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

Palomar · 2006-08-04 06:43:35

The newborn planemos, barely 1-million years old, are separated by about six times the distance between the Sun and Pluto and are located in the Ophiuchus star-forming region approximately 400 light-years away.

"We are resisting the temptation to call it a double planet, because this pair probably didn't form the way that planets in our solar system did," Ivanov said.

astronomers have discovered an approximately seven-Jupiter-mass companion to an object only twice as hefty.
Both objects have masses similar to those of extra-solar giant planets, but they are not in orbit around a star - instead they appear to circle each other. The existence of such a double system puts strong constraints on formation theories of free-floating planetary mass objects, called planemos.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2006-10-06 06:01:31

Stellar "vampires" unmasked:

New/best to date study of Blue Stragglers

Short article.

Mass transfer between stars in 47 Tucanae, which is a globular cluster. Study by ESO's Very Large Telescope. Some transfer might be due to collisions, but "vampirism" is most likely.

Palomar · 2006-10-06 06:02:53

[URL=http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/061004170125.oon0upps.html]New class of planets[/URL]

A seam of stars at the centre of the Milky Way has shown astronomers that an entirely new class of planets closely orbiting distant suns is waiting to be explored

Mentions "wobble" method of detection.

Astronomers have spotted 202 extrasolar planets since the first was spotted in October 1995.

They uncovered the existence of 16 planets in the category of close orbiters, taking between 0.4 and 3.2 days to go around their respective stars.
Many of the planets are the size of Jupiter...
Two of the 16 have orbits of less than a day, creating a new category of "ultra-short" orbits.

Palomar · 2006-10-06 06:05:17

...and yet a 3rd notable recent new discovery:

[URL=http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060914_cork_planet.html]Puffy "cork" planet[/URL]

This planet orbits a binary star system 450 l/y distant. It has 1/2 the mass of Jupiter yet is 1.76 times wider. 1/4 the density of water and would float if it could be placed in a tub of water (so would Saturn).

Scientists don't know what's "puffing up" this planet. It's lighter than a ball of cork.

8)

SpaceNut · 2006-10-06 06:19:45

Hubble Captures Evidence of Planets Far Away by

A deep look into the heart of the Milky Way galaxy uncovered some 16 possible new planets that were seen passing the faces of their stars.
Akira FujiiBy peering some 20,000 light-years into the star-swarms of the Milky Way's central bulge, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have turned up 16 possible new planets crossing the faces of their stars, two of which have been confirmed.

Hubble hints at billions of planets in Milky Way

The Hubble observations have laid the groundwork for NASA's Kepler space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2008. Kepler will serve as the cornerstone in a search for Earth-like planets moving across the face of stars in the Milky Way.

Palomar · 2006-10-14 05:59:40

The Spiderweb Galaxy

Very aptly named.

have shown dozens of star-forming satellite galaxies in the actual process of merging.

a large galaxy 10.6 billion light-years away from Earth (at a redshift of 2.2) that is stuffing itself with smaller galaxies caught like flies in a web of gravity. The galaxy is so far away that astronomers are seeing it as it looked in the early formative years of the Universe, only 2 billion years after the Big Bang.

"The new Hubble image is the best demonstration so far that large massive galaxies are built up by merging smaller ones."

Galaxies can be seen as they are sucked into the Spiderweb at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second, from distances of more than a hundred thousand light-years around it.

The Spiderweb Galaxy is located in the southern constellation of Hydra (the water snake) and is one of the most massive galaxies known.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2006-10-25 05:44:56

Stellar sorting in a globular cluster: Hubble yields direct proof

Heavier stars slow down and sink to the cluster's core, while lighter stars pick up speed and move across the cluster to its periphery. This process, called "mass segregation," has long been suspected for globular star clusters, but has never before been directly seen in action.

