astronomy •

Are You Ready for the Leonid Meteor Shower on Tuesday?

November 17, 2014 By Jack M. Robinson Leave a Comment

Great news for skywatchers everywhere! The Leonid meteor shower will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, November 18. The amazing astronomical event will have the night sky filled with shooting stars in a meteor rain.
These meteor storms happened in 1833 and 1966 when thousands of falling stars were observed light up the sky. Other Leonid meteor shower happened in more recent times, in 1999, 2001 and 2002, but at these events there were only a couple of thousands meteors per hour were visible.

The 2014 Leonid meteor shower will not be very spectacular, experts say, and we won’t be able to see many meteors falling from the skies. Astronomers say that there will be long periods of time when not one single meteor will be seen.
If tomorrow will be a bad weather, or if you won’t be able to see the Leonid meteor shower clearly because of the air pollution, you can catch the astronomical event online. NASA and Slooh Community Observatory will webcast it for free in two sessions.

The webcast on Slooh.com will start at 8 p.m. EST and you will be able to see the night sky through the observatory’s telescope in Prescott, Arizona and the Canary Islands.
NASA will broadcast the Leonid meteor shower starting with 7:30 p.m. EST and you will be able to see the event through the telescope view from Alabama, where NASA has the Marshall Space Flight Center.

If you want to watch the Leonid meteor shower from outside, you just need to lie back and look at the sky. You need to be somewhere where nothing like tall trees or tall buildings can obstruct your view of the night sky.
The best time to see the Leonids is around after midnight because that is when the constellation Leo will start appearing.

The Leonid meteor shower became famous in the 17th century and in 1833 more than 100,000 meteors per hours could be seen on the night sky. Although the 2014 Leonids will not be as spectacular as past Leonids, it will sure worth seeing it.

Search for Rosetta Landing Site Narrows

August 25, 2014 By Jack M. Robinson Leave a Comment

Two highly important space missions reached new stages in August. NASA’s New Horizons probe passed near Neptune on its way to Pluto and other Kuiper Belt bodies.

The European Space Agency prepared a daring program, Rosetta, in another part of the solar system. Rosetta is a probe launched in 2004 with the aim of studying a comet. The spacecraft was set to hibernation mode for 31 months to conserve energy until this January. The daring part is ESA’s plan to land Rosetta on the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet.

The probe sent back wonderful images of the comet as it was getting closer. Based on the information received so far now scientists must decide the Rosetta landing site. Now, the agency announced that five locations are considered.

The ESA team working on Rosetta must take into account multiple characteristics when deciding which locations fits their interests and the spacecraft’s wellbeing best.

Rosetta landing site chosen by mid-September

“The process of selecting a landing site is extremely complex and dynamic; as we get closer to the comet, we will see more and more details, which will influence the final decision on where and when we can land,” said Fred Jansen, Rosetta’s mission manager from the European Space Agency’s Science and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. “We had to complete our preliminary analysis on candidate sites very quickly after arriving at the comet, and now we have just a few more weeks to determine the primary site. The clock is ticking and we now have to meet the challenge to pick the best possible landing site.”

From a list of 10 initial potential landing sites, only five made it to the shortlist. Several factors need to be accounted for. First, Rosetta must be able to maintain regular communication with Earth from the location. Secondly, the location topography must not pose any dangers to Rosetta and ensure a safe landing. Thirdly, the location must not obstruct natural illumination, as Rosetta’s batteries last only 64 hours and need to be recharged.

By September 14 the final Rosetta landing site will be selected. Philae, the robotic lander with nine extra analytical instruments, will be deployed in November. Philae will send back to Earth the most detailed information on comets so far. The robots has to land in November the latest, as the comet will get closer to the Sun afterward and start melting.

Ancient Star Traces Discovered by Scientists

August 21, 2014 By James Faulkner Leave a Comment

The history of the Universe contains some marvelous stories. Astronomers are in a way sky archeologists. Pointing powerful telescopes at the skies provides not only images of what happens somewhere, but what happened way back in time as well. Light travels fast, but the Universe is so large that if we capture images from afar, we are actually looking at the primordial times.

Dr. Wako Aoki from the National Observatory of Japan conducted a study on ancient star traces in the Universe. She and her colleagues released the results of studying a particular ancient star in the journal Science, under the title “A chemical signature of first-generation very massive stars.”

The star SDSS J0018-0939 died a long time ago by turning into a supernova. But researchers can still capture and analyze light from that particular explosion. The star was about 200 times larger than our Sun. Moreover, the level of iron contained by this star was 1000 less than that of the Sun.

The Universe was rather boring in the beginning. Things changed after the giant stars appeared. Although they had a very short lifespan, of only 3 million years, their size influenced the processes and produced violent deaths. Out of the resulting stellar dust, a second generation of stars was born, this time with a more complex chemical composition.

Astronomers regularly provide us with deeper understanding of how the Universe works. Recently, scientists discovered that dwarf galaxies ‘dance’ around larger galaxies.

