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

Palomar · 2007-02-16 07:54:52

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070216.html

:shock: I'll say it's rare. Cool!

Perpendicular rings of stars, gas and dust orbit the plane of the flat galactic disc (can see this in photo).

The ring system structure is "remarkably old and stable."

They're unsure how these rings formed.

Palomar · 2007-02-17 10:57:08

Star smashes spinning speed record

[Don't read this if you're prone to vertigo ]

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

Facts:

+The neutron star is a burned out corpse that's collapsed into an incredible density rivaled only by black holes.

+It packs the mass of the Sun into a sphere the size of a city.

+It has been reduced to nothing but tightly huddled neutrons.

+A THIMBLEFUL would weigh a hundred million TONS back here on Earth.

+It is zipping around on its axis 1,122 times every second. That smashes the previous record of 760 spins per second for a neutron star.

[There's a limit to how fast stars can spin. Too fast and they'd break apart. But since astronomers don't know the exact make-up of neutron stars, the speed limit is not known.]

+The Sun, for comparison, spins on its axis once every 25 days as measured at its equator.

--Cindy

Palomar · 2007-02-28 10:54:24

Detection of a colliding-wind beyond the Milky Way
Imagine two stars with winds so powerful that they eject an Earth's worth of material roughly once every month. Next, imagine those two winds colliding head-on. Such titanic collisions produce multimillion-degree gas, which radiates brilliantly in X-rays. Astronomers have conclusively identified the X-rays from about two-dozen of these systems in our Milky Way. But they have never seen one outside our galaxy - until now.

Oh...it's in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Close enough for really good observation.

The binary system, known as HD 5980, contains two extremely massive stars, 'weighing' about 50 and 30 times the mass of the Sun. Each star radiates more than a million times as much light as the Sun, meaning they put out more light in one minute than our host star generates in an entire year.

:shock: Yipes.

The sheer photon pressure of this incredible outpouring of light blows off gas from each star in a supersonic 'wind'. These winds are so powerful that they carry away roughly an Earth mass each month, a rate 10 thousand million times greater than the solar wind, and at a speed 5 times faster than the solar wind itself.

HD 5980's two stars are separated by only about 90 million kilometres, roughly half Earth's average distance from the Sun. "These stars are so close to each other that if they were in our solar system they could fit inside the orbit of Venus"

Amazing.

The system emits about 10 times more energy in X-rays alone than the Sun radiates over the entire spectrum"

The stars orbit each other every 20 days in a plane that is edge-on to Earth's line of sight, so the stars periodically eclipse each other.

the two stars are nearing the end of their lives and will eventually explode as supernovae. The more massive star, HD 5980A, is passing through a Luminous Blue Variable (LBV) phase - a short-lived, erratic stage that only the most massive stars go through...Its companion, HD 5980B, is an evolved Wolf-Rayet star that has already ejected much of its original envelope.

Quite a pair indeed.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0702/25binary/

--Cindy

Palomar · 2007-03-03 10:06:29

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

"Comet Galaxy" being ripped to shreds. Insights into galaxy de-volution.

The gas and stars of the Comet Galaxy—moving through the cluster at speeds of more than 2 million mph—are being stripped away by the tidal forces of the cluster. Also, the pressure of the cluster’s scorching gas plasma—known as ram pressure stripping—is adding to the damage. "...situated 3.2 billion light-years from Earth..."

Elliptical galaxies generally have little gas and dust, and mainly consist of old stars. Unlike spiral galaxies, which are generally found in isolation, elliptical galaxies are spotted in the center of crowded galaxy clusters.
Up until now, it’s been a mystery as to how a gas-rich spiral galaxy evolves into a gas- poor irregular galaxy or a gas-poor elliptical galaxy. Also, when the Universe was half its present age, only one in five galaxies was a gas-poor elliptical galaxy. This has left astronomers wondering where all of the present day elliptical galaxies came from.

Elliptical galaxies, scientists suspect, are transformation products of other types of galaxies, something no one has seen because the process takes billions of years. What they are observing now is some 200 million years into such a process.

The Comet Galaxy—with a little more mass than the Milky Way—will eventually lose its battle against the tidal forces and pressures of the hot plasma acting on it and end up a gas-poor galaxy with a collection of old stars.

--Cindy

dicktice · 2007-03-04 20:42:08

What a great total Lunar eclipse, we had here in Nova Scotia! Seen from Main Street in front of the theatre, it began to creep up from the lower limb at 5:30 AST just as the full Moon cleared the eastern horizon, went on to full (nothing but a faint dull brownish disk), so I went to the show (a world premier of "The Conclave") and was was just leaving the upper limb as I came out about 8:30. Sorry, Cindy, that it was over by Moonrise out west, but see that film when it comes to a theatre near you, or on DVD, by all means!

