Recent Comments

    Category Astronomy/Space

    NASA’s Juno Spacecraft in Orbit around Mighty Jupiter, what’s next?

    July 5, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This illustration depicts NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully entering Jupiter's orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    This illustration depicts NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entering Jupiter’s orbit. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

    After an almost 5-year journey, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit during a 35-minute engine burn. With its suite of 9 science instruments, Juno will investigate the existence of a solid planetary core, map Jupiter’s intense magnetic field, measure the amount of water and ammonia in the deep atmosphere, and observe the planet’s auroras. Confirmation of a successful orbit insertion was received from Juno tracking data monitored at JPL, CA and Lockheed Martin Juno operations center in Denver. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas in Goldstone, California, and Canberra, Australia.

    Preplanned events leading up t...

    Read More

    ALMA finds a Swirling, Cool Jet that Reveals a Growing, Supermassive Black Hole

    July 4, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Alma's close-up view of the centre of galaxy NGC 1377 (upper left) reveals a swirling jet. In this colour-coded image, reddish gas clouds are moving away from us, bluish clouds towards us, relative to the galaxy's centre. The Alma image shows light with wavelength around one millimetre from molecules of carbon monoxide (CO). A cartoon view (lower right) shows how these clouds are moving, this time seen from the side. The background colour image of NGC 1377 and its surroundings is a composite made from a visible light images taken at the CTIO 1.5-metre telescope in Chile by H. Roussel et al. (2006) (V filter; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ...646..841R), and in filters r and i by ESO's VLT Survey Telescope [VST] Credit: CTIO/H. Roussel et al./ESO (left panel); Alma/ESO/NRAO/S. Aalto (top right panel); S. Aalto (lower right panel)

    Alma’s close-up view of the centre of galaxy NGC 1377 (upper left) reveals a swirling jet. In this colour-coded image, reddish gas clouds are moving away from us, bluish clouds towards us, relative to the galaxy’s centre. The Alma image shows light with wavelength around one millimetre from molecules of carbon monoxide (CO). A cartoon view (lower right) shows how these clouds are moving, this time seen from the side. The background colour image of NGC 1377 and its surroundings is a composite made from a visible light images taken at the CTIO 1.5-metre telescope in Chile by H. Roussel et al. (2006) (V filter; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006ApJ…646..841R), and in filters r and i by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope [VST] Credit: CTIO/H. Roussel et al./ESO (left panel); Alma/ESO/NRAO/S...

    Read More

    Timeline of key Jupiter milestones leading up to Juno’s arrival today

    July 4, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This visual timeline shows our evolving view of Jupiter and some of the key milestones leading up to one of the most ambitious Jupiter missions yet: Juno.

    This visual timeline shows our evolving view of Jupiter and some of the key milestones leading up to one of the most ambitious Jupiter missions yet: Juno.

    This visual timeline shows our evolving view of Jupiter and some of the key milestones leading up to one of the most ambitious Jupiter missions yet: Juno. NASA television coverage of the event begins at 10:30 pm US Eastern time. The solar-powered spacecraft is equipped with a suite of instruments to learn about how Jupiter formed, and a radiation vault to protect the electronics from massive doses of radiation near the gas giant, reaching 1,000 times the lethal level for a human.

    Jupiter is the 5th planet from the sun...

    Read More

    It’s not easy being Green: What Colors tell us about Galaxy Evolution

    July 3, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The green galaxy is caught in the act of transforming from blue to red as its gas supply runs out. Credit: James Trayford/EAGLE/Durham University

    The green galaxy is caught in the act of transforming from blue to red as its gas supply runs out. Credit: James Trayford/EAGLE/Durham University

    An international team used new computer modelling of the Universe to investigate the colours that galaxies have and what those colours might tell us about how galaxies evolve. Using the state-of-the-art EAGLE simulations, the researchers modelled how both the ages and composition of stars in galaxies translate into the colour of light that they produce. These simulations showed that colours of galaxies can also help diagnose how they evolve.

    While red and blue galaxies are relatively common, rare green galaxies are likely to be at an important stage in their evolution, when they are rapidly turning from blue – when new stars and planets are being...

    Read More