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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Gaia Maps the Position of a Billion Stars

    September 15, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A high spatial resolution sky map based on observations by the European Space Agency's astrometry mission Gaia. The different shades of grey show the number of sources detected per unit area. The lightest areas typically correspond to 500,000 sources per square degree (roughly the size of the object Omega Cen near the center of the map). The Galaxy is clearly visible, while the dark regions where few sources are detected show, with excellent resolution, the clouds of gas and dust that absorb starlight. The striations and large, more or less oval structures are caused by Gaia scanning the sky over a period of 14 months, and will disappear in subsequent versions. Credit: © ESA/Gaia/DPAC. Image generated by: André Moitinho & Márcia Barros (CENTRA - University of Lisbon) on behalf of DPAC.

    A high spatial resolution sky map based on observations by the European Space Agency’s astrometry mission Gaia. The different shades of grey show the number of sources detected per unit area. The lightest areas typically correspond to 500,000 sources per square degree (roughly the size of the object Omega Cen near the center of the map). The Galaxy is clearly visible, while the dark regions where few sources are detected show, with excellent resolution, the clouds of gas and dust that absorb starlight. The striations and large, more or less oval structures are caused by Gaia scanning the sky over a period of 14 months, and will disappear in subsequent versions. Credit: © ESA/Gaia/DPAC. Image generated by: André Moitinho & Márcia Barros (CENTRA – University of Lisbon) on behalf of DPAC.

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    Astronomers Shed Light on Different Galaxy Types

    September 15, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Galaxies of Stephan's Quintet in the constellation Pegasus, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

    Galaxies of Stephan’s Quintet in the constellation Pegasus, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team.

    Australian scientists have taken a critical step towards understanding why different types of galaxies exist throughout the Universe. The research, made possible by cutting-edge instrumentation, means that astronomers can now classify galaxies according to their physical properties rather than human interpretation of a galaxy’s appearance. For the past 100 years, telescopes have been capable of observing galaxies beyond our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

    In 1926,Edwin Hubble refined a system that classified galaxies into categories of spiral, elliptical, lenticular or irregular shape...

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    Asteroid named after Professor

    September 14, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Prof Massimiliano Vasile

    Prof Massimiliano Vasile

    A Professor at the University of Strathclyde has had his name written among the stars, after an asteroid was named after him. Professor Massimiliano Vasile, who actively works on finding solutions to control the motion of asteroids, has received the honour from the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in recognition of his work. Professor Vasile said: “There are several hundreds of thousands of asteroids in space. Out of these relatively few are known, and even fewer are actively tracked.

    “In honour of my work on asteroid manipulation, SpaceDyS, one of the partners in the Stardust network, submitted my candidacy to the Minor Planet Centre to name an asteroid after me...

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    Explaining why the Universe can be ‘Transparent’: Reionization is based on a Galaxy’s Dust Content

    September 14, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Reionization as illustrated by data from the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.

    Reionization as illustrated by data from the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes. Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

    Scientists can explain why the universe has enough energy to become transparent. The study marks the first quantitative study of how the gas content within galaxies scales with the amount of interstellar dust. This analysis shows that the gas in galaxies is like a “picket fence,” where some parts of the galaxy have little gas and are directly visible, whereas other parts have lots of gas and are effectively opaque to ionizing radiation. The ionization of hydrogen is important because of its effects on how galaxies grow and evolve...

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