Ancient star traces hint at the huge sizes of the first stars

“Our discovery provides the very first evidence, or signature, for the existence of such very massive stars,” Aoki said. “And very massive stars have a very large impact on star formation, galaxy formation in the early universe, so their existence is very essential in studying the early universe.”

Astronomers decipher the composition of celestial bodies by analyzing the wavelengths. When a color is present or missing, it tells if a certain chemical is present.

Because earlier stars had a less complex chemical composition, they reached enormous sizes. When a star increases its chemical complexity, it cannot go over a certain size. Because of that, stars 100 times larger than our Sun are very rare now. Not a single one was discovered in our galaxy.

SDSS J0018-0939 suffered an extremely violent ending called Pair-Instability supernova, meaning there were no physical traces after the event. Everything scattered around, enriching the vicinities with metals. The next generation of telescopes, including Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, will help scientists shed more light on these ancient star traces.

Companion Planets Extend Chances of Finding Life

August 1, 2014 By Sebastian Mc’Mannen 2 Comments

Our image of extraterrestrial life is closely connected to that of water-based life forms. Scientists are looking through telescopes at various parts of the Universe in an attempt to find planets similar to Earth. The hope is that an Earth-like planet will support similar life forms. Water is the most important element needed for such a scenario, so researchers search various characteristics that will convey the substance’s presence. Apparently, companion planets extend chances to find life on exoplanets.

Scientists from University of Washington and University of Arizona reached a conclusion which will offer help in the quest for planets with water outside of our solar system. One important fact is that water stays in liquid form only in a certain temperature range. Usually what happens is that after a planet passes a certain age, it gets colder and loses its ability to potentially sustain life. This means that the chances to identify an Earth-like planet decreases because a colder planet cannot sustain life. Until we have access to instruments allowing us to see further in space, researchers have to base their findings on characteristics presently visible.

Until life will be spotted on exoplanets, NASA plans on sending another mission to Europe, Jupiter’s satellite, to examine its icy crust and answer the question if liquid water lies underneath.

Companion planets extend chances of finding life because they keep each other warm

Barnes, Van Laerhovan and Greenberg discovered that planets with companion planets might have greater chances of hosting life, because they maintain their heat longer. The companion planet exerts gravitational push and pull forces. As a consequence, a tidal heating occurs, preventing the planet from getting cold.

By running a computer model, researchers found that planets roughly the size of Earth running in noncircular orbits around small stars have the potential to display tidal heating if a companion planet is around. The role of the companion planet is to keep the orbit noncircular.

“When the planet is closer to the star, the gravitational field is stronger and the planet is deformed into an American football shape. When farther from the star, the field is weaker and the planet relaxes into a more spherical shape,” Barnes said. “This constant flexing causes layers inside the planet to rub against each other, producing frictional heating.”

The discovery increases the chances of finding habitable exoplanets, as this type of duo is easier to spot through telescopes. Companion planets extend chances of finding life, which might be very evolved, as the planets are warm for longer periods.

Dwarf Galaxies Movement Unravels Universe Structure

July 22, 2014 By Georgia Dawson Leave a Comment

Dwarf galaxies are much smaller than the average sized galaxies, containing just a couple of billion stars. Our solar system is a part of the Milky Way Galaxy, which numbers between 200 and 400 billion stars. However, dwarf galaxies form the majority of the Universe’s galaxies. Scientists attempted to understand the relations between dwarf and larger galaxies in an international project. The dwarf galaxies movement around the larger ones offers important data about the structure of the Universe.

James Webb Space Telescope will be placed on Earth’s orbit in 2018 and is expected to contribute greatly to the understanding of distant processes. Primarily, JWST will attempt to find habitable planets outside the solar system.

Previously, dwarf galaxies were presumed to swarm around larger galaxies like bees. But new findings reveal that dwarf galaxies orbit less scattered than thought. Rather, these galaxies orbit in a larger coordinated movement around larger similar bodies. In 2013, scientists looked at Andromeda galaxy and found that about half of its dwarf galaxies revolve in a clearly defined plane with a 300.000 light years width. The plane has a one million light years diameter, clearly suggesting an organized movement.

Next, researchers attempted to understand more precisely how the galaxies interact, by using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The SDSS is performed with one optical 2.5 meters wide telescope at Apache Point Observatory, New Mexico, U.S. The red-shift survey offers a rich array of colored images and 3D maps covering about a third of the sky.

The dwarf galaxies movement resembles a dance

Lead author Neil Ibata said they “[w]e were surprised to find that a large proportion of pairs of satellite galaxies have oppositely directed velocities if they are situated on opposite sides of their giant galaxy hosts”. The researchers argue that because more than 50 percent of the analyzed galaxies display this choreographed movement, they might have discovered a universal law of movement for this celestial bodies.

