New Discoveries #5 - Deep space, galactic, solar system, etc.

Stormrage · 2005-07-29 19:25:36

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4730061.stm

"Astronomers have detected what they are calling the '10th planet' orbiting our Sun.

It is bigger than Pluto, the ninth planet, which is 2,250 km across, and was discovered by three US astronomers. "

Rxke · 2005-07-30 02:07:54

Hot on the heels of that other newfound one the scienceworld announced.
Heehee: in an article on Yahoo!:
" a very confusing day for astronomers and the media."
Read: we fsked up, basically, confusing the two in earlier articles.
It struck me how... child-talkish the article was, explaining things over and over again. Then I saw it was actually a space.com article, not an article made by the Yahoo!staff.

Space.com: "dumbing down sciencecoverage so our own editors understand what they're talking about!"

idiom · 2005-07-30 03:46:11

Something bigger than Pluto, well that puts pressure on the Pluto/Planet classification for sure now.

And we need to figure out how to heat a planet with no sun...

Palomar · 2005-07-30 05:49:14

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4730061.stm
"Astronomers have detected what they are calling the '10th planet' orbiting our Sun.
It is bigger than Pluto, the ninth planet, which is 2,250 km across, and was discovered by three US astronomers. "

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005 … tm]Another article

*Check out the 48-inch telescopic photos. Which makes me curious as to the following comment:

Backyard astronomers with large telescopes can see the new planet.

Yeah...presumably large telescopes. 14" at least. I wonder if a 12" scope could pick it out. Not that I have either, just wondering...

But don't expect to be impressed: It looks like a dim speck of light, visual magnitude 19, moving very slowly against the starry background. "It is currently almost directly overhead in the early-morning eastern sky in the constellation Cetus," notes Brown.

My 'scope is too small. But I'm glad they included that bit of info for others.

Even Spitzer hasn't been able to detect it. I'm surprised. They're cautiously estimating it's 1-1/2 times larger than Pluto.

The planet's temporary name is 2003 UB313. A permanent name has been proposed by the discoverers to the International Astronomical Union

Look forward to it.

From Stormrage's article:

It is currently 97 Earth-Sun distances away - more than twice Pluto's average distance from the Sun.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-07-30 20:39:36

Will be interesting to see if Senda gets planet status if pluto's is kept.

Or does distance or orbital plane come into play along with size for what is a planet or even it's shape, chemical composition. What will the new rules be?

DonPanic · 2005-07-31 16:48:26

new very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays source in Milky Way
http://dphs10.saclay.cea.fr/Sap/Actuali … ls5039.pdf

Stormrage · 2005-08-01 01:16:32

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=25031

It seems like those guys KNEW of the new planet Xena since 2003. They only released the information when a hacker threatened to do it himself.

Palomar · 2005-08-02 07:19:07

new very high energy (VHE) gamma-rays source in Milky Way
http://dphs10.saclay.cea.fr/Sap/Actuali … ls5039.pdf

*Interesting, and contains info similar to/complementary with articles posted in the "Singularity" thread.

some x-ray binaries called microquasars behave as scaled-down active galactic nuclei

This is a particularly hot (pardon the pun) topic in astronomy currently.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-02 14:57:07

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … ml]Cepheid variables in NGC 300

*...have assisted astronomers in calculating to the greatest degree of accuracy ever the precise distance to another galaxy.

The photo looks exactly like the astrophotography plates reproduced in my first (childhood) astronomy book: No frills, b/w, austere. Also brings back some good memories.

NGC 300 is similar to our own galaxy, and is "in" the constellation of Sculptor.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-04 05:25:34

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050803.html]Glorious center of the Lagoon Nebula

*Lovely, lovely...

Lagoon Nebula is M8. I like the caption's descriptive re: stars battling gas and dust. The portion of M8 seen in the photo spans 50 light years. The colors are scientifically assigned according to types of gases present.

I've posted a photo and caption of the entire Lagoon Nebula before, but this is a new image which focuses on its busy and luxurious center.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-04 11:26:17

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/ima … %29+]Never before seen

*Looking back billions of light years. Aprox a dozen foreground stars are from our own galaxy. There are differences in ages, sizes and distances relative to these galaxies. Mentions bars and tidal tails in some of them.

The Hubble Space Telescope spies a wide variety of galaxies in a patch of sky only a fraction of the size of a full moon.

Image is a composite obtained in September 2003. It took nearly 40 hours of exposure time; one of the longest ever for HST.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … ml]Article

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-09 09:26:24

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990122.html]Dwarf galaxies as building blocks...

*...to larger galaxies. This one is Pegasus dSph. It's part of the Local Group of Galaxies and might be a satellite of M31 (Andromeda Galaxy). The bright foreground stars are from our own Milky Way Galaxy. Pegasus dSph is roughly 2,000 l/y across. And what pretty blue stars.

Caption briefly touches on the role of dwarf galaxies in the construction of their larger counterparts.

The photo is lovely.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-10 10:43:13

*Abstract. It's rather long; I've skimmed the PDF format version, will print it out later.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=17692]Hot stars in old stellar populations

--Cindy

::EDIT:: http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/imag … 0.html]NGC 7000: Emission Nebula

With a recognizable name.

Palomar · 2005-08-11 04:52:11

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … 602]TRIPLE ASTEROID system

*Concerns 87 Sylvia (one of the largest asteroids in the main belt and itself known of since 1866). Scientists have known -double- asteroids to be fairly common; 87 Sylvia was discovered to be a double asteroid in 2001 and now yet another moon has been discovered. Scientists have been on the lookout for multiple asteroid systems.