, the stellar density near the center can be more than 10,000 times higher than in the local vicinity of our Sun. If we lived in such a region of space, the night sky would be ablaze with 10,000 stars that would be closer to us than the nearest star to the Sun

Not surprising:

Like a subway car crowded with commuters, this stellar crowding strongly increases the probability of encounters among stars, even collisions and mergers.

I've previously read that two stars merging would be like two raindrops merging; a slow tapering process at first, then a gradual melding; the end of the process would be quickest.

A small number of these stars are of a very rare type known as "blue stragglers": unusually hot and bright stars long thought to be the product of collisions between two normal stars

Possibility of a black hole in this globular cluster:

The results were also used to check whether a black hole exists in the cluster's core, by looking for its gravitational pull. But the measured stellar motions rule out a very massive black hole.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2006-10-27 06:04:48

[URL=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061027.html]The Spider & The Fly[/URL]

Not a new discovery, but will post it anyway.

Oh-so beautiful. There's a bit of blue on "the fly." Perfect for Halloween, too.

Palomar · 2006-11-04 11:40:20

You've got ring around the galaxy cluster!

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array radio telescope have discovered giant, ring-like structures around a cluster of galaxies. The discovery provides tantalizing new information about how such galaxy clusters are assembled, about magnetic fields in the vast spaces between galaxy clusters, and possibly about the origin of cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are groovy. 8)

These giant, radio-emitting rings probably are the result of shock waves caused by violent collisions of smaller groups of galaxies within the cluster"

The newly-discovered ring segments, some 6 million light-years across, surround a galaxy cluster called Abell 3376, more than 600 million light-years from Earth.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2006-11-11 08:21:12

The 8 O'clock Arc

I like that name. 8)

Gravity helps SDSS-II reveal a brilliant jewel of the early universe

Allam described the discovery: "It had been a long day, and I was getting tired, but I decided to keep going for 10 more minutes. Just as I was about to give up for the night, I found a beautiful blue arc around a luminous red elliptical galaxy."
"I literally yelled 'there it is! There it is!'" Looking at the clock, Allam saw that it was precisely 8:00 pm, so she named the object "The 8 O'clock Arc."

The newly discovered galaxy, seen as an arc of four elongated images that encircle the foreground lens, offers a rare window into the state of the universe two billion years after the big bang.
"A telescope is an astronomer's time machine," explained Fermilab researcher Huan Lin, a member of the discovery team. "The light from this galaxy took more than 11 billion years to reach us."

Gravitational amplification:

While furious star formation makes the galaxy luminous, it enters the record books because the gravity of a foreground galaxy acts as a natural telescope, focusing its light on the earth.

It's also a Lyman-break galaxy:

1,000 of these distant, highly redshifted, "Lyman-break" galaxies (named for the way that hydrogen gas absorption alters their colors), they are generally too faint for detailed study, even with the world's largest telescopes.

"Lyman-break galaxies like to spew out gas as fast as they pull it in. This is a unique opportunity to learn how they do it," she said.

--Cindy

DonPanic · 2006-11-11 14:25:18

L.O.
It's always worth going to the information source, dear

DonPanic · 2006-11-17 05:41:05

http://www.universetoday.com/2006/11/07 … iew-orion/
And this superb picture
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content … 7orion.jpg

Palomar · 2006-11-28 10:01:06

DonPanic: ? Did one of the links in my posts not work for you? I double-check to make sure all links are proper to each post. The links you posted above are *superb.*

Why is this galaxy so discombobulated??

Goshdarnit if I know. A pretty, glittery starburst galaxy.

Strange features of NGC 1313 include that its spiral arms are lopsided and its rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar.

I like that word, discombobulated. It's funky, sounds like something to describe a sewing machine's bobbin going berserk and wildly kinking up thread or something. Or maybe bobbing for apples gone wrong.