Professor Geraint Lewis from University of Sydney’s School of Physics, one of the scientists from the international research project, stated that “[e]verywhere we looked we saw this strangely coherent coordinated motion of dwarf galaxies. From this we can extrapolate that these circular planes of dancing dwarfs are universal, seen in about 50 percent of galaxies,” said Professor Geraint Lewis. He added that “[t]his is a big problem that contradicts our standard cosmological models. It challenges our understanding of how the universe works including the nature of dark matter.” Dwarf galaxies movement have long preoccupied astronomers and the new discovery will have a deep impact over the field.

James Webb Telescope, Starting Point in Real Alien Life Search

July 22, 2014 By Janet Vasquez 1 Comment

The Hubble Telescope provided some of the most incredible images the world has seen. The next generation telescope, James Webb, will be launched in 2018. As a comparison, Hubble is equipped with a 2.4 meters mirror, while James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will sport a 6.5 meters mirror. The James Webb telescope will be the first imaging device to actually stand a chance in finding alien life.

Building such a large precise mirror requires extraordinary skills. The engineers had to assemble 18 hexagonal mirror segments to form the $8.8 billion telescope mirror. The largest telescope mirror planned to lie atop Armazones, a Chilean mountain, will belong to the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). The diameter of the telescope planned to be functional by 2024 is 39 meters, 29 meters more than the present telescopes, according to the New York Times.

The new wave in astronomical observation includes projects of telescopes more powerful than Hubble. The reliable Hubble space telescope has a main advantage compared with grounded telescopes, its mirror is not obstructed by atmospheric gases. New technology allows not only building larger mirrors, but also new technologies to clarify images. By using adaptive optics, the new mirrors will be able to cancel the disruptive optical effect of atmospheric gases.

NASA works on more than one field. Until a habitable planet outside the solar system will be discovered, Jupiter’s satellite, Europa, need to be explored is search of a potential underground liquid ocean.

James Webb Telescope will provide impressive images starting with 2018

JWST was supposed to cost ‘only’ $5 billion and be placed on orbit this year. Unfortunately, the final cost is going to be $8 billion and the launch year has been postponed for 2018. Unfortunately, because NASA had to abandon other projects and squeeze funds from every possible source to support JWST’s development.

JWST will mainly be oriented to measuring infrared light. Planets do not regularly emit visible light as much as infrared radiation. Because JWST will search for potentially habitable planets, infrared radiation measuring instruments will be top class.

Out of the 100 billion estimated planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, around 10 to 20 percent might be positioned in the habitable zone. The zone would be not too far and not too close to the host star for liquid water to exist.

JWST telescope scientist Matt Mountain believes that we need much larger mirrors to be able to see enough planets and statistically have a chance of finding a habitable one. Mountain dreams of 20 meters mirrors to achieve this task, according to Spacenews.com. The James Webb telescope is more of a warming up in astronomy. Real results will start coming in a couple of decades, after optical technology refines even more.

Scientists Witnessed The Birth of Saturn’s New Moon

April 17, 2014 By Janet Vasquez Leave a Comment

NASA space probe has taken images of Saturn while it was in the process of creating a new moon, adding another one to the 63 moons Saturn currently has. While the identification of Saturn’s new moon is still not 100% positive, the scientists have already found a name for the “baby” moon. They called it Peggy.

Carl Murray, a researcher at the Queen Mary University of London said the they have not witnessed any event like the birth of Saturn’s new moon before.

According to a NASA report, Murray wrote the report that was published by the science journal Icarus. In it, Murray writes that the science world may witness an actual “planetary” birth meaning that an actual object is detaching from Saturn’s rings and heads off to be a moon on its own.

The officials at NASA said that the space probe called Cassini-Huygens has documented some sort of bulge in the A Ring of the planet Saturn. The A Ring is the largest of its bands measuring 1200 km long and 10 km wide. Scientists believe that the rings act like nurseries where all Saturn’s moons have been created. These rings are made of dust, rock and ice and when they coalesce they add more gravity and mass, causing the moons to get bigger. NASA said about the possible new moon that it’s a small one – about 0.5 miles in diameter.

Saturn is known to have 53 moons and nine more possible ones, described by the scientists as “provisional”. Most of Saturn’s moons are made of ice, the NASA experts say.

Linda Spilker, a scientist involved in the Cassini Project said that “Witnessing the possible birth of tiny moon is an exciting, unexpected event.”

Saturn’s new moon – too soon to say if it’s a permanent moon

Scientists believe that Saturn’s new moon is still too small and the Cassini cameras cannot take a clear image yet. It might take two more years before they have some detailed information on Peggy, the new moon. The scientists are hoping that by 2016 Cassini’s orbit will get even closer to Saturn’s A Ring and this way they can take better photos of they believe to be the last moon Saturn will produce. The Cassini space probe has been orbiting around Saturn since 2004.

Another important astronomical event that happened recently was the total lunar eclipse scientists called the “blood moon”, which some Christians believe it to be a sign from God.