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

Palomar · 2005-09-08 21:08:28

*NGC 7814. Aprox 45 million l/y distant, "in" Pegasus. Truly edge-on. And there are lots more galaxies in the background.

...look at the Skies, they have Stars in their Eyes...

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-09 05:59:56

IC 1396

*An emission nebula aprox 3,000 l/y distant "in" the constellation of Cepheus (The King, also a circumpolar constellation). It is hundreds of light years in size and is a star forming region. The Elephant's Trunk is part of this nebular complex. Apparently getting this photo was quite a process, too.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-09 20:11:23

*Supernova champ makes his 40th find. Way to go!

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1580_1.asp

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-10 05:38:01

Ancient stellar ember

*...is being fed by a still-orbiting planet? Study concerns GD 362, a white dwarf. It possesses a dust disc which shouldn't be there; it should either have been consumed by the dying star already or have been blasted away by radiation post-nova.

"Our best guess is that something similar to an asteroid or possibly even a planet around this long-dead star is being ground up and pulverized to feed the star with dust"

A window onto our distant future:

"The parallel to our own solar system's eventual demise is chilling."

They're estimating GD 362 died between 2 to 5 billion years ago.

"This dust should only exist for hundreds of years before it is swept into the star by gravity and vaporized by high temperatures in the star's atmosphere. Something is keeping this star well stocked with dust for us to detect it this long after the star's death."

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-13 10:03:50

*If you're going to this nebula any time soon...
...you'd best bundle up really good. Its nebular gas makes it the coldest-known region in the observed distant universe: Just 1 degree above Absolute Zero or -458 F. Yipes.
The boomerang shaped cloud appears to have been created by a high-speed wind of gas and dust blowing from an aging central star at speeds of over 300,000 miles per hour.
A different source said 600,000 mph. ??? Anyway, the rapid expansion of gas/dust from that wind is what caused the cooling.
Is called the Boomerang Nebula, is 5000 l/y distant "in" the constellation Centaurus.
Amazing universe...
--Cindy
P.S.: It's also believed to be progressing towards a planetary nebula phase.

*I knew I'd posted an image of this nebula within the past 3 to 4 months or so. Here's the HST photo. The photography was accomplished earlier this year but the photo itself was only released today.

A lovely "bow-tie"

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-16 05:13:18

Asteroids, not comets, caused early catastrophe

*This from the University of Arizona and Japanese scientists. Refers to cataclysm aprox 3.9 billion years ago in which the inner Solar System was bombarded. They're calling it a "unique catastrophe" which lasted "only" 20 million to 150 million years. Article mentions a couple of different projectile populations.

Strom has been studying the size and distribution of craters across solar system surfaces for the past 35 years. He has long suspected that two different projectile populations have been responsible for cratering inner solar system surfaces. But there's been too little data to prove it.
Until now.

-also-

"The size distribution of impact craters in the ancient highlands of the moon and Mars is a completely independent test of the inner solar system cataclysm and confirms our cosmochemical evidence of an asteroid source," Kring, a co-author of the Science paper, said.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-20 11:01:35

New wide image of Virgo Cluster

*...of galaxies. 8) Took 14 moonless nights and 70 separate images to build up this image. Clearly displays the complex web of intracluster starlight -- which is aprox 1000 times fainter than the average night sky.

Shows results of collisions, gravity stripping and galactic cannabalism. Can see streamers, plumes, cocoons. Wild. Violent birth and death, alright.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-20 20:24:12

Binary Star Baby Picture

*Awww. They're hard to photograph due to obscurring gas and dust. This pair is estimated at a mere 100,000 years old. Both are described as quite large and "weigh 10 times the mass of the Sun together." Scientists are speculating about the possibility of Jupiter-class planets forming some day (but not yet detected). Is a first, as such photos go. They are located "in" the constellation Cygnus, and are 5,000+ l/y distant.

Sridharan's images reveal a circumstellar disk surrounding the more massive of the two stars. The presence of a disk suggests that massive, multiple-star systems form the same way as the Sun, by gradually accreting material from a gaseous disk.

The pair's disk is calculated to possess aprox 1/10 solar mass -- and may be even more massive yet. This disk also stretches out aprox 80 billion miles (which is 20 times the distance of Earth to Pluto).

Interestingly, the smaller companion star currently is located at the same distance from the primary star, hinting that the companion's gravity may play a role in limiting the outer reaches of the disk.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-22 05:35:41

New star survey

*Is the 1st survey of the entire northern Milky Way in 40 years. Seeks especially to study stars and nebulae in both their early and late evolutionary phases.

Hydrogen alpha will be used as part of the study.

