It's called Dawn, and in a little more than a year, this spacecraft will blast off from Florida, bound for two separate asteroids: Vesta and Ceres. Visiting the two most massive asteroids in our Solar System will be an ambitious undertaking; maybe one of the most difficult and dangerous orbital missions attempted. Dawn will bring a suite of scientific instruments to these two asteroids and serve as a time machine to help scientists understand what our Solar System looked like 4.6 billion years ago.
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The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft swept past the Earth and Moon on Friday, gaining a gravity speed boost on its 10-year journey to reach Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. At its closest point, Rosetta passed just 1954 km (1214 miles) above the Pacific Ocean before speeding back off into space. This flyby allowed controllers to rehearse their procedures on a "fake asteroid" (the Moon), as Rosetta will visit two asteroids as part of its mission. Rosetta will make two more visits to Earth and one to Mars before its trip is complete.
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Radio astronomers have detected a series of powerful radio wave blasts from near the centre of the Milky Way that defies an easy explanation, and could lead to the discovery of a new class of object. The team was watching the galactic centre with the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array when they saw 5 bursts occur every 77 minutes, each lasting 10 minutes long. The team will attempt to match up X-rays to the radio busts, as it will help pin down the source of these unusual emissions.
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Scientists are fairly certain that the Earth went through a snowball glaciation 600-800 million years ago, when the entire planet was locked in snow and ice. One new theory to explain this extreme cooling is the possibility that the Solar System passed through an interstellar cloud of dust and gas, which obscured the light from the Sun. Even if the cloud wasn't thick enough to obscure light from the Sun, it could have enabled charged particles to pass into the Earth's atmosphere and destroy the ozone layer. These clouds are huge, and it would take the Solar System 500,000 years to pass through one.
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Imagine you had a telescope powerful enough to watch a snail crawling across the surface of Mars. Divide that speed by 100, and that's how quickly galaxy M33 is moving sideways in the sky. Radio astronomers achieved this astounding measurement with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), which was even more difficult because they had to cancel out the Earth's motion around the Sun. Astronomers have watched galaxies speed away or move towards us for years, but this is the first time the sideways (or proper) motion of a galaxy this distant has been recorded.
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The 17th Progress cargo ship docked with the International Space Station on Tuesday, delivering a pile of supplies. The ship is carrying air, water, food, equipment, and science experiments. But one of its most important cargoes is a new high resolution digital camera that the astronauts will use to inspect space shuttles when they dock with the station. The docking was completed autonomously; however, cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov was ready at the manual controls to take over if there had been a problem.
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Even though they're well past their warranties, the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity are acting remarkably spry. Opportunity has just wrapped up three days of hard driving, covering more distance than Spirit made in its first 70 days on Mars. It set a one-day record, reaching 177.5 metres (582 feet) on a single day. The rovers have been using their autonomous driving mode to set their own routes around obstacles without micromanagement from controllers on Earth.
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The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a photograph of irregular galaxy NGC 1427A on a death plunge into the Fornax cluster of galaxies. NGC 1427A has the beautiful blue colour of intense star formation, because gravitation interaction with the cluster has already collapsed much of its gas. Astronomers think that the galaxy will be completely ripped apart within a billion years, and its stars assimilated into other galaxies in the cluster.
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Astronomers have found a core burning star, like our own Sun, that's only 16% larger than Jupiter; although, it has 96 times as much mass. The observations were made using the European Southern Observatory's 8.2m VLT Kueyen telescope in Chile. Astronomers watched tracked 60 stars which were known to have a regular dip in brightness, when a dimmer object was passing in front. This survey found 7 of these low mass stars which eclipsed their brighter companion.
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Scientists have long been puzzled how chondrules could have formed. These are tiny, millimetre-sized spheres that make up primitive meteorites, and were somehow baked 4.6 billion years ago. New calculations show that the as giant planets, like Jupiter, formed in the early Solar System, they created regions of higher pressure and radiation called "shocks". As tiny particles entered these shocks at more than 30,000 kph, they were melted together to form these tiny chondrule droplets.
