New Discoveries *3* - ...MORE deep space, extraplanetary, etc.

Palomar · 2004-06-04 09:20:10

Bolide]http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/meteor_washington_040603.html]"Bolide" meteor activity over Washington State

*Sky lit up, booms heard.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-05 07:50:00

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … 4349]Heart of the Trifid Nebula

*Lots of intense star formation going on there. Discusses role and activity of O - class stars, etc. Gorgeous photos. Centered, looks like a large crow with outspread wings. More evidence of interstellar material collapsing under its own weight to form new stars.

Mentions "proplyds," which is short for protoplentary rings, i.e circumstellar rings "believed to be the locations where planetary systems are formed. A proplyd in the Trifid Nebula is visible near the lower right of the main Hubble image. "

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-07 07:25:12

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040606.html]Mercury transit of Sol

*These images captured by SOHO on 7 May 2003. Yep...Mercury looks like a fly speck against a beach ball.

--Cindy

P.S.: Click on the pic if you have trouble spotting Mercury in the images.

Palomar · 2004-06-08 07:16:43

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/g … l]Puzzling filaments explained - ?

*Radio observatories assisted -- National Science Foundation's Very Large Array and Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope.

Cause may be "collisions of winds blown off from individual stars."

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-08 09:00:02

*Hear ye, hear ye --

"DAYLIGHT METEORS: The strongest daylight meteor shower of the year, the Arietids, is underway. It's happening because Earth is passing through a stream of dusty debris possibly from sungrazing asteroid Icarus. Most Arietid meteors are invisible because the Sun is up when the shower is most intense, but you can listen to them by tuning into Stan Nelson's 67 MHz meteor radar located in Roswell, NM."

(Above courtesy spaceweather.com; can listen to meteor radar through a link there).

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-10 06:55:34

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … tml]Lovely M87

*Gorgeous photo.

Elliptical galaxy in Virgo group. Is significant for having an extraordinary amount of globular clusters. Whereas our Milky Way galaxy contains approximately 200 globular clusters, M87 contains 14,000.

--Cindy

p.s.

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … Fahrenheit 2910: Io

Palomar · 2004-06-13 22:44:21

*This is one of the most striking, spectacular nature photos I have ever seen:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040613.html]Aurora & Volcano: Iceland

~*~

On a different note:

Ghost]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011031.html]"Ghost Head" Nebula

The loveliest, most detailed photo of that nebula I've yet seen (not a surprise as it was taken by Hubble!). Reminds me a bit of the inner portion of the Orion Nebula.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-15 06:46:56

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … ml]Another stellar nursery

*Cocoon Nebula; gorgeous. Pic taken by two amateur astronomers (with a bit of assistance).

Some of the nebula's gas is so hot it emits a light of its own.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-16 08:09:27

*Not "new"...but I especially enjoy these deep-space objects above all and I've (IIRC) not posted these before. Nebulae are so marvelously varied:

*

Eskimo]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031207.html]"Eskimo" Nebula (aka Clown Nebula) It's one of the most unique of nebulae, IMO.

*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030425.html]Close-up on Omega Nebula

*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000407.html]NGC 6751; blue, purple, gold

*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991101.html]The "Rotten Egg" Nebula So named because of its high sulfur content. :-\ Pretty, though...wispy and with what looks like a knot in the middle.

*

Cats]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991031.html]Cat's Eye Nebula (meow) :laugh: Actually, I think it looks more like looking straight down at a rose (American Beauty variety).

*

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990725.html]The Cygnus Loop Lovely, delicate tendrils. Indescribably beautiful.

More later...

