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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Mars Mission sheds light on Habitability of distant Planet

    December 16, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An artist's rendition depicts a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the upper atmosphere. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

    An artist’s rendition depicts a solar storm hitting Mars and stripping ions from the upper atmosphere.
    Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    How long might a rocky, Mars-like planet be habitable if it were orbiting a red dwarf star? It’s a complex question but one that NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission can help answer. The MAVEN mission tells us that Mars lost substantial amounts of its atmosphere over time, changing the planet’s habitability,” said David Brain, a MAVEN co-investigator and a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder. “We can use Mars, a planet that we know a lot about, as a laboratory for studying rocky planets outside our solar system, which we don’t know much about yet.”

    At the fall meeti...

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    Dawn of a Galactic Collision

    December 15, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NGC 5256 is a pair of galaxies in its final stage of merging. It was previously observed by Hubble as part of a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies, released on Hubble's 18th anniversary on April 24, 2008. The new data make the gas and dust being whirled around inside and outside the galaxy more visible than ever before. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

    NGC 5256 is a pair of galaxies in its final stage of merging. It was previously observed by Hubble as part of a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies, released on Hubble’s 18th anniversary on April 24, 2008. The new data make the gas and dust being whirled around inside and outside the galaxy more visible than ever before. Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

    A riot of colour and light dances through this peculiarly shaped galaxy, NGC 5256. Its smoke-like plumes are flung out in all directions and the bright core illuminates the chaotic regions of gas and dust swirling through the galaxy’s centre. Its odd structure is due to the fact that this is not one galaxy, but two – in the process of a galactic collision...

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    Stellar Nursery Blooms into View

    December 14, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The OmegaCAM imager on ESO's VLT Survey Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

    The OmegaCAM imager on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula. Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser

    The OmegaCAM camera on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula. The region of sky pictured is listed in the Sharpless catalogue of HII regions: interstellar clouds of ionised gas, rife with star formation...

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    Bright Areas on Ceres suggest Geologic Activity

    December 14, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The bright areas of Occator Crater -- Cerealia Facula in the center and Vinalia Faculae to the side -- are examples of bright material found on crater floors on Ceres. This is a simulated perspective view. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

    The bright areas of Occator Crater — Cerealia Facula in the center and Vinalia Faculae to the side — are examples of bright material found on crater floors on Ceres. This is a simulated perspective view. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI

    If you could fly aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but with notable exceptions. These exceptions are the hundreds of bright areas that stand out in images Dawn has returned. Now, scientists have a better sense of how these reflective areas formed and changed over time – processes indicative of an active, evolving world...

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