Palomar · 2007-03-05 13:28:44

What a great total Lunar eclipse, we had here in Nova Scotia! Seen from Main Street in front of the theatre, it began to creep up from the lower limb at 5:30 AST just as the full Moon cleared the eastern horizon, went on to full (nothing but a faint dull brownish disk), so I went to the show (a world premier of "The Conclave") and was was just leaving the upper limb as I came out about 8:30. Sorry, Cindy, that it was over by Moonrise out west, but see that film when it comes to a theatre near you, or on DVD, by all means!

Hi dicktice: Glad you enjoyed the eclipse. You're right of course; the eclipse wasn't viewable from here. The Conclave?? Hmmmm...will check out its description. I'm picky about movies. Thanks for the recommendation though.

dicktice · 2007-03-05 16:54:01

It's a joint Canadain-German, made in Italy film about the choosing of Pope Pius II, around 1450, under very politicized conditions in the Vatican. Look up the review on the Internet. End of rant.

Palomar · 2007-03-13 07:41:01

Oops! Galaxy blunder

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

They thought it was huge and distant...

...turns out it's small and "close."

Palomar · 2007-03-23 09:46:08

Orion "Bullets"

Thanks to adaptive optics:

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0703...ic_bullets.html

most detailed look yet at supersonic “bullets” of gas piercing through dense clouds of hydrogen gas in the Orion Nebula.
Each bullet is about ten times the size of Pluto’s orbit around the Sun and travels through the clouds at up to 250 miles (400 kilometers) per second —or about a thousand times faster than the speed of sound.

The bulk of both the bullets and the surrounding gas cloud consists of molecular hydrogen. The tip of each bullet is packed with iron atoms that are heated by friction and glow bright blue in the new image

As the bullets plow through the clouds, they leave behind tubular orange wakes, each about a fifth of a light-year long.

Astronomers think the enormous clumps of gas were ejected from deep within the nebula following some unknown violent event about a thousand years ago.

“This level of precision will allow the evolution of the system to be followed over the next few years, for small changes in the structures are expected from year to year as the bullets continue their outward motion...”

We'll keep watching. 8)

Palomar · 2007-05-22 13:03:27

A first:

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_Ob..._Event_999.html

Oberon occults Umbriel. This is the first time ever we've recorded/observed such an event in the Uranian system. Every 42 years Uranus has a "mutual event season"; the current runs until 2008. Telescopes from California and Australia are in use.

This will help scientists better determine the moons' masses, the effects of Uranus on the shapes of their orbits, and to model surface features. :blink: There is quite a bit they can learn from distant occultations apparently -- (a star/Pluto occultation last year, and I'm still gobsmacked).

This event gives most insight into Uranian system since Voyager 2's 1986 flyby.

noosfractal · 2007-05-24 21:57:18

Texas Astronomers Discover Multi-Planet System
Around Unexpected Star; May Alter Theories of Planet Formation
http://www.utexas.edu/opa/news/2007/05/mcdonald23.html

University of Texas at Austin astronomers William Cochran and Michael Endl, working with graduate students Robert Wittenmyer and Jacob Bean, have used the 9.2-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory to discover a system of two Jupiter-like planets orbiting a star whose composition might seem to rule out planet formation. This NASA-funded study has implications for theories of planet formation.
...

[ Time to adjust your Drake equation values ]

C M Edwards · 2007-05-25 12:35:32

[ Time to adjust your Drake equation values ]

What, again? :twisted:

noosfractal · 2007-05-25 16:50:07

[ Time to adjust your Drake equation values ]
What, again? :twisted:

It's like watching the wheels of a slot machine, isn't it

Mars_B4_Moon · 2023-08-18 04:44:34

with new space telescopes proving old theories correct or incorrect

Perhaps a thread worth a revival

'Heavy, highly magnetic star may be first magnetar precursor we’ve seen'

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/08 … weve-seen/

Mars_B4_Moon · 2024-06-05 16:55:06

The JWST is Re-Writing Astronomy Textbooks

https://www.universetoday.com/167269/th … textbooks/

New Mars Forums

Announcement

#201 2007-02-16 07:54:52

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

#202 2007-02-17 10:57:08

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

#203 2007-02-28 10:54:24

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

#204 2007-03-03 10:06:29

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

#205 2007-03-04 20:42:08

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

#206 2007-03-05 13:28:44

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

#207 2007-03-05 16:54:01

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

#208 2007-03-13 07:41:01

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

#209 2007-03-23 09:46:08

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

#210 2007-05-22 13:03:27

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

#211 2007-05-24 21:57:18

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#212 2007-05-25 12:35:32

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

#213 2007-05-25 16:50:07

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

#214 2023-08-18 04:44:34

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

#215 2024-06-05 16:55:06

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

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