European Association for Astronomy Education

Source: NASA Science News

Image source: 90.7  The Capstone

Don't blame La Nina or El Nino for the recent wild weather in many parts of the World. According to Bill Patzert, a NASA climatologist, the real culprit is "La Nada." (read more)

Source: NASA/Genesis

Image credit: NASA.

Analysis of samples returned by NASA's Genesis mission indicates our sun and its inner planets may have formed differently than scientists previously thought.

The data revealed slight differences in the types of oxygen and nitrogen present on the sun and planets. The elements are among the  most abundant in our solar system. Although the differences are slight, the implications could help determine how our solar system evolved.

The air on Earth contains three different kinds of oxygen atoms, which are differentiated by the number of neutrons they contain. Nearly 100 percent of oxygen atoms in the solar system are composed of O-16, but there also are tiny amounts of more exotic oxygen isotopes called O-17 and O-18. Researchers studying the oxygen of Genesis samples
found that the percentage of O-16 in the sun is slightly higher than on Earth, the moon, and meteorites. The other isotopes' percentages were slightly lower. (read more)

Source: Universe Today/John Voisey

The general picture of star formation envisions stars emerging in clusters, having condensed from cores of gas under self gravity after having passed a critical density threshold. Perhaps the cloud was pushed over the threshold by the shockwave of a supernova or the tidal twisting of a nearby object. How it happens isn’t important since the methods are likely to be many and diverse. What is important is understanding what that threshold is so we may know when it is reached. It is generally referred to as the Jeans mass and observations have generally been well in line with densities predicted by this formulation. However, over the past several years, astronomers have discovered some objects amongst a a new class that form in regions and densities not readily explained by the Jeans mass criterion.

A new class of objects has been established that are now being called Very Low Luminosity Objects or VeLLOs. Among these, L1148-IRS has been an oddity. While still low in overall light output, this object was relatively bright in the infrared when compared to other VeLLOs. Studies of the object and its surrounding gas suggested that the object was forming in an unusually empty region, one in which the usual scenario doesn’t seem to fit. A new paper by the original discoverers of this object, suggest that there may be some peculiarities that may be related to this puzzle. (read more)

Original paper:
arXiv1106.2545v

Source: NASA/Dawn

Artist's impression of Dawn. Image credit: NASA.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft is on track to begin the first extended visit to a large asteroid. The mission expects to go into orbit around Vesta on July 16 and begin gathering science data in early August. Vesta resides in the main asteroid belt and is thought to be the source of a large number of meteorites that fall to Earth.(read more)