Proposed names for the moons are Romulus and Remus. The names have a historical context. They are:

orbiting in nearly circular orbits and in the same plane and direction. The closest and newly discovered moonlet, orbiting about 710 km from Sylvia, is Remus, a body only 7 km across and circling Sylvia every 33 hours. The second, Romulus, orbits at about 1360 km in 87.6 hours and measures about 18 km across.

Cool!

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-11 05:22:01

Lost]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=17598]"Lost city" of stars discovered

*Study concerns NGC 300, a spiral galaxy in the Sculptor Group, aprox 6.1 million l/y distant. Scientists have discovered a large disk of extended ancient stars up to 47,000 l/y from NGC 300's galactic center. This finding "stretches" the galaxy to a size at least 2 times larger than previously thought. Scientists are wondering if perhaps our own Milky Way Galaxy is also larger than current models suggest, based on NGC 300 findings; perhaps our MW Galaxy is 200,000 l/y in diameter (instead of the currently proposed 100,000 l/y)?

A mystery in this finding: How did NGC 300 manage to form stars so distant from its galactic center?

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-11 06:44:17

*Lots of good astronomy items for posting today.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050810.html]IC 1805 & Companion

*Photo is false color. These nebulae shine with the light of energized hydrogen, are "in" the constellation Cassiopeia. Aprox 6,000 l/y distant. The nebulae span a distance of aprox 300 l/y. Can see lots of young star clusters in and around.

Doesn't look like a heart to me. Sometimes it seems unnecessary, IMO, to name cosmic objects after a vague similiarity to something familiar; why not simply enjoy it for its own unique shape and beauty?

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-12 06:39:17

Young Suns of NGC 7129

*NGC 7129 is 10 light years across and 3,000 light years distant "toward" the constellation Cepheus (The King). Caption gives brief info on the bluish natal dust clouds around these young stars, and the red crescent shapes (Herbig-Haro objects). Pretty too. Estimates these stars are only a million years old.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-13 09:21:36

IP Pegasi: Spiral Star

*Spirals. They're not just for galaxies anymore.

Involves a white dwarf star (one in a binary system) "in" Pegasus. The image was obtained via serial observation by doppler tomography, which is a spectroscopic technique.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-16 05:14:57

Supernova progenitor star pinpointed

*Concerns Whirlpool Galaxy M51. The pre-supernova image was obtained in January 2005; post-supernova image obtained July 2005. The image shows the progenitor star and the subsequent explosion. SN 2005cs is classed as a Type II plateau. It was a red supergiant with roughly 7 to 10 times Sol's mass.

A supernova occurs every second. So far astronomers have identified only 6 progenitor stars of all SN's observed. That's a very interesting factoid.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-16 07:56:15

*Well gosh darn it. :?

Was going to post this separately (new thread) and ask folks to guess what it is (sans any accompanying info)...but every image on the net gives the answer in the photo link. Arrrrgh. Lol!

I could suggest don't read the caption beneath, but the answer is directly beneath the photo (label). Ah well, I tried.

From Luna

The Far UV Camera / Spectrograph deployed and left on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 16 took the above picture.

Weird. Looks like globules around as well. Must be due to the info in the last 2 sentences?

What a unique image. I'd have figured it for an astrophoto of a spherical object taken with some sort of kooky filter, but which object I couldn't have guessed if Apollo 16 hadn't been mentioned.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-08-16 09:09:34

Fantastic view but what are the other objects in view?

Palomar · 2005-08-16 09:41:00

Fantastic view but what are the other objects in view?

*Do you mean the globule-appearing things which seem to be separate from Earth and seemingly "floating free"? I think the explanation is in the last two sentences of the caption. There are also additional links within the caption.

I'm also interested in what looks like globules superimposed upon Earth's image (in the yellow portion).

I've not seen this prior to today, so sorry...my answers are a bit limited.

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-08-16 10:23:57

Apparently the ones to the right are various nebulae, star clusters, and the Large Magellanic Cloud. This was taken by an instrument left by apollo16

The First Lunar Observatory a Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph and 3-inch diameter telescope was used to create that image.

Palomar · 2005-08-16 10:46:53

Apparently the ones to the right are various nebulae, star clusters, and the Large Magellanic Cloud. [url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap960608.html]

*Um...no, that's not the impression I'm getting as regards your original question.

The caption you posted says:

The Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph used a 3-inch diameter telescope to photograph the Earth, various nebulae, star clusters, and the Large Magellanic Cloud.

It -doesn't- say those nebulae, star clusters and LMC were in the first image I posted (of Earth).

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-08-16 12:29:16

You've got to see this!

***Image***

!!! -- Article: A "new look" for our Milky Way Galaxy-- !!!

Based on data from Spitzer. Wow, if that IS what our Milky Way Galaxy looks like...! Majestic, exquisite...incredible.

They're fairly certain our Galaxy contains a central bar which is 27,000 l/y long (7,000 l/y longer than previously believed). The bar seems primarily populated by "old and red stars" (red giants).

It also shows that the bar is oriented at about a 45-degree angle relative to a line joining the sun and the center of the galaxy.

Article discusses the methods/processes involved in building up such a "portrait."

With the help of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the most comprehensive structural analysis of our galaxy and have found tantalizing new evidence that the Milky Way is much different from your ordinary spiral galaxy.

Yep, I'm biased...but honestly, if that IS what our MWG looks like I must say it's the most beautiful yet "seen." All those incredibly long swirling arms around that huge central bar.

--Cindy

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#51 2005-07-29 19:25:36

Re: New Discoveries #5 - Deep space, galactic, solar system, etc.

#52 2005-07-30 02:07:54

Re: New Discoveries #5 - Deep space, galactic, solar system, etc.

#53 2005-07-30 03:46:11

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#54 2005-07-30 05:49:14

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#55 2005-07-30 20:39:36

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#56 2005-07-31 16:48:26

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