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Astronomers have found an embryonic star in a stellar nursery giving off a healthy glow of X-rays, even though it's much too young. The observations were mostly made using the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory, and suggest that some unknown process is superheating the star's surface to generate X-rays. Matter is falling towards the star 10 times faster than it should just with gravity, so it could be that the star's magnetic field is somehow responsible, channeling gas into the star.
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A team of European astronomers have discovered a highly structured cluster of thousands of galaxies at an incredible 9 billion light-years away. In other words, this structure was highly evolved only a few billion years after the Big Bang; a situation that should be impossible, according to current theories. Incredibly, some of the galaxies in the cluster are red and elliptical, which would indicate that they were already quite old at only a few billion years old.
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How do you hide some of the brightest galaxies in the Universe? Behind a shroud of dust, of course. NASA's Spitzer space telescope has uncovered a strange class of galaxies which are incredibly bright - shining with the light of 10 trillion suns - but obscured behind a thick veil of dust and gas. So, why are they so dusty? The dust is churned out by stars, but it's strange how well distributed it is. It could be that all galaxies started out this dusty, and then became clearer over time, or maybe the massive black hole at their center has something to do with it.
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Jupiter's massive magnetic field is so powerful, it can generate auroras one thousand times more powerful than we'll see here on Earth. One of the best ways to study Jupiter's aurora is in the X-ray spectrum, watching how particles and ions crash into Jupiter's atmosphere. Observations from NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory suggest that these particles are partly coming from the Sun, but also from Io, Jupiter's volcanically active moon, which is known to be blasting out steady streams of particles.
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The chances are very high that you will encounter another intelligent life-form in the course of your life and when you do it may come as a big surprise. When, for instance, did you last visit the zoo? Remember those chimpanzees - very smart. And how about those dolphins at the marine aquarium? Brilliant! And that cat of yours is probably smarter than you think - but your dog will never admit it. Finally that grey parrot your Uncle Ned has may actually know what its talking about! Ultimately by paying attention to signs of intelligence on Earth, we may also come to recognize signs of intelligence amongst the stars.
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Recent discoveries on Mars such as methane in the atmosphere, a subterranean ice pack near the equator, and evidence of flowing water in the planet?s past brings new speculation to the most frequently asked questions about the Red Planet: Is there, or was there ever life on Mars?
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A Zenit-3SL rocket roared up from Sea Launch this morning, delivering a replacement satellite for XM Satellite Radio. The rocket lifted off at 0351 GMT (10:51 pm EST Monday), and the XM-3 satellite reached its geosynchronous transfer orbit about an hour later. The launch had been delayed several times because of poor weather and ocean conditions at the launch site in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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The 17th Progress cargo ship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome yesterday, carrying two tonnes of supplies for the International Space Station and a special camera designed to inspect the Space Shuttle for damage. The Progress should reach the station by Wednesday, and dock in afternoon. The previous cargo ship, now filled with garbage, was detached from the station on Sunday, and will reenter and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere on March 9.
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Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As another month ends and a new one begins, let's celebrate the early evening dark and "set the skies on fire" by studying AE Aurigae! Want a challenge for the big scope? We'll check out southern galactic clusters for binoculars and telescopes and learn the location of several comets. It's North America's turn as the Moon occults not one - but two stars in the same night! And right when you thought you could sleep late, the moments before dawn will offer a morning conjunction worth waking up for! So mark your calendars and hope for clear skies because here's what's up!
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An unmanned Progress cargo ship is about to blast off from Kazakhstan, carrying much needed supplies to the International Space Station. If everything goes well, the 17th Progress mission will lift off today carrying a variety of supplies: food, water, air, spare parts, and life support equipment. One important piece of cargo is a new digital camera that the station crew will use to inspect the space shuttle for damage when it docks.