--Cindy

-*-

GraemeSkinner · 2004-06-17 14:56:28

Probably not the right thread to post this to, but its a fairly 'new discovery' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3811785.stm]LINK

Graeme

dicktice · 2004-06-18 09:16:52

Regarding new discoveries: I'm constantly amazed at how astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle's hypotheses regarding, e.g., Continuous Universe vs. Big Bang (his facitious term for singularity origin of our universe), cometary origin of life processes, etc. seem to be holding up in the light of today's cosmology. I sure miss that gutsy guy. I'd like to locate a copy of his autobiography (forget the title, but will look it up now) which my bookseller tells me is out of print.
[Later] Here it is:
Home is Where the Wind Blows
Chapters From a Cosmologist's Life
Fred Hoyle
University Science Books
Mill Valley, California
1994
ISBN 0-935702-27-X
443 pp
Foreword by Margaret Burbidge

Palomar · 2004-06-20 07:16:11

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/meteor-04c.html]House in New Zealand struck by meteorite

*Crashed through roof at 300 mph. No one was hurt, fortunately.

You just never know.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-21 15:18:19

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=14422]Link discovered between Earth's ocean currents & Jupiter's bands

*Very intriguing article.

"The study maintains that both sets of zonal jets -- the ocean's bands of currents and the bands of Jupiter's clouds -- are the result of an underlying turbulent flow regime common in nature.

Comparing the energy spectra on giant planets and in Earth's oceans can yield valuable information about the transport properties of the oceans, says Galperin, especially about the strongest currents in the mid-depth ocean. 'The implications of these findings for climate research on Earth and the designs of future outer space observational studies are important,' he says."

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-23 06:27:19

Its]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040622.html]It's WILD

--groovy and far out!

More intriguing info on this comet rolling in.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-24 06:19:29

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … ml]Prepare to be awed

*Damn, I can't get over the professional quality and gorgeousness of some of these "amateur" astrophotos! This guy must have a very snazzy outfit in his backyard. I remember all the amateur astropics from yesteryear -- faint, fuzzy, poor filter options because of lack of availability, etc. Now we've got so many generally affordable options -- as this pic proves. Here's how Mr. Croman uses filters to produce such a stunning pic:

"Croman uses filters to isolate specific colors that result from emissions from certain types of atoms, then he colorizes and combines the images. 'Red indicates the light given off by sulfur atoms when stimulated by the intense ultraviolet light streaming from the young, hot stars at the center of the nebula,' he told SPACE.com. 'Similarly, green represents the light from excited hydrogen atoms, and blue the light of oxygen.'"

*A natural-color pic of the Rosette Nebula by him is in a link towards the bottom.

Here's a
http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … 6.html]pic of the Orion Nebula also by Mr. Croman.

Amazing! His pics are so good they are compared to Hubble's. :up:

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-26 06:08:38

*Canada's MOST (Microvariability & Oscillations of Stars) telescope has created:

"Astronomers have created an animation showing newly discovered starspots being carried around on the surface of another star, Kappa Ceti. Jaymie Matthews (University of British Columbia) and his collaborators created the animation after tracking tiny changes in the star's brightness using the Earth-orbiting Microvariability and Oscillations of Stars (MOST) telescope. The animation covers a 29-day period and shows an enormous spot gradually gaining on a smaller one as a result of the different rotation rates at different latitudes on the star."

The animation is available on the team's Website:
http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/]http://ww … c.ca/MOST/

Heres]http://www.astro.ubc.ca/MOST/]Here's another link. Click on yellow underscored "read more" in the June 15, 2004 entry. Will open up graph, which has link to the animation.

Way to go MOST!

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-28 14:35:00

*Storms on Jupiter:

***
From spaceweather.com for June 28:

Two giant storms on the planet Jupiter are bumping into each other. One is the Great Red Spot, twice as wide as Earth; the other is a white oval known as "BA" in Jupiter's South Temperate Belt. Donald Parker of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers took this picture of the pair on June 25th.

The oval will gradually pass to the east of the Great Red Spot (GRS) during the next couple of weeks," says Parker. "The oval might be completely disrupted; we don't know. It appears that it has already become stretched out in the E-W axis."

Amateur astronomers can see these storms using 6-inch (or larger) telescopes equipped with digital cameras. "A light blue filter would also help by increasing the contrast of the GRS," recommends Parker.

You can find Jupiter shining brightly in the western sky at sunset.
***

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-28 14:40:50

*RUSSIAN FIREBALLS!!

