http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/astronomy/ en-us Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:26:32 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040547/posts First surprise from mission to Mercury: signs of water Thursday, July 3, 2008 8:43 PM By Kevin Mayhood THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Mercury facts Diameter: 3,032 miles Magnetic field: only rocky planet other than Earth with an active magnetic field Density: densest planet in solar system; 5.3 times denser than water Distance from sun: average of 36 million miles Distance from Earth: 50 million to 200 million miles Messenger facts Distance Messenger will travel: 4.9 billion miles as the spacecraft circles the sun 14 times before slowing enough to enter Mercury's orbit Size: 56 inches tall, 73 inches wide and 50... The Columbus Dispatch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040547/posts#comment Fri, 4 Jul 2008 01:26:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040381/posts Australian astronomers may have found a solution to how far-away Jupiter and Saturn drive the sun's solar cycle. In a paper published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, astronomer Dr Ian Wilson and colleagues from the University of Southern Queensland, suggest Jupiter and Saturn affect the sun's movement and its rotation, and hence its sunspot activity. Every 11 years the sun undergoes a period of intense solar activity, marked by flares, coronal mass ejections and sunspots. This period is known as the solar maximum and occurs twice each solar, or Hale, cycle. "The sun can be thought... ABC Science http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2040381/posts#comment Thu, 3 Jul 2008 19:09:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039193/posts This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. Newswise — A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. On or around May 1, 1006 A.D., observers from Africa to Europe to the Far East witnessed... www.newswise.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2039193/posts#comment Tue, 1 Jul 2008 15:32:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2037750/posts Here are a few past APODs (Astronomy Picture of the Day) that I've collected over the years. They really are incredible. However, some make take awhile to download, especially if you're on dial-up. Hope you enjoy them... Orion Spitzer:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0608/orion_spitzer_f.jpg NGC-2174:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0612/NGC2174_lrg.jpg M-42:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/m42_hst_f.jpg Orion Cradle:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/orioncradle_hallas_r.jpg Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080406.html Markarian's Eyes:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0706/NGC4438_NGC4435_crawford_r.jpg Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/carina_hst_big.jpg Bullet Pillars in Orion:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/bullets_gemini_big.jpg The Rosette Nebula:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/rosette_gendler_big.jpg For individual descriptions of these images, go to the APOD archive page and run a search on the selected image's title:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2037750/posts#comment Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:13:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034094/posts Colorful Mystery Here's a new, truer-color rendering of the Voorwerp (lower center). Although it looked blue on the Sloan photo, the object actually now appears to be fairly green, observes Keel, who performed spectral analses of the huge mystery cloud.W. Keel Nearly a year ago, astronomers at several universities recruited citizen scientists to help them catalog distant galaxies that had recently been photographed as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. A high-school physics teacher in the Netherlands who was participating in this project, known as Galaxy Zoo, appears to have scored a major coup. She brought a weird blue... Science News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2034094/posts#comment Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:15:43 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033002/posts As the full moon rises this Wednesday evening, June 18, many people will be fooled into thinking it's unusually large. The moon illusion, as it's known, is a trick in our minds that makes the moon seem bigger when it's near the horizon. The effect is most pronounced at full moon. Many people swear it's real, suggesting that perhaps Earth's atmosphere magnifies the moon. But it really is all in our minds. The moon is not bigger at the horizon than when overhead. The illusion will be particularly noticeable at this "solstice moon," coming just two days before summer starts... space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2033002/posts#comment Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:49:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027878/posts HEAVENLY TRIANGLE: Ringed planet, first-magnitude star, crescent moon. Add them all together and you get a heavenly triangle visible tonight. Look up after sunset for Saturn, Regulus and the Moon in scalene formation. http://spaceweather.com/ [note: First, all of this is naked-eye visible (no, you do not need to remove your clothes to see it!). Next, Saturn (in the diagram above) is the large blue dot. They apparently forgot to label it. Saturn will appear brighter and somewhat 'yellowish' compared to the nearby white star Regulus just to its lower right (Saturn is brighter than the star). Mars, a bit further... spaceweather.com for June 8, 2008 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027878/posts#comment Sun, 8 Jun 2008 14:45:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026059/posts Enlarge ImageFresh look.Recent surveys of the Milky Way show it contains a prominent central bar feature (bottom), distinguishing it from other galaxies of the classic spiral variety (top).Credit: (top) NASA/Spitzer Space telescope (bottom) NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC/Caltech) The Milky Way Gets a Facelift By Phil BerardelliScienceNOW Daily News03 June 2008Forget what you thought the Milky Way looked like. The galaxy is far from the simple and elegant spiral-armed structure so often portrayed. New observations, presented today at the 212th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in St. Louis, Missouri, reveal, among other things, that the Milky Way is missing two... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2026059/posts#comment Wed, 4 Jun 2008 21:31:50 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021632/posts <p>Conveyor of a super-Einsteinian theory of gravitation that explains, among many other post-Einstein-effects, the Sun-Earth-Connection and the true cause of the global climate changes.</p> <p>As the glaciological and tree ring evidence shows, climate change is a natural phenomenon that has occurred many times in the past, both with the magnitude as well as with the time rate of temperature change that have occurred in the recent decades. The following facts prove that the recent global warming is not man-made but is a natural phenomenon.</p> Canada Free Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2021632/posts#comment Mon, 26 May 2008 23:09:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2020697/posts New red spot appears on Jupiter Feature may be an indicator of global climate change on the planet. In what's beginning to look like a case of planetary measles, a third red spot has appeared next to its cousins — the Great Red Spot and Red Spot, Jr. — in the turbulent jovian atmosphere. This spot, which is a fraction of the size of the two other features, lies to the west of the Great Red Spot in the same latitude band of clouds. The new spot was previously a white, oval-shaped storm. The change to a red color indicates... Astronomy Magazine website http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2020697/posts#comment Sat, 24 May 2008 14:35:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2019273/posts While peering at her computer screen four months ago, astronomer Alicia Soderberg expected to see the small glowing smudge of a month-old supernova. But what she and her colleague saw instead was a strange, extremely bright, five-minute burst of X-rays. With that observation, they became the first astronomers to catch a star in the act of exploding. "For years we have dreamed of seeing a star just as it was exploding, but actually finding one is a once-in-a-lifetime, event," said Soderberg, a Hubble and Carnegie Princeton Fellow at Princeton University. The discovery, detailed in the May 22 issue of the... Space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2019273/posts#comment Wed, 21 May 2008 19:01:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2016739/posts Enlarge ImageYounger than it looks. Astronomers compared radio (left, blue) and x-ray images (red) of this supernova remnant to determine that the explosion had occurred only 100 years before.Credit: NRAO (radio)/Chandra (x-ray) U.S. and British astronomers have located the youngest known remnant of an exploding star in the Milky Way. The discovery might help researchers understand why our galaxy seems to have so few supernovas and where the raw materials of planets and life came from. The Milky Way is a perfectly ordinary spiral galaxy, except for a shortage of supernova activity. These titanic explosions, which mark the deaths... ScienceNOW Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2016739/posts#comment Fri, 16 May 2008 07:49:36 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2015217/posts International scientists have used flowing water to simulate a black hole, testing Stephen Hawking's theory that black holes are not black after all. The researchers, led by Professor Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews and Dr Germain Rousseaux at the University of Nice, used a water channel to create analogues of black holes, simulating event horizons. An event horizon is the place in the channel where the water begins to flow faster than the waves. The scientists sent waves against the current, varied the water speed and the wavelength, and filmed the waves with video cameras. Over several... www.physorg.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2015217/posts#comment Tue, 13 May 2008 13:18:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2015208/posts Computer users now can fly through the universe, viewing stars, planets and celestial bodies as an astronomer would, with Tuesday's introduction of the Worldwide Telescope by Microsoft. The virtual service combines images and databases from every major telescope and astronomical organization in the world. Microsoft says it is providing the resource for free in memory of Jim Gray, the Microsoft researcher who disappeared last year while sailing his boat to the Farallon Islands on a trip to scatter his mother's ashes. The project is an extension of Gray's work. "I never imagined (the telescope) would be so beautiful," said Alexander... SFGate http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2015208/posts#comment Tue, 13 May 2008 12:50:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010800/posts Earth 'noise' could attract alien invaders 03 May 2008 From New Scientist Print Edition. No matter how quiet we try to be now it's too late to prevent alien invaders. So says Alexander Zaitsev of the Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics in Moscow, Russia, who points the finger at astronomers. For 40 years, astronomers have fired microwaves off objects to chart near-Earth space and track the movement of close asteroids - and these signals are traceable back to us. By comparison, Zaitsev says, dedicated transmissions - often described as "shouting into an unknown jungle" - are a mere whisper.... New Scientist http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2010800/posts#comment Sat, 3 May 2008 20:07:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2007754/posts POSTCARDS FROM THE FUTURE Sometime in the near future, humankind will set foot again on the Moon. As part of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration, they will build a permanent base on the moon, to test, research and invent new technologies for manned missions to Mars and beyond. The task will not be easy - there will be danger and hardships and broken lives, but these modern-day pioneers would have it no other way. Because for all the hardships that they must endure, they know that the Grand Vision extends beyond them - that they are but a small... postcardsfromthefuture.net http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2007754/posts#comment Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:34:29 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003326/posts A team of Italian and Chinese physicists on Wednesday renewed a controversial claim that they had detected the mysterious dark matter particles that astronomers say swaddle the galaxies in halos and direct the evolution of the universe. The team, called Dama, from “DArk MAtter,” and led by Rita Bernabei of the University of Rome, has maintained since 2000 that a yearly modulation in the rate of flashes in a detector nearly a mile underneath the Gran Sasso mountain in Italy is the result of the Earth’s passage through a “wind” of dark matter particles as it goes around the Sun.... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2003326/posts#comment Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:38:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2002936/posts HiRISE image of Stickney Crater on Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona. Stickney crater is almost half the diameter of Phobos itself. Why did the impact not shatter this small moon? The color picture above is a composite from two pictures taken about 10 minutes apart in order to give the 3-dimensional aspect. A recent Picture of the Day described some of the large-scale formations on Phobos, especially Stickney Crater, but this more dramatic picture, which has recently become available, deserves another showing because it portrays the distinctive features of an Electric Discharge Machining (EDM) event with greater clarity. The... Thunderbolts.info http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2002936/posts#comment Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:56:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2002901/posts A telescope on the far side of the moon could probe the "dark ages" of the universe while blocking out the radio-wavelength noise of Earth civilizations. Up to one hundred thousand antennas would form the Dark Ages Lunar Interferometer (DALI), the largest telescope ever built, and allow astronomers to hear faint whispering signals from a time when no stars even existed. "This will look at one of the most fundamental questions ever conceived, back when the universe was made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium — no stars, no galaxies," said Kurt Weiler, senior astronomer at the U.S. Naval... Space.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2002901/posts#comment Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:54:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001425/posts Although I suspect that intelligent life is rare in the cosmos, I’m playing little more than a hunch. So it’s interesting to see that Andrew Watson (University of East Anglia) has analyzed the chances for intelligence elsewhere in the universe by looking at the challenges life faced as it evolved. Watson believes that it took specific major steps for an intelligent civilization to develop on Earth, one of which, interestingly enough, is language. Identifying which steps are critical is tricky, but in the aggregate they reduce the chance of intelligence elsewhere. A linguist at heart, I wasn’t surprised with the... Centauri Dreams http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001425/posts#comment Mon, 14 Apr 2008 18:17:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993909/posts Is this a planet in the making? A gap in the dust circling a young star in the constellation Auriga may mark where material is condensing into a planet, 11 astronomers led by Ben R. Oppenheimer of the American Museum of Natural History say in a paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal. The group used an Air Force surveillance telescope at Haleakala Observatories on the Hawaiian island of Maui and a special camera to examine a region near the star AB Aurigae, corresponding to the scale of our own solar system, that had not been observed before at... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993909/posts#comment Sun, 30 Mar 2008 06:42:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993822/posts For decades, Soviet schoolchildren flocked to the Moscow Planetarium to gaze at the stars. Now plans to reopen the landmark silver-domed structure, shut for repairs 14 years ago, are mired in a struggle for control of an institution situated on a pricey patch of real estate. The conflict took a startling turn Wednesday when staffers say about 20 uniformed men forced their way onto the grounds, beat an unarmed employee and proclaimed that a new boss was in charge. It was a development that longtime director Igor Mikitasov described as a hostile takeover, Russian style. In the struggle for property... Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1993822/posts#comment Sun, 30 Mar 2008 01:23:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1992914/posts An astronaut, Don Pettit, has put together a 10-minute movie of what cities look like at night as seen from space. He shot these images while he was Science Officer aboard ISS Expedition 6 about 5 years ago. He recently posted this on YouTube.This video "Cities at Night; an Orbital Tour Around the World" is a video made from digital still images.A bit of trivia.... most of the music during the movie is from royalty-free clips from Adobe Auditions, but for the Australian sequences, Don played his own didgeridoo that he had with him in space aboard ISS. As you... From an email http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1992914/posts#comment Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:34:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1991581/posts TRIPLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Endeavour has undocked from the International Space Station and the two spaceships are now orbiting Earth in tandem. This sets the stage for a series of rare *triple* flybys, which many sky watchers will be able to observe on Tuesday, March 25th. It's a triple because three spacecraft are involved. First to appear is the European Space Agency's Jules Verne cargo carrier flying 2000 kilometers ahead of the ISS-Endeavour combo. Jules Verne is about as bright as a 1st magnitude star. Four minutes later, and even brighter, the space shuttle and space station follow Jules... Space Weather News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1991581/posts#comment Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:46:03 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1991187/posts Images from the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed a so-called "ring of dark matter" circling a galaxy cluster. Does dark matter exist? Or is electricity a better explanation for the structure of the universe? {Galaxy Cluster CL0024+17 with an overlay showing a supposed dark matter ring. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. J. Jee and H. Ford et al. (Johns Hopkins University)} In a recent announcement, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) reported the discovery of something in deep space that seems to confirm previously inferred observations of "dark matter." Although "dark matter" cannot be seen or detected by instruments, its... Thunderbolts.info http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1991187/posts#comment Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:53:00 GMT