Astronomy News Feeds

Fly To Space For $320!

Tue, 29 May 2012 23:07:23 GMT

Ok, at 100,000 feet it’s not really “space” but for $320 USD JP Aerospace is offering a very affordable way to get your research experiment, brand statement, artwork or anything you can imagine (and that fits into a 50mm cube, weight limits apply) into the upper atmosphere. Pretty cool! (...)Read the rest of Fly To [...]

Ghostly Jets Haunt the Milky Way’s Black Hole

Tue, 29 May 2012 22:33:15 GMT

A ghost is haunting the Milky Way’s central black hole, revealing the galactic nucleus was likely much more active in the relatively recent past. Scientists using the Fermi space telescope have found faint apparitions of what must have been powerful gamma-ray jets emanating from our galaxy’s center. “These faint jets are a ghost or after-image [...]

A Twisting Tale of Space Solar Power

Tue, 29 May 2012 18:45:48 GMT

The dream of clean, consistent and renewable space solar power may become a reality, thanks to new research being done at The University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. (...)Read the rest of A Twisting Tale of Space Solar Power (665 words) © Jason Major for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Post [...]

Carnival of Space #251

Tue, 29 May 2012 17:49:14 GMT

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by the team over at the Chandra blog. Click here to read Carnival of Space #251. 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 [...]

Weekly SkyWatcher’s Forecast: May 28 – June 3, 2012

Tue, 29 May 2012 16:30:46 GMT

Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! As the Venus Transit draws closer, our bright neighboring planet is quickly disappearing into the sunset glow. As we await this astronomical piece of history, let’s take the time this week to have a look at a host of wonderful lunar features and bright stars. Be sure to catch the conjunction of [...]

Sentinels of the Arctic

Tue, 29 May 2012 13:06:00 GMT

Sentinels of the Arctic Who guards the north? Judging from the above photograph, possibly giant trees covered in snow and ice. The picture was taken last winter in Finnish Lapland where weather can include sub-freezing temperatures and driving snow. Surreal landscapes sometimes result, where common trees become cloaked in white and so appear, to some, as watchful aliens. Far in the distance, behind this uncommon Earthly vista, is a more common sight -- a Belt of Venus that divided a darkened from sunlit sky as the Sun rose behind the photographer. Of course, in the spring, the trees have thawed and Lapland looks much different.

Astronomy Seminar of the Week: The 2012 Transit of Venus
Tomorrow's picture: open space

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John Glenn Given Medal of Freedom

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

President Barack Obama presents former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut and United States Senator John Glenn with a Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, May 29, 2012, during a ceremony at the White House in Washington. Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Building 45 Payloads for Balloon Mission

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Dartmouth scientists are building 45 payloads--each destined for a trip on a balloon around Antarctica as part of NASA'S BARREL mission.

Lunar Spacecraft Complete Prime Mission Ahead of Schedule

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its prime mission earlier than expected.

Contemplating the Sun

Mon, 28 May 2012 13:06:02 GMT

Contemplating the Sun Have you contemplated your home star recently? Pictured above, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by earthlings contemplating the eclipse below. The above menagerie of silhouettes was taken from the Glenn Canyon National Recreational Area near Page, Arizona, USA, where park rangers and astronomers expounded on the unusual event to interested gatherers. Also faintly visible on the Sun's disk, just to the lower right of the dark Moon's disk, is a group of sunspots. Although exciting, some consider this event a warm-up act for next week's chance to comtemplate the Sun -- a much more rare partial eclipse by the planet Venus.

Astronomy Seminar of the Week: The 2012 Transit of Venus
Tomorrow's picture: white sentinels

Mercury Spotting

Sun, 27 May 2012 13:06:01 GMT

Mercury Spotting Can you spot the planet? The diminutive disk of Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, spent about five hours crossing in front of the enormous solar disk in 2003, as viewed from the general vicinity of planet Earth. The Sun was above the horizon during the entire transit for observers in Europe, Africa, Asia, or Australia, and the horizon was certainly no problem for the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. Seen as a dark spot, Mercury progresses from left to right (top panel to bottom) in these four images from SOHO's extreme ultraviolet camera. The panels' false-colors correspond to different wavelengths in the extreme ultraviolet which highlight regions above the Sun's visible surface. This was the first of 14 transits of Mercury which will occur during the 21st century. Next week, however, an event much more rare but easier to spot will occur -- a transit of Venus across the Sun. Need help spotting Mercury? Just click on the picture.

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Tomorrow's picture: spot the sun

At the Edge of NGC 891

Sat, 26 May 2012 13:06:02 GMT

At the Edge of NGC 891 This sharp cosmic portrait features NGC 891. The spiral galaxy spans about 100 thousand light-years and is seen almost exactly edge-on from our perspective. In fact, about 30 million light-years distant in the constellation Andromeda, NGC 891 looks a lot like our Milky Way. At first glance, it has a flat, thin, galactic disk and a central bulge cut along the middle by regions of dark obscuring dust. The combined image data also reveals the galaxy's young blue star clusters and telltale pinkish star forming regions. And remarkably apparent in NGC 891's edge-on presentation are filaments of dust that extend hundreds of light-years above and below the center line. The dust has likely been blown out of the disk by supernova explosions or intense star formation activity. Faint neighboring galaxies can also been seen near this galaxy's disk.

