Source: Chandra
Very deep Chandra observation of the Tycho supernova remnant.
Image credit: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/K.Eriksen et al.
A long Chandra observation of Tycho has revealed a pattern of X-ray "stripes" never seen before in a supernova remnant.
This result could explain how some of the extremely energetic particles bombarding the Earth, called cosmic rays, are produced.(read source)
Source: ESO Science Release 1110
Artist’s impression shows the pair of brown dwarfs named CFBDSIR 1458+10.
Image credits: ESO/L.Calçada.
Observations with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, along with two other telescopes, have shown that there is a new candidate for the coldest known star: a brown dwarf in a double system with about the same temperature as a freshly made cup of tea — hot in human terms, but extraordinarily cold for the surface of a star. This object is cool enough to begin crossing the blurred line dividing small cold stars from big hot planets.(read more)
Source: NASA News
Graphic image of Shell Buckling Knockdown Factor Test. Credits: NASA
NASA put the squeeze on a large rocket test section today. Results from this structural strength test at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will help future heavy-lift launch vehicles weigh less and reduce development costs.
This trailblazing project is examining the safety margins needed in the design of future, large launch vehicle structures. Test results will be used to develop and validate structural analysis models and generate new "shell-buckling knockdown factors" -- complex engineering design standards essential to launch vehicle design. (read more)
Source: NASA-Astro-E2 Mission
Artist's conception of Suzaku in orbit. Image credit: ISAS/JAXA
X-ray observations made by the Suzaku observatory provide the clearest picture to date of the size, mass and chemical content of a nearby cluster of galaxies. The study also provides the first direct evidence that million-degree gas clouds are tightly gathered in the cluster's outskirts.
Suzaku is sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) with contributions from NASA and participation by the international scientific community. The findings will appear in the March 25 issue of the journal Science.
Galaxy clusters are millions of light-years across, and most of their normal matter comes in the form of hot X-ray-emitting gas that fills the space between the galaxies.(read more)
Source: ESA
Artist's impression of the Cygnus X-1 black hole system. Credits: ESA.
ESA’s Integral gamma-ray observatory has spotted extremely hot matter just a millisecond before it plunges into the oblivion of a black hole. But is it really doomed? These unique observations suggest that some of the matter may be making a great escape.(read more)
Source: ESA / Hubble
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of part of the famous Tarantula Nebula, a vast star-forming cloud of gas and dust in our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. In this picture, we see a close-up of the Tarantula’s central region, glowing brightly with ionised gases and young stars. (read more)
Source: ESO Photo Release eso1109
A new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope gives a close-up view of the dramatic effects new-born stars have on the gas and dust from which they formed. Although the stars themselves are not visible, material they have ejected is colliding with the surrounding gas and dust clouds and creating a surreal landscape of glowing arcs, blobs and streaks. (read more)
Source: Messenger Mission
On March 17th, MESSENGER Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md., received the anticipated radiometric signals confirming nominal burn shutdown and successful insertion of the MESSENGER probe into orbit around the planet Mercury.
The spacecraft rotated back to the Earth and started transmitting data. Upon review of these data, the engineering and operations teams confirmed that the burn executed nominally with all subsystems reporting a clean burn and no logged errors.
MESSENGER’s main thruster fired for approximately 15 minutes slowing the spacecraft by 1,929 miles per hour (862 meters per second) and easing it into the planned eccentric orbit about Mercury. The rendezvous took place about 96 million miles (155 million kilometers) from Earth.
Source: ESA
Alphabus has met Alphasat. Europe's largest telecom satellite is taking shape with final assembly and testing ready to begin in Toulouse, France. Planned for launch in late 2012 on Ariane 5, Alphasat will provide advanced mobile communication links for commercial operator Inmarsat.(read more)
Source: International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics
The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics, or IOAA, is an annual event in which high school students from around the world compete against each other, solving theoretical, analytical and observational problems in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics.
Despite being relatively young compared to the other recognized International Science Olympiads (the first was held in 2007), the high standards of the Olympiad and the work it does to promote astronomy education, particularly in regions with emerging astronomy programmes, have gained the support of the President and Commission 46 of International Astronomical Union and of national governments of participating countries. The organisation and statues of the IOAA are based on those of the long-running International Physics Olympiad.
