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Invisible "Star Trek"-like Shield Found Thousands of Miles Above Earth

Sunday, December 7th 2014 01:41 AM

A team led by the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder has discovered an invisible shield some 7,200 miles (11,600 kilometers) above Earth that blocks so-called "killer electrons," which whip around the planet at near-light-speed and have been known to threaten astronauts, fry satellites, and degrade space systems during intense solar storms.The barrier to the particle motion was discovered in the Van Allen radiation belts, two doughnut-shaped rings above Earth that are filled with high-energy electrons and protons, said Daniel Baker of CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). Held in place by Earth's magnetic field, the Van Allen radiation belts periodically swell and shrink in response to incoming energy disturbances from the Sun.As the first significant discovery of the Space Age, the Van Allen radiation belts were detected in 1958 by Professor James Van Allen and his team at the University of Iowa and were found to comprise an inner and outer belt extending up to 25...

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New Way to Measure Distance to Galaxies

Thursday, November 27th 2014 07:39 AM

The new technique is similar to that used by land surveyors on Earth, who measure both the physical and angular — or “apparent” — size of a distant object to calculate its distance from Earth. The NGC 4151 "Eye of Sauron" galaxy is the first test subject. A team of scientists led by Sebastian Hoenig from the University of Southampton in England has accurately measured the distance to the nearby NGC 4151 galaxy, using the W. M. Keck Observatory Interferometer. The team employed a new technique they developed that allows them to measure precise distances to galaxies tens of millions of light-years away.The new technique is similar to that used by land surveyors on Earth, who measure both the physical and angular — or “apparent” — size of a distant object to calculate its distance from Earth. The Galaxy NGC 4151 called the, "Eye of Sauron" due to its similarity to the eye in the film Lord of the Rings. The image shows the supermass...

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Macroweather on Mars

Thursday, November 27th 2014 07:11 AM

The Red Planet’s transition from weather to macroweather is two Earth days, versus 10 days on our planet. Weather, which changes day to day due to constant fluctuations in the atmosphere, and climate, which varies over decades, is familiar. More recently, a third regime, called “macroweather,” has been used to describe the relatively stable regime between weather and climate. A global mosaic of Mars from the Viking mission. The new study used information collected from this Mars lander mission which occurred during the 1970s and 1980s.  A new study by researchers at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom found that this same three-part pattern applies to atmospheric conditions on Mars. The results also show that the Sun plays a major role in determining macroweather.The research promises to advance scientists’ understanding of the dynamics of Earth’s atmosphere and could provide insights int...

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Amateur, professional astronomers alike thrilled by extreme storms on Uranus

Friday, November 14th 2014 08:58 AM

Infrared images of Uranus (1.6 and 2.2 microns) obtained August 6, 2014, with adaptive optics on the 10-meter Keck telescope. The white spot is an extremely large storm that was brighter than any feature ever recorded on the planet in the 2.2 micron band. The normally bland face of Uranus has become increasingly stormy, with enormous cloud systems so bright that for the first time ever amateur astronomers are able to see details in the planet's hazy blue-green atmosphere. "The weather on Uranus is incredibly active," said Imke de Pater from the University of California, Berkeley. "This type of activity would have been expected in 2007, when Uranus' once-every-42-year-equinox occurred and the Sun shined directly on the equator," said Heidi Hammel of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. "But we predicted that such activity would have died down by now. Why we see these incredible storms now is beyond anybody's guess." In all, de Pater, Hammel, and their team de...

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Cassini sails into new ocean adventures on Titan

Friday, November 14th 2014 05:41 AM

Radar data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal the depth of liquid methane/ethane seas on Saturn's moon Titan The two new bright features that appeared in Titan’s largest sea, Kraken Mare, might be waves or floating debris. NASA’s Cassini mission continues its adventures in extraterrestrial oceanography with new findings about the hydrocarbon seas on Saturn’s moon Titan. During a flyby in August, the spacecraft sounded the depths near the mouth of a flooded river valley and observed new, bright features in the seas that might be related to the mysterious feature that researchers dubbed the “magic island.”To the delight of Cassini scientists, two new bright features appeared in Titan’s largest sea, Kraken Mare, during the August 21 flyby. In contrast to a previously reported bright mystery feature in another of Titan’s large seas, Ligeia Mare, the new features in Kraken Mare were observed in both radar data and images from Cassini’s...

