiation pressure, this new concept makes use of the highly charged particles in the solar wind to give the craft its propulsion. Additionally, through radio wave electron excitation, the system may amplify the solar wind acceleration effects, giving the spacecraft a “boost” function…

A traditional solar sail concept from NASA (NASA)

Traditionally, solar sails make use for the momentum carried by photons of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun. Using a huge canopy of ultra-lightweight (but robust) material, the sail experiences a force from the incident sunlight. Some advanced concepts also theorized the use of planetary lasers to propel solar sail-powered spacecraft from A to B. Opting for solar propulsion would be the ultimate energy conservation method yet, optimizing payload transportation, maximizing fuel efficiency. Make a solar sail big enough, steady momentum can be transferred from the solar photons, accelerating the spacecraft. There are of course many hurdles to this design, but prototypes have been built (although many failed to make it into space due to rocket launch failures).

Dr. Pekka Janhunen demonstrating the solar sail design (Antonin Halas)

In a departure from the photon-powered solar sail, scientists and engineers have started to look into the properties of solar wind particles as a possible source of propulsion. The advantages of using solar wind particles are they a) are electrically charged, b) have high velocity (interplanetary scintillation observations have deduced velocities as high as 800 km/s, or 1.8 million miles per hour), and c) are abundant in interplanetary space throughout the solar system (particularly at solar maximum). So the new Finnish concept will take full advantage of this highly charged interplanetary medium. Using a fan of very long, electrically charged cables (stretching many kilometres from the central spacecraft), the similarly charged solar wind particles (mainly positively-charged protons) will hit the fan of positively-charged cables (generating a repulsive electric field), giving the cables a small proton-sized “kick”, exchanging their momentum into spacecraft thrust. Cable charge is maintained by a solar-powered electron gun, using two conventional solar panels as an energy source. A radio-frequency “boost” will also be tested in the prototype model. Radio waves will cause electron heating, possibly enhancing the solar sail’s thrust.

The project is currently being engineered and researchers from Finland, Germany, Sweden, Russia, and Italy are currently developing various components of the solar sail. Successful implementation of the prototype that could be launched in three years depends on securing $8 million (5 million euros) in funding.

Sources: Finnish Meteorological Institute, Live Science

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

This Week’s “Where In The World (and What World) Is This?”

Everyone seemed to enjoy the “Where In The World (and What World) Is This?” post last week, so here’s another one for you. This interesting feature was taken by an orbiting spacecraft on May 31, 2006. This striking circular landform could possibly be an impact crater, or a volcanic rim, or another physical feature that is so large, it can only be seen as a whole from the lofty vantage point that a spacecraft in orbit provides. Is this feature on Earth, or is it located on one of the other 176 worlds in our solar system (that’s 7 other planets and 169 known moons)? And what spacecraft is responsible for this image?

Since it’s so close to Earth Day, I had to choose an image from Earth. But what in the world is this a picture of? This is Nukuoro Atoll, a circular island of coral that completely encircles a lagoon. Nukuoro Atoll is part of the Caroline Islands, which stretch northeast of Papua New Guinea in the western Pacific. It is one of 607 islands that make up the Federated States of Micronesia. It is located just north of the equator (3.85° North, 154.9° East). This image reinforces that we live on a wonderfully diverse and endlessly fascinating planet.

Nukuoro Atoll is almost a little world by itself. About 900 people live on Nukuoro, but is very remote. It has no airstrip, and a passenger boat comes to visit irregularly only once a month. The tiny population speaks its own unique language.

The lagoon is 6 kilometers (about 3.7 miles) in diameter. Fishing, animal husbandry, and agriculture are the main occupations. The atoll is mostly sandy, but the dark areas are green vegetation.

In the close-up image, structures are visible. The white dots found in the lagoon are coral heads. The most prominent one is almost directly in the middle of the lagoon.

The picture was taken by astronauts on board the International Space Station as part of the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment. They used a Kodak 760C digital camera with an 800 mm lens.

Original News Source: Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth