New Discoveries *4* - ...Solar System, Deep Space, cont'd

Palomar · 2005-04-20 12:06:53

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 2005]First -extrasolar- asteroid belt discovered?

*They seem unsure. Another possibility is presented, i.e. that this may be the result of a "Pluto-sized comet which has been orbiting the star for many years and has left a bright trail of particles."

Says Spitzer has discovered a colossal -- what looks like an asteroid belt -- orbiting another star. If so, this is a first. The star is HD69830 and is 41 light years away.

The alleged alien asteroid belt has 25 times the thickness of our Solar System's AB. If it were in our Solar System, it'd light up our night sky as a bright glowing band of light. It also is situated closer to its star than ours is to Sol.

Out of 85 stars studied, only HD69830 has this feature.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-21 05:23:35

*Oh how lovely:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … Silhouette Reveals Hidden Shape of Young Star's Envelope

What a beautiful image. Concerns a young star, dubbed M17-SO1, in the Omega Nebula (M17); aprox 5000 l/y away "in" the constellation Sagittarius (I have seen that nebula in my telescope).

The descriptive in the article is unusually good:

Detailed new images of the starbirth nursery in the Omega Nebula (M17) have revealed a multi component structure in the envelope of dust and gas surrounding a very young star. The stellar newborn, called M17-SO1, has a flaring torus of gas and dust, and thin conical shells of material above and below the torus.

the astronomers looked for candidates in and around the Omega Nebula...They found a large butterfly-shaped near-infrared silhouette of an envelope about 150 times the size of our solar system surrounding a very young star.

the researchers determined that the M17-SO1 is a protostar about 2.5 to 8 times the mass of the Sun, and that the butterfly-like silhouette reveals an edge-on view of the envelope.

Very nice. I'm in love.

There's speculation our own Solar System resembled M17-SO1, when it was beginning to form.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-22 09:17:48

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970102.html]Bubbles & Arcs in NGC 2359

*Nice. They think the Wolf-Rayet star (seen a bit below and to the right of center) is responsible for creating this nebula. However, NGC 2359's structure is unusual, which suggests "something more complex" is occurring. They're speculating as to whether that Wolf-Rayet star is moving supersonically or if there's another "energetic" star nearby.

Its delicate colors and bright stars in the background are very aesthetically pleasing.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-25 07:35:34

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … ]Begetting the Blob

*Focus is on the spherical object, dubbed N214C. It resides in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Of especial interest is a "stellar rarity" called Sk-71 51 (situated south of "the blob"), which they're speculating contributed to the formation of N214C. They're trying to figure out, apparently, if Sk-71 51 is a supermassive star (80+ Sol masses) or whether it may be comprised of "multiple stellar objects." The N214C area has produced many massive stars.

Image obtained from European Southern Observatory.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-25 14:02:52

*Bright fireball surprises New England. Alerts out for plane crashes via 911 calls to cops, etc. They're also ruling out that this was part of the Lyrid meteors (which are usually not as bright as this object was). Speculation is that it was a large piece of iron or stone, perhaps a wandering asteroid.

April 25
Bright Meteor Surprises New England
A bright light that was likely a meteor sparked a flurry of frantic phone calls to police departments Sunday night across New England, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Called a meteor shower in some news reports, the flash was more likely a single object seen from different angles. It was spotted from as far north as Portland, Maine, and as far south as Long Island, New York. Some witnesses apparently mistook the sky show for a plane crashing in Connecticut, the FAA's Holly Baker said.
"We've checked all around. There are no aircraft unaccounted for," she said.
An emergency management official in Massachusetts speculated that the object was part of the Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked Friday morning.
"I highly doubt that this object had anything to do with the Lyrid meteor shower," said Joe Rao, SPACE.com's Night Sky columnist.
"The characteristics are all wrong; Lyrids are not known for producing brilliant fireballs like this," Rao wrote today in his Skyway E-Mail Advisory, a newsletter he sends to astronomy enthusiasts. "More likely it was an erratic chunk of stone or iron, probably related to something out of the asteroid belt."
Firefighters in Branford, Conn., responded to several reports of a possible plane crash in Long Island Sound in the Thimble Island area, but a search did not turn up anything and was called off a short while later.
[The Associated Press and SPACE.com reporting]

Thank goodness for our thick, lush atmosphere.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-26 05:18:04

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050425.html]The Fairy of the Eagle Nebula (M16)

*New image in an area of the Eagle Nebula. Yes, I do agree that there are fairy-like features in the EN. I have the larger "Pillars of Creation" photo as a poster in my office, have seen other photos of the region, etc., and have often thought many of the features in M16 resemble fantasy creatures. Apparently others think so as well (this means I'm not a kook, thank god).

The "fairy" in this pic is 10 light years tall. It also emits radiation hotter than common fire.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-04-26 17:18:12

Yes, I saw this on T.V. yesterday.
Absolutely magnificent!

Palomar · 2005-04-27 07:56:50

Yes, I saw this on T.V. yesterday.
Absolutely magnificent!

*Yep, and for me it was a definite reminder of the true scale of these objects. To think it'd take 10 Earth-years to travel the length of that "fairy" if you had a spaceship which could travel close to the speed of light. :-\ Despite being into astronomy for over 30 years now, I still sometimes pause to consider it and it can still be a bit mind-boggling at times.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-04-29 10:03:32

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … ?2842005]A bridge between two stars

*Involves Mira AB, only 450 l/y distant. Mira A -- a variable star -- was dubbed "The Wonderful" in the 17th century because of continued fluctuations in brightness over a 330-day period. It's in the red giant phase, currently 600 times the size of Sol and is pulsating. Its companion is a white dwarf. They are aprox 6.5 billion miles apart, or 2 times the distance of Sol to Pluto. Mira B is believed to be about the size of Earth. The info is from Chandra:

and now the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been able to resolve their relationship. Chandra can actually resolve the stream of matter flowing off the red giant, which is then captured by the white dwarf. This matter heats up as it bunches up around the white dwarf, and blazes in the X-ray spectrum...The internal turmoil in Mira A could create magnetic disturbances in the upper atmosphere of the star and lead to the observed X-ray outbursts, as well as the rapid loss of material from the star in a blustery, strong, stellar wind. Some of the gas and dust escaping from Mira A is captured by its companion Mira B.

Wonderful.

"Before this observation it was assumed that all the X-rays came from a hot disk surrounding a white dwarf, so the detection of an X-ray outburst from the giant star came as a surprise"...

Mira A will soon exhaust its nuclear fuel supply and, of course, collapse into a white dwarf. I like to imagine being able to actually see it pulsating.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-04-29 20:11:46

Incredible stuff!
As usual, I woder what those astronomers of the 17th century would make of the advances in science since they named Mira AB the "wonderful star"?
It would be so good to see the look of amazement on their faces, if only we could bring them forward in time to the present and show them the wonders of 21st century science. They'd be half stupefied with wonder!

Palomar · 2005-04-30 05:59:39

*Hi Shaun: Yep. They couldn't have been aware of Mira B; imagine their astonishment at that alone. I'm always chagrined at how many modern people take all this for granted. :-\

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050428.html]Sharpest view yet of M51 & NGC 5195

Have posted a photo of these objects before, but this is the sharpest view yet of them. NGC 5195 reminds me of a hanging lantern, leading the way perhaps to the larger galaxy...or lighting the way for denizens of M51 out into space. Incredible pinkish knots of gas riddling M51. Looks as though one could scoop a hand down into that smoky, dazzling brilliance...

Imagine all the stellar diamonds there.

Is 31 million light years distant.

--Cindy

Shaun Barrett · 2005-04-30 20:09:58

The 'lantern' looks almost biological to me.
Like an embryo on an umbilical cord. It's almost like the mature galaxy is reproducing - budding a new galaxy or something.
Great picture!

Palomar · 2005-05-03 06:24:51

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … 2.html]You Dumbbell!

*Teehee. I've not posted a photo of this nebula before, because until now I've not found a truly quality photo of it on the 'net. Is M27, roughly 1000 l/y away and estimated to be 3500 years old.

Has been one of my favorites since childhood. This is an exceptional photo. It was obtained by non-pro's with the assistance of a professional astronomer at Kitt Peak.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-04 09:03:41

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050503.html]Four of the Sol System over Fire Island

*This is a really cool sequence of shots, taken in 1995. 6-minute time lapses, superimposed on the original sunrise photo. Sol, Venus, Luna and Jupiter.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-05 09:35:48

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap9908 … ]Symbiotic Star Bubbles

*Spectacular. A binary system of red giant (Mira variable) and a white dwarf. This isn't identified as Mira AB (post of April 29). It's referred to as "the He2-104 system"; I'll Google to see if there's any relevance to Mira AB. Anyway, the red giant's radius is as large as Earth's orbit. The relationship between the two stars has created what is described as "an hourglass within an hourglass."

The red giant is

a pulsating star that is dumping mass into an accretion disk surrounding the white dwarf. Astronomers speculate that when enough mass falls onto the white dwarf, a thermonuclear explosion occurs creating another expanding hourglass-shaped nebula.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-06 05:45:06

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 52005]M104 as you've never seen it before

*Remarkable image.

And by contrast:

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/public/AList/M104.jpg]As M104 appears in regular light

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-07 11:08:11

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030209.html]COBE Dipole: Speeding through the universe

*Brief caption mentions our galaxy's association with the Local Group, which is falling towards the Virgo Cluster. Apparently we're zipping along with the Local Group at a rate of 600 km per second, relative to the cosmic microwave background.

This high speed was initially unexpected and its magnitude is still unexplained. Why are we moving so fast?

Hope they discover the reason soon. Sure, they'll figure it out before we go crashing into the Andromeda Galaxy.

--Cindy

(Also like the map; anything bearing a resemblance to a psychedelic Easter egg is okay by me)

Shaun Barrett · 2005-05-07 17:30:36

Cindy:-

Apparently we're zipping along with the Local Group at a rate of 600 km per second, relative to the cosmic microwave background.
Hope they discover the reason soon. Sure, they'll figure it out before we go crashing into the Andromeda Galaxy.

Hmmm, yes. I wonder what the 'Great Attractor' really is?

Maybe it's a super-mega-hypergigamongous black hole, eleventyseventeen-tera-squillion times the mass of the Sun ... drawing us all faster and faster to our grisly doom in its gaping maw?!!
Sheesh. Where's Captain Kirk when you need him?

Palomar · 2005-05-08 17:29:53

Sheesh. Where's Captain Kirk when you need him?

*Oh yeah, THAT guy. Off wining and dining the most beautiful woman on the latest planet, no doubt. What a cosmic Casanova.

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap0105 … oplanetary survivors in Orion

I've not seen this before. Estimations are that aprox 90% of Orion's youngest protoplanetary discs -won't- survive the next 100,000 years. :-\

In each case, a central young star is surrounded by a disk substantially wider than our solar system. The disks likely contain material in the process of planet formation. However, withering ultraviolet radiation from one of Orion's nearby hot stars is rapidly destroying the disks -- ultimately creating the comet-shaped clouds of glowing gas seen engulfing the protoplanetary systems.

If planets do manage to beat the odds and form, it'll obviously have to happen pronto. Hard sometimes to reconcile the immense beauty of the universe with the equally immense harshness.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-09 07:11:47

*Interesting. Is a short abstract; I've included the actual link below.

This paper considers the lithopanspermia hypothesis in star forming groups and clusters, where the chances of biological material spreading from one solar system to another is greatly enhanced (relative to the field) due to the close proximity of the systems and lower relative velocities. These effects more than compensate for the reduced time spent in such crowded environments. This paper uses 300,000 Monte Carlo scattering calculations to determine the cross sections for rocks to be captured by binaries and provides fitting formulae for other applications. We assess the odds of transfer as a function of the ejection speed and number of members in the birth aggregate. The odds of any given ejected meteroid being *recaptured* by another solar system are relatively low. Because the number of ejected rocks per system can be large, virtually all solar systems are likely to share rocky ejecta with all of the other solar systems in their birth cluster. The number of ejected rocks that carry living microorganisms is much smaller and less certain, but we estimate that several million rocks can be ejected from a biologically active solar system. For typical birth environments, the capture of life bearing rocks is expected to occur 10 -- 16,000 times per cluster (under favorable conditions), depending on the ejection speeds.
--->Only a small fraction of the captured rocks impact the surfaces of terrestrial planets, so that only a few lithopanspermia events are expected (per cluster).<---

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … panspermia in Star-Forming Clusters

Includes full text available in other formats (PDF, PostScript, etc.).

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-10 14:24:08

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … uperflares from young stars...