Each IOAA is organised under the auspices of the Ministry of Education of the host country and lasts for ten days. Participating countries each send one team of up to five students (still attending or having just finished high school) and two adult team leaders, who approve the problems and translate them into the native languages of the students. Accomodation and participation costs during the ten days are covered by the organisers for the seven team members. Teams pay for travel to the host country, and for any extra persons ('observers') or accomodation beyond this period.
Previous Olympiads were held in Thailand, Indonesia, Iran and China, and the 6th will be held in Brazil in 2012.
Preliminary registration is open until March 31. If your country is not already represented and you wish send a team, please contact the Local Organising Committee as soon as possible.
Further information on the 5th IOAA is available at http://www.ioaa2011.pl .
Source: NASA - Hubble Space Telescope
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have ruled out an alternate theory on the nature of dark energy after recalculating the expansion rate of the universe to unprecedented accuracy.
The universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate. Some believe that is because the universe is filled with a dark energy that works in the opposite way of gravity. One alternative to that hypothesis is that an enormous bubble of relatively empty space eight billion light-years across surrounds our galactic neighborhood. If we lived near the center of this void, observations of galaxies being pushed away from each other at accelerating speeds would be an illusion.
This hypothesis has been invalidated because astronomers have refined their understanding of the universe's present expansion rate. Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., led the research. The Hubble observations were conducted by the SHOES (Supernova Ho for the quation of State) team that works to refine the accuracy of the Hubble constant to a precision that allows for a better characterization of dark energy's behavior. The observations helped determine a figure for the universe's current expansion rate to an uncertainty of just 3.3 percent. The new measurement reduces the error margin by 30 percent over Hubble's previous best measurement in 2009. Riess's results appear in the April 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.(read more)
Source: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Area of about 460 meters across, in which carbonate minerals
have been identified from spectrometer observations.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Rocks on Mars dug from far underground by crater-blasting impacts are providing glimpses of one possible way Mars' atmosphere has become much less dense than it used to be.
At several places where cratering has exposed material from depths of about 5 kilometers (3 miles) or more beneath the surface, observations by a mineral-mapping instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate carbonate minerals.
These are not the first detections of carbonates on Mars. However, compared to earlier findings, they bear closer resemblance to what some scientists have theorized for decades about the whereabouts of Mars' "missing" carbon. If deeply buried carbonate layers are found to be widespread, they would help answer questions about the disappearance of most of ancient Mars' atmosphere, which is deduced to have been thick and mostly carbon dioxide. The carbon that goes into formation of carbonate minerals can come from atmospheric carbon dioxide. (read more)
Source: Chandra
Image credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/J.Wang et al.;
Optical: Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes, La Palma/Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope,
Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA
Chandra has released another marvellous picture. This composite image shows the central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 4151, dubbed the "Eye of Sauron" by astronomers for its similarity to the eye of the malevolent character in "The Lord of the Rings". (read more)
Source: NASA News
NASA will host a media teleconference to discuss the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.
NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging, or MESSENGER, will enter orbit at approximately 9 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 17. The spacecraft has conducted more than a dozen laps through the inner solar system for nearly 7 years.
Media teleconference participants are:
-- Andy Calloway, MESSENGER mission operations manager, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md.
-- Carl Engelbrecht, MESSENGER propulsion subsystem lead, APL
-- Sean Solomon, MESSENGER principal investigator, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Source: ESO Science Release eso1108
The most remote mature cluster of galaxies yet found.
Credit: ESO/NOAJ/Subaru/R. Gobat
Astronomers have used an armada of telescopes on the ground and in space, including the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile to discover and measure the distance to the most remote mature cluster of galaxies yet found. Although this cluster is seen when the Universe was less than one quarter of its current age it looks surprisingly similar to galaxy clusters in the current Universe. (read more)
Source: ESA
LISA will comprise three satellites, linked by lasers across five million km of
space, to track very slight spacetime distortion caused by gravitational waves.
Image credits: AEI/MildeMarketing/Exozet.
A key technical challenge of the joint ESA-NASA LISA mission has been solved: how to maintain precise pointing of a laser beam across five million km of space.(read more)
Source: ESA
The Rosetta orbiter swoops over the lander soon after touchdown on the
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.Image credits: Astrium - E. Viktor.
Ultra-light carbon-fibre rods used to stiffen a comet probe’s legs are now being harnessed by a German manufacturer to boost the precision and efficiency of their laser cutters.(read more)
