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Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 21, 2012 at 7:25pm

Comment by doone on April 20, 2012 at 7:23am

M57: The Ring Nebula 
Credit: Composite Image Data - Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Legacy Archive; 
Processing and additional imaging - Robert Gendler

Explanation: Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) is probably the most famous celestial band. Its classic appearance is understood to be due to perspective - our view from planet Earth looks down the center of a roughly barrel-shaped cloud of glowing gas. But expansive looping structures are seen to extend far beyond the Ring Nebula's familiar central regions in this intriguing composite of ground based and Hubble Space Telescope images with narrowband image data from Subaru. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. Ionized oxygen atoms produce the characteristic greenish glow and ionized hydrogen the prominent red emission. The central ring of the Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,000 light-years away. To accompany tonight's shooting stars it shines in the northen constellation Lyra.

Comment by doone on April 19, 2012 at 10:18pm

Incredible Solar Flare

Apr. 19, 2012

Comment by doone on April 19, 2012 at 9:59pm

'EXTREME UNIVERSE' PUZZLE DEEPENS

Jason Palmer at the BBC:

The mystery surrounding the source of the highest-energy particles known in the Universe has grown deeper.

The particles, known as cosmic rays, can show up with energies a million times higher than the biggest particle accelerators on Earth can produce.

Astrophysicists believed that only two sources could make them: supermassive black holes in active galaxies, or so-called gamma ray bursts.

A study in Nature has now all but ruled out gamma ray bursts as the cause.

Gamma ray bursts (GRBs) are the brightest events we know of, though their sources remain a matter of some debate. They can release in hours more energy than our Sun will ever produce.

Computer models predict that GRBs could be the source of cosmic rays - mostly subatomic particles called protons, accelerated to incredibly high speeds.

But they were also predicted to produce a stream of neutrinos, the slippery subatomic particlesrecently brought to fame in claims of faster-than-light travel.

So researchers at the IceCube neutrino telescope went looking for evidence of neutrino arrival that coincided with measurements of gamma ray bursts detected by the Fermi and Swift space telescopes.

But it found none - suggesting that active galactic nuclei, where supermassive black holes reside, are likely to be the source.

More here.

Posted by Abbas Raza at 01:08 PM | Permalink |

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 18, 2012 at 9:09pm

Podcast: Space Chronicles; Neil DeGrasse Tyson

NASA has been sending Americans into space for half a century. But now that proud chapter is history. With the end of the space shuttle program, we have no way of launching astronauts in an American spacecraft from American soil for at least a decade, and maybe longer.

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson has big problems with that and he writes about them in his new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City and he recently spoke to Living on Earth’s Steve Curwood about space exploration, science education, and the role of discovery.

Comment by doone on April 18, 2012 at 9:28am

Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle

Apr. 18, 2012

Comment by doone on April 17, 2012 at 8:37am

Antares and Clouds 
Image Credit & Copyright: Ivan Eder

Explanation: Antares is a huge star. In a class called red supergiant, Antares is about 850 times the diameter of our own Sun, 15 times more massive, and 10,000 times brighter. Antares is the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius and one of the brighter stars in all the night sky. Located about 550 light years away, Antares is seen on the left surrounded by a yellowish nebula of gas which it has itself expelled. Radiation from Antares' blue stellar companion helps cause the nebular gas to glow. Far behind Antares, to the lower right in the above image, is the globular star cloud M4, while the bright star on the far right is Al Niyat.

Comment by doone on April 16, 2012 at 7:45pm

Purple Door, Jaipur, India

Apr. 16, 2012

5.

Comment by doone on April 16, 2012 at 4:43pm

The Eagle Nebula from Kitt Peak 
Image Credit: T. A. Rector & B. A. Wolpa, NOAO, AURA

Explanation: From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle. A closer look at the Eagle Nebula, however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell of dust. Through this window, a brightly-lit workshop appears where a whole open cluster of stars is being formed. In this cavity tall pillars and round globules of dark dust and cold molecular gas remain where stars are still forming. Already visible are several young bright blue stars whose light and winds are burning away and pushing back the remaining filaments and walls of gas and dust. The Eagle emission nebula, tagged M16, lies about 6500 light years away, spans about 20 light-years, and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). This picturecombines three specific emitted colors and was taken with the 0.9-meter telescope on Kitt Peak, Arizona, USA.

Comment by Michel on April 16, 2012 at 2:03pm

Incredible galaxy imaging:

1,000 Days of Infrared Wonders

ScienceDaily (Apr. 16, 2012) — For the last 1000 days the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), aboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, has been operating continuously to probe the universe from its most distant regions to our local solar neighborhood. The IRAC "warm" program began once Spitzer used up its liquid helium coolant, thus completing its "cold" mission. To commemorate 1000 days of infrared wonders, the program is releasing a gallery of the 10 best IRAC images.

And the images are fantastic! Make sure you click on the High Resolution Image links.

Click the image to enlarge - you'll get a taste.

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