*...may actually protect rocky satellites by forcing them outward, thereby preventing them from being captured by the star and spiraling inward to destruction.

This study from Chandra. A team of scientists focused on young stars in the Orion Nebula for 13 days, nearly continuously. Correlation with our own Sol System.

These data provide an unparalleled view of 1400 young stars, 30 of which are prototypes of the early Sun. The scientists discovered that these young suns erupt in enormous flares that dwarf - in energy, size, and frequency --anything seen from the Sun today...
"Although these flares may be creating havoc in the disks, they ultimately could do more good than harm," said Feigelson. "These flares may be acting like a planetary protection program."

Tough decision about whether to post the article in this thread or "Heliopolis *2*"; as it also primarily deals with stars in Orion and Earth, will place it here.

Article also mentions proto-planetary discs in Orion; refer to post of May 8. :up:

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-12 06:43:43

http://www.spaceweather.com/swpod2005/1 … ]Fantastic photo

*Dark moon and blazing exhaust trail. Photo by Stefan Seip of Stuttgart, Germany. May 9.

-*-

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050509.html]Stars, Dust & Nebula in NGC 6559

Gorgeous.

The resulting morass can be as beautiful as it is complex. After tens of millions of years, the dust boils away, the gas gets swept away, and all that is left is a naked open cluster of stars.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-13 06:30:10

http://www.jupitertoday.com/news/viewsr … =16550]Hot Jupiters & Hot Neptunes: A common origin?

*Interesting and brief abstract:

We compare evolutionary models for close-in exoplanets coupling irradiation and evaporation due respectively to the thermal and high energy flux of the parent star with observations of recently discovered new transiting planets. The models provide an overall good agreement with observations, although at the very limit of the quoted error bars of OGLE-TR-10, depending on its age. Using the same general theory, we show that the three recently detected hot-Neptune planets (GJ436, $\rho$ Cancri, $\mu$ Ara) may originate from more massive gas giants which have undergone significant evaporation. We thus suggest that hot-Neptunes and hot-Jupiters may share the same origin and evolution history. Our scenario provides testable predictions in terms of the mass-radius relationships of these hot-Neptunes.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-18 15:04:21

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/extrasol … ml]Utterly fascinating!

*Giant planet, very close to its parent star (tau Bootis) forces star to rotate in lockstep with its (the planet's) orbit.

This is truly a new discovery -- never before observed. Canada and its MOST space telescope get the credit. :up:

-However-, there's speculation that perhaps it's "only" the star's surface layers of gas which rotate in step with the planet's orbit; they give the comparison of Luna's effects on our oceans/tides though of course (as we all know) Earth itself doesn't rotate in sync with the Moon. If so, that's doubly fascinating, especially if the remainder of the star rotates in the opposite direction. :-\ :laugh:

The best explanation is that the planet's gravity has forced the outer envelope of the star to rotate so it always keeps the same face to the planet - despite the fact that the planet is probably under 1% of the star's mass.

The giant planet is apparently a "hot-Jupiter", though 4 times the mass of Jupiter. It orbits tau Bootis extremely close -- 1/20th of the Earth-Sol distance.

:band: Amazing.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-05-19 05:22:02

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/stellar-05l.html]WR123: Weird, violent star

*Another finding from Canada's MOST (which has certainly been in the news lately!). The photo in the article is from Hubble, and is of WR124, "a close cousin" of WR123.

WR123 is aprox 19,000 l/y distant, "in" the constellation of Aquila. It's 10 times as massive as Sol and is ejecting gas at a rate of more than 100 trillion tonnes per second. It is a Wolf-Rayet star.

They've been monitoring its light variations. It has (a rare finding) "a stable variation repeating every 10 hours." They refer to this as "a clock." Extremely turbulent wind speeds too.

Finding a clock in a star like WR123 is like finding the Rosetta stone for astronomers studying massive stars," explained Ms. Lefevre, a PhD student at the Universite de Montreal.
"However, although WR123 may vary like clockwork, it must be a very strange mechanism indeed."
The only theories to explain the 10-hour clock in WR123 would be:
(1) the rotation of the star itself, (2) the orbit of another small star around WR123, or (3) vibrations in the structure of WR123 that are transmitted to its dense enveloping wind.

They're also speculating about an extremely close companion to WR123...which might be orbiting inside the star itself.

--Cindy

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