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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Hubble’s Diamond in the Dust

    February 21, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Surrounded by an envelope of dust, the subject of this Hubble image is a young forming star

    Surrounded by an envelope of dust, the subject of this Hubble image is a young forming star Text credit: European Space Agency Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

    Surrounded by an envelope of dust, the subject is a young forming star: HBC 1. The star is in an immature and adolescent phase of life, while most of a sun-like star’s life is spent in a stable stage comparable to human adulthood. In this view, HBC 1 illuminates a wispy reflection nebula known as IRAS 00044+6521. Formed from clouds of interstellar dust, reflection nebulae do not emit any visible light of their own. Instead, like fog encompassing a lamppost, they shine via the light reflected off the dust from the stars embedded within...

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    Longest-lasting Stellar Eclipse: 3.5 year eclipses in Binary System

    February 20, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an artists conception of binary star system TYC-2505-672-1. Credit: Jeremy Teaford, Vanderbilt University

    This is an artists conception of binary star system TYC-2505-672-1. Credit: Jeremy Teaford, Vanderbilt University

    Astronomers have discovered an unnamed pair of stars that sets a new record for both the longest duration stellar eclipse (3.5 years) and longest period between eclipses (69 years) in a binary system. Imagine living on a world where, every 69 yrs, the sun disappears in a near-total eclipse that lasts for over 3yrs. Nearly 10,000 light years from Earth the newly discovered system, catalog no. TYC 2505-672-1 was made by a team of astronomers from Vanderbilt and Harvard with the assistance of colleagues at Lehigh, Ohio State and Pennsylvania State universities, Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network and the American Association of Variable Star Observers..

    The previous r...

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    Rotation of Cloudy ‘Super-Jupiter’ directly measured

    February 19, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This is an illustration of a planet that is four times the mass of Jupiter and orbits 5 billion miles from a brown-dwarf companion (the bright red object seen in the background). The rotation rate of this "super-Jupiter" has been measured by studying subtle variations in the infrared light the hot planet radiates through a variegated, cloudy atmosphere. The planet completes one rotation every 10 hours -- about the same rate as Jupiter. Because the planet is young, it is still contracting under gravity and radiating heat. The atmosphere is so hot that it rains molten glass and, at lower altitudes, molten iron. Because the planet is only 170 light-years away, many of the bright background stars that can be seen from Earth can be seen from the planet's location in our galaxy, including Sirius, Fomalhaut, and Alpha Centauri. Our sun is a faint star in the background, located midway between Procyon and Altair. Credit: Artwork: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI); Science: NASA, ESA, Y. Zhou and D. Apai (U. Arizona)

    This is an illustration of a planet that is four times the mass of Jupiter and orbits 5 billion miles from a brown-dwarf companion (the bright red object seen in the background). The rotation rate of this “super-Jupiter” has been measured by studying subtle variations in the infrared light the hot planet radiates through a variegated, cloudy atmosphere. The planet completes one rotation every 10 hours — about the same rate as Jupiter. Because the planet is young, it is still contracting under gravity and radiating heat. The atmosphere is so hot that it rains molten glass and, at lower altitudes, molten iron...

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    Pluto’s ‘Hulk-like’ Moon Charon: A possible Ancient Ocean?

    February 19, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Pluto's Moon Charon

    A close-up of the canyons on Charon, Pluto’s big moon, taken by New Horizons during its close approach to the Pluto system last July. Multiple views taken by New Horizons as it passed by Charon allow stereo measurements of topography, shown in the color-coded version of the image. The scale bar indicates relative elevation. Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

    Pluto’s largest moon may have gotten too big for its own skin. Images from NASA’s New Horizons mission suggest Pluto’s moon Charon once had a subsurface ocean that has long since frozen and expanded, pushing outward and causing the moon’s surface to stretch and fracture on a massive scale...

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