Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    Using Stellar ‘Twins’ to Reach Outer Limits of the Galaxy

    September 5, 2015, Categories  Physics, Astronomy/Space

    Two 'twin' stars with identical spectra observed by the La Silla Telescope. Since it is known that one star is 40 parsecs away, the difference in their apparent brightnesses allows calculation of the second star's distance. Credit: Carolina Jofre

    Two ‘twin’ stars with identical spectra observed by the La Silla Telescope. Since it is known that one star is 40 parsecs away, the difference in their apparent brightnesses allows calculation of the second star’s distance. Credit: Carolina Jofre

    A new, highly accurate method of measuring distances between stars, could be used to measure the size of the galaxy, enabling greater understanding of how it evolved. Using a technique which searches out stellar ‘twins’, they have been able to measure distances between stars with far greater precision than is possible using typical model-dependent methods. It will complement to Gaia satellite, which is creating a 3D map of the sky over 5 yrs, and could aid in the understanding of fundamental astrophysical processes at work far away.

    “....

    Read More

    Peering back in time to just after the Big Bang: Farthest Galaxy ever detected EGS8p7

    September 5, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Galaxy EGS8p7 as seen from space telescopes.

    Galaxy EGS8p7, as seen from the Hubble Space Telescope (wide and top right) and Spitzer Space Telescope (inset, bottom right), taken in infrared. Credit: I. Labbé (Leiden University), NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech – See more at: http://www.caltech.edu/news/farthest-galaxy-detected-47761#sthash.HzTzLROU.dpuf

    Researchers have reported the detection of the farthest object yet, galaxy EGS8p7. At >13.2 billion years old, it provides a fascinating glimpse of the very early universe, just 600,000 years after the Big Bang.

    Earlier this year, EGS8p7 had been identified as a candidate for investigation based on Hubble and Spitzer data. Using the multi-object spectrometer for infrared exploration (MOSFIRE) at the W.M...

    Read More

    ‘Hedgehog’ Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity

    September 4, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    While a Mars rover can't operate upside down, the Hedgehog robot can function regardless of which side lands up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford

    While a Mars rover can’t operate upside down, the Hedgehog robot can function regardless of which side lands up. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Stanford

    Hopping, tumbling and flipping over are not typical maneuvers you would expect from a spacecraft exploring other worlds. Traditional Mars rovers, for example, roll around on wheels, and they can’t operate upside-down. But on a small body, such as an asteroid or a comet, the low-gravity conditions and rough surfaces make traditional driving all the more hazardous.

    Enter Hedgehog: a new concept for a robot that is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of traversing small bodies...

    Read More

    Hubble Survey Unlocks Clues to Star Birth in neighbor Andromeda Galaxy

    September 4, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    [Top] -- This is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of 414 photographs of the nearest major galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The vast panorama was assembled from nearly 8,000 separate exposures taken in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Embedded within this view are 2,753 star clusters. The view is 61,600 light-years across and contains images of 117 million stars in the galaxy's disk. [Bottom-Left] - An enlargement of the boxed field in the top image reveals myriad stars and numerous open star clusters as bright blue knots. Hubble's bird's-eye view of M31 allowed astronomers to conduct a larger-than-ever sampling of star clusters that are all at the same distance from Earth, 2.5 million light-years. The view is 4,400 light-years across. [Bottom-Right] - This is a view of six bright blue clusters extracted from the field. Hubble astronomers discovered that, nature apparently cooks up stars with a consistent distribution from massive blue supergiant stars to small red dwarf stars. This remains a constant across the galaxy, despite the fact that the clusters vary in mass by a factor of 10 and range in age from 4 million to 24 million years old. Each cluster square is 150 light-years across. Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler

    [Top] — This is a Hubble Space Telescope mosaic of 414 photographs of the nearest major galaxy to our Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The vast panorama was assembled from nearly 8,000 separate exposures taken in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared light. Embedded within this view are 2,753 star clusters. The view is 61,600 light-years across and contains images of 117 million stars in the galaxy’s disk. [Bottom-Left] – An enlargement of the boxed field in the top image reveals myriad stars and numerous open star clusters as bright blue knots. Hubble’s bird’s-eye view of M31 allowed astronomers to conduct a larger-than-ever sampling of star clusters that are all at the same distance from Earth, 2.5 million light-years. The view is 4,400 light-years across...

    Read More