The new survey reaches beyond the sun's orbit around the centre of the Milky Way to a radius of 30 kiloparsecs (kpc) around 90,000 light years. Currently almost nothing is known about the star populations beyond a distance of about 15 kpc.

Study should be completed by late 2006. They're hoping to catalog 80 million objects. Best of luck with that.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-23 06:14:28

Many galaxies in early universe

*Study from French and Italian astronomers. They've discovered there were 2 to 6 times as many galaxies in the young universe than previously anticipated. The universe was only at 10% to 20% of its current age with the galaxies involved. Also, the galaxies themselves give evidence of more rapid star formation than previously thought.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-24 13:04:48

RY Tauri

*Seems as though it's enrobed in gossamer feathers. This star is aprox 450 l/y distant, "in" the constellation Taurus. It is still emerging from its natal cloud of gas and dust, and is situated at the edge of the Taurus molecular cloud. It is also a variable star.

The gently illuminated region of dust/gas covers aprox 2/3 of a light year.

The star is evolving into a main-sequence sun like our Sol. Later planetary formation is a possibility.

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-09-24 13:08:22

*Supernova champ makes his 40th find. Way to go!
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1580_1.asp
--Cindy

40, that's a massive number

Palomar · 2005-09-24 13:17:26

*Supernova champ makes his 40th find. Way to go!
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1580_1.asp
--Cindy
40, that's a massive number

*Indeed. I'd be thrilled to have just 1 supernova discovery to my credit!

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-27 12:55:16

Many galaxies in early universe
*Study from French and Italian astronomers. They've discovered there were 2 to 6 times as many galaxies in the young universe than previously anticipated. The universe was only at 10% to 20% of its current age with the galaxies involved. Also, the galaxies themselves give evidence of more rapid star formation than previously thought.

*The following article complements the above:

Galaxy 8 times more massive...

...than our Milky Way has been discovered. Amazingly, it was already built up when the Universe was at only 6% of its age. It's described as remarkably mature considering the Universes' youth at the time. It's defined as having likely been a "vastly explosive starbirth event." Would have been awesome to see.

--Cindy

::EDIT:: Similar article -- includes photos

That galaxy is 13 billion light years away.

"This galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, appears to have bulked up quickly, within the first few hundred million years after the big bang. It made about eight times more mass in stars than are found in our own Milky Way, and then, just as suddenly, it stopped forming new stars..."

According to current theories, this galaxy shouldn't exist. But it does.

Palomar · 2005-09-28 09:09:11

Star Pillars of Sharpless 171

*Dark burgundy beauty. Cold gas, dark dust. Is a star-forming region 3,000 l/y distant, towards the constellation Cepheus (The King). The area seen spans aprox 20 l/y.

Clicking on this link (Cederblad 214) in the caption brings up a wider-area image.

These are all portions of NGC 7822, which is the northern-most emission nebula in the sky. Lovely.

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2005-09-28 10:24:50

Two space observatories, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, have teamed up to weigh the stars in several very distant galaxies. One of these galaxies is not only amongst the most distant ever seen, but it appears to be unusually massive and mature for its place in the young Universe.
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object … ctid=37985
Spitzer and Hubble find a 'big baby' galaxy in the newborn Universe
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMP8T4Y3EE_index_0.html

Palomar · 2005-09-30 07:21:29

*Hi YL Rocket: Nice to see you in this thread. Yeah, that "big baby galaxy" story is interesting. So highly formed/complex in that very young universe. Another mystery with more attendant questions. That's another thing I love about astronomy.

Purple elegance

*This is a reflection nebula in Ursa Major. It spreads out 300 light years above the galactic plane. It's been unofficially named the "Angel Nebula." It covers a full 3 to 4 degrees of sky. Is part of the Unexplored Nebula Project, with focus on nebulae around the North & South galactic poles.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-09-30 21:01:54

*This is truly a unique situation, as Ms. Herschel is long dead:

A New Caroline Herschel Comet?
Caroline Herschel, the first female professional astronomer and discoverer of eight comets, might have bagged a ninth unknowingly. In the November Journal for the History of Astronomy, Michael Hoskin (University of Cambridge, England) describes a pair of entries 10° apart that appear in Herschel's logs on July 30 and August 24, 1783, in which she identifies "a rich spot." No objects currently exist in those locations. "It seems likely, therefore, that Caroline's bright spots were a comet," says Hoskin....

That's from Sky & Telescope online.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-10-04 11:10:26

"Runt" of the starbirth population

*Concerns what's believed to be a very young brown dwarf star, perhaps only 10,000 to 100,000 years old. It has only 25 times the mass of Jupiter and is also rather cool and dim, possessing only 1/20th of our Sol's luminosity. It's either a baby star or a "failed star" (aka brown dwarf).

