PeteUplink's Universe

ScienceCasts: An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds (by...

Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:30:34 +0100

ScienceCasts: An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds (by ScienceAtNASA)

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for breaking science news.

Glowing electric-blue at the edge of space, noctilucent clouds have surprised researchers by appearing early this year. The unexpected apparition hints at a change in the “teleconnections” of Earth’s atmosphere.

ScienceCasts: Big Asteroid Flyby (by...

Thu, 30 May 2013 23:20:07 +0100

ScienceCasts: Big Asteroid Flyby (by ScienceAtNASA)

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for breaking science news.

NASA is tracking a large near-Earth asteroid as it passes by the Earth-Moon system on May 31st. Amateur astronomers in the northern hemisphere may be able to see the space rock for themselves during the 1st week of June.

Tonight’s Sky: June 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel) Backyard...

Tue, 28 May 2013 23:14:20 +0100

Tonight’s Sky: June 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel)

Backyard stargazers get a monthly guide to the northern hemisphere’s skywatching events with “Tonight’s Sky.” June’s display includes four impressive constellations.

“Tonight’s Sky” is produced by HubbleSite.org, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is a recurring show, and you can find more episodes — and other astronomy videos — at HubbleSite.org.

Visit Tonight’s Sky on HubbleSite.

http://hubblesite.org/explore_astrono…

The messy result of a galactic collision

Mon, 27 May 2013 12:52:01 +0100

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This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures an ongoing cosmic collision between two galaxies — a spiral galaxy is in the process of colliding with a lenticular galaxy. The collision looks almost as if it is popping out of the screen in 3D, with parts of the spiral arms clearly embracing the lenticular galaxy’s bulge.

The image also reveals further evidence of the collision. There is a bright stream of stars coming out from the merging galaxies, extending out towards the right of the image. The bright spot in the middle of the plume, known as ESO 576-69, is what makes this image unique. This spot is believed to be the nucleus of the former spiral galaxy, which was ejected from the system during the collision and is now being shredded by tidal forces to produce the visible stellar stream.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

Milky Way Shines over Snowy La Silla

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:52:36 +0100

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In the outskirts of the Atacama Desert, far from the light-polluted cities of northern Chile, the skies are pitch-black after sunset. Such dark skies allow some of the best astronomical observing to take place — and at an altitude of 2400 metres, ESO’s La Silla Observatory has an incredibly clear view of the night sky. However, even such a remote, high, and dry location cannot always escape the weather that sometimes comes with the winter months, when blankets of snow can cover the mountain peak and its telescope domes.

This image shows a wintry La Silla sitting beneath a spray of stars from our Milky Way, the plane of which slants across the frame. Visible (from right to left) are the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT), the ESO 1-metre Schmidt telescope, and the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope, which has snow on its dome. The small dome of the decommissioned Coudé Auxiliary Telescope can be seen adjacent to that of the ESO 3.6-metre telescope, and between it and the NTT are the water tanks of the observatory.

While the sight of snow at La Silla may initially be surprising, the high altitude ESO sites can experience both hot and cold temperatures through the year, and occasionally be subject to harsh conditions.

This photograph was taken by José Francisco Salgado, an ESO Photo Ambassador.

Space Oddity (by Chris Hadfield) A revised version of David...

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:45:01 +0100

Space Oddity (by Chris Hadfield)

A revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

With thanks to Emm Gryner, Joe Corcoran, Andrew Tidby and Evan Hadfield for all their hard work.

Find out more:

Twitter: twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield
Facebook: www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield?fref=ts
Google+: plus.google.com/113978637743265603454/posts/p/pub

A spacetime magnifying glass

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:09:42 +0100

Click to Enlarge

This Hubble image shows the galaxy cluster Abell S1077. Galaxy clusters are large groupings of galaxies, each of them including millions of stars. They are the largest existing structures in the Universe to be held together by their gravity.

