Universe Today

Here's your chance to play online slot machines without risking your life savings. Plus it's an opportunity to contribute to a citizen science project that is sure to revolutionize our understanding of galaxy mergers. Galaxy Zoo's newest project asks for help in looking at colliding galaxies, and uses a tool akin to a cosmic slot machine to compare images of galactic pile-ups with millions of simulated mergers.

"The analogy I've been using is that it is like driving past a car crash," said Galaxy Zoo team member Chris Lintott from Oxford University. "You get a snapshot of the action, but there are two things you want to know: what caused the crash (or what did things look like before it all went wrong), and you want to know what the outcome is going to be. We're doing the same thing. We want to know what the galaxies looked like before the mergers started disrupting them, and we want to know how they are going to end up. Just like our other Galaxy Zoo projects, humans are much better at doing this than computers, and lots of humans are even better."
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Read the rest of Try Your Hand At Galaxy Zoo's New "Slot Machine" (626 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: galaxies, Galaxy Zoo

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Why – and how — do brown dwarfs form? Since these cosmic misfits fall somewhere between planets and stars in terms of their temperature and mass, astronomers haven't yet been able to determine how they form: are their beginnings like planets or stars? Now, the Spitzer Space Telescope has found what could be two of the youngest brown dwarfs. While astronomers are still looking to confirm the finding of these so-called "proto brown dwarfs" it has provided a preliminary answer of how these unusual stars form.
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Read the rest of Baby Brown Dwarfs Provide Clues to Solve Mystery (690 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: brown dwarfs, Spitzer Space Telescope

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This week's Carnival of Space is hosted over at the Chandra Blog.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #130.

And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to carnivalofspace@gmail.com, and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, let Fraser know if you can be a host, and he’ll schedule you into the calendar.

Finally, if you run a space-related blog, please post a link to the Carnival of Space. Help us get the word out.

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Carnival of Space

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The European Southern Observatory (ESO) is planning on building a massive – and I do mean massive – telescope in the next decade. The European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is a 42-meter telescope in its final planning stages. Weighing in at 5,000 tonnes, and made up of 984 individual mirrors, it will be able to image the discs of extrasolar planets and resolve individual stars in galaxies beyond the Local Group! By 2018 ESO hope to be using this gargantuan scope to stare so deep into space that they can actually see the Universe expanding!(...)
Read the rest of The Extremely Large Telescope (462 words)

© rsimp for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: extremely large telescope, telescope, Telescopes

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Screens showing two beams in the LHC. Credit: CERN

Two beams circulated simultaneously inside the Large Hadron Collider for the first time today, allowing for the first proton-proton collisions to take place. “It’s a great achievement to have come this far in so short a time,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “But we need to keep a sense of perspective – there’s still much to do before we can start the LHC physics program.”
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Read the rest of First Collisions for the LHC (320 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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The weird mystery of the flyby anomaly just got even weirder. Since the early 1990's scientists and mission controllers have noticed that some spacecraft experience unexpected changes in speed during Earth-flybys. The unexplained variation is extremely small and has occurred as either speed gained or lost, but this variant is not predicted by fundamental physics. The anomaly doesn't happen to every spacecraft but scientists were hoping to gain more insight into the anomaly when the Rosetta spacecraft swung by Earth on Nov. 13 to pick up a gravitational boost for its journey to rendezvous with a comet in 2014. However, in a major disappointment – which had deepened the mystery — the Rosetta spacecraft did not experience the flyby anomaly during this swingby of Earth, even though the same spacecraft did experience the anomaly when it flew by Earth 2005, but didn't in 2007.
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Read the rest of Mystery of the Flyby Anomaly Endures (356 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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If you think about it, those hypnotizing patterns of swirling clouds you see in TV weather reports are pretty amazing: satellites let us see what's happening in the skies all over the world. But these days, that kind of global vision even goes beyond the Earth. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter makes daily weather observations of the Red Planet, and mission scientists regularly compile the pictures into movies that are available online. The result is that anyone can follow along as fierce dust storms rage across the plains of Mars, clouds cling to the peaks of towering volcanoes and polar ice advances and retreats.(...)
Read the rest of Cold as Hell with a Chance of Dust Storms: Weather Movies from Mars (400 words)

© bdunf for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Mars, mars reconnaissance orbiter, weather

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Bullies are everywhere and the universe is no exception. In our own solar system, Jupiter's mass is second only to that of the Sun. Its gravitational effects tug around a set of asteroids known as the Trojans and may prevent the asteroid belt from becoming anything more substantial. Fortunately, our humble planet gets along with this gravitational monstrosity, but it didn't have to be so. What could such massive menaces do to planets like Earth in newly forming solar systems?(...)
Read the rest of Hot Jupiters Bully Super Earths (579 words)

© jvois for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Extrasolar Planets, hot jupiter, super earth

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The European Space Agency (ESA) formally transferred ownership of the Tranquility habitable manned module over to NASA at a commemorative handoff ceremony inside the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday, November 20. Tranquility is the last element of a barter agreement between ESA and NASA for station hardware. Included on the module is the "Cupola," which will provide astronauts with a panoramic view from the largest window flown in space.
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Read the rest of Tranquility Module Formally Handed over to NASA from ESA (791 words)

© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ISS

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Did Mars once have a vast network of river valleys – "canals" if you will – and an ocean that covered most of the planet's northern hemisphere? A new computer-generated map of the Red Planet provides a more detailed look at the valley networks on Mars, and indicates the networks are more than twice as extensive as had been previously depicted in the only other planet-wide map of the valleys. "All the evidence gathered by analyzing the valley network on the new map points to a particular climate scenario on early Mars," said Wei Luo, from Northern Illinois University (NIU). "It would have included rainfall and the existence of an ocean covering most of the northern hemisphere, or about one-third of the planet's surface."
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Read the rest of Large Ocean, Extensive River Network, Rainfall on Ancient Mars (744 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Mars, Water on Mars