Scorpius in Red and Blue

Fri, 25 May 2012 13:06:03 GMT

Scorpius in Red and Blue Cosmic dust clouds dim the light of background stars. But they also reflect the light of stars nearby. Since bright stars tend to radiate strongly in the blue portion of the visible spectrum, and the interstellar dust scatters blue light more strongly than red, the dusty reflection nebulae tend to be blue. Lovely examples are the wispy blue reflection nebulae near bright, hot stars Pi and Delta Scorpii (upper left and lower right) in this telescopic skyscape from the head of the constellation Scorpius. Of course, the contrasting red emission nebulae are also caused by the hot stars' energetic radiation. Ultraviolet photons ionize hydrogen atoms in the interstellar clouds producing the characteristic red hydrogen alpha emission line as the electrons recombine. About 600 light-years away, the nebulae are found in the second version of the Sharpless Catalog as Sh2-1 (left, with reflection nebulae VdB 99) and Sh2-7. At that distance, this field of view is about 40 light-years across.

Hubble Sees A Spiral Within a Spiral

Thu, 24 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

ESO 498-G5's spiral arms wind all the way into the center, so its core looks like a bit like a miniature spiral galaxy.

NASA Study Shows Existence of Reduced Carbon on Mars

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

NASA-funded research on Mars meteorites that landed on Earth shows strong evidence that very large molecules containing carbon, which is a key ingredient for the building blocks of life, can originate on the Red Planet.

The 2012 Transit of Venus

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

On June 5th, 2012, Venus will pass across the face of the sun, producing a silhouette that no one alive today will likely see again.

Sunlight 'Nudges' Asteroid

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Scientists working on an upcoming asteroid sample return mission have measured their target's drift, caused by the subtle "push" of sunlight.

NASA to Hold News Conference About NuSTAR Launch

Wed, 23 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

NASA will hold a news conference on Wednesday, May 30 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) to discuss the upcoming launch of the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), a mission to hunt for black holes.

NASA's NuSTAR Gearing up for Launch

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Engineers are installing the "nose cone" around NASA's NuSTAR, a black hole hunter. The mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than June 13.

Hubble Spies Edge-on Beauty

Thu, 17 May 2012 23:00:00 GMT

Hubble caught this close up of the northern half of NGC891, approximately 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Andromeda.

A Study of 63 Hot Jupiter Systems

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Category: NASA Kepler News
A study of 63 hot Jupiter systems, planetary systems with Jupiter-size planet candidates in three day orbits found no evidence of small, companion candidates, suggesting that small candidates were ejected from the system, leaving large planets to later circularize into tight orbits.

NASA's Spitzer Sees the Light of Alien "Super Earth"

Tue, 08 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Category: News About Planet-finding
PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-Earth" planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.

Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:00:00 GMT

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This mottled landscape showing the impact crater Tycho is among the most violent-looking places on our Moon. Astronomers didn't aim NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study Tycho, however. The image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun's face on June 5-6.

Black Hole Caught Red-handed in a Stellar Homicide

Wed, 02 May 2012 17:00:00 GMT

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Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space-based observatory, and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were the first to the scene of the crime, helping to identify the stellar remains.

Earth-based Observations Lead to Planet Candidates in Habitable Zones

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Category: NASA Kepler News
A paper by P. Muirhead et al submitted to The Astrophysical Journal reports new stellar parameters of 84 cooler late-K and M-type stars in the Kepler Input Catalog. New stellar radii and temperatures obtained through observations using the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory has resulted in new orbit sizes for three super Earth-size planet candidates that place them the habitable zones of the respective host stars.

Almost All of Kepler's Multiple-planet Candidates Are Planets

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Category: NASA Kepler News
The Kepler team, with the wealth of planet candidates identified to date, is deep into a statistical analysis phase of the mission. The Astrophysical Journal article, Almost All of Kepler's Multiple-planet Candidates Are Planets," by J. Lissauer et al, demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of Kepler candidate multiple transiting systems (multis) indeed represent true, physically associated transiting planets.

Hubble Spots Aurorae on the Planet Uranus

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 16:00:00 GMT

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These are among the first clear images, taken from the distance of Earth, to show aurorae on the planet Uranus. This composite image combines 2011 Hubble observations of the aurorae in visible and ultraviolet light, 1986 Voyager 2 photos of the cyan disk of Uranus as seen in visible light, and 2011 Gemini Observatory observations of the faint ring system as seen in infrared light.

Hubble's 22nd Anniversary Image Shows Turbulent Star-making Region

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:00:00 GMT

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Several million young stars are vying for attention in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of a raucous stellar breeding ground in 30 Doradus, located in the heart of the Tarantula Nebula. 30 Doradus is the brightest star-forming region visible in a neighboring galaxy and home to the most massive stars ever seen. The nebula resides 170,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small, satellite galaxy of our Milky Way. No known star-forming region that is inside our Milky Way is as large or as prolific as 30 Doradus.

Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Category: NASA Kepler News
Kepler's data is archived at MAST, formerly known as the Multimission Archive at STSci, is now the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

Space Astronomy Archive and Distant Supernova Are Named in Honor Of U.S. Senator Barbara A. Mikulski

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:00:00 GMT

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One of the world's largest astronomy archives, containing a treasure trove of information about myriad stars, planets, and galaxies, has been named in honor of the United States Senator from Maryland Barbara Mikulski.