The amount of matter condensed in such groupings is so high that their gravity is enough to warp the fabric of spacetime, distorting the path that light takes when it travels through the cluster. In some cases, this phenomenon produces an effect somewhat like a magnifying lens, allowing us to see objects that are aligned behind the cluster and which would otherwise be undetectable from Earth. In this image, you see stretched stripes that look like scratches on a lens but are, in fact, galaxies whose light is heavily distorted by the gravitational field of the cluster.

Astronomers use tools like the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the effects of gravitational lensing to peer far back in time and space to see the furthest objects located in the early Universe. One of the record holders is MACS0647-JD, a galaxyseen by Hubble and the Spitzer Space Telescope with the help of a gravitational lens much like this one in the galaxy cluster MACS J0647.7+7015. Its light has taken 13.3 billion years to reach us.

This image is based in part on data spotted by Nick Rose in the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition.

Galaxy Cluster H68 (Hickson 68) imaged using SLOOH’s...

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:47:34 +0100

Galaxy Cluster H68 (Hickson 68) imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2 Wide Field on May 11th, 2013 at 21:45:21 UTC

Saturn imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2 High Mag on...

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:26:13 +0100

Saturn imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2 High Mag on May 11th, 2013 at 21:23:23 UTC

Exploding Galaxy M82 imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2...

Sat, 11 May 2013 22:19:00 +0100

Exploding Galaxy M82 imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2 High Mag on May 11th, 2013 at 21:15:14 UTC

Slooh Space Camera Annular Eclipse Animation 2013 (by...

Fri, 10 May 2013 15:45:46 +0100

Slooh Space Camera Annular Eclipse Animation 2013 (by SloohOnAirVideos)

ScienceCasts: Sunset Triangle (by...

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:16:18 +0100

ScienceCasts: Sunset Triangle (by ScienceAtNASA)

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for breaking science news.

The three brightest planets in this month’s night sky are lining up for a beautiful sunset conjunction at the end of May

SN1006 In 60 Seconds (by cxcpub) The new Chandra data provide...

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:32:19 +0100

SN1006 In 60 Seconds (by cxcpub)

The new Chandra data provide new details about SN 1006.

NGC 6240 in 60 Seconds (by cxcpub) Two large galaxies are...

Wed, 08 May 2013 11:33:20 +0100

NGC 6240 in 60 Seconds (by cxcpub)

Two large galaxies are colliding and scientists have used Chandra to make a detailed study of an enormous cloud of hot gas that surrounds them.

Astronomy Cast 300: What We’ve Learned in Almost 7 Years...

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:47:00 +0100

Astronomy Cast 300: What We’ve Learned in Almost 7 Years (by Fraser Cain)

This is the replay of the weekly Astronomy Cast Google Hangout. I’ve been a follower of these for a little while now and thought I’d share it to my blog with a view to maybe sharing more of them later. If you have any thoughts on the video, whether you’d like to see more or not, let me know in the comments below.

They do have some technical difficulties at the start of the video (It went out live at the time), but stick with it. I think you’ll find it interesting.

-Pete

Lore on the Move

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:41:30 +0100

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In this photograph one of the two ALMA transporters, Lore, is carrying one of the 7-metre-diameter antennas of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. Lore and her twin, Otto, are two bright yellow 28-wheeled vehicles, custom-built to move ALMA’s antennas around on the Chajnantor Plateau at an elevation of 5000 metres. By doing this, they can reconfigure the telescope array to make the most useful observations of a given target. They also move antennas between Chajnantor and the lower altitude Operations Support Facility for maintenance.

ALMA has a main array of fifty 12-metre-diameter antennas, and an additional array of twelve 7-metre antennas and four 12-metre antennas, known as the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). Lore is carrying one of the smaller, 7-metre antennas of the ACA. The 12-metre antennas of the main array cannot be placed closer than 15 metres apart as they would otherwise bump into each other. This minimum separation between antennas limits the maximum scale of the features that they can detect in the sky. This means that the main array cannot observe the broadest features of extended objects such as giant clouds of molecular gas in the Milky Way, or nearby galaxies. The ACA is specifically designed to help ALMA make better observations of these extended objects. Its smaller 7-metre antennas can be placed closer together, making them better able to measure the broader structures that the main array misses.