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What drives a person to write an autobiography? Maybe being a central character in a world shaping event would do it, as with Winston Churchill. Perhaps it's purely to make money. I'm sure you can think of someone that falls into this category. Another motive could be, for the most part, a means of saying "Thanks for all those great times.". This is the way Patrick Moore comes across in his book,
Patrick Moore, The Autobiography. Without a trace of conceit, worldly drama or artificial pretension he happily writes about what is important to himself and of some of the events surrounding his time on Earth.
When Huygens landed on Titan, it saw river channels, beaches, islands and swirling fog. So Saturn's largest moon is definitely wet: not from water, but from liquid methane (aka natural gas). And if this methane can fall as rain, it's entirely possible that there could be rainbows, as the Sun's light passes through methane droplets. A methane rainbow would be a larger than a water rainbow because it bends light differently. Sunlight has trouble passing through Titan's hazy atmosphere, but you might be able to see an infrared rainbow with the right kind of camera.
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Scientists have captured an image of Saturn's magnetic field using a special instrument on board NASA's Cassini spacecraft called the Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI). MIMI is able to measure how ions streaming from the Sun are pushed around by Saturn's powerful magnetic field, and create a 3-D image of the planet's surroundings. Using this instrument, the scientists discovered a powerful radiation field just inside Saturn's rings.
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Cassini has discovered oxygen ions in the atmosphere around Saturn's rings, suggesting that life isn't the only process that could produce it. Molecular oxygen, aka O2, is produced here on Earth as a byproduct of plant respiration - animals like us need it to survive. It was previously thought that O2 is so volatile that it needs the presence of life to occur in a planet's atmosphere. But on Saturn, this oxygen is generated and maintained by a reaction of the Sun's radiation and the icy particles in Saturn's rings.
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Here's a beautiful 1280x1024 wallpaper photo of Saturn taken by Cassini. Actually, this isn't a single photo, but a composite image built up of 126 separate images taken by Cassini over the course of 2 hours on October 6, 2004. The full resolution image is 8888x4544 pixels, and serves as the best picture of Saturn taken by Cassini so far. Features as small as 38 km (24 miles) across are visible at this resolution.
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Cassini discovered a large, bright and complex storm in Saturn's southern hemisphere in September 2004 which scientists dubbed the "Dragon Storm" because of its unusual shape. The Dragon Storm appears to be a long-lived storm which periodically flares up to produce dramatic white plumes which then subside. Cassini has also detected strong radio bursts generated by intense lightning storms.
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A few days ago we asked you to send in your Near-Earth asteroid questions for Dr. David J. Tholen from the University of Hawaii,
Institute for Astronomy. With the current full Moon brightening the night sky, he's got a little extra time on his hands, and rushed the answers back to us. What are the chances of an asteroid strike in our lifetime? How could we exploit asteroid minerals? Read on for his answers. Thanks to everyone who got involved, and to TheThorn from the
forum Community Support team for organizing this interview.
When Huygens plunged through Titan's atmosphere last month, the biggest telescopes here on Earth were trained on the moon. Some of the best images ever taken of Titan from Earth have been released by the European Southern Observatory. Since these images aren't constrained by the brief Cassini flybys, they can give scientists a better perspective of Titan's over a longer period. The images were taken at a specific wavelength of light that pierces through the methane haze surrounding Titan to show some of its surface features, which scientists can match up to Cassini's images.
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Scientists were surprised a few years ago when the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory discovered bursts of gamma rays weren't only coming from deep space - some are coming from the Earth too. Further observations from NASA's RHESSI satellite has shown that approximately 50 Terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) emanate from our planet every day, blasting out gamma rays for about a millisecond. What causes these TGFs is still unknown, but scientists believe they're caused by the build-up of electrical charge at the tops of thunderclouds.