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Revolutionary ALMA image reveals planetary genesis

Friday, November 14th 2014 05:21 AM

The observations used the telescope’s near-final configuration and are an enormous step forward in learning how protoplanetary disks develop. This new image from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveals extraordinarily fine detail that has never been seen before in the planet-forming disk around a young star. These are the first observations that have used ALMA in its near-final configuration and the sharpest pictures ever made at submillimeter wavelengths. The new results are an enormous step forward in the observation of how protoplanetary disks develop and how planets form.For ALMA’s first observations in its new and most powerful mode, researchers pointed the antennas at HL Tauri — a young star about 450 light-years away, which is surrounded by a dusty disk. The resulting image exceeds all expectations and reveals unexpectedly fine detail in the disk of material left over from star birth. It shows a series of concentric bright rings separ...

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Landing Success! What's Next for Rosetta?

Friday, November 14th 2014 04:59 AM

A planetary scientist involved in early stages of mission says early data could provide information on formation of the solar system. Self-portrait of the ESA Rosetta, taken from the Philae lander. A University of Leicester planetary scientist has hailed the European Space Agency's mission to land a probe on a fast-moving comet as a success despite issues with the landing. Professor Stan Cowley, of the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, has said the probe, known as Philae, could begin to unlock answers about the creation of the solar system with data collected from its landing debris. The small satellite touched down on comet 67P/C-G at about 3.30pm yesterday after a seven hour journey across empty space following its release from Rosetta. The moment was witnessed by millions of people across the world who had streamed a live feed from the operational control room, in Darmstadt, Germany. But evidence soon came to light which showed that the probe's harpoons, wh...

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PH3c: Astronomers Discover Low-Mass Exoplanet Orbiting Sun-like Star

Wednesday, November 12th 2014 07:16 AM

Professional astronomers and volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizens science program have discovered a low-mass, low-density exoplanet circling a Sun-like star known as PH3. The artist’s concept depicts a super-Earth-size planet. Image credit: NASA Ames / JPL-Caltech. PH3, also known as Kepler-289, KOI-1353 or KIC 7303287, is a young star located about 2,300 light-years from the Sun. Two planets in the system – Kepler-289b (PH3b) and Kepler-289c (PH3d) – had been previously validated statistically. Kepler-289c is a gas giant – a warm version of our Saturn, while Kepler-289b’s mass is poorly known. It could be mostly rocky, watery, or gassy. The planets have orbital periods of 126 and 35 days, respectively. Now, the astronomers and Planet Hunters volunteers have discovered a third alien world, dubbed PH3c, between these two planets with a period of 66 days. According to the team, PH3c nearly avoided detection. “This is becau...

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ALMA Captures Planet Formation around Young Star HL Tauri

Wednesday, November 12th 2014 06:57 AM

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured an image of a protoplanetary disk around a young Sun-like star known as HL Tauri. This revolutionary new image reveals extraordinarily fine detail that has never been seen before in the planet-forming disc around an infant star. This is a composite image of the young star HL Tauri and its surroundings using data from ALMA and the Hubble Space Telescope. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / ESA / Hubble / NASA / Judy Schmidt. HL Tauri is thought to be less than 100,000 years old. It lies in the direction of the constellation Taurus at a distance of 450 light years. The protoplanetary disk around this star is unusually massive and bright, which makes it an excellent place to search for signs of forming planets. HL Tauri is hidden in visible light behind a massive envelope of dust and gas. But ALMA observes at much longer wavelengths and is able to peer through the intervening du...

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NuSTAR telescope discovers unusually bright Pulsar

Tuesday, October 21st 2014 01:59 AM

Astronomers have found a pulsating dead star beaming with the energy of about 10 million Suns. This is the brightest pulsar — a dense stellar remnant left over from a supernova explosion — ever recorded. The discovery was made with NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR)."You might think of this pulsar as the 'Mighty Mouse' of stellar remnants," said Fiona Harrison from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. "It has all the power of a black hole, but with much less mass."The surprising find is helping astronomers better understand mysterious sources of blinding X-rays called ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). Until now, all ULXs were thought to be black holes. The new data from NuSTAR show at least one ULX, about 12 million light-years away in the galaxy M82, is actually a pulsar."The pulsar appears to be eating the equivalent of a black hole diet," said Harrison. "This result will help us understand how black holes gorge and grow so...

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