The dramatic icy spikes in the foreground are known as penitentes (Spanish for penitents). These are a curious natural phenomenon found in high altitude regions, typically more than 4000 metres above sea level. They are thin blades of hardened snow or ice which point towards the Sun, attaining heights from a few centimetres up to several metres.

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

A tale of galactic collisions

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:19:20 +0100

Click to Enlarge

When we look into the distant cosmos, the great majority of the objects we see are galaxies: immense gatherings of stars, planets, gas, dust, and dark matter, showing up in all kind of shapes. This Hubble picture registers several, but the galaxy catalogued as 2MASX J05210136-2521450 stands out at a glance due to its interesting shape.

This object is an ultraluminous infrared galaxy which emits a tremendous amount of light at infrared wavelengths. Scientists connect this to intense star formation activity, triggered by a collision between two interacting galaxies.

The merging process has left its signs: 2MASX J05210136-2521450 presents a single, bright nucleus and a spectacular outer structure that consists of a one-sided extension of the inner arms, with a tidal tail heading in the opposite direction, formed from material ripped out from the merging galaxies by gravitational forces.

The image is a combination of exposures taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, using near-infrared and visible light. A version of this image was submitted to the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

ScienceCasts: Glow-in-the-Dark Plants on the ISS (by...

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:28:07 +0100

ScienceCasts: Glow-in-the-Dark Plants on the ISS (by ScienceAtNASA)

Visit http://science.nasa.gov/ for breaking science news.

Can plants adapt to the novelty of climate change? Researchers seeking to answer this question have sent genetically engineered plants to the ISS for exposure to extreme conditions. To report their condition, the plants have learned to glow in the dark.

Tonight’s Sky: May 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel) Backyard...

Wed, 01 May 2013 20:19:28 +0100

Tonight’s Sky: May 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel)

Backyard stargazers get a monthly guide to the northern hemisphere’s skywatching events with “Tonight’s Sky.” May is a great month for eclipses, both lunar and solar! And the Eta Aquarid meteors are here to shower the night with lovely sights.

“Tonight’s Sky” is produced by HubbleSite.org, online home of the Hubble Space Telescope. This is a recurring show, and you can find more episodes — and other astronomy videos — at HubbleSite.org.

I’ve not been posting very much on here as I’ve been busy looking after my mum again, as...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 08:57:42 +0100

I’ve not been posting very much on here as I’ve been busy looking after my mum again, as well as doing other things, I will be back to regular posting soon.

-Pete

PeteUplink's Universe

ScienceCasts: An Early Start for Noctilucent Clouds (by...

ScienceCasts: Big Asteroid Flyby (by...

Tonight’s Sky: June 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel) Backyard...

The messy result of a galactic collision

Milky Way Shines over Snowy La Silla

Space Oddity (by Chris Hadfield) A revised version of David...

A spacetime magnifying glass

Galaxy Cluster H68 (Hickson 68) imaged using SLOOH’s...

Saturn imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2 High Mag on...

Exploding Galaxy M82 imaged using SLOOH’s Canary Islands 2...

Slooh Space Camera Annular Eclipse Animation 2013 (by...

ScienceCasts: Sunset Triangle (by...

SN1006 In 60 Seconds (by cxcpub) The new Chandra data provide...

NGC 6240 in 60 Seconds (by cxcpub) Two large galaxies are...

Astronomy Cast 300: What We’ve Learned in Almost 7 Years...

Lore on the Move

Links

A tale of galactic collisions

ScienceCasts: Glow-in-the-Dark Plants on the ISS (by...

Tonight’s Sky: May 2013 (by HubbleSiteChannel) Backyard...

I’ve not been posting very much on here as I’ve been busy looking after my mum again, as...