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Just before matter is gobbled up by a hungry black hole, it's hurtling around the monster at nearly the speed of light. This heats up the material and it can release a tremendous amount of energy as X-rays. Different elements release energy with a specific fingerprint that astronomers can detect. Researchers from Europe have measured iron as it hurtles around black holes and found a relativistic effect because it's moving so quickly. The team averaged out the X-ray light from 100 distant black holes to show the telltale signature of material about to be consumed by a black hole.
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Astronomers believe that a significant amount of our Universe is made up of mysterious dark matter (5 times more, in fact); it's invisible to every instrument, but can be detected because its gravity affects visible matter. Dark matter is usually found surrounding galaxies in an enormous halo, but British astronomers think they've found a whole galaxy just made of dark matter. The team used a radio telescope to observe the motion of a cloud of hydrogen atoms, and realized that it was spinning much too quickly, so must be largely composed dark matter to hold together.
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Amateur photographer
Paul F. Campbell took this picture of Jupiter from just outside his home in Washington, PA. Paul used a Meade ETX autostar in polar mode only, which has been supercharged by Dr. Clay Sherrod. The camera that I use is a Sac 7 CCD run by Astrovideo. The photo started out as a 1 minute video, with frames taken at 1/50 second. Paul then processed the video in registax 3 and then cleaned up the final photo in Adobe Photoshop. If you're an amateur astrophotographer, visit the
Universe Today forum and post your pictures, we might feature it in the newsletter.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft has uncovered evidence for a massive sea of water ice in warm conditions near Martian equator. Since temperatures in this region can rise above freezing, it could be a good location to look for life. The frozen sea measures 800 x 900 km across (497 x 559 miles), varies up to 45 metres (150 feet) deep. Previous observations by Mars Express of methane levels do match up to this newly discovered ice, so it builds on the theory that there could be microbial life living underneath Mars' freeze dried and irradiated surface.
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Astronomers are finding supermassive black holes at the heart of nearly every galaxy they look at, and these monsters range in size depending on the size of their host galaxy. An international team of astronomers has turned up what seems to be the smallest supermassive black hole so far - only a million times the mass of our Sun - located at the centre of galaxy NGC 4395. Supermassive black holes can often be 100 times this mass, and NGC 4395 is one of a family of galaxies which tend to have very large black holes.
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Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are. Or are you a star? Perhaps you're a gargantuan galaxy, capricious globular cluster or a burgeoning supernova. When I'm not sure what's attracting my fancy late at night, then I can use Neil Bone's,
Deep Sky Observer's Guide to aid in identifying jewel-like sparkles in the sky so high.
There's no escaping the overwhelming light of the Moon, but who says we can't enjoy a bright star cluster? The M 41 awaits you! As the Moon goes full this week, we'll enjoy studying new lunar regions as well as learning a bit about Procyon, Capella and Rigel. Comet K4 LINEAR and Q2 Machholz are well positioned for viewing, but Southern Australia? You're in luck as the Moon occults Jupiter for you this coming weekend! So turn your eyes to the skies...
Because here's what's up!
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Experienced observers tend to think its all so very simple. Buying a scope, setting it up, and using it for the first time lies well behind them on the learning curve. But if you really think about it learning to use an astronomical telescope is no trivial matter. So after being prompted by one UT reader, Astro.Geekjoy's Jeff Barbour decided to set down in word's how to go about making a start of our High Art and Science. Sometime's things aren't as simple as they seem...
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Thanks to data gathered by Cassini and Huygens, scientists know that Titan's atmosphere contains significant amounts of ammonia - and this chemical could be responsible for the weathering on the moon's surface. Researchers from the University of Arizona believe that Cassini will eventually find that Titan has a layer of liquid ammonia-and-water underneath a solid crust of water ice. It's this liquid ammonia that could be creating the cryovolcanic flows discovered by Cassini on its first close Titan flyby in 2004.