***
From spaceweather.com June 28:

Sky watchers in eastern parts of North America saw an impressive display of meteor-like objects around 10:52 p.m. EDT on June 26th. These were fragments of a Russian rocket motor breaking apart in Earth's atmosphere. The pieces were bright, slow-moving, with "incandescent sparking tails," according to some observers. Kevin Martin snapped this picture of two fireballs over Ontario, Canada. "Truly neat!" says Martin.

***

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-30 07:25:39

*Continuing with some gorgeous nebula pics:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040629.html]What a dandy

*NGC 6559 -- focus on center. Beautiful.

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030512.html]Vicinity of the Cone Nebula

*Also dubbed "Fox Fur Nebula." Gorgeous photo.

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap0305 … ]Tarantula Nebula

*The only "spider" I'll ever like. The bright cluster of stars in the lower right-hand corner really sets the pic off.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-07-02 06:34:32

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … oooo-la-la!

*Another spectacular Hubble image.

A stellar nursery within the Large Magellanic Cloud, tagged as "N11B." Is only 160,000 light years from Earth.

Exquisite.

Brief article accompanies.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-07-03 11:25:07

*This from Sky & Telescope's e-bulletin. Mars part of the study:

***
Happy Anniversary, FUSE

June 24th marked the fifth birthday for the Far Ultraviolet
Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). Since the craft launched in 1999 FUSE astronomers have used the satellite's four far-ultraviolet telescopes to produce revolutionary science. Some of the highlights include the first-ever observations of molecular nitrogen outside the solar system, an analysis
of the molecular hydrogen in the Martian atmosphere, and the discovery of a hot gas halo surrounding the Milky Way.
***

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-07-09 09:18:28

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap950823.html]A Venusian "Tick"

*Not "new" -- but interesting. It does look like a tick. From Magellan.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-07-10 05:42:13

*News about Mercury. This copy and pasted from Sky & Telescope's e-bulletin for July 9:

"Mercury's Mysterious Orbit

Mercury spins on its axis three times for every two of its orbits
around
the Sun. How the tiny, baked world got locked in such a spin-orbit
resonance has remained somewhat mysterious; accepted models gave the
planet a seven percent chance of orbiting the Sun the way it does. Now
a
paper by Alexandre C. M. Correia (University of Aveiro, Portugal) and
Jacques Laskar (Paris Observatory) published in the June 24th issue of
NATURE makes the resonance seem more plausible.

Their research focused on long-term changes in the shape of Mercury's
orbit. New models demonstrate that over millions of years the planet's
eccentricity ranges chaotically between nearly zero (a circular orbit)
and
0.45 (very distinctly elliptical). When the eccentricity of Mercury's
orbit increases, the probability of landing in a 3:2 spin-orbit
resonance
increases. Assuming that the planet's eccentricity has changed this way
during the last 4 billion years, their models suggest that Mercury has
better than even odds -- 55 percent -- of locking into a 3:2 state."

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2004-07-10 08:02:28

Yes,Cindy .. your 'Venusian tick' does look like a nasty little creepy-crawly!

And thanks for that fascinating little snippet about Mercury's spin-orbit resonance. I had no idea that its eccentricity was so variable over time. We like to think of our solar system as so stable and predictable but Mars' axial tilt may vary chaotically up to 60 degrees(! ) and now this ..!

[P.S. I noticed your enigmatic signature, checked your 'Location' in your 'Profile', but am still mystified. ???
But then, it is getting late .. :sleep: ..... ]

Palomar · 2004-07-10 15:48:35

*First two are astrophotos sent to "Astronomy Magazine Online"

http://www.astronomy.com/photogallery/g … 7D]Welcome to the Milky Way

-*-

http://www.astronomy.com/photogallery/g … %7D]Lagoon Nebula Apparently not exposed long enough to pick up colors. I've never tried my hand at astrophotography though, so don't know for certain.

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040704.html]Ring Nebula from Astropix Is that breathtaking or what??

--Cindy

(Shaun -- "Dark Shadows")

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