Stellar Destruction Could Be from Intermediate Black Hole
NGC 1399, an elliptical galaxy about 65 million light years from Earth. Credit: NASA, Chandra
A dense stellar remnant has been ripped apart by a black hole a thousand times as massive as the Sun. If confirmed, this discovery would be a cosmic double play: it would be strong evidence for an intermediate mass black hole — which has been a hotly debated topic — and would mark the first time such a black hole has been caught tearing a star apart. Scientists believe a mysterious intense X-ray emission, called an “ultraluminous X-ray source” or ULX is responsible for the destruction. “Astronomers have made cases for stars being torn apart by supermassive black holes in the centers of galaxies before, but this is the first good evidence for such an event in a globular cluster,” said Jimmy Irwin of the University of Alabama, who led the study.
(...)
Read the rest of Stellar Destruction Could Be from Intermediate Black Hole (493 words)
Dual Black Holes Spinning in a Cosmic Dance – Complete with Disc
Caption: An image of the galaxy COSMOS J100043.15+020637.2 taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy Dr. Julia Comerford.
Astronomers have discovered 33 pairs of merging black holes in cosmic dances around each other, a finding that was predicted or 'choreographed' by Isaac Newton. "These results are significant because we now know that these 'waltzing' black holes are much more common than previously known," said Dr. Julia Comerford of the University of California, Berkeley, at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, DC. "Galaxy mergers are causing the waltzing, can use this finding to determine how often mergers occur. The black holes dancing towards us are shifted towards blue light, and those moving away from us are shifted toward the red. So it is like a cosmic disco ball showing us where the black holes are dancing."
(...)
Read the rest of Dual Black Holes Spinning in a Cosmic Dance – Complete with Disco Ball (504 words)
Intergalactic Connection is Older, Longer than Thought
Our galaxy has a streamer, though it's not like the ones you had on your bike as a kid: this streamer is a flow of largely hydrogen gas that originates in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of our closest galactic neighbors. New observations of the stream have helped to revise its age and extent, and show it to be longer and much older than previous estimates.(...)
Read the rest of Intergalactic Connection is Older, Longer than Thought (421 words)
Could A Faraway Supernova Threaten Earth?
Supernovae, just like any other explosions, are really cool. But, just like any other explosion, it's preferable to have them happen at a good distance. The star T Pyxidis, which lies over 3,000 light-years away from the Earth in the constellation Pyxis, was previously thought to be far enough away that if anything happened in the way of a supernova, we'd be pretty safe.
According to Edward Sion, Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Villanova University, T Pyxidis may be in fact a "ticking time bomb," and potential threat to the Earth if it were to go supernova, which it may do sometime in the future, though very, very far in the future on our timescale: by Scion's calculations, at least 10 million years.(...)
Read the rest of Could A Faraway Supernova Threaten Earth? (491 words)
NASA Science News for January 4, 2010
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2010/04jan_fiveplanets.htm?list1035898
Do Eruptions of P Cygni Point to a Companion?
The other day, I wrote an article on Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) which made reference to P Cygni as a well established LBV to which a group made comparisons. While P Cygni is a good example of an LBV, it has many interesting characteristics in its own right. Prior to August 8, 1600, the star was not known to exist, when suddenly, it appeared, flaring to 3rd magnitude. Over the next hundred years it continued to undergo outbursts, fading and brightening.
New research by Amit Kashi of the Israel Institute of Technology suggests this series of flares may be due to the presence of a second star in orbit around P Cygni.(...)
Read the rest of Do Eruptions of P Cygni Point to a Companion? (506 words
Water on the Moon Revisited
Undoubtedly, one of the biggest space news stories of 2009 was the double news story of finding water on the Moon. First, in September, scientists from three different space missions announced they had detected widespread water across the surface of the Moon. Then in November, the LCROSS science team held a press briefing to announce they had detected "buckets" of water inside the crater the LCROSS impactor created inside Cabeus Crater on the lunar south pole. On the January 2 edition of 365 Days of Astronomy, I discuss the the findings and include audio clips from the press conference and soundbites from the scientists. Check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!
Also, in case you haven't heard, the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is continuing in 2010, and we are still looking for podcasters throughout the year. So far, over 200 days have been spoken for, but that still leaves about 165 other days to schedule. To find out more, visit the 365 Days of Astronomy website, or listen to me discuss the podcast on the January edition of The Jodcast.
Blue Moon Eclipse Photos from Santhosh Nandakumar
We couldn't see the eclipse from my house on Vancouver Island, but Santhosh Nandakumar was kind enough to send in this sequence of images of the eclipse from Coimbatore, TN, India.
MN112 – A New Luminous Blue Variable Found From Its Nebula?
Eta Carinae
Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are a rare class of extremely massive stars that teeter on the very edge of being stable. The most famous of this class of stars is the well studied Eta Carinae. Like many other LBVs, Eta Carinae is shrouded in a nebula of its own making. The instability of the star causes it to throw off large amounts of mass even during its brief main sequence lifetime. What makes these stars so unstable is an open question which has been difficult to answer do the the paucity of known LBVs. Given that the initial mass function predicts that such massive stars should be rare, this is not surprising, but identifying these stars is often made even more difficult due to the reddening caused by their nebulae.
However, an international team working from Russia and South Africa proposes that the nebula itself may be able to help identify potential candidates of LBVs. (...)
Read the rest of MN112 – A New Luminous Blue Variable Found From Its Nebula? (392 words)
New Year's Eve Blue Moon Eclipse from Cornwall
New Year's Eve Eclipse. Photo by Nathanial Burton-Bradford
Happy New Year! Thanks to Nathanial Burton-Bradford for sharing his photo of the New Year's Eve Blue Moon Eclipse. "Very hazy high level clouds over Cornwall so not very clear, unfortunately," Nathanial wrote this morning. But beautifully breathtaking nonetheless!
Onward to 2010!
New Year's Resolution: Find the Mars Polar Lander
(...)
Read the rest of New Year's Resolution: Find the Mars Polar Lander (181 words)
NASA Science News for December 31, 2009
NASA's Mars rover Spirit is about to mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public. However, the upcoming Martian winter could end the roving career of the beloved, scrappy robot.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/31dec_uncertainfuture.htm?list1035898
NASA Science News for December 29, 2009
This week, for the first time in almost twenty years, there's going to be a Blue Moon on New Year's Eve.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/29dec_bluemoon.htm?list1035898
NASA Science News for December 23, 200۹
The solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud that physics says should not exist. In the Dec. 24th issue of Nature, a team of scientists reveal how NASA's Voyager spacecraft have solved the mystery.
FULL STORY at
NASA Science News for December 18, 2009
NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2009/18dec_titanglint.htm?list1035898