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A massive gamma ray flare flashed so brightly in December that it briefly outshone the full Moon. Even though it occurred 50,000 light-years away, the flare demonstrated the power of these events, disrupting the Earth's ionosphere. The flare occurred on the surface of a rapidly spinning, highly magnetic neutron star called a magnetar, which can release tremendous amounts of energy through a process called magnetic reconnection. We're lucky the flare occurred so far away; if it had happened within 10 light-years, it could have destroyed the Earth's ozone layer.
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Astronomers from the University of Southampton have spotted the fastest spinning X-ray pulsar ever seen - it's rotating 600 times a second! The object, designated IGR J00291+5934, was first spotted as a bright X-ray object by the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL space telescope in December. Further analysis revealed that it's part of a binary system, siphoning material off of a companion star. The two stars orbit one another every 2.5 hours, separated by the distance of the Earth and the Moon.
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In the last month planet hunters have uncovered 12 new worlds orbiting other stars, bringing the total planet count to 145. Two European planet hunting teams have discovered 6 gas giants as part of the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Search (HARPS), and an American team uncovered 5 more using the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii. And a single, Pluto-sized planet was discovered orbiting a pulsar by Penn State's Alex Wolszczan and Caltech's Maciej Konacki.
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Just two days after visiting Titan, Cassini swept past another Saturnian moon: Enceladus. The spacecraft got within just 1,180 kilometers (730 miles) of the bright moon. Enceladus is unusual because of the high reflectivity of its surface, which resembles freshly fallen snow. But in this close-up view, the best ever taken, it has a much more wrinkled look. Enceladus is only 505 kilometers (314 miles) across.
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As early as a billion years after the Big Bang, clusters of galaxies were already forming together according to observations made with the Subaru Telescope. This is much earlier than astronomers had expected, and shows that galaxies didn't need to fully form before they began organizing into clusters. A team from Japan studied hundreds of galaxies approximately 12.7 billion light years away and found that many were forming small clusters even as they were forming some of their first stars.
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In some ways, the bright auroras at Saturn's poles are very similar to our own Northern/Southern lights here on Earth. But in other ways, they're very different, and it's a mystery that has been puzzling astronomers since they were first discovered 25 years ago. Saturn's auroras can brighten for days (compared to minutes here Earth), and can stay still while the planet rotates underneath. Now scientists have used observations from Hubble and the Cassini spacecraft to develop a new theory about how Saturn's magnetic field interacts with the solar wind to produce its unusual auroras.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft spotted a large impact crater on Titan during its flyby on Tuesday. The crater is 440 km (273 miles) wide, and has unusual parallel lines on it (researchers have nicknamed them "cat scratches"). It's believed that these lines could have been formed by winds, like sand dunes on Earth or Mars, but it's also possible that another geological process is at work.
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Amateur astronomy may very well be the most popular and quickly growing scientific hobby in the world today. This popularity undoubtedly has a basis in the fact that astronomy covers a lot of "turf". Meanwhile the existence of the Internet has made it possible for observers to share their love and knowledge of the sky while working together and advancing the state of the art. Finally, the fact that telescopes and binoculars are so readily available in great diversity of cost, quality, and capacity doesn't hurt either.
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NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its fourth flyby of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on Tuesday. At its closest approach, the spacecraft swept past the surface at an altitude of only 1,580 km (982 miles). It took images that will help scientists study the moon's clouds, atmosphere and surface structures. NASA is also hoping Cassini will be able to spot where Huygens landed on Titan in January, to give researchers a better idea of the terrain that the probe landed in.
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Even though SMART-1 has only just reached the Moon, controllers with the European Space Agency have decided to extend its mission a year, wrapping up in August 2006. This will give the ion-powered spacecraft more time to map the Moon's surface in high resolution. Another benefit of stretching out the time frame is the fact that spacecraft will be placed into a more stable orbit, conserving its fuel. SMART-1 should arrive at its final science orbit by the end of February.
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