This object is aprox 600 l/y distant, "in" the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

The combined capabilities of Spitzer, the SMA and the MMT were essential for finding and examining this object. Those facilities undoubtedly will prove useful in studying similar very dim, very young objects - objects so young that they are still growing. "They're so young and faint that we can't tell how much mass they will accumulate," Myers added. "There's no prenatal test for these objects. We're not sure exactly what we'll get in the end!"

If only we lived long enough to find out...which we won't. Maybe far-flung future generations...

--Cindy

SpaceNut · 2005-10-04 19:30:12

What this basically did was to make a cancellation system to allow them to see the difference that remains from the multiple image sources.
Here is a simular article Twin telescopes cancel star's light

Two of the world's largest telescopes have joined forces to dim a star's light by a factor of 100. The feat will reveal how much dust lies in discs around other stars and could help future space missions to target their search for Earth-like planets.
Planetary systems like our solar system form from discs of gas and dust that coalesce into planets. But some dust always remains behind and is produced in collisions between rocky bodies. Astronomers hope one day to find Earth-like planets in this “zodiacal dust” around other stars.

Planet hunting
The survey is important because it may affect how NASA designs the Terrestrial Planet Finder missions, says William Danchi, an astronomer at the agency's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.
The TPF programme will employ multiple spacecraft to image dusty discs using nulling interferometry. Danchi says the Keck Interferometer's nulling observations should help pin down the best candidates for the search.
But he adds that TPF may never get off the ground because of funding cuts in NASA's 2006 budget request. The first TPF craft was originally scheduled to launch in about 2015.
"But with the proposed cuts I don't see how we could get anywhere near those dates," Danchi told New Scientist. "The cuts are so severe they would endanger the whole mission." The 2006 budget request is now in the hands of the US Congress, which is expected to rule on it in the coming months.

Palomar · 2005-10-05 05:17:10

Afterglow of SN remnant N132D

*A star approximately 10 to 15 masses of Sol exploded 163,000 years ago in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The shockwave from the blast is still traveling at 4 million miles per hour.

This remnant is providing scientists a rare opportunity for direct observation of ejected stellar material. The shock fronts are mentioned, resulting from swiftly-moving ejecta slamming into dense and cool stellar clouds.

Pretty blues and purples, too.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-10-07 06:22:16

Spiral majesty

*Gorgeous. A perfect galaxy. The gold, faint blues and greens...

Is NGC 1350 located "in" Fornax (The Furnace), a constellation seen in the southern hemisphere. NGC 1350 is aprox 85 million light years distant and 130,000 l/y in diameter, making it as large as our Milky Way Galaxy or perhaps a bit larger.

Based on its distance, it is not believed to be a true member of the Fornax cluster of galaxies.

Dark dust lanes are visible and it's populated by young blue star clusters.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2005-10-11 05:45:53

Arp 295

*A spectacular bridge of stars and gasses extends aprox 250,000 l/y, joining these two galaxies, who passed one another aeons ago. Speculation is they may do so again, and eventually (billions of years from now) merge. Arp 295 is aprox 250 million l/y distant, towards the constellation Aquarius.

I wonder how wide that cosmic bridge is, how dense...etc. Must be quite a sight upclose, considering how easily it's seen from this distance.

--Cindy

DonPanic · 2005-10-11 14:52:22

LO, Palomar of Unknown Gender
Did you read that http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0507619 ?

Palomar · 2005-10-12 05:58:04

LO, Palomar of Unknown Gender
Did you read that http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/astro-ph/0507619 ?

*Hi DonPanic: Thanks for posting that. Yes, I did read that article, but in a different format.

Double Open Cluster

*Are NGC 869 and 884. This cluster is visible even to the unaided eyes. I've not seen them in that fashion, however; always too much light pollution around. They are 7,000 l/y distant, towards the constellation Perseus (The Hero/Rescuer of Andromeda) and are separated from one another by "only a few hundred" light years (specific number not given).

They're also referred to as h & chi Persei, and as Caldwell 14.

A different source

They are mostly composed of very young, hot stars. The hottest main sequence stars are of spectral type B0, thus they are both very young clusters. According to Sky Catalog 200, the ages for NGC 869 and NGC 884 are 5.6 and 3.2 million years. Both clusters are approaching earth at a rate of about 21 km/sec.

Perseus is currently on the rise in the NE; I can easily see it around 8:30 p.m. (10:30 p.m. EST).

--Cindy

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