Palomar · 2007-01-09 08:06:35

Gas Giants Jump Into Planet Formation Early

Tucson AZ (SPX) Jan 09, 2007

Gas-giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn form soon after their stars do, according to new research. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that gas giants either form within the first 10 million years of a sun-like star's life, or not at all. The study offers new evidence that gas-giant planets must form early in a star's history. The lifespan of sun-like stars is about 10 billion years.

8)

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Gas_Gian..._Early_999.html

Palomar · 2007-01-09 14:30:32

Toppled Pillars

An interesting item from the astronomy presses:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … llars.html

The famed "Pillars of Creation" in the Eagle Nebula are -- thanks to new wavelength data from Spitzer -- believed to have been toppled by the blast from a nearby supernova. The supernova occurred roughly 6,000 years ago (in another place they estimate 6,000 to 9,000 years). The Pillars are 7,000 light years distant so humans have roughly another 1,000 years to see them.

They believe the 1995 Hubble pic shows the pillars just before the destructive supernova winds hit them.

20 stars in the vicinity are deemed ripe for supernova.

Just another reminder that we're looking back in time...and what other changes might have occurred out there that we cannot yet detect?

--Cindy

Palomar · 2007-01-09 17:33:02

"Dr. Frankenstein" stars

Nifty. Short article.

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … _pair.html

Palomar · 2007-01-10 15:48:01

"Peekaboo" galaxy yields clues?

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … alaxy.html

Newly discovered; is elliptical. Is aprox 1 billion light years distant. It's as yet unnamed (might remain that way), contains several hundred globular star clusters -- each of which contain several hundreds of thousands of stars.

They theorize globular star clusters provide the bulk needed to form elliptical galaxies. How much bulk is required? They're hoping studying this galaxy will provide insights on the evolution and formation of galaxies.

Palomar · 2007-01-11 10:06:03

"Like powdered snow"

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Dust_ … w_999.html

Nearby red dwarf has a dust disc which is like powdered snow.

They're speculating the grains are microscopic "dirty snowballs" -- a mix of ice and rock.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2007-01-16 13:01:06

Cosmic Superstrings

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 … pples.html

Might sing in gravity waves?

The hunt for elusive gravitational waves has a new target: singing cosmic superstrings that theoretically emit the long-sought waves as they vibrate.
The superstrings are “so light that they can’t have any effect on cosmic structure, but they create this bath of gravitational waves just by decaying,”

These theoretical cosmic superstrings, which researchers described as ultra-thin tubes filled with ancient vacuum created in the early universe, can coil into galactic-sized, vibrating loops that emit gravitational waves as they decay into oblivion

“Sensing these vibrations would add the soundtrack to the beautiful imagery of astronomy that we are used to seeing,” Hogan said. “All this time, we have been watching a silent movie.”

Palomar · 2007-01-16 15:51:42

"Hobbit Galaxies"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070116/ … ndmilkyway

Cute. They're extremely faint and smaller yet than dwarf galaxies, so are being considered "Hobbit galaxies." 8 known so far, 7 of which are satellites of our Milky Way Galaxy; the other 1 seems to be free-floating beyond our Galaxy's gravitational grasp.

Palomar · 2007-02-13 09:56:45

Comets clash @ heart of nebula:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=21861

A bunch of rowdy comets are colliding and kicking up dust around a dead star, according to new observations

"We were surprised to see so much dust around this star...The dust must be coming from comets that survived the death of their sun."

In about 10,000 years [the nebula's] shiny clouds will fade, leaving the white dwarf and its circling comets to cool down alone in empty space.

Where is the dust coming from? According to the astronomers, it is most likely being freshly churned up by comets smashing into each other in the outer fringes of the white dwarf's system. A few million years ago, before the white dwarf formed, when it was still a lively star like our sun, its comets and possibly planets would have been in stable orbits, harmoniously traveling around the star. But when the star died, any inner planets would have burned up or been swallowed as the star expanded. Outer planets, asteroids and comets would have been jostled about and thrown into each other's paths.

Wow!

