Category Astronomy/Space

This is a ground-based telescopic view of NGC 6791. Credit: NASA, ESA, DSS, and L. Bedin (STScI)

By conducting an orbital analysis, a team of astronomers led by Luis Martinez-Medina of the National Autonomous University of Mexico has uncovered new details about the origin and evolution of the old, metal-rich open cluster NGC 6791. Located about 13,300 light years from the Earth in the Lyra constellation, NGC 6791 is one of the most studied open clusters. It is ~8 billion years and an iron to hydrogen abundance ratio more than twice that of our sun. This makes it one of the oldest and most metal-rich clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. With a mass of approximately 5,000 solar masses, it is also one of the most massive open clusters known to date.

“In this work, we explore possible locations f...

This artist’s concept shows the OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft passing by Earth. Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/University of Arizona

Stargazers will be treated to a rare skyshow when NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft ‘sling-shots’ its way over Australian skies on September 23. Using Earth’s gravity to give it an orbital boost, OSIRIS-REx will rendezvous with the asteroid Bennu in 2018. The Earth flyby will give astronomers and those with high-end cameras a chance to view this rare encounter.

OSIRIS-REx is on an extraordinary journey to bring back to Earth a sample from the surface of the carbonaceous asteroid Bennu that could potentially record the early history of the solar system and molecular precursors to the origin of life...

First the galaxy is dominated by the disk component (left) but active star formation occurs in the huge dust and gas cloud at the center of the galaxy (center). Then the galaxy is dominated by the stellar bulge and becomes an elliptical or lenticular galaxy. Credit: NAOJ

Astronomers found that active star formation upswells galaxies, like yeast helps bread rise. Using 3 powerful telescopes on the ground and in orbit, they observed galaxies from 11 billion years ago and found explosive formation of stars in the cores of galaxies. This suggests that galaxies can change their own shape without interaction with other galaxies...

Wave structure in Saturn’s rings known as the Janus 2:1 spiral density wave Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

This view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows a wave structure in Saturn’s rings known as the Janus 2:1 spiral density wave. Resulting from the same process that creates spiral galaxies, spiral density waves in Saturn’s rings are much more tightly wound. In this case, every second wave crest is actually the same spiral arm which has encircled the entire planet multiple times. This is the only major density wave visible in Saturn’s B ring. Most of the B ring is characterized by structures that dominate the areas where density waves might otherwise occur, but this innermost portion of the B ring is different.

The radius from Saturn at which the wave originates (toward...