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    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA Rover takes Samples from Active Linear Dune on Mars

    May 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows two scales of ripples, plus other textures, in an area where the mission examined a linear-shaped dune in the Bagnold dune field on lower Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows two scales of ripples, plus other textures, in an area where the mission examined a linear-shaped dune in the Bagnold dune field on lower Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

    As it drives uphill from a band of rippled sand dunes, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is toting a fistful of dark sand for onboard analysis that will complete the rover’s investigation of those dunes. From early February to early April, the rover examined 4 sites near a linear dune for comparison with what it found in late 2015 and early 2016 during its investigation of crescent-shaped dunes. This two-phase campaign is the 1st close-up study of active dunes anywhere other than Earth...

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    A lot of Galaxies need guarding

    May 5, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Like the quirky characters in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing galaxies across time and space. One stunning example is galaxy cluster Abell 370, which contains a vast assortment of several hundred galaxies tied together by the mutual pull of gravity. That's a lot of galaxies to be guarding, and just in this one cluster! Photographed in a combination of visible and near-infrared light with the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 in Sept. 2009 to Feb. 2015, the immense cluster is a rich mix of galaxy shapes. Entangled among the galaxies are mysterious-looking arcs of blue light. These are actually distorted images of remote galaxies behind the cluster. These far-flung galaxies are too faint for Hubble to see directly. Instead, the gravity of the cluster acts as a huge lens in space, magnifying and stretching images of background galaxies like a funhouse mirror. Abell 370 is located approximately 4 billion light-years away in the constellation Cetus, the Sea Monster. It is the last of six galaxy clusters imaged in the recently concluded Frontier Fields project -- an ambitious, community-developed collaboration among NASA's Great Observatories and other telescopes that harnessed the power of massive galaxy clusters and probed the earliest stages of galaxy development. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI)

    Like the quirky characters in the upcoming film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has some amazing superpowers, specifically when it comes to observing galaxies across time and space. One stunning example is galaxy cluster Abell 370, which contains a vast assortment of several hundred galaxies tied together by the mutual pull of gravity. That’s a lot of galaxies to be guarding, and just in this one cluster! Photographed in a combination of visible and near-infrared light with the Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 in Sept. 2009 to Feb. 2015, the immense cluster is a rich mix of galaxy shapes. Entangled among the galaxies are mysterious-looking arcs of blue light. These are actually distorted images of remote galaxies behind the cluster...

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    VISTA peeks through the Small Magellanic Cloud’s Dusty Veil

    May 4, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy is a striking feature of the southern sky even to the unaided eye. But visible-light telescopes cannot get a really clear view of what is in the galaxy because of obscuring clouds of interstellar dust. VISTA's infrared capabilities have now allowed astronomers to see the myriad of stars in this neighbouring galaxy much more clearly than ever before. The result is this record-breaking image -- the biggest infrared image ever taken of the Small Magellanic Cloud -- with the whole frame filled with millions of stars. As well as the SMC itself this very wide-field image reveals many background galaxies and several star clusters, including the very bright 47 Tucanae globular cluster at the right of the picture. Credit: ESO/VISTA VMC

    The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) galaxy is a striking feature of the southern sky even to the unaided eye. But visible-light telescopes cannot get a really clear view of what is in the galaxy because of obscuring clouds of interstellar dust. VISTA’s infrared capabilities have now allowed astronomers to see the myriad of stars in this neighbouring galaxy much more clearly than ever before. The result is this record-breaking image — the biggest infrared image ever taken of the Small Magellanic Cloud — with the whole frame filled with millions of stars. As well as the SMC itself this very wide-field image reveals many background galaxies and several star clusters, including the very bright 47 Tucanae globular cluster at the right of the picture. Credit: ESO/VISTA VMC

    The SMC is a dwarf galaxy...

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    Ancient Meteorite Impact sparked long-lived Volcanic Eruptions on Earth

    May 4, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is a photomicrograph of a vesicular green shard from the Onaping Formation of the Sudbury impact basin. Credit: Paul Guyett, Trinity College Dublin

    This is a photomicrograph of a vesicular green shard from the Onaping Formation of the Sudbury impact basin. Credit: Paul Guyett, Trinity College Dublin

    Meteorite impacts can produce more than craters on Earth – they can also spark volcanic activity that shapes its surface and climate by bringing up material from depth. An international team, led by geochemists from Trinity College Dublin studied rocks filling one of the largest preserved impact structures on the planet, located in Sudbury (Ontario, Canada). The ‘bolide’ hit Earth here 1.85 billion years ago and excavated a deep basin, which was filled with $melted target rocks and, later, with jumbled mixed rocks full of tiny volcanic fragments.

    Not only are there volcanic fragments throughout the sequence of the 1...

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