Spitzer has seen evidence before for such comet survivors around dead stars. In January of last year...

--Cindy

dicktice · 2007-02-13 19:01:26

Given a choice, would you not prefer to be an astronomer, even a cosmologist, Cindy?

Palomar · 2007-02-15 05:39:11

Given a choice, would you not prefer to be an astronomer, even a cosmologist, Cindy?

Oh dicktice, yes. A cosmologist?? I could only dream.

Since around 8 years of age I wanted to be a professional astronomer, but I haven't the brains for higher mathematics and physics. :cry:

Astronomy is one of two ongoing, never-flagging loves of my life. Can't ever get enough.

dicktice · 2007-02-15 07:51:11

Cindy: Oddly, except for your's, I found no new posts submitted on the 15t--the day after Valentine's-- so just between us (blush) I would like to quote, for all those slackers to read, the following--which could apply to you, if only you follow your dream:

[From a talk, given at Waterloo University's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Ontario, by young Dr. Arkani-Hamed, 34, who believes that the scientific community is on the brink of "a real revolution in the understanding of physics."]

"What really drives scientists is a deep sort of curiosity. It doesn't feel like chess. It doesn't feel like playing a game. It doesn't feel like solving a puzzle. Puzzles were invented by humans. In Physics, there's a sense of discovery, and what it contains is far beyond what we imagined we could have imagined.

"For example, Physicists have long been perplexed by the apparent weakness of gravity compared to the three other basic forces in nature: electromagnetism, the weak force associated with atomic radiation, and the strong force that holds atomic nuclei together. One answer may lie in the concept of multiple universes in dimensions beyond the space and time we experience. To visualize this idea, picture in your mind our universe collapsed onto a flat, two-dimensional plane. The stacked planes represent alternative universes--they exist alonside ours, but unless we could extend our perceptions beyond our limited plane, we would be totally unaware of them. A force such as electromagnetism might act only within our universe, while gravity might act throughout multiple universes, effectively diluting its perceived effect in our own universe."

See? no math involved you'll notice, Cindy. Only astronomical observations, followed by wherever the incomparable human imagination that you were born with takes you!

Palomar · 2007-02-16 07:08:42

Cindy: Oddly, except for your's, I found no new posts submitted on the 15t--the day after Valentine's-- so just between us (blush) I would like to quote, for all those slackers to read, the following--which could apply to you, if only you follow your dream:
[From a talk, given at Waterloo University's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Ontario, by young Dr. Arkani-Hamed, 34, who believes that the scientific community is on the brink of "a real revolution in the understanding of physics."]
"What really drives scientists is a deep sort of curiosity. It doesn't feel like chess. It doesn't feel like playing a game. It doesn't feel like solving a puzzle. Puzzles were invented by humans. In Physics, there's a sense of discovery, and what it contains is far beyond what we imagined we could have imagined.
"For example, Physicists have long been perplexed by the apparent weakness of gravity compared to the three other basic forces in nature: electromagnetism, the weak force associated with atomic radiation, and the strong force that holds atomic nuclei together. One answer may lie in the concept of multiple universes in dimensions beyond the space and time we experience. To visualize this idea, picture in your mind our universe collapsed onto a flat, two-dimensional plane. The stacked planes represent alternative universes--they exist alonside ours, but unless we could extend our perceptions beyond our limited plane, we would be totally unaware of them. A force such as electromagnetism might act only within our universe, while gravity might act throughout multiple universes, effectively diluting its perceived effect in our own universe."
See? no math involved you'll notice, Cindy. Only astronomical observations, followed by wherever the incomparable human imagination that you were born with takes you!

Hi again dicktice: Interesting, thank you. Unfortunately I'm at that point in life where it's not possible to "switch gears" and embark on an entirely new career. Not to mention the debt I'm in (whoops...I didn't say that).

Hopefully a younger person will also read and be inspired by your post.

--Cindy

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