30
Jul 14

Perseid Meteors versus the Supermoon

Credits: NASA Science News

Which is brighter--a flurry of Perseid fireballs or a supermoon? Sky watchers will find out this August when the biggest and brightest full Moon of 2014 arrives just in time for the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower.

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29
Jul 14

Mars Rover sets off-World driving record

Source: NASA Science News

opportunity-trailOpportunity's route from the landing site inside Eagle
Crater (upper left) to its location after the July 27 (Sol 3735).
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NMMNHS

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, now holds the off-Earth driving record of 25+ miles, and is not far from completing a full extraterrestrial marathon.(learn more)

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26
Jul 14

New Views of the Rosetta Comet

Source: NASA Science News

Rosetta_OSIRIS_NAC_comet_67P_20140714_625

Images of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken on July 14, 2014, by the OSIRIS imaging system aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft have allowed scientists to create this three-dimensional shape model of the nucleus. Image Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM

As the European Space Agency's Rosetta probe approaches Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for an August rendezvous, the comet's core is coming into sharper focus. Today ESA released a new set of images and a must-see 3D model.(read more)

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25
Jul 14

Mystery in the Perseus Cluster

Source: NASA Science News

A mysterious X-ray signal from the Perseus cluster of galaxies, which researchers say cannot be explained by known physics, could be a key clue to the nature of Dark Matter.(learn more)

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24
Jul 14

New mass map of a distant galaxy cluster is the most precise yet

Source: ESA/Hubble Science heic1416

Colour image of galaxy cluster MCS J0416.1–2403Colour image of galaxy cluster MCS J0416.1–240.
Image credits:ESA/Hubble, NASA, HST Frontier Fields.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have mapped the mass within a galaxy cluster more precisely than ever before. Created using observations from Hubble's Frontier Fields observing programme, the map shows the amount and distribution of mass within MCS J0416.1–2403, a massive galaxy cluster found to be 160 trillion times the mass of the Sun. The detail in this mass map was made possible thanks to the unprecedented depth of data provided by new Hubble observations, and the cosmic phenomenon known as strong gravitational lensing. (read more)

 

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23
Jul 14

Lives and Deaths of Sibling Stars

Source: ESO Photo Release eso1422

The star cluster NGC 3293The star cluster NGC 329.
Image credits:ESO/G. Beccari

In this striking new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile young stars huddle together against a backdrop of clouds of glowing gas and lanes of dust. The star cluster, known as NGC 3293, would have been just a cloud of gas and dust itself about ten million years ago, but as stars began to form it became the bright group of stars we see here. Clusters like this are celestial laboratories that allow astronomers to learn more about how stars evolve. (learn more)

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22
Jul 14

Hubble traces the halo of a galaxy more accurately than ever before

Source: ESA/Hubble Science Release heic1415

Centaurus A haloCentaurus A halo.
Image credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, Digitized Sky Survey, MPG/ESO.

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have probed the extreme outskirts of the stunning elliptical galaxy Centaurus A. The galaxy’s halo of stars has been found to extend much further from the galaxy’s centre than expected and the stars within this halo seem to be surprisingly rich in heavy elements. This is the most remote portion of an elliptical galaxy ever to have been explored.(learn more)

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22
Jul 14

Once Upon a Time There Was a Spacecraft Called Rosetta…

Credits: ESA

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18
Jul 14

Rosetta's comet may be a contact binary

Rosetta_OSIRIS_NAC_comet_67P_20140714_625

Image credits: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

Credit: NASA Science News

New images of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko show that the target of ESA's Rosetta probe is no ordinary comet.

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, was imaged on 14 July 2014 by OSIRIS, Rosetta's scientific imaging system, from a distance of approximately 12 000 km (image on the right).

The image suggests that the comet may consist of two parts: one segment seems to be rather elongated, while the other appears more bulbous.(learn more)

 

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16
Jul 14

New Horizons only one year away from Pluto

Source: NASA Science News

NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is only a year away from Pluto. Researchers are buzzing with anticipation as NASA prepares to encounter a new world for the first time in decades.(read more)

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7
Jul 14

NameExoWorlds - Help decide the names of planets orbiting other stars

unnamed-exoplanets
Image Credit: IAU / M. Kornmesser / N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)

The International Astronomical Union has unveiled a worldwide contest, NameExoWorlds, which gives the public a role in naming planets and their host stars beyond the solar system. This contest is creating some controversy. Nonetheless, it is an interesting contest for teachers to work with their students. (learn more)

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4
Jul 14

Saturn's moon Titan has a very salty ocean

Credits: NASA Science News

splash4
Titan's ice shell, which overlies a very salty ocean, varies in thickness around the moon.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Univ. of Arizona/G. Mitri/University of Nantes

Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini mission have found evidence of an ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, which might be as salty as the Earth's Dead Sea.(learn more)

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3
Jul 14

A Stellar Womb Shaped and Destroyed by its Ungrateful Offspring

Credit: ESO Photo Release eso1420

The Gum 15 star formation region
The Gum 15 star formation region.
Image credit: ESO

The little-known cloud of cosmic gas and dust called Gum 15 is the birthplace and home of hot young stars. Beautiful and deadly, these stars mould the appearance of their mother nebula and, as they progress into adulthood, will eventually also be the death of her. (learn more)

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