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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Probing 7 Worlds with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope

    March 6, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This artist’s concept shows what each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets may look like, based on available data about their sizes, masses and orbital distances. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    With the discovery of seven earth-sized planets around the TRAPPIST-1 star 40 light years away, astronomers are looking to the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to help us find out if any of these planets could possibly support life. “If these planets have atmospheres, the James Webb Space Telescope will be the key to unlocking their secrets,” said Doug Hudgins, Exoplanet Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “In the meantime, NASA’s missions like Spitzer, Hubble, and Kepler are following up on these planets.”

    “These are the best Earth-sized planets for the James Webb Space Telescope to characteriz...

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    Calculations Show Close Ia Supernova should be Neutrino detectable offering possibility of identifying Explosion type

    March 5, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Density contour plots including deflagration (white) and detonation (green) surfaces. Credit: arXiv:1609.07403 [astro-ph.HE] Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-ia-supernova-neutrino-possibility-explosion.html#jCp

    Density contour plots including deflagration (white) and detonation (green) surfaces. Credit: arXiv:1609.07403 [astro-ph.HE]

    A team of researchers at North Carolina State University has found that current and future neutrino detectors placed around the world should be capable of detecting neutrinos emitted from a relatively close supernova. They also suggest that measuring such neutrinos would allow them to explain what goes on inside of a star during such an explosion—if the measurements match one of two models the team built to describe the inner workings of a supernova.

    Supernovae have been classified into different types depending on what causes them to occur—one type, a la supernova, occurs when a white dwarf pulls in enough material from a companion, eventually triggering carbon fus...

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    NASA Scientists demonstrate Technique to Improve Particle Warnings that Protect Astronauts

    March 4, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Scientists from NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have shown that data from a ground-based instrument called K-Cor can give scientists early warning of a certain type of incoming space weather that can impact astronauts. This composite image shows a coronal mass ejection, a type of space weather linked to solar energetic particles, as seen from two space-based solar observatories and one ground-based instrument. The image in gold is from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, the image in blue is from the Manua Loa Solar Observatory's K-Cor coronagraph, and the image in red is from ESA and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO/SDO/Joy Ng and MLSO/K-Cor

    Scientists from NASA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research have shown that data from a ground-based instrument called K-Cor can give scientists early warning of a certain type of incoming space weather that can impact astronauts. This composite image shows a coronal mass ejection, a type of space weather linked to solar energetic particles, as seen from two space-based solar observatories and one ground-based instrument. The image in gold is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, the image in blue is from the Manua Loa Solar Observatory’s K-Cor coronagraph, and the image in red is from ESA and NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.
    Credit: NASA/ESA/SOHO/SDO/Joy Ng and MLSO/K-Cor

    Scientists have proven that the warning signs of one type of space weather event can be detected ...

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    Hubble showcases a Remarkable Galactic Hybrid

    March 4, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    wispy dark spirals outline a galaxy

    UGC 12591 lies just under 400 million light-years away from us in the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

    UGC 12591 sits somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral. It lies just under 400 million light-years away in the westernmost region of the Pisces-Perseus Supercluster, a long chain of galaxy clusters that stretches out for hundreds of light-years – one of the largest known structures in the cosmos. The galaxy itself is also extraordinary: it is incredibly massive. The galaxy and its halo together contain several hundred billion times the mass of the sun; 4 times the mass of the Milky Way. It also whirls round extremely quickly, rotating at speeds of up to 1.1 million miles per hour.

    Observations with Hubble are helping astronomers to understand the mass of UGC 1259...

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