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Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is one of the most studied objects in the Southern sky, because it is the giant elliptical galaxy with the closest proximity to our own Milky Way. It lies 11 million light years away from the Milky Way, and is believe to have merged with another gaseous galaxy about 200 to 700 million years ago. The result of this galactic mashup: the birth of hundreds of thousands of stars in a kiloparsec-spanning ring near the core.(...)
Read the rest of Ring of Stars in Centaurus A Uncovered (907 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: centaurus A, near-infrared astronomy

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Rebecca Bresnik, the wife of STS-129 Mission Specialist Randy Bresnik, gave birth to their new daughter on Saturday night, making Randy the second astronaut ever to become a father while out in space. Bresnik reported this morning that his wife and new daughter, Abigail, are doing fine, and thanked the flight control team for their assistance.

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Read the rest of Astronaut Becomes Dad While in Space (298 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: astronaut, STS-129

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Raw images are already being returned from Cassini's Nov. 21 "E-8" or eighth flyby of the tiger-striped moon Enceladus. Visible in this raw image are several plumes from fissures in the south polar region of the moon. These fissures spew jets of water vapor and other particles hundreds of kilometers from the surface. This flyby included a very different geometry to the flyby trajectory – and a different look at the plumes — approaching within 1,606 kilometers (997.9 miles) of the surface, buzzing over 82 degrees south latitude. This is the last look we'll have for several years at this intriguing area of Enceladus before winter darkness blankets the area. See below for looks at Baghdad Sulcus, the "tiger stripe" that scientists were focusing on.
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Read the rest of De Plume! De Plume! Enceladus Raw Flyby Images (112 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cassini, Enceladus, Saturn

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Artist concept of the Hayabusa spacecraft. Credit: JAXA

As we reported last week, it seemed as if the Hayabusa asteroid explorer mission was dealt a fatal blow when the third of its four ion engines failed. But the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) announced yesterday that it may have come up with a solution to that problem to get Hayabusa back home by using components from two different inoperable thrusters in combination.(...)
Read the rest of Hayabusa May Come Home After All (516 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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NASA's Astronaut Glove Centennial Challenge contest was held yesterday at the Astronaut Hall of Fame in Titusville, Florida, and two contestants walked away with a total of $350,000 in prize money for their improved designs of space suit gloves. Peter Homer of Southwest Harbor, Maine, won $250,000 for his glove, and Ted Southern of Brooklyn, New York won $100,000. Both contestants had participated in the 2007 event, and Peter Homer qualified for a prize last time.(...)
Read the rest of Astronaut Glove Challenge Winners Announced (371 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: astronaut gloves

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If you're still wondering what this very strange image is, find out by going to the original WITU challenge post for this week. Have a great weekend, and check back next week for another Where In The Universe Challenge!

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Early Nov. 18th, eyewitnesses reported an explosion in the atmosphere above Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Idaho in the western United States. Some said the fireball "turned night into day" and produced shock waves that shook the ground when it exploded just after midnight Mountain Standard Time. Infrasound recordings of the blast suggest a small asteroid hitting Earth's atmosphere and exploding with an energy of 0.5 to 1 kiloton of TNT. As the sun rose in the morning, remnants of the explosion were visible as noctilucent clouds over the region. The best video of the extremely bright event was just recently released, from the University of Utah's Eccles Observatory.
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Read the rest of Video of Utah Fireball (85 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Meteorites, meteors

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Though the Cassini mission has focused intently on scientific exploration of Saturn and its moons, data taken by the spacecraft has significantly changed the way astronomers think about the shape of our Solar System. As the Sun and planets travel through space, the bubble in which they reside has been thought to resemble a comet, with a long tail and blunt nose. Recent data from Cassini combined with that of other instruments, shows that the local intertstellar magnetic field shapes the heliosphere differently.(...)
Read the rest of Cassini/IBEX Data Changes View of Heliosphere Shape (553 words)

© nick for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cassini, heliosphere, IBEX

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While we're on the subject of Saturn…. I came across this video, and it poses — and answers — the interesting question, what would Earth look like if it had rings like Saturn? This animation was done by Roy Prol, and it shows not only how the rings would look from space, but also the view Earthlings would have of the rings. Prol says the ring views from Earth's surface were created according to the location's latitude and the viewer's orientation, and that the size of the rings was calculated respecting the Roche limit for the Earth. A very intriguing concept, and the video is very well done. The only bad thing about Earth having rings is that we probably wouldn't have our Moon, and we wouldn't have just found water on it!

You can read a very old discussion in the BAUT forum on the prospect of Earth having rings.

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Earth, Saturn

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The "wow" factor from the Cassini mission never quits. Here's the latest image, released just today of Saturn, viewed in near-infrared. This image was taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera on Oct. 23, 2009 using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light, centered at 890 nanometers. The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 2.6 million kilometers (1.6 million miles) from Saturn. The large shadow south of the equator is from the moon Tethys (1062 kilometers, 660 miles across). The small shadow near the limb of the planet, north of the equator, is the shadow of the moon Mimas (396 kilometers, 246 miles across). Absolutely stunning.

See below for more Cassini goodness of moons playing peek-a-boo with the rings and each other.
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Read the rest of More Cassini Eye Candy: Infrared Saturn, Peek-a-boo Moons (57 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cassini, Saturn

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